Learn to Fly

For other results, see Learning to fly.

"Learn to Fly" is the first single from the Foo Fighters' third album There Is Nothing Left to Lose. It was released on two different singles in the UK in 1999. "Learn to Fly" is one of the band's most successful and recognized singles, including being their first Modern Rock #1 song on the Billboard charts, beating their single "This Is a Call"'s previous peak of #2. Reaching #19, it is also the band's second highest charting single on the Billboard Hot 100, while being their highest charting on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart along with the 1996 hit "Big Me", reaching #13.

The song is in the key of E major, (V, II, I) then switches to G major (III, I, V, VI) at the bridge ("Fly along with me...") 4/4 time signature.

Music video

The music video for the song takes place on an airplane, parodying the movie Airplane!. Two airline mechanics (played by Jack Black and Kyle Gass from Tenacious D) hide "World Domination brand 'Erotic' Sleeping Powder"^[3] in the coffee-maker, which ends up incapacitating everyone who drinks the coffee. The band, having avoided the coffee (choosing liquor instead), finds themselves forced to land the plane. For the video, each band member (Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel and Taylor Hawkins) portrays himself as well as several other roles. Also, as in the music video for "Monkey Wrench", a Foo Fighters song is played as Muzak in the beginning, this time with "Everlong" from The Colour and the Shape. The premise of smuggling drugs in airplane coffee is nearly identical to an actual smuggling operation that was uncovered in 1997.^[4]

The video was filmed in London, England in a cabin crew training airplane. The video won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video.

Track listing

Disk 1

1. "Learn to Fly"
2. "Iron and Stone" (The Obsessed cover)
3. "Have a Cigar" (Pink Floyd cover)

Disk 2

1. "Learn to Fly"
2. "Make a Bet"
3. "Have a Cigar" (Pink Floyd cover)

Personnel

• Dave Grohl - vocals, guitar
• Taylor Hawkins - drums
• Nate Mendel - bass

Notes

• The song was played in space as a wake-up call for Space Shuttle Mission STS-118 on 2007-08-18 (day 11 of the mission). It was the second Foo Fighters wake-up call played on that mission.^[5]
• Jack Black and Kyle Gass from Tenacious D make an appearance in the music video playing the maintenance crew who drug the plane and are arrested at the end. Grohl has done the drum work on both Tenacious D albums, and has played the demon in the "Tribute" music video, and The Devil in the feature-length film The Pick of Destiny. Tenacious D and Grohl have also collaborated as cast members in the film clip for I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News) by the Eagles of Death Metal.
• In the music video, the airplane music that starts before the song is an arrangement of their previous single, "Everlong".
• Due to the nature of the song's music video (involving an out-of-control airplane), it is included on the List of songs deemed inappropriate by Clear Channel following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Chart positions

Notes

• * ^ Billboard's Album & Song Chart History for Foo Fighters shows the peak for Learn to Fly as #13. However, the Billboard Hot 100 chart which ran in the March 4, 2000, issue of Billboard magazine, the song's final appearance on the chart (at #50), lists the peak of the song as #19. (Learn to Fly reached #19 on January 22, 2000.)

References

External links

• "Learn to Fly" Official music video on YouTube