Foo Fighters have released their fan-favorite cover of Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street“, almost 30 years after recording the song at a BBC Maida Vale session in April 1997.
While the cover previously appeared on 10th anniversary editions of Foo Fighters’ 1997 album The Color And The Shape, the track has largely been missing from streaming platforms until now.
“We sorta thought it’d be fun to do four songs that people would probably hate and never expect us to do,” frontman Dave Grohl told Steve Lamacq in an interview, per Music Radar.
The former Nirvana drummer added: “I think it’s sort of funny that this album we’ve been tagged as this ‘rock band’ and everyone seems to think there’s this big 70s influence to the band, so we might be taking the p—.”
The band’s 1997 studio session took place just months after the late Taylor Hawkins joined the band as their drummer. During that session, Foo Fighters covered five classic songs: “Drive Me Wild” by Vanity 6, “Requiem by Killing Joke”, “Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas, “Friend Of A Friend”, alongside “Baker Street.”
“You know, it’s like a classic 70s song and a few people need to be reminded just how weird that decade could be,” bassist Nate Mendel explained.
The band recently played the Rafferty song during their four-night residency on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“I don’t know if anyone remembers Gerry Rafferty,” he said during the appearance. “Baker Street is one of my favorite songs of all time. It reminds me of being young in the ’70s. And driving around with my mum in the front seat, with AM radio on. It is truly one of my favourite songs of all time. We’ll rock that.”
Foo Fighters will kick off their stadium tour of Australia next week before heading to India and South America.
