Exhausted (song)

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"Exhausted"
Promotional single by Foo Fighters
from the album Foo Fighters
B-side"Winnebago"
ReleasedJanuary 8, 1995[1]
GenreAlternative rock
Length5:45
Label
Songwriter(s)Dave Grohl
Producer(s)
  • Grohl
  • Barrett Jones
Foo Fighters singles chronology
"Exhausted"
(1995) 		"This Is a Call"
(1995)

"Exhausted" is a song by the American rock band Foo Fighters, released as a promotional single from the album Foo Fighters on January 8, 1995 to Self-Pollution Radio, a radio station created by Eddie Vedder.[1]

Background and recording

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"Exhausted" was one of the demos Dave Grohl showed to Kurt Cobain to see if he wanted to record any for a Nirvana album. Cobain never told Grohl that he liked the song a lot, with Grohl only learning about Cobain's liking to the track after Cobain died from Pat Smear.[2][3] Cobain did not want to ask Grohl if he could write new lyrics or rerecord his vocals.[3] Grohl and Cobain recorded the song between January 28–29 1994.[4]

Composition and lyrics

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"Exhausted" is a pop track,[5] with lyrics being described by Kerrang! as having "purging that darkness of the recent past at their outset".[1]

Release and reception

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"Exhausted" was released as a promotional single ahead of the album on January 8, 1995 to Eddie Vedder's pirate radio station, Self-Polution Radio.[1] Since its release, it has been seen as one of the band and album's best songs. When ranking every Foo Fighters song for Spin magazine in 2014, Dan Weiss placed it 22, stating it is "pretty ballsy for a promo single, running almost six minutes long with stretches of feedback and murky vocals", calling it an "excellent opening salvo"while noting that it "shows that the band was never going to be predictable, even if those who only know their Modern Rock chart-toppers might think otherwise."[6] Ranking the 20 best Foo Fighters songs for Exclaim! magazine, Dave MacIntyre placed it number 11, stating that it "sounds most akin to bands from the past (think Dinosaur Jr. or Yo La Tengo), and it's easily one of their noisier and grittier ones".[7] In a ranking of every Foo Fighters song for Consequence of Sound, Michael Roffman placed it number 11, calling it a "sludgy, psychedelic ballad", while noting that that it "stays true" to Nirvana's 1993 album In Utero.[8] Dave Grohl called it his favorite on Foo Fighters.[9] Sam Law placed it at number 13 in his ranking of the 20 greatest Foo Fighters songs, stating it "was a sludgy, six-minute statement smothered in fuzz and charged with the same loud loneliness Dave had helped benchmark with Nirvana's In Utero less than two years earlier."[10]

Credits and personnel

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Credits are adapted from Apple Music:[11]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ a b c d Law, Sam. "The 20 greatest Foo Fighters songs – ranked". Kerrang!. Retrieved July 21, 2025.
  2. ^ Wall 2015, p. 124.
  3. ^ a b Childers, Chad (July 4, 2023). "30 Years Ago: Foo Fighters Emerge With Debut Album". Loudwire. Retrieved July 21, 2025.
  4. ^ Burrows 2025, p. 193–194.
  5. ^ James 2015, p. 124.
  6. ^ "All 152 Foo Fighters Songs, Ranked". SPIN. November 10, 2014. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  7. ^ MacIntyre, Dave (May 29, 2023). "Foo Fighters' 20 Best Songs Ranked │ Exclaim!". Exclaim!. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  8. ^ "All 156 Foo Fighters Songs Ranked From Worst to Best". Consequence. June 6, 2023. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  9. ^ Daly, Rhian (July 4, 2020). "Dave Grohl reflects on making Foo Fighters' debut album 25 years on: "It was almost like a school project"". NME. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  10. ^ Law, Sam (July 3, 2020). "The 20 greatest Foo Fighters songs – ranked". Kerrang!. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  11. ^ Exhausted by Foo Fighters on Apple Music, June 12, 1995, retrieved July 22, 2025

Bibliography

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