Monkey Wrench
by Foo Fighters
- 172
- BPM
- E major
- Key
- 12B
- Camelot
- 40
- Danceability
- 1
- Acousticness
In 1997, while Foo Fighters were making The Colour and the Shape, the band came apart in the middle of the sessions. Drummer William Goldsmith quit, and Dave Grohl re-recorded most of the drum parts himself. Guitarist Pat Smear left soon afterward. Taylor Hawkins and Franz Stahl replaced them.
That was also the year Grohl's four-year marriage to Jennifer Youngblood ended, and the lyrics of "Monkey Wrench" chronicle it. Grohl said the song is about realizing one is the source of every problem in a relationship, and loving the other person so much that one wants to free them of it. The band released it as the lead single from the album. It reached number nine on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number 12 on the UK Singles Chart.
Grohl directed the video himself. He comes home with groceries and finds the door chained from inside, and through the peephole he sees black-clad copies of the band playing his song. In the elevator, a muzak version of "Big Me" by the Moog Cookbook plays. It was the first video with Hawkins on drums, although Grohl played the drums on the track.
Monkey Wrench runs at 172 BPM, the tempo of drum and bass and jungle. In classical terms it sits in vivace territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.4 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 349 ms. It is in E major, Camelot 12B, which shares its notes with C# minor and mixes cleanly with A major and B major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.