Lyric discussion by purplecat1982 

Cover art for Back & Forth lyrics by Foo Fighters

I must first say that I love this song, and think the whole album is phenomenal. Definitely the best i've heard in a long time, and I keep playing the whole thing and never skipping a song, they're all awesome.

As this song has also formed the title for the documentary dvd on the band, it fits with my initial interpretation of this song. When dave went off to drum with queens of the stone age, foo fighters went through a rough patch. There were a lot of tensions before they came together for their next album, and I get the sense that this was written about that whole period of time.

I think it starts off telling of his personal journey, when they band first formed and everything was new (he was new to the experience of his own band, leading it etc), then the rough patches, where nothing was said about the bad things creeping in to the band ('biting my lip').

I think the next verse references his departure (while drumming with qotsa), and leaving the band to finish the new album on their own, which was a first - 'Now you're on your own, one for the pages.'

'Over the hill and through the ages.' - This is pretty much a direct reference to the foos getting over their issues (which peaked just before coachella), 'through the ages' - being a reference to his period with qotsa directly after this.

'Does my heaven burn like hell on you?' - Its documented that dave enjoyed his time with queens of the stone age and the rest of the band did not share this sentiment. He was having a lot more fun than they were and did resent it a bit.

The chorus I think is pretty much about the tone of discussions that may have been had with the band - he felt weighed down by the responsibility of it all, and responsibility to keep the band motivated when they had lost their spark for a while. Its like, I feel like crap, so do you, can we help each other out a little please?

I don't know enough of the history to tie up any other direct references, but I'm sure the whole tone of this song is about the ups and downs of the band, the struggle they've had to keep it together over the years.

And my god i'm glad they did, foos rock :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_True

The song seems to be about the altercation between Courtney Love and Everett True a few years ago. Courtney gave Guitar Hero the rights to Kurt's image for version 5 of the game, and Dave and Krist signed off to allow 2 Nirvana songs to be sang by Kurt's image in the game.

What Dave and Krist didn't know was that players can use the image to sing any song they want. So Kurt singing Bon Jovi tunes seemed like a huge sellout to some Nirvana and Kurt fans. One of those fans...

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