Watch Several Dave Grohls 'Play' A 23-Minute Rock Song

While watching Dave Grohl's 23-minute rock instrumental, wherein the Foo Fighters frontman plays every single instrument — guitar, bass, drums, vibraphone, synths, you name it — with several Daves superimposed on each other in the studio, I can't help but think of Bruce McCulloch's song: These are the Daves I know, I know / These are the Daves I know.

Joking aside, "Play" was inspired by Grohl's own children.

"Nowadays, seeing my own kids start to play music and take lessons, it brings me back to the time when I was their age, chipping away at it and learning from my mistakes," Grohl says in the featurette that precedes the music.

Grohl meets with young music students to talk about the joy and difficulty of learning a new instrument and you see a group tackle Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" (hey, gotta start somewhere). The takeaway was to challenge himself to do something he's never done before.

Thus, "Play." You watch Grohl screw up drum takes, work through riffs and the logistics of recording a long track in the studio. The result takes him everywhere, from recognizably Foo Fighters arena-rock to doomy riffs (perhaps inspired by the Obsessed T-shirt Grohl wears), to Isis-style post-metal and some of that Colour and the Shape-style tenderness that the emo kids like to claim. It's all over the place, but that's the point: to just play.

Play is out now.

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