Dave Grohl took some time out from his annual Hanukkah celebration to deliver an acoustic rendition of one of his most cherished rarities, “Marigold,” during the “Letters To Santa” virtual fundraiser.
Grohl performed a five-song acoustic set for the 24-hour music and comedy benefit and opened it with “Marigold.” The performance was delivered via Zoom, so the audio quality isn’t great, but considering neither the Foo Fighters nor Grohl have played “Marigold” live since 2010, it’s still a special clip.
(As a little side detail, Grohl’s daughter Violet popped up in the comments of the Foo Fighters fan-account that shared the video with a note about the equipment her father was using: “Thas my guitar hahah.”)
Grohl wrote “Marigold” back in the early Nineties, and the song first appeared as “Color Pictures of a Marigold” on the 1992 album, Pocketwatch, which Grohl released under the moniker Late! Nirvana also recorded a version of the song, which was released as a b-side on the “Heart-Shaped Box” single. In 2006, the Foo Fighters included a rendition of it on their 2006 live acoustic album, Skin and Bones.
In a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone, Grohl spoke about sharing “Marigold” with Kurt Cobain and getting to record it during the In Utero sessions. “I think it might have been Steve [Albini] who said, ‘Marigold’ should maybe be on the album.’ I was terrified,” Grohl recalled. “No, no, wait. It was that famous joke: What’s the last thing the drummer said before he got kicked out of the band? ‘Hey, I wrote a song.’ Obviously, it didn’t make it. I’m glad. Because the album retained the integrity of Kurt’s vision. But I was incredibly flattered. ‘Really, you like that?’”
Along with “Marigold,” Grohl’s set for the “Letters to Santa” fundraiser included a few other deep cuts, such as “New Way Home” (which hasn’t been played regularly since 2014) and “Skin and Bones” (which hasn’t been played regularly since 2017). He did, however, close things out with a couple of Foo Fighters staples: “Times Like These” and “Everlong.”