Somewhere along the line, I got it into my head that if "Everlong" hadn't existed by the time I started writing music, I could've written something like it. Which is almost certainly not true, after further reflection.
I'm not sure that any individual component of this song is really at virtuoso-level. (Except the drums, maybe. This is good drumming.) But the whole package became an iconic piece of modern rock and made Dave Grohl into a superstar.
And each piece is introduced in turn: clean drop-D rhythm guitar (that line's a bucket of fun to play), then the distorted lead, then the drums, vocals, and next thing you know that faint line off in the distance is doing running octaves up and down your face and fiddling with the zipper on your jacket. Then Grohl goes up the octave and launches into the famous "If anything could ever feel this real forever / If anything could ever be this good again..." chorus melody.
And until the bridge, it never quite gets back down to quiet again. Occasionally, a layer gets turned down to a simmer, but once it's added, nothing gets taken away, and every dynamic leap up comes from a progressively higher launch point. Then, when the bridge does get quiet, it's only for a momentary breather before the band sits on the sliders again and cranks everything back up to 10.
It's an example of a song as a puzzle--you don't have to write anything extraordinary to make an extraordinary song. You just have to know how everything fits together and when to lay on the gas a little.
