These Days (Powderfinger song)
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"These Days" is an
alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...
from
Powderfinger Powderfinger were an Australian rock band formed in Brisbane in 1989. From 1992 until their break-up in 2010, the line-up consisted of vocalist Bernard Fanning, guitarists Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, bass guitarist John Collins and drummer ...
's fourth
studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
, ''
Odyssey Number Five ''Odyssey Number Five'' is the fourth studio album by the Australian rock band Powderfinger, produced by Nick DiDia and released on 4 September 2000 by Universal Music. It won the 2001 ARIA Music Award for Highest Selling Album, Best Group and ...
'', which was released in 1999. The song was also released on Powderfinger's 2004
compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
'' Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994-2000''. "These Days" was not released as a
single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...
, however it topped the
Triple J Hottest 100 The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music listener poll hosted by the publicly-funded, national Australian youth radio station, Triple J. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite Australian and alternative music of the ...
chart in
1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
. It was also awarded ''Song of the Year'' at the 2000 Music Critic's Awards. Powderfinger have described "These Days" as one of their most simple, enduring, and popular works to date. In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "These Days" was ranked number 77. The song was certified 3× Platinum in Australia in June 2020. In May 2020, Thelma Plum released a cover version of the song. In a statement, Plum said "I was given the chance to record a song I grew up with, and as a Brissie local, I already know a couple of the Powderfinger guys so of course, I said yes". On 24 October 2020,
Cub Sport Cub Sport are an Australian pop group formed in Brisbane in early 2010. Founding mainstays are Zoe Davis on keyboards, bass guitar, lead guitar and vocals, Tim Nelson on lead vocals and keyboards, Sam "Bolan" Netterfield on keyboards and vocal ...
performed the song live at the
2020 AFL Grand Final The 2020 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football match contested between and at the Gabba in Brisbane, Queensland, on Saturday 24 October 2020. It was the 125th annual Grand Final of the Australian Football League (formerly the Vict ...
and released a studio version of the song immediately after.


Writing and production

"These Days" was developed by Powderfinger after a request by
film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
Gregor Jordan, who asked the band to write a song for his upcoming film, ''Two Hands'', after showing them scenes in which the song would appear. Lead singer Bernard Fanning initially wrote the song, and it was demoed in the garage of
guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...
Darren Middleton.
Powderfinger Powderfinger were an Australian rock band formed in Brisbane in 1989. From 1992 until their break-up in 2010, the line-up consisted of vocalist Bernard Fanning, guitarists Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, bass guitarist John Collins and drummer ...
(Fanning, Middleton, Haug, Collins, Coghill, et al.) (2004). '' Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994-2000'' companion booklet. Page 3.
Fanning described the process of creating the song as "the first time there was an outside reason to write a song, rather than my own emotional response to something...we saw the film so I took bits and used it without being too specific.". The lyrics of "These Days" were similarly styled to those of other songs written by Fanning between the production of ''Internationalist'' and ''
Odyssey Number Five ''Odyssey Number Five'' is the fourth studio album by the Australian rock band Powderfinger, produced by Nick DiDia and released on 4 September 2000 by Universal Music. It won the 2001 ARIA Music Award for Highest Selling Album, Best Group and ...
'', such as "
Passenger A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The ...
" and "
My Kind of Scene "My Kind of Scene" (also marketed as "My Kinda Scene", "Not My Kinda Scene" and "It's Not My Kinda Scene") is a song by Australian rock band Powderfinger. The song was initially written for their fourth studio album ''Odyssey Number Five''; howe ...
". The songs generally dealt with the routine and unhappiness of a "typical existence", according to Esky Magazine's Kelsey Munro. Fanning did not describe this as a conscious theme, despite it appearing in many of his songs, but agreed that the songs did discuss "having to always bow down to all of the responsibilities and obligations" of life. Fanning also told The Sun-Herald that as a result of the lyrics in "These Days" and " My Happiness" (also on ''Odyssey Number Five''), he had been dubbed "as some sort of antipodean Mr Miserable."


Release

The song was initially released by the band as the b-side to the single ''Passenger'', making it the first b-side to top the Triple J Hottest 100. The ''Two Hands'' soundtrack, which contained "These Days" as its lead track,Soundtrack Collector (1999)
Two Hands Soundtrack
, retrieved on 12 June 2007.
was released while Powderfinger were playing their " P2K tour", and when Powderfinger's album, ''Internationalist'', was selling in bulk. With the release of "These Days" and "My Kind of Scene" on movie soundtracks - the latter appeared on the soundtrack for '' Mission: Impossible 2'' - Powderfinger hoped to launch their overseas career. Australian reviewers stated that "...there’s a wide world out there yet to hear them, particularly These Days. The time is right...for the band to spread their wings."


Response

"These Days" topped the
Triple J Hottest 100 The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music listener poll hosted by the publicly-funded, national Australian youth radio station, Triple J. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite Australian and alternative music of the ...
chart in
1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
, as the result of a nationwide listener poll. The song was also awarded ''Song of the Year'' at the 2000 Music Critic's Awards. In response to the award wins, Powderfinger said they were "excited" that they were voted #1 in a listener poll. Fanning jokingly said that "We worked out that being number one on the hottest 100 makes us the biggest band in the world because it's the biggest music poll in the world", before going on to make a mockery of the band's long time antagonist, Ben Lee, by saying "we remembered we can't be the biggest band in the world because Ben Lee is the biggest in the world!" Fanning continued to publicly insult Lee, eventually calling him a "precocious little cunt" in 2005. Fanning alone performed a sombre acoustic guitar version of the song at a live benefit concert in the days following the
2002 Bali bombings The 2002 Bali bombings occurred on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attack killed 202 people (including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 23 Britons, and people of more than 20 other nationalit ...
. "These Days" was also rostered briefly on the English curriculum in some Australian
high schools A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
, something Fanning took with amazement rather than discomfort, stating that the emotional part of the song development process was the writing, rather than the performing of the song. The song was also featured on "The Hidden Toll" road trauma campaign, produced by the Victorian Transport Accident Commission, which first aired on
Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...
television on 19 October 2005. Powderfinger performed "These Days" at a commemoration service for Heath Ledger, whose breakthrough film was ''Two Hands''. "These Days" was ranked seventh in a 2008 '' The Weekend Australian'' poll for the best Australian songs of the past 20 years. The song was voted at #21 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time, 2009, where it was the second-highest placed Australian single in the countdown. The only Australian song to place higher was hip-hop song
The Nosebleed Section "The Nosebleed Section" is a song by the Australian hip hop music group Hilltop Hoods. It was released as a radio single in 2003, and was the final single release from their 2003 album '' The Calling''. The chorus and backing beat of "The N ...
by the Hilltop Hoods, which early in the song, contains a line from ''These Days'', sung in hip-hop style.


Music video

A music video was produced to promote the single.


Alternate versions

There are two distinct studio versions of "These Days." The first is the version used in the film ''Two Hands''. The second version is the re-recording used on ''Odyssey Number Five''.


Original version releases

*"
Passenger A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The ...
" single - B-Side (1999) *'' Two Hands'' Soundtrack - Feature song from soundtrack (1999) *''
Triple J Hottest 100 The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music listener poll hosted by the publicly-funded, national Australian youth radio station, Triple J. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite Australian and alternative music of the ...
'' - #1 (1999) *'' Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994-2000'' - (2004)


''Odyssey Number Five'' release

*''
Odyssey Number Five ''Odyssey Number Five'' is the fourth studio album by the Australian rock band Powderfinger, produced by Nick DiDia and released on 4 September 2000 by Universal Music. It won the 2001 ARIA Music Award for Highest Selling Album, Best Group and ...
'' (2000)


Other versions

*'' Internationalist P2K Disk'' - Live performance (1998) *'' These Days: Live in Concert'' - Live performance (2004)


Certification


References

{{Authority control Powderfinger songs 1998 songs 2020 singles Songs written by Jon Coghill Songs written by John Collins (Australian musician) Songs written by Bernard Fanning Songs written by Ian Haug Songs written by Darren Middleton