These Days (Powderfinger song)

"These Days" is an alternative rock song from Powderfinger's fourth studio album, Odyssey Number Five, which was released in 1999. The song was also released on Powderfinger's 2004 compilation album Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994-2000.

"These Days"
Promotional single by Powderfinger
from the album Odyssey Number Five
Released1999 (Australia)
2000 (Canada)
Recorded1998, Sing Sing Studios, Melbourne, Australia
GenreAlternative rock
LabelUniversal Music
Songwriter(s)Jon Coghill, John Collins, Bernard Fanning, Ian Haug, Darren Middleton
Producer(s)Nick DiDia

"These Days" was not released as a single, however it topped the Triple J Hottest 100 chart in 1999. 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.[1]

In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "These Days" was ranked number 77.[2]

The song was certified 3x 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".[3]

On 24 October 2020, Cub Sport performed the song live at the 2020 AFL Grand Final and released a studio version of the song immediately after.[4]

Writing and production

"These Days" was developed by Powderfinger after a request by film director 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.[5] Lead singer Bernard Fanning initially wrote the song,[5] and it was demoed in the garage of guitarist Darren Middleton.[1] 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.".[6]

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, such as "Passenger" and "My Kind of Scene".[7] 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.[7] 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,[8] was released while Powderfinger were playing their "P2K tour", and when Powderfinger's album, Internationalist, was selling in bulk.[9] 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."[10]

Response
Powderfinger performing "These Days" on the Across the Great Divide tour, 8 September 2007.

"These Days" topped the Triple J Hottest 100 chart in 1999, as the result of a nationwide listener poll.[6] The song was also awarded Song of the Year at the 2000 Music Critic's Awards.[11] 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!"[11] Fanning continued to publicly insult Lee, eventually calling him a "precocious little cunt" in 2005.[12]

Fanning alone performed a sombre acoustic guitar version of the song at a live benefit concert in the days following the 2002 Bali bombings.

"These Days" was also rostered briefly on the English curriculum in some Australian high schools, 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.[10] The song was also featured on "The Hidden Toll" road trauma campaign, produced by the Victorian Transport Accident Commission, which first aired on Victorian television on 19 October 2005.[13] Powderfinger performed "These Days" at a commemoration service for Heath Ledger, whose breakthrough film was Two Hands.[14][15] "These Days" was ranked seventh in a 2008 The Weekend Australian poll for the best Australian songs of the past 20 years.[16]

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 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

Odyssey Number Five release

Other versions

Certification
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[17] 3× Platinum 210,000

Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References
  1. Powderfinger (Fanning, Middleton, Haug, Collins, Coghill, et al.) (2004). Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994-2000 companion booklet. Page 3.
  2. "Here Are The Songs That Made Triple M's 'Ozzest 100'". Musicfeeds. 27 January 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  3. "Thelma Plum shares gorgeous cover of Powderfinger's "These Days"". ABC. 28 May 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  4. "These Days - single". Apple Music. 24 October 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  5. Carmine Pascuzzi (1999). "Primed for the P2K tour". Powderfinger Central. Archived from the original on 10 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
  6. Christie Eliszer (September 2000). "Five Easy Pieces". Sain Magazine. Powderfinger Central. Archived from the original on 10 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
  7. Kelsey Munro (February 2001). "The Odyssey Continues". Esky Magazine. Powderfinger Central. Archived from the original on 28 June 2002. Retrieved 10 November 2007.
  8. Soundtrack Collector (1999), Two Hands Soundtrack Archived 9 February 2013 at WebCite, retrieved on 12 June 2007.
  9. Iain Shedden (10–11 July 1999). "Up Close (And Not Too) Personal". The Weekend Australian. Powderfinger Central. Archived from the original on 10 September 2007. Retrieved 10 November 2007.
  10. Rod Yates (September 2000). "Trusty Old Jackets". Massive Magazine. Powderfinger Central. Archived from the original on 10 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
  11. Pennie Dennison (September 2000). "Odyssey Number Five Is Born". Sain Unlimited Magazine. Powderfinger Central. Archived from the original on 10 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
  12. Andrew Weaver. "Ben Lee: That indie kid that could..." FasterLouder. Retrieved 15 November 2007.
  13. Transport Accident Commission (2005), New TAC Campaign Unveils The Hidden Toll Archived 31 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved on 12 June 2007.
  14. Shannon Harvey (9 February 2008). "Friends remember much-loved Heath". PerthNow. news.com.au. Retrieved 10 February 2008.
  15. Wendy Caccetta, Nicole Cox (10 February 2008). "Tear-jerking farewell to Heath". Mercury. news.com.au. Archived from the original on 12 February 2008. Retrieved 10 February 2008.
  16. Iain Shedden (18 September 2008). "Magazine's 20 best songs poll results". The Weekend Australian. Archived from the original on 21 September 2008. Retrieved 9 October 2008.
  17. "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2020 Singles". Australian Recording Industry Association. Archived from the original on 10 August 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
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