These Days (Powderfinger song)

"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]

1 Writing and production
2 Release
3 Response
4 Alternate versions
5 References

[edit] 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.^[2] Lead singer Bernard Fanning initially wrote the song,^[2] 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."^[3]

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".^[4] 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.^[4] 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."

[edit] Release

The Two Hands soundtrack, which contained "These Days" as its lead track,^[5] was released while Powderfinger were playing their "P2K tour", and at a time when Powderfinger's last album, Internationalist, was still selling well.^[6] With the release of both "These Days" and "My Kind of Scene" on movie soundtracks (the latter appeared on the soundtrack for Mission: Impossible II), Powderfinger hoped to launch their overseas career, with Australian reviewers stating 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."^[7]

[edit] 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.^[3] The song was also awarded Song of the Year at the 2000 Music Critic's Awards.^[8] 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 its 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!"^[8] Fanning continued to publicly insult Lee, eventually calling him a "precocious little cunt" in 2005.^[9]

"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.^[7] 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.^[10] Powderfinger performed "These Days" at a commemoration service for Heath Ledger, whose breakthrough film was Two Hands.^[11]^[12]

[edit] Alternate versions

Music sample:

"These Days"

A 19 second sample from Powderfinger's "These Days" (Two Hands version)

Problems listening to the file? See media help.

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.