These Days (Jackson Browne song)
Encyclopedia
"These Days" is a song written by Jackson Browne
and principally recorded by Nico
, Gregg Allman
, and Browne himself in three distinctly different musical styles. The song has endured for decades as a classic of morose introspection, made all the more remarkable by Browne having been only 16 years old when he wrote it.
who was pitching his material to various artists and publishing houses. On January 7, 1967 he made some demo recordings for Nina Music Publishing at Jaycino Studio in New York City
. (An unplanned double album
of these recordings was made by Nina Music, with 100 copies issued.) Included in these demos, and the third song on this "record," was "I've Been Out Walking," the earliest manifestation of "These Days". Yet the song was even older than that; Browne would later say he wrote it when he was sixteen years old, meaning in 1964 or 1965.
German
model and chanteuse Nico
was the first to record "These Days" for release, on her October 1967 album Chelsea Girl
. This was an odd mix of production elements: a fairly fast, almost upbeat fingerpicking electric guitar
part by Browne (suggested by Andy Warhol
), combined with strings
and flutes (added after the fact by producer Tom Wilson, without Nico's knowledge) combined with the sad, near-desperate tone of the lyrics, all wrapped around Nico's mannered, German-accented vocals.
While Nico never achieved much commercial visibility, her work caught the attention of other musicians and songwriters. And although Browne was still several years from getting his own recording contract, his wise-beyond-his-years talent was quickly recognized by other performers looking for material. And of Browne's catalogue during this period, "These Days," along with his "Shadow Dream Song," were regarded as his gems. Thus "These Days" was recorded in 1968 by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their album Rare Junk
, by Tom Rush
on his 1970 self-titled album
, by Jennifer Warnes (as Jennifer) in 1972 (interestingly, this version was produced by John Cale, who also played on Nico's Chelsea Girl album), by Kenny Loggins
' first band, Gator Creek, around the same time, and by Ian Matthews on his 1973 album Valley Hi
.
. This "These Days" was considerably different in several ways from the Nico effort. Some lyrics were changed or omitted, such as a couple of lines about "rambling" and "gambling". The fingerpicking guitar figure was replaced with flatpicking
, and the instrumentation was typical of early 1970s Southern California
n folk rock
— drums, bass, piano, acoustic guitar, but most prominently with David Lindley
's slide guitar
, a prominent feature of Browne's early albums and one here that laced the song, animating such lines as "I'll keep on moving..." The arrangement itself featured descending chords and bass notes in a series of walkdowns from the starting major chord
to its relative minor. Emotionally, the sadness and despair were retained, but Nico's coolly dramatic delivery was replaced by Browne's direct, human perspective, characteristic of the early 1970s singer songwriter movement.
The For Everyman liner notes thanked Gregg Allman
for the arrangement. While Allman was most associated with the emerging Southern rock
scene, he had spent considerable time in Los Angeles
before The Allman Brothers Band
came together, he and Browne had become friends, and the brothers' early band The Hour Glass had recorded Browne's "Cast Off All My Fears" on their 1967 album The Hour Glass. Now Gregg was working up another Browne song, "These Days", for his initial solo album Laid Back
, released like For Everyman in Fall 1973. Allman's version kept to Browne's revised lyric until the end, when he changed "Don't confront me with my failures / I had not forgotten them," to "Please don't confront me with my failures / I'm aware of them." Rolling Stone
praised the treatment, saying Allman "does full justice to the quietly hurting lyrics, double-tracking the vocal over a sad steel guitar," and calling the vocal quality "resigned" and "eternally aching." From the perspective of 1999, writer Anthony DeCurtis
called Allman's version "definitive".
Many years later, Browne would describe the inspiration he credited: "When [Allman] did it I thought that he really unlocked a power in that song that I sort of then emulated in my version. I started playing the piano. I wasn't trying to sing it like Gregg; I couldn't possibly. I took the cue, playin' this slow walk. But it was written very sort of, kind of — [strums opening to 'These Days'] — a little more flatpicking."
While not released as a single by either, both Browne's and Allman's "These Days" recordings gained airplay on progressive rock radio stations
and became the most-heard interpretations of the song. It was included on both of Browne's "best of" albums, The Next Voice You Hear: The Best of Jackson Browne
and The Very Best of Jackson Browne
, and on both of Allman's compilations, The Millennium Collection: The Best of Gregg Allman and (in a live version) No Stranger to the Dark: The Best of Gregg Allman.
When Allman toured as a solo act, he generally kept "These Days" in his concert repertoire. Browne was a different story. It had appeared in his concerts since before he had a recording contract, and stayed in through the 1970s, usually played on piano in a surprising segue out of his biggest hit single, "Doctor My Eyes
". But by 1980 he had graduated from hall
s and outdoor amphitheatres to arena
s, and "These Days" disappeared from his set list
s, perhaps because he felt it no longer effective in those settings. Save for the occasional acoustic show or benefit show, the song was not heard again until the late 1990s, as Browne was again playing smaller venues, often solo, and where it began to reappear out of the "Doctor My Eyes" segue again.
Other artists occasionally recorded "These Days" during this time. New Grass Revival
gave it a progressive bluegrass
workout circa 1976; in 1990, a cover version by 10,000 Maniacs
appeared on the Elektra Records
compilation album Rubáiyát
; the Golden Palominos released an ethereal, drum machine
-laced interpretation on their 1993 album This Is How It Feels; and later idiosyncratic indie rocker Barbara Manning
included it as the B-side of one of her singles. Power poppers Fountains of Wayne
used it as the B-side of their 1999 single "Troubled Times" (later included on disc 2 of the band's 2005 compilation album Out-of-State Plates), and Lloyd Cole
played it live in the 1990s as well.
film The Royal Tenenbaums
. Both the song and the film's characters carried similar themes of regret and fear of missed opportunities. As Jackson Browne would later describe it, "I forgot that I'd licensed them to use this song. And this is one of those things that comes to you in the mail and you don't know what they're talking about and you simply give them their permission. You're sitting in the movie theater and there's this great moment when Gwyneth Paltrow is coming out of a bus or something like that. I'm thinking to myself, I used to play the guitar just like that. And then the voice comes on and it's Nico singing 'These Days', which I played on."
Nico's "These Days" was included on both versions of The Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack
. Furthermore, a 2002-era Kmart
commercial looped the guitar part from the Nico recording, making it further visible.
There was a new wave of covers of the song; renditions in the 2000s included ones by indie rockers Mates of State
for the Wicker Park soundtrack
, Philadelphia singer/songwriter Denison Witmer
, alternative rock icon Paul Westerberg
's album Come Feel Me Tremble
, Annie "St. Vincent" Clark
's EP Paris is Burning
, and Ohio singer songwriter Griffin House
, in a treatment also heard on the Everwood
television series and soundtrack. Additionally, Alternative folk singer Kathryn Williams
included a cover of "These Days" on her 2004 album, Relations
, consisting solely of cover songs. Approaches to the song varied, with some emulating either Nico or Browne while others reimagined it in other ways. Additionally, Beth Orton
's 2002 song "Concrete Sky" quoted from "These Days".
Given this new attention, Browne began playing "These Days" in concert on a regular basis, but on acoustic guitar and in a new style. He now starts with the fingerpicking guitar part but continues in a technique and feel that falls between the Nico and Browne recordings. Indeed he would say, "And now I've learned how to play the Nico version, which we sort of made up for her. [Imitates Nico's version of "These Days"] Fabulous you know..." It was included on Browne's 2005 live album, Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1
, including a humorous spoken introduction about the origins of the song.
"These Days" had been brought full circle. And critical recognition followed;
Pitchfork Media
's 2006 ranking of The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s placed the Nico "These Days" at number 31. But the song's other manifestations were not forgotten either. The Allman Brothers Band themselves would include the song for the first time in their concerts, featuring it on their March 2005 "Beacon run" with Gregg Allman and Warren Haynes
both playing acoustic guitar
and sharing dual vocals. And Browne's 1973 recording surfaced in the Seventies-set 2006 film Invincible
, presumably used to establish the dour circumstances of the film.
Attention to the song continued. Southampton band Delays
included a cover of the song on their Lost Tunes
EP, released digitally in October 2008. It is similar in tonality to the original, but reworked to accommodate their distinctive multi-layered harmonies. Elliott Smith
was known to cover the song quite frequently in live performances. Glen Campbell
covered the song on his album Meet Glen Campbell
released in 2008. The Dirty Projectors
quoted from it on the track "Two Doves" from their 2009 album Bitte Orca. Fightstar
also covered the song acoustically as a B-side to the Digital Download of their 2009 single Never Change
.
Jen Stills
's version of "These Days" was featured in the December 6, 2009 Episode 410 "Newlyweds" of the ABC Show Brothers & Sisters.
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
and principally recorded by Nico
Nico
Nico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...
, Gregg Allman
Gregg Allman
Gregory Lenoir Allman , known as Gregg Allman, is a rock and blues singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter, and a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia...
, and Browne himself in three distinctly different musical styles. The song has endured for decades as a classic of morose introspection, made all the more remarkable by Browne having been only 16 years old when he wrote it.
Origins and Nico version
In the mid-to-late 1960s Browne was a precocious songwriterSongwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
who was pitching his material to various artists and publishing houses. On January 7, 1967 he made some demo recordings for Nina Music Publishing at Jaycino Studio in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. (An unplanned double album
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
of these recordings was made by Nina Music, with 100 copies issued.) Included in these demos, and the third song on this "record," was "I've Been Out Walking," the earliest manifestation of "These Days". Yet the song was even older than that; Browne would later say he wrote it when he was sixteen years old, meaning in 1964 or 1965.
German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
model and chanteuse Nico
Nico
Nico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...
was the first to record "These Days" for release, on her October 1967 album Chelsea Girl
Chelsea Girl (album)
Chelsea Girl is the debut solo album by Nico. It was released in October 1967 by Verve Records, also home to The Velvet Underground. The name of the album is a reference to Andy Warhol's 1966 film Chelsea Girls, which Nico starred in...
. This was an odd mix of production elements: a fairly fast, almost upbeat fingerpicking electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
part by Browne (suggested by Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
), combined with strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
and flutes (added after the fact by producer Tom Wilson, without Nico's knowledge) combined with the sad, near-desperate tone of the lyrics, all wrapped around Nico's mannered, German-accented vocals.
While Nico never achieved much commercial visibility, her work caught the attention of other musicians and songwriters. And although Browne was still several years from getting his own recording contract, his wise-beyond-his-years talent was quickly recognized by other performers looking for material. And of Browne's catalogue during this period, "These Days," along with his "Shadow Dream Song," were regarded as his gems. Thus "These Days" was recorded in 1968 by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their album Rare Junk
Rare Junk
Rare Junk is the 1968 album from The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is notable for having many charting albums and singles...
, by Tom Rush
Tom Rush
Tom Rush is an American folk and blues singer, songwriter, musician and recording artist.- Life and career :Rush was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His father was a teacher at St. Paul's School, in Concord, New Hampshire. Tom began performing in 1961 while studying at Harvard University after...
on his 1970 self-titled album
Tom Rush (1970 album)
Tom Rush is the 1970 album from pioneer Folk rock musician Tom Rush. He covers songs from fellow folkies Jackson Browne, Murray McLauchlan, James Taylor and David Wiffen; with the standout tracks being "Driving Wheel", "Drop Down Mama" and "Child's Song"...
, by Jennifer Warnes (as Jennifer) in 1972 (interestingly, this version was produced by John Cale, who also played on Nico's Chelsea Girl album), by Kenny Loggins
Kenny Loggins
During the next decade, Loggins recorded so many successful songs for film soundtracks that he was referred to as, King of the Movie Soundtrack.He began with "I'm Alright" , "Mr. Night", and "Lead the Way" from Caddyshack...
' first band, Gator Creek, around the same time, and by Ian Matthews on his 1973 album Valley Hi
Valley Hi (album)
Valley Hi is the 1973 album by country rock/folk rock musician Ian Matthews. The album was produced by Michael Nesmith who also sat in on guitar.-Track listing:#"Keep On Sailing" - 4:42#"Old Man at the Mill" - 2:30...
.
Browne and Allman versions
By 1973, Jackson Browne had become a successful recording artist, and not having raided his back catalogue for the first album, was now more willing to do so for this second, For EverymanFor Everyman
For Everyman is the second album by American singer/songwriter Jackson Browne, released in 1973 . The album peaked at number 43 on the Billboard 200 chart and the single "Redneck Friend" reached number 85 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart...
. This "These Days" was considerably different in several ways from the Nico effort. Some lyrics were changed or omitted, such as a couple of lines about "rambling" and "gambling". The fingerpicking guitar figure was replaced with flatpicking
Flatpicking
Flatpicking is a technique for playing a guitar using a guitar pick held between two or three fingers to strike the strings...
, and the instrumentation was typical of early 1970s Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
n folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
— drums, bass, piano, acoustic guitar, but most prominently with David Lindley
David Lindley (musician)
David Perry Lindley is an American musician who is notable for his work with Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, and other rock musicians. He has worked extensively in other genres as well, performing with artists as varied as Curtis Mayfield and Dolly Parton...
's slide guitar
Slide guitar
Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
, a prominent feature of Browne's early albums and one here that laced the song, animating such lines as "I'll keep on moving..." The arrangement itself featured descending chords and bass notes in a series of walkdowns from the starting major chord
Major chord
In music theory, a major chord is a chord having a root, a major third, and a perfect fifth. When a chord has these three notes alone, it is called a major triad...
to its relative minor. Emotionally, the sadness and despair were retained, but Nico's coolly dramatic delivery was replaced by Browne's direct, human perspective, characteristic of the early 1970s singer songwriter movement.
The For Everyman liner notes thanked Gregg Allman
Gregg Allman
Gregory Lenoir Allman , known as Gregg Allman, is a rock and blues singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter, and a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia...
for the arrangement. While Allman was most associated with the emerging Southern rock
Southern rock
Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music, and genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals...
scene, he had spent considerable time in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
before The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band is an American rock/blues band once based in Macon, Georgia. The band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman and Gregg Allman , who were supported by Dickey Betts , Berry Oakley , Butch Trucks , and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe"...
came together, he and Browne had become friends, and the brothers' early band The Hour Glass had recorded Browne's "Cast Off All My Fears" on their 1967 album The Hour Glass. Now Gregg was working up another Browne song, "These Days", for his initial solo album Laid Back
Laid Back (Gregg Allman album)
Laid Back is a 1973 album by Gregg Allman and was released on the Capricorn Records label. It peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Pop Albums charts in 1974....
, released like For Everyman in Fall 1973. Allman's version kept to Browne's revised lyric until the end, when he changed "Don't confront me with my failures / I had not forgotten them," to "Please don't confront me with my failures / I'm aware of them." Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
praised the treatment, saying Allman "does full justice to the quietly hurting lyrics, double-tracking the vocal over a sad steel guitar," and calling the vocal quality "resigned" and "eternally aching." From the perspective of 1999, writer Anthony DeCurtis
Anthony DeCurtis
Anthony DeCurtis is an American author and music critic, who has written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Relix and other publications.-Career:...
called Allman's version "definitive".
Many years later, Browne would describe the inspiration he credited: "When [Allman] did it I thought that he really unlocked a power in that song that I sort of then emulated in my version. I started playing the piano. I wasn't trying to sing it like Gregg; I couldn't possibly. I took the cue, playin' this slow walk. But it was written very sort of, kind of — [strums opening to 'These Days'] — a little more flatpicking."
While not released as a single by either, both Browne's and Allman's "These Days" recordings gained airplay on progressive rock radio stations
Progressive rock (radio format)
Progressive rock is a radio station programming format that prospered in the late 1960s and 1970s, in which the disc jockeys are given wide latitude in what they may play, similar to the freeform format but with the proviso that some kind of rock music is almost always what is played...
and became the most-heard interpretations of the song. It was included on both of Browne's "best of" albums, The Next Voice You Hear: The Best of Jackson Browne
The Next Voice You Hear: The Best of Jackson Browne
The Next Voice You Hear: The Best of Jackson Browne is a greatest hits album by the singer-songwriter Jackson Browne released in 1997.- History :...
and The Very Best of Jackson Browne
The Very Best of Jackson Browne
The Very Best of Jackson Browne is a double-disc compilation album by Jackson Browne, released on March 16, 2004 by Rhino Entertainment and Elektra Records in celebration of Browne's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a day earlier...
, and on both of Allman's compilations, The Millennium Collection: The Best of Gregg Allman and (in a live version) No Stranger to the Dark: The Best of Gregg Allman.
When Allman toured as a solo act, he generally kept "These Days" in his concert repertoire. Browne was a different story. It had appeared in his concerts since before he had a recording contract, and stayed in through the 1970s, usually played on piano in a surprising segue out of his biggest hit single, "Doctor My Eyes
Doctor My Eyes
"Doctor My Eyes" is a 1972 song written and performed by Jackson Browne and included on his debut album Jackson Browne. Featuring a combination of an upbeat piano riff coupled, somewhat ironically, with lyric about feeling world-weary, the song was a surprise hit, reaching number 8 on the...
". But by 1980 he had graduated from hall
Hall
In architecture, a hall is fundamentally a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers...
s and outdoor amphitheatres to arena
Arena
An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...
s, and "These Days" disappeared from his set list
Set list
A set list, or setlist, is a document that lists the songs that a band or musical artist intends to play, or has played, during a specific concert performance...
s, perhaps because he felt it no longer effective in those settings. Save for the occasional acoustic show or benefit show, the song was not heard again until the late 1990s, as Browne was again playing smaller venues, often solo, and where it began to reappear out of the "Doctor My Eyes" segue again.
Other artists occasionally recorded "These Days" during this time. New Grass Revival
New Grass Revival
New Grass Revival was an American progressive bluegrass band founded in 1971, and composed of Sam Bush, Courtney Johnson, Ebo Walker, Curtis Burch, Butch Robins, John Cowan, Béla Fleck and Pat Flynn. They were active between 1971 and 1989, releasing more than twenty albums as well as six singles....
gave it a progressive bluegrass
Progressive bluegrass
Progressive bluegrass is one of two major subgenres of bluegrass music. It is also known as newgrass, a term attributed to New Grass Revival member Ebo Walker. Musicians and bands John Hartford, New Grass Revival, J.D. Crowe and the New South, The Dillards, Boone Creek, Country Gazette, and the...
workout circa 1976; in 1990, a cover version by 10,000 Maniacs
10,000 Maniacs
10,000 Maniacs is a United States-based alternative rock band, which formed in 1981 and continues to be active with various line-ups.-1981–1993:...
appeared on the Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
compilation album Rubáiyát
Rubáiyát
Rubáiyát is a compilation album, released in 1990 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Elektra Records record label. The concept was to feature present-day Elektra artists covering songs from the historic catalogue of recordings of Elektra Records and its sister label Asylum Records.Two...
; the Golden Palominos released an ethereal, drum machine
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
-laced interpretation on their 1993 album This Is How It Feels; and later idiosyncratic indie rocker Barbara Manning
Barbara Manning
Barbara Manning is an American indie rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. In addition to her solo career, Manning has been active in a number of bands, including 28th Day , World of Pooh, S.F. Seals and The Go-Luckys!. She has also distinguished herself as an interpreter of other writers' songs...
included it as the B-side of one of her singles. Power poppers Fountains of Wayne
Fountains of Wayne
Fountains of Wayne is an American power pop band that formed in New York City in 1996. The band consists of members Chris Collingwood, Adam Schlesinger, Jody Porter and Brian Young.-Early years:...
used it as the B-side of their 1999 single "Troubled Times" (later included on disc 2 of the band's 2005 compilation album Out-of-State Plates), and Lloyd Cole
Lloyd Cole
Lloyd Cole is an English singer and songwriter, known for his role as lead singer of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions from 1984 to 1989, and for his subsequent solo work.-Early life:...
played it live in the 1990s as well.
Renewed visibility
In the 2000s "These Days" gained renewed visibility and praise. The key was the appearance of the original Nico recording in a scene in the acclaimed and popular 2001 Wes AndersonWes Anderson
Wesley Wales Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials....
film The Royal Tenenbaums
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Royal Tenenbaums is a 2001 American comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson and co-written with Owen Wilson. The film stars Gene Hackman and Anjelica Huston, with Danny Glover, Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Owen Wilson....
. Both the song and the film's characters carried similar themes of regret and fear of missed opportunities. As Jackson Browne would later describe it, "I forgot that I'd licensed them to use this song. And this is one of those things that comes to you in the mail and you don't know what they're talking about and you simply give them their permission. You're sitting in the movie theater and there's this great moment when Gwyneth Paltrow is coming out of a bus or something like that. I'm thinking to myself, I used to play the guitar just like that. And then the voice comes on and it's Nico singing 'These Days', which I played on."
Nico's "These Days" was included on both versions of The Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack
The Royal Tenenbaums (soundtrack)
The soundtrack to The Royal Tenenbaums features a score composed by Mark Mothersbaugh. Also featured are a variety of rock songs from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.There have been two soundtrack album releases for The Royal Tenenbaums...
. Furthermore, a 2002-era Kmart
Kmart
Kmart, sometimes styled as "K-Mart," is a chain of discount department stores. The chain acquired Sears in 2005, forming a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation. The company was founded in 1962 and is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and...
commercial looped the guitar part from the Nico recording, making it further visible.
There was a new wave of covers of the song; renditions in the 2000s included ones by indie rockers Mates of State
Mates of State
Mates of State are an American indie pop duo, active since 1997. The group is composed of the husband-and-wife team of Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel .Over the course of the band's fourteen year career, they've released three EPs and six full-length, studio...
for the Wicker Park soundtrack
Wicker Park (Soundtrack)
Wicker Park is the accompanying soundtrack to the 2004 film of the same name. The soundtrack is composed entirely of songs from popular rock bands, with occasional covers like Coldplay's The Scientist...
, Philadelphia singer/songwriter Denison Witmer
Denison Witmer
Denison Witmer is an indie singer-songwriter from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His first release, in 1995, was a cassette titled My Luck, My Love. He has since released six studio LPs; two live albums, a cover album ; three EPs; and an LP with The River Bends—a side project consisting of members of the...
, alternative rock icon Paul Westerberg
Paul Westerberg
Paul Westerberg is an American musician, best known as the former lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter of The Replacements, one of the seminal alternative rock bands of the 1980s. He launched a solo career after the dissolution of that band...
's album Come Feel Me Tremble
Come Feel Me Tremble
Come Feel Me Tremble is Paul Westerberg's fifth solo album. Like his previous album, it is a rough collection of songs that the former Replacements leader recorded by himself in his home.-Track listing:...
, Annie "St. Vincent" Clark
Annie Clark
Annie Erin Clark is an American multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter who performs as St. Vincent. She was a member of The Polyphonic Spree and also part of Sufjan Stevens' touring band, prior to forming her own band....
's EP Paris is Burning
Paris Is Burning (EP)
Paris Is Burning is a 2006 EP release by American musician St. Vincent.-Track listing:# "Paris Is Burning"# "What Me Worry"# "These Days"...
, and Ohio singer songwriter Griffin House
Griffin House
Griffin House was born and raised in Springfield, Ohio. His father worked in a tire shop and his mother helped place children with foster families. In high school, the athletically-gifted House landed a role in a musical and was surprised to learn that he had a natural talent for singing...
, in a treatment also heard on the Everwood
Everwood
Everwood is an American drama television series that initially aired in the United States on The WB. The series is set in the fictional small town of Everwood, Colorado, and was filmed in Ogden, South Salt Lake, and Draper, Utah, except the series pilot which was filmed in Canmore, Alberta,...
television series and soundtrack. Additionally, Alternative folk singer Kathryn Williams
Kathryn Williams
Kathryn Williams is an English singer-songwriter.-Background:Williams was born in Liverpool, and now lives in Newcastle upon Tyne after earning an art degree in the city. Williams released her first album, Dog Leap Stairs on her own Caw Records label in 1999 with a budget of £80...
included a cover of "These Days" on her 2004 album, Relations
Relations (album)
-Track listing:#"In a Broken Dream" – 3:37#"Birds" – 2:26#"Thirteen" – 2:56#"Hallelujah" – 5:08...
, consisting solely of cover songs. Approaches to the song varied, with some emulating either Nico or Browne while others reimagined it in other ways. Additionally, Beth Orton
Beth Orton
Beth Orton is a BRIT Award–winning English singer-songwriter, known for her 'folktronica' sound, which mixes elements of folk and electronica. She was initially recognised for her collaborations with William Orbit and the Chemical Brothers in the mid 1990s. However, these were not Orton's first...
's 2002 song "Concrete Sky" quoted from "These Days".
Given this new attention, Browne began playing "These Days" in concert on a regular basis, but on acoustic guitar and in a new style. He now starts with the fingerpicking guitar part but continues in a technique and feel that falls between the Nico and Browne recordings. Indeed he would say, "And now I've learned how to play the Nico version, which we sort of made up for her. [Imitates Nico's version of "These Days"] Fabulous you know..." It was included on Browne's 2005 live album, Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1
Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1
Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1 is a live album by American singer/songwriter Jackson Browne, released in 2005 . It reached number 4 on the Top Independent Albums chart and number 8 on the Top Internet Albums chart.-History:...
, including a humorous spoken introduction about the origins of the song.
"These Days" had been brought full circle. And critical recognition followed;
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's 2006 ranking of The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s placed the Nico "These Days" at number 31. But the song's other manifestations were not forgotten either. The Allman Brothers Band themselves would include the song for the first time in their concerts, featuring it on their March 2005 "Beacon run" with Gregg Allman and Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes is an American rock and blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. Haynes is best known for his work as long time guitarist with The Allman Brothers Band and as founding member of the jam band Gov't Mule. Early in his career he was a guitarist for David Allan Coe and The Dickey...
both playing acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
and sharing dual vocals. And Browne's 1973 recording surfaced in the Seventies-set 2006 film Invincible
Invincible (2006 film)
Invincible is a 2006 family film directed by Ericson Core set in 1976. It is based on the true story of Vince Papale, who played for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1976–78. Mark Wahlberg portrays Papale and Greg Kinnear plays Papale's coach, Dick Vermeil...
, presumably used to establish the dour circumstances of the film.
Attention to the song continued. Southampton band Delays
Delays
Delays are an English indie band formed in Southampton, consisting of brothers Greg and Aaron Gilbert, Colin Fox and Rowly. The band's sound combines guitar and synths and features Greg Gilbert's distinctive falsetto lead vocals...
included a cover of the song on their Lost Tunes
Lost Tunes
Lost Tunes is an EP from British indie band Delays, released in October 2008 via MP3 download store Losttunes.com. It features their treatment of numbers recorded by Nico, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The House of Love, and The Go-Go's, as well as an alternate effort at their own "Keep It...
EP, released digitally in October 2008. It is similar in tonality to the original, but reworked to accommodate their distinctive multi-layered harmonies. Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith
Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and resided for a significant portion of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained popularity...
was known to cover the song quite frequently in live performances. Glen Campbell
Glen Campbell
Glen Travis Campbell is an American country music singer, guitarist, television host and occasional actor. He is best known for a series of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for hosting a variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television.During his 50 years in show...
covered the song on his album Meet Glen Campbell
Meet Glen Campbell
Meet Glen Campbell is the 60th album by American singer/guitarist Glen Campbell, released in 2008 .-Track listing:Side 1#"Sing" – 3:45#"Walls" – 3:31#"Angel Dream" – 2:29...
released in 2008. The Dirty Projectors
Dirty Projectors
The Dirty Projectors aka David Longstreth includes Amber Coffman , Angel Deradoorian , Brian McOmber , Nat Baldwin , and Haley Dekle during live performances...
quoted from it on the track "Two Doves" from their 2009 album Bitte Orca. Fightstar
Fightstar
Fightstar are an English alternative rock band from London. They formed in 2003 and their lineup comprises lead vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist Charlie Simpson, guitarist and vocalist Alex Westaway, bass guitarist Dan Haigh and drummer Omar Abidi...
also covered the song acoustically as a B-side to the Digital Download of their 2009 single Never Change
Never Change (Fightstar song)
"Never Change" is the third single to be taken from Fightstar's third studio album, Be Human and was released on July 20, 2009.The music video has appeared on Kerrang!, MTV2 and Scuzz.-Track listing:CD:# "Never Change" - 2:58...
.
Jen Stills
Jen Stills
Jen Stills is a singer and songwriter who was raised in Arizona and later moved to Los Angeles where she lives today.Stills has appeared on Ray LaMontagne's album Trouble on the track “Narrow Escape,” and on the title track of Crosby Stills and Nash's After the Storm...
's version of "These Days" was featured in the December 6, 2009 Episode 410 "Newlyweds" of the ABC Show Brothers & Sisters.