These Days

Earlier today I went for a walk and enjoyed a good listen to Mates of State on my ipod. I love Mates of State. I'll have to write an entire post about them sometime. I was listening to one of their songs called, "These Days" which is a cover. I recall sitting in the car once when "These Days" came on the radio, but it was a different version. I looked this song up today to discover who originally wrote it. There is quite a bit of history to this song. It was written by a guy named Jackson Browne. He made demos of it for Nina Music Publishing. "I've been out walking" was the earliest version of it. Nico recorded it on their album Chelsea Girl so Nico is technically the first band to have it on an actual album; though it was Browne's song and he first had it on a demo. He even claims that he wrote it all the way back to when he was sixteen which would have been 1964; three years prior to him realising it to Nina Music Publishing. Andy Warhol even put suggestions into the recording of "These Days" by Nico. "These Days" was recorded only a few months later by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their album Rare Junk, Tom Rush on his 1970 album Tom Rush, Kenny Loggins' first band, Gator Creek, and by Iain Matthews on his 1973 album Valley Hi. Gregg Allman also did a recording of it and soon Jackson Browne put out his own official recording of it as well. The song became big again when The Royal Tennabaums came out. Nico's version is on the soundtrack. The Mates of State version can be heard on the Wicker Park soundtrack. Browne's version can also be heard in the film, Invincible. Since then many other modern day artists have covered it as well the list includes, Denison Witmer, Paul Westerberg, Griffin House, Glen Campbell, and a band known as Delays. Elliot Smith also did a cover of "These Days" in many of his live performances. The song is also listed as #31 on Pitchfork Media's 2006 ranking of The 200 greatest songs of the 1960's. Wow. That's alot for one song to go through. I'd have to agree that it's a pretty good song though. Here's just a few of the artists singing "These Days". I know it's not possible because some of them are dead, but it would be really sweet if they all got together and sang it as, "The artists who covered These Days choir" That would be incredible.