"These Days" - Foo Fighter cover

[PavlovsCat]

“THESE DAYS” - FOO FIGHTERS COVER 

Dave Grohl calls this the best song he’s ever written, and I think he’s right. The Foo Fighters is one of the handful of bands that my entire family (my wife and our two teenage kids)  enjoys and this is my favorite song from the band.  For those who don't know anything about me. I grew up the son of a music teacher and professional musician with my first instrument being piano, then organ, then drums (I later took some guitar lessons, but never got proficient on the instrument). When I was 5, my three siblings decided to form a family band and asked me to play drums -- after a short time, I fell in love with the drums.  At 5, my first rock album was Zeppelin III. By 7, I heard Who's Next and was certain that I was going to be a rock drummer. From 18 until around 30 I played drums semiprofessionally, had a chance to join a major band named Veruca Salt whose lead singer saw me play with Chicago area band, I declined, and  a few years later got painful tendinitis that stopped me from playing (in the late 90s). I still can only play for a few minutes on the drums before I have pain, so I really can't practice anymore and get to playing anywhere near the level I did even as a kid. But age and the pandemic caused me to spend more and more time wishing I could express myself musically. So almost a year ago, more than 20 years since I stopped playing, I decided to just play and record some of the music I wrote years ago and some covers. Unfortunately, I was never a lead singer. I did background vocals and that's really all my voice was good enough to do. So, there's my story. Now unto the details on my arrangement of this song. 

My arrangement varies from the original in a number of ways, but especially in two of the major ways: 
(1) The tempo of my version is around 10 BPM slower than the original. I felt that allowed me to create a more R&B feel during the verses and a bluesy feel during the pre-choruses (particularly the second one where I came up with a slide acoustic guitar part).
(2) I added a number of instruments not part of the original song and came up with original parts on those instruments: acoustic guitar, piano, electric piano, organ and strings (I also added a synthesizer and tambourine). 

I played all the parts you hear live to click track using a total of 23 tracks. No parts were programmed. And yes, when I was playing the drums in the chorus, I totally had my Keith Moon hat on. 
 

Edited February 20, 2022 by Pavlovs Cat

[mark skinner]

 Very Nice. Sorry I was late to the party on your last posting of this song. I thought the mix was Very good. One thing I noticed was at the chorus , you seemed to really get your vocal confidence up and sang everything with more power and conviction all the way to the end. I've learned that when this happens to me , I immediately re-sing the first verse after finding my spot.    Great Job ..  mark

[PavlovsCat]

27 minutes ago, mark skinner said:

 Very Nice. Sorry I was late to the party on your last posting of this song. I thought the mix was Very good. One thing I noticed was at the chorus , you seemed to really get your vocal confidence up and sang everything with more power and conviction all the way to the end. I've learned that when this happens to me , I immediately re-sing the first verse after finding my spot.    Great Job ..  mark

The chorus is a lot easier for me to sing. It's in a different key. Although, I think it's that I just enjoy getting loud! Back when I played semi-professionally, I did background vocals and often would be the person who sang the "yeah" yell kind of parts. So I think I still have the quality. But also, I'm of Italian lineage, so I think being loud is genetic! Hahaha. 

Edited February 19, 2022 by Pavlovs Cat

[mark skinner]

Peter , the point I was trying to make (but didn't do a very good job of it) , was about the "verses" you sang after doing the chorus.  The chorus was sung Great , and so was the following Verse. If the first verse was sung with the conviction that the last verse had , I think you would bring this song up to a new level.    Thanks ..  mark

[PavlovsCat]

8 hours ago, mark skinner said:

Peter , the point I was trying to make (but didn't do a very good job of it) , was about the "verses" you sang after doing the chorus.  The chorus was sung Great , and so was the following Verse. If the first verse was sung with the conviction that the last verse had , I think you would bring this song up to a new level.    Thanks ..  mark

I understood that and I value your input -- and you're completely right (although I think your being a little too kind about the rest of my singing-- but I appreciate your kindness) .My voice is really inconsistent. I'm thinking of coming back to this, maybe tomorrow, and trying to re-sing the verses, but especially the first verse, which is not as good as the rest of the song (not that I sing well at all, I just sing better than the first verse) . I actually think the only singing I did half okay was the pre-choruses.  

Anyhow, your comment is really helpful,  as it confirms what I  was thinking--  because part of me  thinks-- all of my singing is so poor, maybe I'll just let it go. But I  think I can probably do a better job on the verse. In fact,  my singing kept me from sharing this with my family. If I  can improve that, I think I did a decent job with the musical performance. So thanks much. You've persuaded me to try to do better. I'll absolutely update this thread with the new version-- unless I  find I can't do a better job.  Singing is the only challenging (often frustrating) part of making these recordings for me. I would greatly prefer having someone else singing and sticking to the music. In the bands I formed,  I never picked me to sing lead vocals and prefer it that way. 

[Old Joad]

I like it, I'm a big Foo Fan?