Today, yet another cover of “These Days” surfaced, this time reworked as a loose duet between Drake and Barf Troop‘s Babeo Baggins, titled “Things I Forgot To Do.” Baggins introduced Drake to the song initially, and it’s not hard to imagine the rapper instantly connecting with lines like, “Don’t confront me with my failures / I had not forgotten them” — do not confront him like he’s that Drake from four years ago! But that doesn’t change the fact that the cover is — how do we say this? — not great. And it’s not like “These Days” is one of those songs that simply cannot be covered well: Technically, the version that is most beloved, off Nico’s 1967 solo debut Chelsea Girls, is a cover. The songwriter behind it was a young Jackson Browne, who played the finger-picked electric guitar line that is, besides Nico’s deadpan delivery, easily the greatest thing about the sullen masterpiece.
As Jackson’s profile rose from songwriter to Laurel Canyon folk-rock star, he eventually released “These Days” in his own distinct style, on 1973’s For Everyman. Browne thanked Gregg Allman for the nudge towards this arrangement, but Allman had plenty to thank Browne for as well: Right around this same time, he released his own version of “These Days,” with even more prominent slide guitar than Browne’s take. Together, these three renditions of “These Days,” all released in a six-year span, created a generous blueprint for what this classic song could be. But that certainly hasn’t stopped many others from attempting to make “These Days” their own, particularly in the last two decades. Some, like those below, more or less succeeded; Drake, not so much — the corniness runs high, even for him. And so, we suggest listening to these modern “These Days” covers instead.
Posted from: https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1075-5-modern-covers-of-these-days-that-are-better-than-drakes/