I do enjoy “covers” of many songs, but it bothers me when the original artist doesn’t get the deserved credit. Sometimes it is just an oversight, or sometimes a song just gets associated with a different musician when others hear it for the first time.

I recently discovered some songs by Rumer and a number of them were covers. I was listening to this one on YouTube and knew that it wasn’t the original, but there was no other credit given on that particular video.

Eventually it came to me… Hall & Oates:

I think Rumer’s version has grown on me.

The title of this blog post actually refers to another song. I have always associated These Days with a Jackson Browne song. That may have stuck with me as I knew he wrote it at the age of 16! I do enjoy a cover of it by Lucy Rose as well. Miley Cyrus also covered it. Then I heard it on a TV show with a credit to Nico. I recognized the song as soon as the music started, but then — a different voice. With further investigation, I learned something new. It is explained well in this video by Jackson Browne himself. He did write it, but Nico recorded it first. He tells a good story about his involvement in the song before Nico’s version starts to play.

I still prefer Jackson Browne singing it:

I suppose the lyrics written by a wise 16 year old appeal to many others:

Well, I’ve been out walking
I don’t do that much talking these days
These days

These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do for you
And all the times I had the chance to

And I had a lover
But it’s so hard to risk another, these days
These days

Now, if I seem to be afraid
To live the life that I have made in song
Well, it’s just that I’ve been losin’ for so long

Well, I’ll keep on movin’, movin’ on
Things are bound to be improving these days
One of these days

These days I’ll sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend
Don’t confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them