Songwriters: Odie Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Georg Ruthenberg, David Eric Grohl
I was looking through the songs I’ve analyzed over the last couple years and realized I’d never done a song by Foo Fighters. Their huge presence looms over the Rock genre, inspiring dozens of top bands. Grammy wins for Best Rock Album and over a decade of hit Rock songs means that I am long overdue.
This beautiful song from 2012 is one of my favorites. And David Grohl has said that it’s one of his. The passionate chorus lyric and unpredictable but catchy melody make this song a Rock classic that will live on and on.
Watch the video. Read the lyrics.
Watch on YouTube
Read the lyric
Shortcut numbers refer to my books “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting” (“Hit”) and “Shortcuts to Songwriting for Film & TV” (“Film/TV”).
GENRE
The genre is Mainstream Rock. Grohl’s gritty vocal, the layered electric guitars, and hard, punchy drums give it plenty of Rock cred. At the same time, the lyric is thoughtful and the theme serious. There’s an intimate approach to the verses that bursts into a solid, rockin’ chorus with a powerful message that landed this song at the top of the Rock charts.
STRUCTURE
The song structure is:
VERSE / VERSE / PRE-CHORUS / CHORUS
VERSE / PRE-CHORUS / CHORUS
DOUBLE PRE-CHORUS / HALF VERSE / CHORUS
The song opens with a double verse. The verses each consist of two long lyric lines broken up into short phrases. A pre-chorus (“But it’s all right…”) provides some release and begins the build up to the huge vocal leap at the top of the chorus (“Easy for you to say…”).
The overall structure is typical for a hit song up until the bridge. Grohl uses a double pre-chorus as the bridge before going into a final verse and chorus. Notice that he doesn’t return to the pre-chorus again, using just a half verse before roaring into the final chorus of the song.
LYRICS
This powerful lyric was written as a tribute to the music fans who were injured or lost their lives at a music festival in 2011. It addresses the thoughtless, shallow comments we often hear in response to real tragedies. “Easy for you to say,” Grohl sings. Yes, until it happens to you. The frustration and anger of the theme suit the aggressive Rock style of the song and the passionate commitment Grohl brings to his performance.
Rock lyrics often take an aggressive stance in which the singer is angry at someone or something. If you’re writing a lyric like this, be sure you justify the singer’s anger, otherwise it can sound like whining. Make it big and make it serious.
The lyric is focused and unrelenting throughout. The singer knows what he wants to say right from first line —”One of these days the ground will drop out from beneath your feet.” It’s a vivid , frightening image that immediately draws listeners into the song.
The verse lyrics almost sound like a curse but, underneath, it’s an observation about life: Until you’ve felt real pain and heartbreak, you can’t know how it feels to someone else. “Don’t say it’s alright, don’t say it’s alright” he sings over and over as he reaches the peak of the song.
ENGAGE THE LISTENER: Find a way to get the listener involved in your lyric. “These Days” uses images and phrases that pack a big emotional punch in order to shake up the listener.
the ground will drop
your heart will stop
bombs will drop
forget to hope and learn to fear
your heart will be broken / pride will be stolen
All of these images and phrases work together to remind the listener of just how fragile life is. In line after line, the singer describes the kinds of things that can happen, even as we tell ourselves that they won’t happen to us. Every line of the song comes back this central idea. It’s a tightly focused lyric that creates a strong response in the listener. Just what a great Rock song needs!
You can hear more examples of this type of lyric in Muse’s “Uprising,” Foo Fighters’ “The Pretender,” and “Shinedown’s “Sound of Madness” and “Bully.” (See ‘Film/TV’ Shortcuts #51 to #53 to learn more about communicating an emotional message to listeners.)
MELODY
The verse has a simple two-chord, back-and-forth progression, The melody lines travel up and down in a narrow range. Then the pre-chorus moves up to a higher note range on it’s way to the highest notes of the song in the chorus.
That would be pretty tame stuff but… the interest is really in the phrasing of the melody—where the phrases start and how they’re broken up. It’s a challenge to even count along with this melody, especially the chorus. (Definitely not your average sing-along!) David Grohl’s background as a Rock drummer is on full display in the complex melody rhythms of this song.
In the verses, the first line begins on Beat 1 but once it gets started, it’s broken into short phrases that start on Beat 3. There’s a choppy, unpredictable quality about this set of phrases.
In the pre-chorus, all of the phrases begin on Beat 3, giving this section a more predictable feel before we dive head first into the chorus. In the chorus, the opening line “Easy for you to say” begins on Beat 3 and ends on Beat 2 of the following bar with the word “say” emphasized by the singer and entire band. They do the same thing later in the chorus with the line “One of these days” with “days” getting all the emphasis on Beat 2. The beat that’s usually emphasized in a big Rock chorus—Beat 1—is completely ignored. Wha? Most of the rest of the lines begin on the upbeat (the “and”) after Beat 1.
Unpredictable melody phrasing is a great way to give a simple melody a lot of interest. (See ‘Hit’ Shortcuts #90 and #91 for more on this idea.) Just be sure you do it carefully. The melody of “These Days” is can’t-get-it-out-of-your-head catchy in spite of its off-kilter phrasing. That’s because there’s plenty of repetition. The listener gets a chance to hear the unique opening line of the chorus because it’s repeated along with the melody lines that follow. This melody was very carefully structured.
If you’d like to learn this technique, learn to play and sing this song. The chords are basic. (I LOVE the change to the E minor in the chorus.) See the “Do It Now” section below for links to chords, lyrics, and ‘how to’ videos.
PRODUCTION
“These Days” comes from the band’s 2011 Wasting Light album, recorded in Grohl’s garage. All of the equipment is older, analog gear. If you’ve got a band that’s well rehearsed and there’s a local studio with analog tape machines, a couple good outboard compressors, and a decent mic cabinet, you can recreate this sound.
BTW, this song is so good it would work just fine in an ‘unplugged’ version. If you’re recording a Rock song, be sure to do an unplugged version you can pitch to film and TV. Each version will work for an entirely different type of scene. It will give you double the pitches.
TRY IT NOW
If you’re interested in writing songs in the contemporary Rock genre, this is a great song to learn to play and sing. The melody is a challenge but it’s a great way to pick up killer phrasing skills for use in songs of your own.
Learn it here: This YouTube video will show you (in three separate videos) how to play this song on guitar! Start here.
You’ll find lyrics along with piano chords and guitar tabs for this song here.
READ MORE HIT SONG GUIDES ON THIS SITE and learn from the hits!
by Robin Frederick