Days Go By (Keith Urban song)
Encyclopedia
"Days Go By" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by Australian country music
artist Keith Urban
. It was released in June 2004 as the lead-off single for his Be Here
album, which ends with a variation called "These Are the Days.". It became Urban's fifth Number One single, spending four weeks at the top of the Billboard U.S. Hot Country Songs
chart in late 2004.
phrase and then built in D major
around Urban's typical up-tempo banjo
/mandolin
-driven riffs with exuberant vocal yelps and electric guitar
fills, the song's message is a variation on the carpe diem
theme, as played off the song's title phrase.
shows Urban appearing to walk forwards, while everyone else about him is walking backwards; this segment was actually filmed in reverse, with Urban walking backwards. The video won a CMT
Award for Best Video of 2005.
In another part of the video, Urban makes a hand gesture, holding it parallel to the ground while raising and lowering it in an undulating motion, illustrating the "out the window in the wind" lyric. This inspired a colloborative project in which Urban fans videoed themselves imitating the motion while doing purposeful things, most often by visiting recognizable landmarks such as the Washington Monument
, Yellowstone National Park
, The Parthenon, or even more modest places such as Paducah, Kentucky
; a compilation of these videos was shown on the large image wall backdrop as the song was performed on Urban's 2007 Love, Pain & the whole crazy world Tour.
in 2005 and the Live Earth concert in New Jersey
in 2007. It was also included in the popular Now! series, on 2004's Now That's What I Call Music! 17.
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
artist Keith Urban
Keith Urban
Keith Lionel Urban is a New Zealand-born Australian, country music singer, songwriter and guitarist whose commercial success has been mainly in the United States and Australia. Urban was born in New Zealand and began his career in Australia at an early age...
. It was released in June 2004 as the lead-off single for his Be Here
Be Here
- Album :- Singles :- Certifications :- References :...
album, which ends with a variation called "These Are the Days.". It became Urban's fifth Number One single, spending four weeks at the top of the Billboard U.S. Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...
chart in late 2004.
Content
Starting with an acoustic guitarAcoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
phrase and then built in D major
D major
D major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....
around Urban's typical up-tempo banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
/mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
-driven riffs with exuberant vocal yelps and electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
fills, the song's message is a variation on the carpe diem
Carpe diem
Carpe diem is a phrase from a Latin poem by Horace that has become an aphorism. It is popularly translated as "seize the day"...
theme, as played off the song's title phrase.
Music video
A portion of the song's music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
shows Urban appearing to walk forwards, while everyone else about him is walking backwards; this segment was actually filmed in reverse, with Urban walking backwards. The video won a CMT
CMT
- Medicine :* California mastitis test* Certified Massage Therapist* Cervical motion tenderness, a sign of pelvic inflammatory disease* Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease* Chemically modified tetracyclines* Circus Movement Tachycardia...
Award for Best Video of 2005.
In another part of the video, Urban makes a hand gesture, holding it parallel to the ground while raising and lowering it in an undulating motion, illustrating the "out the window in the wind" lyric. This inspired a colloborative project in which Urban fans videoed themselves imitating the motion while doing purposeful things, most often by visiting recognizable landmarks such as the Washington Monument
Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington...
, Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...
, The Parthenon, or even more modest places such as Paducah, Kentucky
Paducah, Kentucky
Paducah is the largest city in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase Region and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky, United States. It is located at the confluence of the Tennessee River and the Ohio River, halfway between the metropolitan areas of St. Louis, Missouri, to the west and Nashville,...
; a compilation of these videos was shown on the large image wall backdrop as the song was performed on Urban's 2007 Love, Pain & the whole crazy world Tour.
Other performances
"Days Go By" is one of Urban's songs with the most pop and rock crossover appeal, and was featured in his sets at both the Live 8 concert in PhiladelphiaLive 8 concert, Philadelphia
On 2 July 2005, a Live 8 concert was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with a densely packed audience stretched out for one mile along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway...
in 2005 and the Live Earth concert in New Jersey
Live Earth concert, New York City
The Live Earth concert for North America was held at Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA on July 7, 2007.-Running order:In order of appearance:*Kenna - "Out Of Control", "Face The Gun", "Sun Red Sky Blue"...
in 2007. It was also included in the popular Now! series, on 2004's Now That's What I Call Music! 17.
Chart performance
| Chart (2004) | Peak position |
|---|