Strange Days

Album: Strange Days (2020)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "Strange Days" finds Robbie Williams joining The Struts to offer solace amid the chaos and hardships of the coronavirus era.
  • Frontman Luke Spiller recalled to HMV that the song originated in the summer of 2019 when The Struts were on tour. While his bandmates were at the bar, Spiller was in the tour bus playing around with his guitar. He came up an idea for the chorus and verse for "Strange Days," which he recorded into his phone as a voice memo.

    Nine months or so later, in the early days of lockdown, The Struts launched their Quarantine Radio Instagram Live show. Robbie Williams hit up Spiller out of the blue during the show and they ended up FaceTiming for a couple of hours. They got on really well and The Struts frontman asked Williams if he would be interested in laying down some vocals if an appropriate song came up.

    A fortnight later, The Struts moved into the Los Angeles home of their producer, Jon Levine, to record their third album. After completing about eight of the songs, Spiller listened back to the "Strange Days" voice memo and recognized it had "that old school Robbie Williams, Britpop vibe to it." Levine liked the idea, but they realized they needed more lyrics, so Spiller started scatting and throwing in lines from a couple of different song ideas he'd had.

    Two weeks later, Williams invited Spiller over to his Beverly Hills home and the pop star laid down his vocal on his front porch.
  • This is the second single and title track from The Strange Days album. The BBC Radio 2 show Steve Wright in the Afternoon premiered the song on its September 2, 2020 episode with both Robbie Williams and Luke Spiller as phone-in guests.
  • The Struts laid down nine original tracks and one Kiss cover for Strange Days over 10 days while crashing out at Jon Levine's home. The Canadian producer had previously contributed towards six of the songs on the band's sophomore album including the singles "Body Talks" and "In Love With A Camera."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

70s Music Quiz 1

70s Music Quiz 1Music Quiz

The '70s gave us Muppets, disco and Van Halen, all which show up in this groovy quiz.

Al Jourgensen of Ministry

Al Jourgensen of MinistrySongwriter Interviews

In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.

The Punk Photography of Chris Stein

The Punk Photography of Chris SteinSong Writing

Chris Stein of Blondie shares photos and stories from his book about the New York City punk scene.

Mike Campbell

Mike CampbellSongwriter Interviews

Mike is lead guitarist with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and co-writer of classic songs like "Boys Of Summer," "Refugee" and "The Heart Of The Matter."

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s Edition

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s EditionMusic Quiz

You know the scenes - Tom Cruise in his own pants-off dance off, Molly Ringwald celebrating her birthday - but do you remember what song is playing?

Chris Squire of Yes

Chris Squire of YesSongwriter Interviews

One of the most dynamic bass player/songwriters of his time, Chris is the only member of Yes who has been with the band since they formed in 1968.