10 Hard Rock Bands That Made The Same Song Twice
2. The Offspring - Gone Away
Gone Away proved to be the biggest hit of The Offspring's fourth studio album, Ixnay on the Hombre (1997), scoring the band their first No. 1 on the US Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and going on to become a mainstay of their live sets to this day.
Making the most of overdriven guitars, pitchy, angsty vocals, and a tom-heavy drum beat that saves its snare for the chorus, Gone Away was supported by an industrial-chic music video, no doubt drawing inspiration from similar imagery used by Metallica and Nine Inch Nails around the same time.
It should come as little surprise then that, of all their big tracks, The Offspring decided to take another run at Gone Away in 2021. For rock bands seeking to put a new spin on their harder hits, the slow, sombre remake is a tried and tested formula, and the band drew inspiration from some of their live performances, in which singer Dexter Holland took to the piano and performed solo versions of the fan-favourite song.
Released on Let the Good Times Roll, the new, melancholic version places the vocals and piano front and centre, backed by grand, swelling strings that give the song a heightened gravitas, building on the already significant sense of profundity the song had arriving right off the back of the COVID-19 pandemic.