Denne sangen er en kommentar til berømmelse. Med linjen, Når alle elsker meg, vil jeg aldri være ensom, sier lead signer Adam Duritz - med mer enn et snev av sarkasme - den berømmelsen vil gjøre alt bedre (aldri ensom blir gjentatt for å kjøre hjem meldingen: Denne fyren er vrangforestilling). Da det ble den første hit for bandet, ble Duritz plutselig anerkjent over hele Amerika, som han fant discomfiting. Den nyfylte notoriteten sendte ham til en langvarig funk, plutselig fant han seg en sang om å drømme om berømmelse da han var ganske bitter om det. Med sangen resonerende hans problemer, kom han til å loath å synge den. Duritz sluttet å skrive i over et år, og Counting Crows andre album, Recovering the Satellites. ble ikke utgitt før tre år etter debut. Ser tilbake på sangen i 2013-intervjuet med Adam Duritz. han forklarte at selv om det er tåpelig å tro at adulation of fame vil løse dine problemer, er det vanskelig å motstå. Sa Duritz: Du skulle se gjennom den fyren: Når alle elsker meg, er jeg aldri ensom. Du burde vite det ikke sant. For en ting er det ingen slik ting som alle elsker meg. Ingen vet deg i det tilfellet. Så jeg visste at det ikke skulle skje på den måten. Men du vil fortsatt ha det: du vil at livet skal være lettere, du vil være en rockestjerne, så det er lettere å snakke med en jente. Det er den samme galne personen som sitter der med jenta senere, skjønt. Så det løser ikke ting. Mr. Jones er Marty Jones, en venn av blysanger Adam Duritz. Før Duritz begynte å telle Crows, var de i et band sammen kalt The Himalayans. Dette ble skrevet av blysanger Adam Duritz og gitarist David Bryson (de andre tre bandmedlemmene fikk også komponentkreditter). På en episode av VH1s Storytellers. Adam forklarte: Det er virkelig en sang om min venn Marty og I. Vi dro ut en natt for å se på pappa, hans far var en flamenco gitarist som bodde i Spania (David Serva), og han var i San Francisco i oppdraget spiller med sin gamle Flamenco-troupe. Og etter konserten gikk vi alle til denne baren, kalt New Amsterdam i San Francisco på Columbus, og vi ble helt full. Og Marty og jeg satt i baren og stirret på disse to jentene, og ønsket at det var noen måte vi kunne snakke med dem, men vi var for sjenerte. Vi holdt sjekk med hverandre at hvis vi var store rockstjerner i stedet for slike tapere, lavbudsjettmusikere, ville dette være enkelt. Jeg dro hjem den kvelden og skrev en sang om det. Jeg spøker om hva det handler om, den historien. Men det er virkelig en sang om alle drømmene og alt det som gjør at du vil gå inn i hva som helst som griper hjertet ditt, enten det er en rockestjerne eller en lege eller hva som helst. Disse tingene løper fra alt dette, jeg har pent opp i meg, til jeg vil møte jenter fordi jeg er lei av ikke å kunne. Det er mange av disse tingene, det handler om alle de drømmene, men det er også en slags forsiktighet fordi det handler om hvor feilt du kan være om noen av disse tingene og hvor hul de kan være for. Som tegnet i sangen fortsetter å si: Når alle elsker meg, vil jeg aldri være ensom, og du skal vite at det ikke er slik det kommer til å bli. Jeg visste at selv da. Og dette er en sang om drømmene mine. Duritz avslørte senere at fyren i baren som fikk jentene var Kenney Dale Johnson, som var Chris Isaks trommeslager. Mange syntes at Mr. Jones var en referanse til et tegn i Bob Dylan-sangen Ballad of a Thin Man. Dylan er nevnt linjen jeg vil være Bob Dylan, Mr. Jones ønsker at han var noen bare litt mer funky. The Beatles nevnte Bob Dylans karakter i sangen Yer Blues. Linjen er Feel så selvmord, akkurat som Dylans Mr. Jones. Adam Duritz: Dette er en sang som har blitt feilfortolket sterkt, for å si mildt. Jeg tror folk ser ofte etter symbolikk i sanger når de er enklere enn de virker. Dette er spesielt mye enklere enn det må virke for mange mennesker. Jeg har hørt alt fra at det handler om noen gamle blues mann som lærte meg å spille musikk, noe som er helt latterlig, men som somebodys filmfantasi. Ive har også hørt om min pikk, noe som er enda mer latterlig. Da vi gjorde intervjuet for Rolling Stone. Jeg gikk med David Wilde inn i Musee d'Orsay i Paris en dag, og det første som skjedde var at de to barna løp opp til oss og sa, Hei, du er fyren fra Counting Crows, rett og jeg sa ja. Og han sa: Er Mr. Jones om din kjære, jeg ønsket å drepe fyren fordi jeg visste hvor det skulle ende opp, noe som er første ledd i artikkelen i Rolling Stone. Dette var den første singelen utgitt av Counting Crows og også deres største hit. Bandets navn refererer til et uttrykk Counting Crows, noe som betyr meningsløst, som i. Det handler om så ubrukelig som å telle kråke. Forslagskreditt: Robb - Pittsburgh, PA Alle bandmedlemmene er store fans av gruppen Big Star. Når du utfører denne sangen på Saturday Night Live. Duritz endret linjen Jeg vil være Bob Dylan til jeg vil være Alex Chilton. Alex Chilton er frontman for Big Star, og Alex Chilton var navnet på sangen av The Replacements. I Replacements-sangen henviste de til ham som en usynlig mann med en veldig synlig stemme. Forslagskreditt: Steve - Chino Hills, CA Denne sangen refererer til en dansende kvinne som heter Maria: Klipp opp Maria, vis meg en av dem spanske danser. Denne karakteren vises i mange av sangene sine. Hun er hovedfaget for deres andre singel, Round Here: Maria sier shes dør, gjennom inngangsdøren ser jeg henne gråte, og Maria kom fra Nashville med en koffert i hånden hennes. I fru Potters Lullabye, synger Duritz, Theres et stykke Maria i hver sang jeg synger. Hun er også nevnt på bakgrunnen som skrives på omslaget til august og alt etter. Maria's identitet er aldri blitt åpenbart, noe som fører mange til å tro at hun ikke er en ekte person, men et symbol på ensomhet, lyst eller noe lignende. Forslagskreditt: Alden - College Park, MD Som flere store treff på midten av 90-tallet ble denne sangen ikke utgitt som en single i Amerika, som holdt den av Billboard Hot 100-diagrammet, men mente at fans måtte kjøpe hele album for å høre det. Ploy jobbet, med salg av august og alt etter topping 7 millioner. Sangen nådde 5 på Billboard s Airplay chart, som ble integrert i Hot 100 i 1998. Andre hit sanger av æraen som ble utgitt som singler inkluderer Ikke snakk av No Doubt and Torn av Natalie Imbruglia. Duritz ble anklaget for å løfte sha-la-la-la-la fra Van Morrisons klassiske Brown Eyed Girl. som er langt fra sannheten, fortalte han Entertainment Weekly. Jeg har fått mye av denne flacken, sa han. Jeg kastet en sha la la inn som en spøk på posten. Den neste tingen jeg vet Im den andre komme til Belfast Cowboy et Morrison kallenavn. Jeg forstår det ikke. Jeg kan se hvor jeg lærte av hans sang. Men alle disse andre forfattere hopper på det som et enkelt referansepunkt. Kommentarer: 59 Jeg har alltid tenkt på Mr. Jones som den uhyggelige typen. du kjenner den ene som er en beste venn og har det du vil kalle de beste intensjoner, men hjelper eller tillater deg å bli villedet rett. Obidisk har den en åndelig eller metafysisk følelse med teksten Mr. Jones og jeg stirrer inn i fremtiden og forteller hverandre eventyr. For det meste er det som den gode reisemannen på gud og Ricky Nelson-betydningen jeg tror i en grad. når alle elsker meg, vil jeg aldri være ensom, hva med skal du elske selv nok til å innse at ingen kommer til å være ensom. Hemmelig frykt for alle er å være alene. Det er som sangen glyserin fra samme tidsperiode med busk. Vi lever i et hjul hvor alle stjeler når du innser det som jordbærfelt. Rett Ingenting å bli hengt om riktig Levende er lett med øynene halvt lukket, misforstå alt du ser. Det blir vanskelig å være noen, men alt går ut. John Doe - Tulsa, Ok Vet noen om back-up sangere som kan bli hørt i den siste halvdelen av sangen Great arrangement av deres vokal. En tidløs sang. Bocknobby - Toronto, On La meg forord denne kommentaren med følgende erklæring: Jeg forstår at dette ikke var meningen som forfatteren foreslo, det er bare hvordan sangen snakker til meg. Når det er sagt, her går ingenting. Jeg har nylig søkt etter tro, og anerkjenner at min egen tro er svakt holdt i beste fall. Jeg prøver desperat å finne sannhet, men blir stadig distrahert av mine verdslige begjær, og selv om jeg ofte føler at Herren taler til meg, i min arroganse, prøver jeg å ta æren for Hans herlighet. Denne sangen føles som den historien til meg. Jeg satt i en bar som hadde en drink og lust etter en kvinne, når Jesu ånd (Mr. Jones) begynner å snakke med hjertet av en kvinne ved navn Maria (Mary). Hun begynner å danse som Mr. Jones far (Gud) spiller musikk (gitar) for henne, og jeg gjenkjenner plutselig hvor åndelig vakker hun er - og jeg ønsker at jeg kunne være så vakker. Så jeg sliter med stillheten i mitt eget sinn (fraværet av den hellige ånd i mitt liv) gjennom metaforisk natt til daggry (oppfatningen at jeg trenger Kristus i mitt liv). Så jeg ber Maria om å fortsette å danse for meg, slik at jeg kan lære å etterligne hennes gledelige forlatelse i Herren - og be Jesus om å gi meg flasken (fyll meg med Den Hellige Ånd). Jeg ber Gud om å tro på meg, fordi jeg gjenkjenner at jeg ikke virkelig tror på noe (selv inkludert), og jeg vil være noen som tror. Jesus og jeg går sammen og snakker om de tingene jeg tror jeg tror (eventyr), og vi stirrer på de vakre kvinnene, Han i deres ånder, jeg i deres kropper. Min instinkt forteller meg at de ser på Ham, men min arroganse sier nei, nei, de ser på meg. Jeg stirrer inn i lysene som kommer inn fra to forskjellige retninger (de fysiske lysene til verdslige ting og Guds sannhets åndelige lys), jeg vet at når alle elsker deg (Kristus), vil ingen noensinne være ensom igjen. Jeg maler bildet av livet mitt, jeg maler meg i blått (tristhet) og rødt (vrede) og svart (mørke, onde potensialer) og grått (potensielt for godt, feilaktig av min syndige natur). Jeg vet at alle disse tingene er nødvendige for min vekst i livet, og er derfor meningsfylt og vakkert, men grått (mitt potensial for godt) er min favoritt aspekt av meg selv. Jeg vet at hvis jeg skal stå foran folk og snakke, vil jeg være et symbol for dem, men jeg er ikke i stand til å gjøre det som er riktig. Hvis jeg kunne, ville jeg finne noen som var i stand til å se skjønnheten i skapelsen gjennom virkelighets kaos og lære av dem (som en Picasso), hvis jeg kunne gjøre det jeg ville stå opp foran Gud og alle og spille det gitar, mens du fortsatt husker min egen ufullkommenhet. Jesus og jeg, se på livet i fremtiden, vi stirrer på de vakre kvinnene (samme som ovenfor) og jeg prøver igjen å ta æren for Hans herlighet. Jeg står foran folkemengden (i spotlighten), jeg vet endelig hvordan jeg skal snakke riktig (min grå gitar), men jeg feiler igjen fordi jeg prøver å ta æren igjen ved å si at når alle elsker meg, vil jeg aldri bli ensom jeg vil aldri være ensom, jeg blir aldri ensom Jo mer jeg prøver å overbevise meg selv om at jeg vil være den som gjør meg glad, jo mer blir jeg klar over at det bare kommer gjennom Gud. Jeg ønsker desperat å snakke sannheten med sann autoritet (som en løve), det ser ut til at alle rundt meg er fornøyd med å passere som katter (bare myndighetens utseende), vi ønsker alle å være gode - det er i vår natur å søke storhet - men vi har alle forskjellige grunner (noen til å hjelpe seg selv, noen til å hjelpe andre, noen til å tjene Gud). Jeg ber om igjen Gud om å tro på meg, fordi jeg fortsatt ikke virkelig tror på Kristi frihet (som det fremgår av min fortsatte mangel på å gi ham æren til mine velsignelser), og jeg vil være noen som folk kan tro på. Jesus og jeg går gjennom bariens skitne gater sammen, vi stirrer fortsatt på de vakre kvinnene, men nå ser jeg endelig at de er perfekte for Kristus, og jeg vet at det må være noen som er rett for meg. Jeg vil være en historieforteller som berører folks liv (som Bob Dylan), Kristus ønsker at han var noen litt mer funky (så mange mennesker forestiller Kristus som opptatt, men han går med oss selv gjennom livets barrierer), forteller Gud Han (ah, sønn) at han er så fin som den blir, fordi alle elsker ham. Kristus og jeg ser på videoen av livet mitt sammen, når jeg ser på det med ham, vil jeg kunne se rett inn i mine egne øyne og stirre tilbake uten å bli skikket. Vi ønsker alle å være gode - vi vet bare ikke hvordan vi skal få det, eller til og med hvorfor vi vil ha det, men når jeg blir som Kristus, og alle elsker meg, er jeg endelig så glad som jeg kan være. Jesus og jeg skulle bli store stjerner. Jeg håper denne tolkningen ikke fornærmer noen - jeg har ikke til hensikt det. Jeg håper at hvis du søker som jeg er at denne sangen snakker til deg så dypt som det gjorde for meg og hjelper deg på reisen din. Keith - Goose Creek, Sc Ive har alltid sett denne sangen som en dypere mening, og at forfatteren avskyer det som er litt nedslående. Uansett, tror jeg ikke kunstnerne tar er nødvendigvis noe mer gyldig enn en lyttere, så jeg gir meg ta: Sangen er for det meste enkel, bare om aspirasjon, og innse at livet er mer enn profesjonell suksess. Men jeg får også den stemningen som han kommenterer på Gud via Mr. Jones. Jeg kan ikke plukke ut hvorfor, det er bare hvordan jeg tolker det. Kyle - St. Louis, Il um. maria er et spansk navn. flamenco dans er spansk. så hvis maria alltid er i sangene deres, hvorfor ikke gi henne navnet på danseren. og hans far spiller gitaren er Adams venner far som spiller mens de drakk. Duhhhh Liv - Long Island, Ny Flott sang. Dette hele albumet er flott. Jeg kom først inn i krager rundt 1996. Mange år før hadde jeg tatt et par gitar leksjoner, men jeg har aldri satt fast med det. Jeg plukket opp gitaren igjen om sommeren 96 og en sang jeg ville høre mye var Mr Jones. Jeg skjønner at det hadde blitt løslatt 3 år tidligere, men fordi jeg var nå tilbake til å spille gitar, la jeg merke til det hver gang det kom på radioen. Jeg elsket rythm av denne sangen. Ved det fallet hadde jeg lært akkordene. Dette var en av bare noen få sanger jeg noensinne hadde lært bare ved å lytte til den. Når jeg lærte akkordene, er rythm det jeg hadde praktisert mest. Jeg har nå sett leksjoner for denne sangen på internett, og ofte spiller de den på en akustisk gitar. Denne sangen høres bra ut på akustisk, men det høres best ut når det spilles som det er på albumet med en elektrisk gitar ved hjelp av en ren tone. Dette er en av de beste sangene på 90-tallet. Hva et bra album også. Brian - Boston, Ma Vet ikke om dette allerede er lagt ut, men kvotNew Amsterdamquot er nå kalt quotInternational Sports Clubquot og ligger på 1000 Columbus Avenue (Intersection with Taylor Street) i San Francisco. CA. Tilsynelatende gjør de en flott happy hour med billig øl. Sittende i Adam Duritzs sete er valgfritt. Gazza - Buenos Aires, Argentina Folk, et spørsmål om setningen: quotShe danser mens faren spiller gitar. quot - Hvem far snakker de om Wasnt det skulle være quother fatherquot Først trodde jeg Flamenco danseren kunne være sønn av dette quothis fatherquot, men da ville ikke Jones være å snakke med en fyr, akkurat så flamenco danseren er en jente (også på grunn av thequotShe danser mens ..). Kan noen hjelpe meg å forstå hvis far er sangen snakker om Mr Jones far. Heloisa Argentina - Crdoba, Argentina Gud denne sangen blir veldig gammel veldig fort Clay - Henagar, Al Jeg trodde Mr. Jones var en drink i sangen. Xavier - Schenectady, Ny Vel, uansett hva du velger, navnet, Mr. Jones er et vanlig navn - ingen. Et vanlig navn vil i noen tilfeller bli endret når en person oppnår berømmelse og musikk selv omdanner noen ganger navnet når mannen blir en berømt musiker. Noen ganger holder musikken sitt eget navn, men ganske ofte endres det etter at heshe oppnår berømmelse. Eller sjelden er hvert enkelt bandmedlems navn kjent. For eksempel kjenner vi gruppen som spilte sangen som quotCounting Crowsquot, men jeg kunne fortsatt ikke fortelle deg hvert indivalt bandmedlems navn. - Håper det hjelper. Tchad - Wilmington, De For lengst trodde jeg at Mr. Jones var en metafor for ensomhet. Fortsatt en god sang Brad - Topeka, Ks Heres, en blogg om New Amsterdam-funksjonene i sangen: frazing. wordpress20081217google-streeview Fraser - Stirling, Storbritannia Jeg synes det er klart at denne sangen handler om tiden når du tror at hvis du ville være rik andor berømt, ville du få alt i livet hva du ønsker. Alle som hevder å være av Counting Crows fan, vet at sangeren snart oppdaget at dette ikke var tilfelle. Det er derfor, i live versjoner, endres tekstene hver gang, avskrekk på hans humørstat. Jan - Antwerpen, - Jeg er litt bummed ut at Mr. Jones bare er en venn han ble full i med en bar. Jeg trodde alltid at Jones var en smart euphamisme for misunnelse og begjær som i Jones for noe eller å holde følge med Jones. I Jr. High School hadde jeg en venn som jeg ville smitte av og røyke sigaretter med, og han ville alltid si Im Jonesn for en røykmann Im Mr. Jones Today. For å svare på et annet innlegg, er det flere gode sanger om heroin selv om dette ikke er en. Dead Flowers by the Stones er min favoritt, men CCKMP av Steve Earle, White Freight Liner av Townes Van Zandt og The Needle, og Skaden utført av Neil Young er noen andre. Steve - Charlotte, Sc Maria er til Adam Duritz som Mary er Bruce Springsteen. Ekristheh - Halath, United States Stuart, jeg kjenner ikke Nazareth-sangen du refererte til, så det er mulig at linjene Så du vil være en rocknroll-stjerne Bare hør nå til hva jeg sier Få deg en elektrisk gitar og ta litt tid og lære å spill vises i det, men de linjene er fra sangen, så du vil være en rock and roll star av Byrds. Det var mulig at Nazareth siterte sangen. Michael - Pittsburgh, Pa ok, så hvordan kan denne sangen være om en ting dong hei Jesus, det er bare rart, jeg har kjent denne sangen for alltid, og måten jeg tolker er dette: en fyr har en venn det er kewler enn han, og de begge Vil du være kjent og få jentene, jeg vet at det er flere måter en sang kan tolkes på, men seriøst, en penis Sierra - Grand Forks, Nd, møtte jeg faktisk Marty Jones mens han skrev en tidsskriftartikkel om søket etter Maria. Han var en veldig kul fyr som forteller bakgrunnen til Mr. Jones i historien: 801mag. orgcsContentServerchildpagename801Mag2FJRNContentC2FArticleDetailcJRNContentCp1165270039399pagenameJRN2F801Wrappercid1175372067481 Steve - New York, Ny Stemmen til Counting Crows leder vokalist Adam Duritz er et fantastisk instrument. Mr. Jones introduserte musikkfans til Duritz fantastiske anlegg ved fortellinger i sammenheng med en sang. Bare prøv å synge sammen på Mr. Jones, og når du er ferdig med å gispe pusten, skjønner du hvor fenomenal denne ytelsen er. Bertrand - Paris, Frankrike Ive har nettopp registrert seg for å protestere mot en kommentar som er skrevet ovenfor: En sang trenger ikke å være komplisert for å være god. Bare se på Rick Nelsons Garden Party. Enkel og ren, men flippin flott rock n roll. - Tony, Boston, MA Forfatterens poeng var å si hvordan det ikke må være en dypere betydning for en sang for å gjøre det bra (som jeg er enig med, jeg liker meningsfulle tekster), men dessverre fungerer ikke hagenes eksempel - Hageseksjonen er full av skjulte betydninger. Det handler om hvordan desillusjonert Rick Nelson var da han spilte på en konsert, og ingen var interessert i sitt nye materiale, det er ikke egentlig å gå til en hagefest i det hele tatt. Det er fullpakket med metaforer og referanser. Men tilbake til Mr. Jones, elsker den sangen , en verdensomspennende hit, jeg hørte det en gang i klubber i Spania da jeg bodde der, og det var 2001-2005. Kan ikke tro ppl trodde det handlet om penis, jeg forstår ikke hvordan det ville fungere Charlie - Durham, England Denne sangen ble ikke slettet fordi mange mennesker fortsatt elsker denne sangen jeg vet jeg gjør, jeg ble reist av Counting Crows. Natalie - Chiago, Il Jeg vet ikke om deg folk, men jeg liker denne sangen. J - Jackson, Ga Jeg kan ikke tro at sangen ikke er om hans (slettet). Jeg har seriøst tenkt det for de siste 13 årene. Cory - Morden, Canada Selv om det handler om Marty Jones i denne sangen, er Bob Dylans Mr Jones ryktet for å være Brian Jones fra Rolling Stones Ty - Indianapolis, In Hvis du lytter til versjonen på Across A Wire - Live in New York album, sangen starter med teksten Så du vil være en rocknroll-stjerne Bare hør nå til hva jeg sier Få deg en elektrisk gitar og ta litt tid og lær å spille. Disse teksten lånes direkte fra Nazareth sang-telegram. Stuart - Liverpool. England Alle går på om Maria er en ekte person, men Adam Duritz sier ganske klart at Shes ikke Shes bare ment å representere jenter. Men hun vokser opp i massevis av sanger, og teksten på albumet er til sangen August og Everything After som bare blir spilt live. Nicole xx Nicole - Derby, England, denne sangen er så søt, og tekstene er stumme, så slutte å prøve å tolke dem. Kayla - Cary, Nc Denne sangen er også sunget av Skjult i vanlig visning, men det er ikke i noen av sine CDer som de har gjort. Stephanie - Moreno Valley, Ca Dette er bare en av de gode sangene som alltid vil bli tatt ut av konteksten. Adam Duritz skrev denne sangen som et minne om en morsom samtale han og hans venn, Marty (Mr.) Jones, hadde en gang i baren. Så enkelt som det. Ingenting mer, ingenting mindre. En sang trenger ikke å være komplisert for å være god. Bare se på Rick Nelsons Garden Party. Enkel og ren, men flippin flott rock n roll. Tony - Boston, Ma For å sette dette rett, er ideen å få mange sønner og venner eller hva som helst ved å bli kjent, som å være i et rock band eller noe. Flott sang med flotte tekster, lett å spille på bandet. Jo-c - Lima, Peru Jeg tror denne gjentatte heroinkommentaren er en prank. Det vises i kommentarfeltet til nesten alle sanger jeg har undersøkt på Songfacts. Hvis noen skulle legge inn sangfakta for Veni, Creator Spiritus eller søster Janet Meads The Lords Prayer, ville noen være sikker på å kommentere Helt en heroin sang. I hvert fall er det slik det virker for meg. Ekristheh - Halath, United States Jeg anbefaler at alle som liker musikken sang av Adam og støttet av de vakre tempraments av bandet selv, er best hørt gjennom Across A Wire - Live i New York City. Som Adam sa best mellom sanger, spilte noen av disse elektriske sangene fordi de har forandret seg så mye, og fordi jeg tror vi virkelig vet hvordan de skal spille dem nå. Så hvis du vil høre betydningen av sangene du elsker (spesielt Mr Jones), innhyller albumet så mye av den nåværende intensjonen. Du kan faktisk føle at stemmen hans skjelver med følelser og dypere med følelse, det kan bare være min fantasi, men jeg kan faktisk høre alt de virkelig vil si. Jeg vil gjerne se mange flere album som denne. Med hensyn til Mr Jones, hvorfor ville du sette en sang til forvirring ved å forklare det gjennom ham å navngi sin pikk eller tildele stor kreativitet til narkotika, la det være hva det er og finne skjønnhet i bildene som det skaper. På slutten av dagen tror jeg tolkningen sier mer om personen som tolker den enn den personen som sang det egentlig er. Lisa - Perth, Australia Jeg trodde alltid sangen handlet om hans penis. Cherie - Ny, Ny, jeg er enig med den som sa at dette er en av de sangene som er gode fordi du kan sette deg selv og dine erfaringer inn i sangen. Jeg må si at å si at denne sangen handler om heroin er litt av en strekk - spesielt fordi det er knapt noen bevis i sangen for å støtte den. Jo, det snakker om gitaren hans, men det er den eneste forbindelsen jeg kan gjøre mellom argumentet ditt og sangen. Beth - Livonia, Mi Flott sang med flotte tekster Min favoritt. Jeg skal male bildet mitt, male meg i blått og rødt og svart og grått. Alle de vakre farger er veldig veldig meningsfulle. Dan - Columbia, Md Funny, denne sangen får meg til å tenke på en god god venn av meg når vi var yngre. På det tidspunktet begynte vi virkelig å lytte til det, mange av tekstene peker på vårt virkelige liv. De fire første linjene peker på min blonde kjæreste og den svarte hårde jenta min venn, som også var danser. Og linjen Hun danser mens faren spiller gitar, får oss også til å tenke på at det var familie i virksomheten i kort tid. Jeg kunne virkelig komme inn, men det er en flott sang som definitivt vil være min favoritt for en stund. John - Cleveland, Tn Denne sangen er veldig dyp for meg. Det minner meg om hvordan jeg følte da min jente og jeg brøt opp, samtidig lot også onklerpiken forlate ham. Vi begge bare hang ut sammen å bli full og høyt snakker om våre kvinner. Denne sangen handler om to gutter som føler seg alene og bare trenger noen til å bry seg om dem. Heldigvis kom onkel og jeg begge tilbake med jentene våre. Denne sangen lar meg se hvor ensom vi kunne ha endt opp. Dante - Her er Kina faktisk en veldig god sang. Mens alle rundt dem hoppet på det kommersielle popgravy-toget, hadde disse gutta gutten til å komme ut med en sang som faktisk hadde betydning for teksten. for dette, applauderer jeg. Matt - Millbrae, Ca Jeg tror at Mr Jones er Duritz alter ego, og når han blir veldig full eller høy eller hva mr. Jones blir utgitt, det er min tolkning for den sangen. Fabian - Nogales, Mexico, sangen virker også som om det kan gå sammen med leken død av en selger. Ben - Weymouth, Ma, jeg forstår hvordan denne sangen skulle være om Adams venn, men jeg har en annen interperitivitet. Jeg vet at det ikke er hva Adam tenkte, men jeg tror det er delvis hvorfor mr. Jonas er en utrolig sang: Eeeverybody kan finne en måte å gjøre denne sangen veldig personlig til seg selv. men lame noen interperatations er, hvis de betyr noe for den personen, så det er det jeg håper dette blir tatt hensyn til Michelle - Montreal, USA Jeg pleide å tro at denne sangen handlet om en skizofren, som ble noen andre da han manglet selvtillit , og til slutt tror alle liker dette alter ego mer enn han. Det er en fantastisk akustisk versjon av dette den skal dø for, bortsett fra at de fjerner min favorittlinje: Mr. Jones og mr, stirrer på videoen når jeg ser på fjernsynet jeg vil se meg, stirrer rett tilbake på meg. Pat - Montreal, Canada jeg vil gjerne vite hvorfor stoffet som rock sanger alltid handler om, er heltinne. Dette handler ikke om heltinne. Jeg tviler sterkt på at det er mange gode sanger om heltinne. Bretagne - Waverly, Ny Jeg møtte Adam Duritiz i 200 da jeg jobbet på en lokal radiostasjon, spurte jeg ham om inspirasjonen til denne sangen og Omaha. Dette har ingenting å gjøre med narkotika. Hvorfor, hvorfor tror alle at Heroin er bassistene for ALL ROCK-sanger. Serriously, når noen noen sier Denne sangen handler om heroin, jeg ignorerer innlegget. Hei du kjenner den sangen, Gratulerer med dagen om Heroin. ja de skrev det om å ta smekk for første gang, du kjenner bursdagen din som og adict. Se hvor dumme det høres Monty - Omaha, Ne, jeg hørte en teori fra noen som trodde at Mr. Jones var et brennevinmerke. så hvis du får teksten litt feil, kan det være Pass meg en flaske Mr. Jones - og senere når han synger Mr. Jones slår opp en samtale med denne svarthårde flamenco danseren, er han full og bare sprøyting. hehe, ville ikke legge for mye vekt inn i den teorien skjønt. Torbjrn - Trondheim, Norge har noen av dere hørt om filmen vakre kvinner. Jeg vet ikke når filmen eller sangen kom ut, men etter at jeg så filmen var jeg overbevist om at den var tilkoblet. for en, baren hvor de hang ut var mr joness. da de satt i den bygningen, snakket de om at mannen var forelsket i jenta og han sa at vi alle vil ha noe som er vakkert. navnet på filmen er vakre kvinner. og jeg vet ikke akkurat hvor New Amsterdam er, men jeg er ganske sikker på at den er oppe i Yankee teritory, slik at kanskje også innstillingen av filmen. Det er flere ting, men jeg har ikke sett filmen på en stund, mens andre ser forbindelsen. Katie - Royston, Ga Duritz erstattet også Dave Lowery of Cracker for Bob Dylan på en annen TV-ytelse. Duritz hadde også en Cracker T-skjorte under denne forestillingen Nick - Arlington Heights, Il, jeg bryr meg ikke om hvem han sier om. Mr. Jones er Lester Bangs. Matt - Durham, Nh Adam vet at hun så på meg. Og jeg gikk og snakket til (og gjør en jævla lur ut av meg selv) med den jeg hadde øye på. Men kanskje hvis jeg hadde vært en rockestjerne. Marty - Eugene, Eller jeg har fått denne kameraten david som tror at Jones Jones-sangen av Counting Crows er et freaking cover for kristen skyld. Jeg håper dette og andre oppføringer på internett og tvpublications vil sette ham rett. GOD SONG og skrevet av Adam Duritz og Counting Crows Rod - Ipswich, Australia Jeg liker ideen om at Mr. Jones er Adams alter ego. Jeg tror at det virkelig viser forskjellen mellom en person som er nykter, og en person som er høy eller full (Mr. Jones). Uansett er det en flott sang som aldri fikk respekten den fortjente. Matt - St. Charles, Mo jeffq som postet den første kommentaren er obviosly forvirret. Jeg vil gjerne vite hvor du hørte at Adam hadde en herdeavhengighet og bøyd av gitaren før forestillinger. vet du hvordan latterlig du høres Katy - Eden Prairie, Mn Dette handler om blysanger Adam Duritz heroinavhengighet. Mr. Jones er hans forhandler, og motgangene med å være en heroinmisbruker. Bandet ble oppkalt etter en favoritt tidsfordriv av hans mens han flyr høyt av heroin teller kråker. Han ville vanligvis bonde sin gitar for narkotikapenger og resten av bandet måtte kjøpe det tilbake før hvert show. Jeffq - Nekoosa, Wi Adam Duritz sa på VH1 Storytellers at sangen ble skrevet da han og en venn lyttet til vennenes far (som var en flamenco gitarist) spille på en bar kalt New Amsterdam. Det var alle disse vakre jentene i baren, og danset til musikken. Mr Jones og Adam drukket og snakket om hvordan de ville ha det nervøse å snakke med disse kvinnene hvis de var berømte. De fortsetter å drømme om hvordan alle problemene deres ville bli løst hvis de var berømte. Jeremy - Gonzales, La kan være det han vil være, men er redd for å prøve Jaffa - Auckland, New Zealand Jones kan bety en lidenskap, preoccupation, avhengighet eller et begjær. Mr. Jones er sangerne alt-ego. Hvem krever berømmelse som gir det, vil gi ham kjærlighet og lykke. Sangeren er usikker på hvordan folk ser ham, ser de den virkelige han eller berømmelsen. Ser jeg på deg, tror jeg ikke. Ser på meg. Takk til Bill for å forklare dette til meg, det er en flott sang Karen :-) Karen - Virginia Beach, Va Mr. Jones er ikke inspirert av Mr. Jones i Dylan sangen. Det er om Marty Jones en av Adams venner fra Bay Area. Sjekk noen Crows trykk noensinne for å sikkerhetskopiere dette. Richard - Nederland, Tx Kan Mr. Jones være det som sangeren blir til når han er full. noen sjekker det. Pass me the bottle Mr. Jones. Live Freak - Beirut, Other see more commentsRanking All 69 Counting Crows Songs Counting Crows is my favorite band. So, in celebration of the upcoming release of their new album, Somewhere Under Wonderland Im presenting to you a countdown of all of their original, studio tracks. Im leaving off bootlegs and songs that were never officially released (40 Years, Were Only Love, Barely Out of Tuesday, etc.), songs that appear exclusively on live albums, and covers (including the entire Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation) album). In instances in which the band released more than one studio version of the song, I defaulted to the first version the band released. The criteria for the countdown are wholly subjectivemy preferred picks for lyrics, melody, and personal impact. Note, Im a fan of the entire Crows catalog, so even the songs at the bottom of the list are not ones I actively dislikejust ones I love less, and my purposes here are more to have fun reflecting on the bands music than to produce a definitive list. Feel free to debate the order amongst yourselves and let me know if I missed any songs in the comments section. 69. New Frontier Hard Candy In the right moment, I can find this song sort of catchy but the synth pop vibe and largely nonsensical lyrics dont do much to inspire a devoted Counting Crows fan. From what I can gather its a song about failure to communicatea message that the song, itself, fails to communicate all that effectively, and that sounds strangely dated for a post-eighties band. 68. All My Friends This Desert Life Counting Crows offers up its share of songs about feelings of isolation, abandonment, and otherness, and often does so in creative, thought-provoking ways. This song, in which Adam Duritz intones, all my friends and lovers leave me alone to try to have a little fun, feels altogether too trueabout a narrator who is not just depressed, but too depressing for anyone to have a good time around. 67. Cowboys Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings A big part of why Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings rates as my overall least favorite Counting Crows album is because the impassioned noise that seems to bleed from one song to another on the first half of the albumnot bad if youre in the right mood for it, but also not the sound that I turn to Counting Crows to hear. This song seems to have appreciable political implicationspossibly about a certain president being too much of a cowboy in office it may also be more about self-flagellation. In either case, I can appreciate the emotional intensity of the song, but its far from my favorite to listen to. 66. Anyone But You Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings Theres a dreamy, meditative quality to this song that captures the stunted funk of post-relationship wallowing, and I reckon the song works on that level, but otherwise it feels as though the song says a bit too little to really say much of anything meaningful at all. 65. Good Time Hard Candy This one comes across as a song about awkward attempts at first moves in between more meaningful relationships. I dig the I really love those red-haired girls, Im just another boy from Texas refrain at the end of the song, but its otherwise kind of a snooze, a momentum killer, and a relative weak spot in the early stages of an otherwise largely underrated Hard Candy album. 64. Children in Bloom Recovering the Satellites This is one of the more off-kilter tracks on Recovering . vacillating between the cool, mellow repetition of I gottta get out on my own and shouting eccentricities. It sounds like a coming of age song andor one about disillusionment. It never quite connected for me, though the outro is cool and memorable. 63. Hanging Tree Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings Theres an unstable edge to this song that I find appealingdivergent from the more pensive, self-reflective side the band usually embraces, more at home among, but also a bit more aggressively unpredictable than the rough-edged Saturday night half of this album. With the arguable exception of the chorus, the song isnt exactly catchy or pleasant to listen to as interesting as the lyrics and composition are, that docks it a few places in the countdown. 62. Why Should You Come When I Call Hard Candy This song is catchy in a cheesy sort of way, not much like other tracks from the Crows catalog, but still aurally pleasing almost in spite of itself with the chorus of ba-ba-ba-ba-bas that easily could have been annoying and yet register for me as almost impossible not to sing along with. The content of the song is comparably dubiousostensibly about an insomniac making the rounds trying to set up late night rendezvous with lovers, ex-girlfriends, and whoever else probably ought to know better. 61. Goodnight LA Hard Candy While I dont actively dislike this song, I cant help feeling that it comes across as a caricature of better songs in the Counting Crows catalog. The refrain of What brings me down now is love, cause I can never get enough feels forced rather than earned in this tepid visit to melancholia. 60. Butterfly in Reverse Hard Candy Theres a simple, old-time feel to this song, adorned with piano keys and strings. Its one of the prettier Crows songs and manages to capture nostalgia without slipping into a forlorn place, but rather focusing on more innocent memories and capturing them as they once were. 59. Insignificant Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings This song has a lot of the jumping-off-the-top-of-a-building imagery that pervades other Crows songs, but rather than melancholy or particularly lost, Duritzs narrator sounds indignant and righteously pissed off to have been rendered insignificant. Its a song of defying rejection in favor of achieving his own significance. 58. Black and Blue Hard Candy A pretty melody and suicidal imagery intertwine for a song thats a little melodramatic and colorless (no pun intended) for my tastes, but nonetheless pretty in its own way. In a sense, my feelings for this song are similar to Goodnight LAnot that its a bad song, just that the band has done the essentially the same thing so much better. 57. American Girls Hard Candy I probably underrate this song a bit, not because I dont like it, but because on an album with so many really good songs, this largely uninspired pop ditty was the first singleonly to be followed a cutesy reimagining of the Big Yellow Taxi cover that started as a delightful hidden track at the end of the album, and ended up with Vanessa Carlton singing backup for a single that overshadowed far better original music. Back to American Girls, it has its catchy bits, but otherwise feels simultaneously conspicuously lightweight and weirdly sentimental in the you make me cry refrain. It feels like a knock off of the tradition of great American rock songs about women, but never quite finds its own voice. 56. Four Days This Desert Life This is a song of separationprobably a long distance romance, for which four days and nights feels like an interminably long period of time to wait to see someone again. As such, the song encapsulates a sense of young, impatient love, making marks on a wall like a prisoner. Its a beautiful, off-beat piece of music. 55. Millers Angels Recovering the Satellites Down trodden, mystified, with a hint of anger this song is a meditation on watching for angels that may not be so benevolent. Its a song of victimhood without a hint of recovery. I like it as a mood piece, and particularly like the contrast when it briefly transitions to more of a rock song. That said its not exactly a fun or entirely coherent listening experience. 54. Another Horsedreamers Blues Recovering the Satellites This song was purportedly written in response to Sam Shepards Geography of a Horsedreamer . about a woman who can predict which horse will win races and is subject to all manner of manipulation and mistreatment as a result. However literal that translation may be, the song is a simultaneously lovely and ugly depiction of a woman in crisis, trying to do whats right and escaping into a world of pill-induced sleep to escape from it all. 53. I Wish I Was a Girl This Desert Life Errant use of the subjunctive aside, this is a pretty profound little song about dreams of jumping to your death, and wishing people would trust what you say. I love the pleading to Elizabeth, which reads distinctly as a series of long distance phone calls. Its a both a song of resignation and absurdist speculation about what it would be like to be the opposite genderthough the band only addresses that theme explicitly in the title and its iteration in each chorus. I think that the popular interpretation of this song as Adam saying that women only trust other women and wont listen to men is a little too simplistic, but dont necessarily have a much better one. 52. Le Ballet DOr Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings Despite its relatively low ranking, this track represents one of my favorite qualities about Crows songs, introducing an edgy, mysterious, almost macabre sound at an unexpected point in the mostly mellow Sunday morning half of the album. The song earns bonus points for the liner notes bit, crediting Brian Deck for climbing inside a piano and playing it like a harp to provide the instrumentation for the end of the song. 51. You Cant Count On Me Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings Theres an interesting dissonance between music and lyrics on this one, particularly in the chorus which sounds so warm and inviting and yet is all about the narrator affirming that he shouldnt be counted on. Its a song about someone who toys with people and openly admits he isnt reliableand yet seems all the more magnetic for the admission. Its one of the catchier and certainly the most radio-friendly of the tracks from the Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings album. 50. Carriage Hard Candy I went to my first Counting Crows show in the autumn of 2005, and the band played a number of songs that would be featured on Hard Candy when it was released the following summer. This particular song may always stand out for me more based on the story behind itas Duritz explained it at the showthan the song itself which, while contemplative and laced with smart lyric choices, nonetheless feels a bit plodding and as though it never truly reaches its climax. Adam told the story of an unexpected pregnancy and the couple contemplating an abortion, deciding against it, only for the would-be mother to have a miscarriage. I particularly appreciated Duritzs rejection of the audiences cheers about deciding against the abortion he refused to take a side on the issue, placing it as a personal decision and not a moral stand. The recounting of the story offered a unique glance behind the curtain of another human beings life. 49. Washington Square Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings The opening lines of this song, narrating the choice to sell a piano, sets a tone of forlorn listlessness to key off the Sunday Morning half of this album. The song has been interpreted as one about going home (the traveling homeward to Washington Square lyric toward the end seems to support this reading), but given the itinerant motif and distance from family, I think its more about trying to forge a new home far away from a real home in the wake of major life changes. 48. Daylight Fading Recovering The Satellites Historically, I discounted this song for its seemingly out place countrified, laid back leanings on an otherwise more openly emotionally intense album. The track grew on me over the years, though. Melodically, its not as aggressively sad or angry as others on Recovering . but on further reflection, it feels more like a song of numbnesscoping with lack of meaning and inability to create, despite friends reassurances that everybody loves you and everybody cares. Its a song of quiet resignation and best attempts at patience, waiting for an emotion to pass so the narrator can get on with his life. 47. Speedway This Desert Life One of the sentiments I feel Counting Crows nails best in songs like this one is not so much emotional outbursts or agony as the sense of numbness and inaction that can come after breakups and other emotional trauma. The narrator spends so much of this song thinking about what he ought to do that it underscores how little he has actually done. 46. Ghost Train August and Everything After This song does a sensational job of synergizing the more literal interpretation of a ghostly, ethereal train with the metaphorical interpretation of looking at all of these past relationships and lovers as ghoststhe remnants and memories of which never go away entirely. The repetition of the Hey, how do you do first meeting is perfectly haunting on this off beat track. 45. Sundays Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings On an album of rock and roll, followed by melancholy reflection, this song marks a good balancing point, upbeat, fast, intricate, and conversationalthe narrator denied, rejected, or dumped depending on your reading of it. Given how fundamentally different they are from the rest of the song, the choruses either make or completely fail the song, depending on your interpretation. Im partial to the verses, myself. 44. Perfect Blue Buildings August and Everything After This song exists in the space between depression and catatonia, looking at everything as mundane to the point that it both runs together and becomes vaguely fantasticala perfect blue building, a green apple seamore visions from a painting than pieces of the world that the narrator could ever access himself. The song is alternately a little plodding and a little tidy for my tastes, but the line about getting myself a little oblivion still resonates with me after all these years. 43. 1492 Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings This hard rock anthem of a song is wholly different from anything else in the Counting Crows catalog, and offers a jaw-dropping intro to the Saturday nights half of the Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings album. Vocal tapestries of sex and violence flash across a back drop of a ripping electric guitar. I didnt much care for this track when I first heard it, but it grew on me upon repeat listeningsparticularly the desperation of the bridge as Duritz swells up to scream I am the king of everything, I am the king of nothing. 42. Time and Time Again August and Everything After I really liked Time and Time Again when I first heard August and Everything After and I still think its a good song, but ultimately more of a role player track on a great album than a stand out songs in its own right. It captures a lot of the angst that recurs and is arguably improved upon in the Counting Crows catalog, but does also paint some unique, impressive imagesthe idea of watching someone in reverse to see them coming home rather than leaving, and the idea of laying waste to a whole city and riding out into the desert. 41. Shallow Days August and Everything After (Deluxe Edition) Theres something simple and understated about this early demo that brings a smile to my face on every listen. Its ostensibly a love song about Adam and a girl named Mary Jane, more likely an extended metaphor for his relationship with weed. In the end, I prefer to focus on the sentiment of small people squeezing out a good life, who need a little good time. 40. Im Not Sleeping Recovering the Satellites There are times when this band teeters on the edge of artistry and just having too much go on at once. This is among the songs that walks that line, and while it doesnt land as one my favorites, I do feel that the overall product is successful in selling a narrators desperation and anger. Its difficult to tell if the ubiquitous she is a lover, the narrators mother, a friend, or more of a conceptlike his conscience or his paranoia. Regardless, the song works best on its explosions, which the shifts in dynamics set up beautifully, and Im particularly fond of the closing sequence, led off with a sample of Rain, Rain Go Away. 39. Monkey Recovering the Satellites This is probably the most light hearted track on the Crows darkest album. While doom, gloom, and hints of desperation weave together for an intoxicating collection of music, this songs includes the whimsical confession, Im all messed up, thats nothing new, which communicates a sensation of someone who has come to terms with his otherness and life problems just the same, its a mostly upbeat melody and comes across as at least an approximation of a love song, questioning where the narrators monkey has been all his life. 38. High Life This Desert Life This is, in a sense, the title track of its albumthe only song to explicitly reference this desert life. Its a fascinating bit of a dreamscape, navigating differences and overlaps between the desert and the big city, and the sense of waiting for someone and hoping shell stick around. The song has a distinctive sound and captures loneliness in an almost playful way. Its long and has an ethereal sound and, thus, I think it tends to get overlooked on this album, but its a real forgotten gem. 37. If I Could Give All My Love (Richard Manuel Is dead) Hard Candy This song is about Adam Duritzs revelation of the impermanence of all things, people, and relationships upon learning Richard Manuel from The Band had passed. I love the recurring guitar riff in this song, and will always feel connected to it for becoming acquainted with the track during a summer crush and envisioning it as more of a love song than an exploration of why its hard to love anyone at all. 36. Love and Addiction August and Everything After (Deluxe Edition) This early demo never made it onto a Counting Crows disc until the re-release of August and Everything After in 2007. Based on a few critical turns, I preferred the bootleg recordings floating around the interwebs to this album version. Just the same its a fun courtship song about the intersection of affection and obsession, with a whole lot of youthful ambition woven in. Its a worthy track that didnt quite fit the vibe of the August album, but that nonetheless stands up on its own. 35. Omaha August and Everything After Duritz wrote this song before ever visiting Omaha, and claims that having written it earned him the key to the city, which he felt pretty awkward about. More so than the city itself, its a piece about leaving a place only to come back to it, and a feeling tread upon. Omaha all but explicitly stands for any number of faceless places in middle America, and conflicting impulses to find a new life and to come back to whats familiar. 34. Accidentally In Love Shrek 2: Motion Picture Sountrack I actually like this song a good bit, but just the same lament that, behind Mr. Jones and A Long December, its probably the song casual listeners most readily identify with Counting Crows. Its not a bad song, but it is a bubble gum pop song that isnt meaningfully representative of much else from the bands catalog. But lets stay positive. As far as Im concerned, (Come on, come on) jump a little higher, (come on, come on) if you feel a little lighter remains one of the purest representations of what new love really feels like. And Ill be darned if this song isnt catchy. 33. Mercury Recovering the Satellites This off-beat, almost bluesy song is an interesting mood piece amongst an otherwise more obviously emotional Recovering the Satellites album. It tells the tale of a mercurial relationship and the narrators willingness to tolerate or embrace all of it. The song is simultaneously conflicted and understated for a pretty intriguing final product. 32. Kid Things This Desert Life Ive never quite understood the fad of leaving several minutes of blank space on a track before giving way to a hidden track on an album. Sure, the surprise of a bonus song is great, but couldnt you just leave it off the liner notes This trend seems to have given way to exclusive tracksas in, exclusive to iTunes download, or exclusive to buying a CD at Target. Or maybe thats just been the case for artists I like. Anywho, for those of us willing to hold down the fast forward button for a minute or so or who were too lazy to get up to change CDs after St. Robinson in His Cadillac Dream, the reward was Kid Thingsa plucky song with country roots in which Duritz implores his homebody love interest to come out and play, extolling the value of immature activities, and their potential to lead to greater things. Its a really fun song that Id probably love even more had it gotten its own track originally, and thus lent itself better to repeat listening. 31. Amy Hit the Atmosphere This Desert Life This is a mood piece in the melancholiest of senses. No, it doesnt carry the tragic weight of On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago or Raining In Baltimore but rather is, in a sense, is even sadder for the lack of energy and the general malaise of the song. This isnt a song of sudden heartbreak, but rather an ongoing one that the narrator has grown resigned to. I remember identifying with this song after long days during my high school careerworn out from early mornings to get to school on time, a heavy load of AP courses and extracurriculars, followed by late nights of homework and pining for a life that was less exhausting and more loving. The particular circumstances may vary, but I suspect weve all been there at one time and in one way or another. 30. Los Angeles Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings In the hyperactive Saturday night half of this album, Id argue that the Crows sound most at home on Los Angelesnot a hard rocker, more of a lazy party song about going out with friends and revisiting a Crows theme of coming to terms with fame and retaining ones humanity. 29. Einstein on the Beach (For an Egg Man) DGC Rarities Volume 1 By Duritzs own description, this was a song the Crows assembled when they were still learning to write pop songs, and he never intended for it to be released in any meaningful setting. Yet it went from a rarities compilation to radio play, and became one of the bands most recognizable tracks from its early years. No, its not the weightiest or more coherent Crows track, but it is the essence of a fun summer song, edging toward deep philosophical thought, but consistently tipping back to its lighter roots. 28. She Dont Want Nobody Near Films About Ghosts This early Counting Crows song never got a formal studio release until their greatest hits album. Like a number of Crows tracks it has an upbeat melody, but dont let that misguide you to thinking its a happy-go-lucky song. Its ostensibly a piece about social anxiety, wrestling with the competing impulses of a desire to be alone and fear of loneliness, all set against classic Crows pop song instrumentation. 27. Walkaways Recovering the Satellites Clocking in at one minute, thirteen seconds, its easy to dismiss this song, but I actually feel its one of the most underrated pieces of the brilliant Satellites album. Down-trodden and defeated, the song at first feels like one about abandonment, and yet takes a turn in the final lines in which Duritz sings that one day, Im gonna stay. But not today. The lyric hints at shared responsibility for lonelinessa culture of one-night stands and short engagements. Just the same, the finish sounds something like hopethat the narrator can foresee an end to that lifestyle amidst his current malaise. 26. On Almost Any Sunday Morning Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings This is the kind of track that its easy to overlook for just how understated it is, but I really dig the quiet depression and desperation inherent to it, reflecting on lonely Sunday mornings with a brand of disillusionment thats especially apparent after a raucous Saturday night. Its one of the clearest, most fully realized tracks of the Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings album. 25. When I Dream of Michelangelo Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings The title of this song is a callback to Angels of the Silences in which dreaming of Michelangelo hints at hidden depths and madness in the narrator. This beautiful ballad with a fundamentally different vibe lingers on that image and explores the space between being an artist and a person of strong opinions, and being torn between that and a plainer, less nuanced life and the love interest that seems to embody that simpler life. The soft, smooth instrumentation paints this inner conflict in a soft light, creating a beautiful song in its own right. 24. Colorblind This Desert Life This song will probably always receive disproportionate attention in the Counting Crows catalog for having been featured in a sexy scene from Cruel Intentions . Of course, its no more fair that I tend discount it because bandwagon fans only recognize it from the movie. All of that said, it is a beautiful piano-driven ballad that at once captures loneliness and a complete willingness on the part of the songs narrator to unfold and release himself to the trusting arms of another. 23. On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings I think of this song a bit like a poor mans Raining In Baltimore. The thing is that Baltimore is a such a good song that even a poor mans version is perfectly worth listening to. Its Counting Crows at the bands most down-trodden and melodramatic with a tragic refrain of the narrator pleading, come back to me. Its haunting. Its beautiful. 22. Baby Im a Big Star Now Rounders: Motion Picture Soundtrack This is a pretty infectious song, released as a hidden track on the vinyl version of This Desert Life and, more prominently on the Rounders soundtrack. It revisits Crows themes of disillusionment and self-loathing, with the catchiest of hooks that suggests an undercurrent of optimism and continuing to try. 21. Come Around Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings I remember listening to this track along a road trip to see my friends for the time in months after I first moved to Baltimore. The song perfectly encapsulates the spirit a reunionthe idea that old friends and family will find a way to come back around to each other, surviving all manner of short-term relationships and other pursuits. Sure, theres an underlying tone of abandonment and heartache to lyrics like, What I know is, shes going. When you know it, its all right. So you put yourself between you and your pride. Just the same, the song has more of the trappings of recovery than misery, and as such functions as an excellent track to close an album. 20. Have You Seen Me Lately Recovering the Satellites Throughout this countdown I refer to the narratora term that my background in writing workshops and literature classrooms has driven into my skull, demanding that the consumer never assume the author speaks for herself. That said, Duritz has been pretty open about the autobiographical nature of Recovering the Satellites (not altogether different from the bands other albums). The dynamic is particularly true of this song, a meditation on exploding from artist to superstar based on the commercial success of August and Everything After . and trying to decipher real relationships from faux ones real identity from public persona. On top of all of that, its a kickass rock song that subverts the expectations set by the songs that immediately surround it. 19. Holiday in Spain Hard Candy This whimsical, but downtrodden piece about a narrator retreating from a stark reality to an exotic location ostensibly caps Hard Candy (excluding the hidden track cover of Big Yellow Taxi). One of the sensations this band and particularly this song captures with pure artistry is the sense of keeping busy, keeping up appearances, and trying to stay cool when all the while you know your life is in shambles. For me, this is a song about attempting to recover, and just the same acknowledging that the flying away to someone new is part of cycle, not an elixir in and of itself. 18. Sullivan Street August and Everything After The debut album from Counting Crows is full of heartbreaking music. This conflicted song is all about the desperation that comes with a relationship falling apartthat uncomfortable period in which youre still together, but know that it will be over before long. From what Ive heard, Duritz wrote the song when he was in the habit of driving a girlfriend home, but the lyrics double up with the sensation of fighting a losing battledoing drivebys past an ex-lovers place with no real reason for doing so, no intention of stopping in. 17. Up All Night Hard Candy To me, this was the sweetest surprise of the Hard Candy album, a song that starts melancholy and lonesome that keys into feel like a late-night adventure, albeit one for which the narrator may still be forlorn. Indeed, Duritz ostensibly sounds as though he cant sleep for his dreams having slipped away. He acknowledges its too late to get high, in the same breath observing that his sleepless night may well give way to a cycle of sleeping through the daylight hours. The song seamlessly weaves together sensations of a partying and sex with disillusionment and disappointment, all against a backdrop of booming piano chords. 16. Hard Candy Hard Candy The title track of its album is all about memoriesstudying old photographs, remembering the best parts of a relationship past. The imagery of a girl standing by the water as a smile begins to curl and the evenings on Long Island when the colors start to fade always grab me when Im listening to this songwe may not all of have quite the same memories, but I reckon every one of us has specific people, signature landscapes, and moments that make us smile and sigh and reflect in all of the happiest and most gut-wrenching ways imaginable. 15. Catapult Recovering the Satellites This opening track is certainly off beat. It starts out with dreamy a quality before a solitary electric guitar chord shakes up the scene, crystallizes the vision, and stirs the listener to wakefulness. The song encapsulates longing, fear of abandonment, self-realization and so many other themes of the album that it functions something like a de facto overture. Ironically, its a song that I think listeners tend to overlook for such a loaded album to follow, but regardless, it is not a track for any serious listener to sleep on. 14. Hanginaround This Desert Life I know plenty of Crows fans tend to look down on this song as lightweight and uninspired. I think the lack of doom and gloom makes this song all the more special to me, thoughdespite the undercurrent of hanging around too long, theres also an unapologetic air about this song. Its not quite a party song, but more so a chill piece about hanging out with friends with nowhere to go, nothing to do, and little interest in changing all of that. Moreover, the song is smarter than folks may give it credit for, recorded using looping techniques that repeat the drum and guitar riff over and over again in a song about hanging around the same place. 13. Round Here August and Everything After The opening flicker of an electric guitar and lyrics about stepping out the front door at the beginning of this song function as an iconic introduction to the Counting Crows catalogthe first track on the groups first studio album. The song proceeds to take listeners along an emotional roller coaster about coming of age and disillusionment. The song most truly comes to life on the positively electric bridge segment about the girl in the car in the parking lot who says man, you should try to take a shot. The song comes full circle with a soft outro for which the instrumentation falls away to leave the narrator all alone, just like he started. 12. Angels of the Silences Recovering the Satellites For me this has always been a song about wanting to believe, and I love the choice for it to be an upbeat rocker, bursting with youthful energy. The sentiment that, all my sins, I said that I would pay for them if I could come back to you, is a perfect encapsulation of bargaining and the desperation to hold onto something thats already gone. Moreover, I appreciate the songs vacillation between bitterness, regret, desire, philosophy, and crises of faithperfectly conflicted and perfectly complete. 11. Miami Hard Candy I love the economy of this song. It, at once, has the mellow easy feel of a vacation song, but just the same, an undercurrent of longing for Duritzs angel who wont return his calls, and the borderline epic feel of a heros journey in the triumphant closing lines about shutting it down in New Orleans. The song also has its double meaning embedded in the title, with Miami purportedly equating to my Amy, a frequent Crows muse, and a brilliant way of showing the way in which a person and a place can be become one in a persons memories. 10. Rain King August and Everything After No doubt, Rain King charts as one of Counting Crows most recognizable songs, and fittingly so. In its original recording, despite bits of doubt and discontent, it nonetheless sounds like a carefree, rocking pop song. Moreover, Duritz has talked about the song in the context of an artists statementa song about being an artist and all the disparate pieces of a life that come together to manifest in the form of self-expression through music and writing. The song also accounts for the intrinsic sense of deserving morethe sensation that the artists work is worth more than hes getting credit for at this point. The closing exclamation of yeah, registers as something akin to Duritzs barbaric yawp. While Im focusing on original recordings, its also worth noting this song as the one the Crows may have reinvented more than any other on the live stage, and used as a portal to cover many, many other songs. 9. Good Night Elisabeth Recovering the Satellites Its difficult for me to separate this song from Rain King, for its most iconic line at the climax of the song. Theres a sparseness to this song that, for me, has always encapsulated loneliness, or perhaps more precisely the feeling of missing a specific person. The song portrays Duritzs lullaby to a lover he lost when he was on the road. The final verse in particular captures him in a phase of simultaneous acceptance and complete denial of his circumstances. Hes accepted he wont be with Elisabeth and readies himself to sleep with someone else, all the while thinking of, waiting for his true love. Its a beautiful, tragic, and very real song. 8. Mrs. Potters Lullaby This Desert Life This elaborate dreamscape of a seven-minute song probably never should have been released as a singlefar too long, thoughtful, and abstract for a top 40 audience. Duritz reportedly wrote the song as an ode to an actress, hence the references to singing to someone on a TV or movie screen and imploring her to come meet him he his framed the song as introducing himself, by way of encapsulating everything going on his mind. Lines like theres a piece of Maria in every song that I sing, speak to the roots of a writerthe people and the concepts that inform everything he does. Moreover, the song somehow manages to connect all of these disparate, abstract vignettes into one epic, greater whole. Its an unforgettable memoir of a song. 7. A Long December Recovering the Satellites Though I tend to think of Counting Crows signature sound as skewing melancholy, a disproportionate number of the bands singles are upbeat pop songs. This is one of the most prominent exceptions, probably the bands second most famous song after Mr. Jones and one of their most melancholy numbers. Its a song about everything going wrong, spending long nights in hospitals at the end of a cruddy year. And, just the same, its a song of remembering better times, like when all at once you look across a crowded room and see the way that light attaches to a girl. Better yet, theres the closing sentiment of getting out to see the ocean, which carries the suggestion of rediscovering the things that used to make the narrator happy. I listened to this track on repeat in my earbuds, walking alone, my very first time setting foot in the Pacific Ocean four years ago. 6. Raining in Baltimore August and Everything After When I first heard August and Everything After at the ripe age of 10, I remember being struck by it. It was tragic, and as such it was beautiful. Before I had experienced any real sense of heartache or loss in my own life, I instinctively embraced this song about being so far away from the person you love that it actively hurts. This song took on another level of meaning for me when I moved to Baltimore, closer to three hundred than three thousand miles from the people I knew and my girlfriend at the time, but nonetheless recognized so many of the sentiments of the song, perhaps on an altogether too literal level. As time has gone by, Ive developed a greater appreciation for a handful of Crows songs that I feel encompass not only sadness, but an additional layer of conflict and redemption. Just the same, the song remains a key teacher in my emotional education and a track that still holds up after all these years. 5. St. Robinson in his Cadillac Dream This Desert Life Excluding the hidden track at the end of the CD, St. Robinson wraps up This Desert Life and certainly fits as a closing numbercomplex, epic, and endlessly narrative. Its a song about dreaming and all the things that get between everyday people and all of the things they want for themselves. The song clicks on a whole new level for me on the devil-may-care FU to normalcy in the closing movements of the song, when Duritz retorts to whoever dare challenge him, there are people who will say that they knew me so well I may not go to heavenI hope you go to hell. The song ends on a delicious slice of Americana, the narrator inviting his lover get into his car, not to head toward any specific destination, but rather just to drive . 4. A Murder of One August and Everything After This is the epic, lovely, desperate, heartbreaking, rise-from-the-ashes finale of Counting Crows first studio album, and it is a masterpiece. The song is often misinterpreted as, in some way, being about homicide, and Duritz may well have been playing with that idea in a song ostensibly about an abusive relationship and urging someone not to waste her life. Just the same the song also seems to be about flock of crowsa murderand all the more interesting for the title suggesting a flock of just one. Like so many of my favorite songs, this one resonates me on a personal level. I remember listening to those gritted-teeth lyrics, Does he tell you when youre sorry Does he tell you when youre wrong as a junior high kid and thinking about the way my father controlled me and tried to tell me what was right or wrong from the perspective his aberrant and misguided sense of morality and prioritization. And I remember thinking of being feathered by moonlight as walking free and even taking flight. Counting Crows is often at its best on deeply conflicted song and this song nails so many emotions around confinement and freedom. Jeg elsker det. 3. Recovering the Satellites Recovering the Satellites For me, this is a song about rediscovering oneself and the realization that time is fleeting. Duritz sings about getting back to basics and staring at the sky in a way that feels very small town to mebut maybe thats my small town upbringing and recollections of my first encounters with this song that inform that interpretation, and the reference to this angel town suggests it might have been written about Los Angeles, where other Crows songs from this era are set. Regardless, theres a sense of inevitable loss and yearning to the song, particularly in my favorite lyric: we only stay in orbit for a moment of time. And youre everybodys satelliteI wish that you were mine. 2. Anna Begins August and Everything After Duritz inked this song in remembrance of a love affair he engaged in, backpacking through Europe in his youth. In my totally subjective opinion, its the most beautiful love song ever written. I can take or leave most of the verses, but each chorus pulls at my heart strings to truly profound effectthe sentiment of falling in love for every minor gesture a woman might make, such as sneezing the idea of lovers understanding each others every nonsense-sleep-talking mumbled syllable. Perhaps the song is a bit melodramatic, but as such it captures young love and infatuation in strikingly earnest ways. 1. Mr. Jones August and Everything After For all of my self-professed modesty and focus cast on the craft of my art as opposed to recognition, I cant deny the impulse to strive toward fame and fortune. The American Dream is engrained in me like so many of my contemporaries and those who came before me, indoctrinated in a culture of self-betterment and boot strapping, and the implicit suggestion that celebrity is the natural and inherently desirable reward of all that hard work. The song is about seeking celebrity without a concrete sense of why youre doing so, and the companion amorphous desires for love and companionship and influence, all couched with in the setting of San Francisco dive bar, making bold claims with a drinking buddy whilst watching a flamenco dancer strut her stuff. Mr. Jones is nothing short of a portrait of a generationa song all about dreams and desires that closes on the sorrowful, unspoken recognition that the narrator may never achieve his lofty goals. Read stories and miscellaneous criticism from Mike Chin at his website and his thoughts on a cappella music at The A Cappella Blog. Follow him on Twitter miketchin. Check out more articles on BuzzFeedRanking All 69 Counting Crows Songs Counting Crows is my favorite band. So, in celebration of the upcoming release of their new album, Somewhere Under Wonderland Im presenting to you a countdown of all of their original, studio tracks. Im leaving off bootlegs and songs that were never officially released (40 Years, Were Only Love, Barely Out of Tuesday, etc.), songs that appear exclusively on live albums, and covers (including the entire Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation) album). In instances in which the band released more than one studio version of the song, I defaulted to the first version the band released. The criteria for the countdown are wholly subjectivemy preferred picks for lyrics, melody, and personal impact. Note, Im a fan of the entire Crows catalog, so even the songs at the bottom of the list are not ones I actively dislikejust ones I love less, and my purposes here are more to have fun reflecting on the bands music than to produce a definitive list. Feel free to debate the order amongst yourselves and let me know if I missed any songs in the comments section. 69. New Frontier Hard Candy In the right moment, I can find this song sort of catchy but the synth pop vibe and largely nonsensical lyrics dont do much to inspire a devoted Counting Crows fan. From what I can gather its a song about failure to communicatea message that the song, itself, fails to communicate all that effectively, and that sounds strangely dated for a post-eighties band. 68. All My Friends This Desert Life Counting Crows offers up its share of songs about feelings of isolation, abandonment, and otherness, and often does so in creative, thought-provoking ways. This song, in which Adam Duritz intones, all my friends and lovers leave me alone to try to have a little fun, feels altogether too trueabout a narrator who is not just depressed, but too depressing for anyone to have a good time around. 67. Cowboys Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings A big part of why Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings rates as my overall least favorite Counting Crows album is because the impassioned noise that seems to bleed from one song to another on the first half of the albumnot bad if youre in the right mood for it, but also not the sound that I turn to Counting Crows to hear. This song seems to have appreciable political implicationspossibly about a certain president being too much of a cowboy in office it may also be more about self-flagellation. In either case, I can appreciate the emotional intensity of the song, but its far from my favorite to listen to. 66. Anyone But You Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings Theres a dreamy, meditative quality to this song that captures the stunted funk of post-relationship wallowing, and I reckon the song works on that level, but otherwise it feels as though the song says a bit too little to really say much of anything meaningful at all. 65. Good Time Hard Candy This one comes across as a song about awkward attempts at first moves in between more meaningful relationships. I dig the I really love those red-haired girls, Im just another boy from Texas refrain at the end of the song, but its otherwise kind of a snooze, a momentum killer, and a relative weak spot in the early stages of an otherwise largely underrated Hard Candy album. 64. Children in Bloom Recovering the Satellites This is one of the more off-kilter tracks on Recovering . vacillating between the cool, mellow repetition of I gottta get out on my own and shouting eccentricities. It sounds like a coming of age song andor one about disillusionment. It never quite connected for me, though the outro is cool and memorable. 63. Hanging Tree Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings Theres an unstable edge to this song that I find appealingdivergent from the more pensive, self-reflective side the band usually embraces, more at home among, but also a bit more aggressively unpredictable than the rough-edged Saturday night half of this album. With the arguable exception of the chorus, the song isnt exactly catchy or pleasant to listen to as interesting as the lyrics and composition are, that docks it a few places in the countdown. 62. Why Should You Come When I Call Hard Candy This song is catchy in a cheesy sort of way, not much like other tracks from the Crows catalog, but still aurally pleasing almost in spite of itself with the chorus of ba-ba-ba-ba-bas that easily could have been annoying and yet register for me as almost impossible not to sing along with. The content of the song is comparably dubiousostensibly about an insomniac making the rounds trying to set up late night rendezvous with lovers, ex-girlfriends, and whoever else probably ought to know better. 61. Goodnight LA Hard Candy While I dont actively dislike this song, I cant help feeling that it comes across as a caricature of better songs in the Counting Crows catalog. The refrain of What brings me down now is love, cause I can never get enough feels forced rather than earned in this tepid visit to melancholia. 60. Butterfly in Reverse Hard Candy Theres a simple, old-time feel to this song, adorned with piano keys and strings. Its one of the prettier Crows songs and manages to capture nostalgia without slipping into a forlorn place, but rather focusing on more innocent memories and capturing them as they once were. 59. Insignificant Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings This song has a lot of the jumping-off-the-top-of-a-building imagery that pervades other Crows songs, but rather than melancholy or particularly lost, Duritzs narrator sounds indignant and righteously pissed off to have been rendered insignificant. Its a song of defying rejection in favor of achieving his own significance. 58. Black and Blue Hard Candy A pretty melody and suicidal imagery intertwine for a song thats a little melodramatic and colorless (no pun intended) for my tastes, but nonetheless pretty in its own way. In a sense, my feelings for this song are similar to Goodnight LAnot that its a bad song, just that the band has done the essentially the same thing so much better. 57. American Girls Hard Candy I probably underrate this song a bit, not because I dont like it, but because on an album with so many really good songs, this largely uninspired pop ditty was the first singleonly to be followed a cutesy reimagining of the Big Yellow Taxi cover that started as a delightful hidden track at the end of the album, and ended up with Vanessa Carlton singing backup for a single that overshadowed far better original music. Back to American Girls, it has its catchy bits, but otherwise feels simultaneously conspicuously lightweight and weirdly sentimental in the you make me cry refrain. It feels like a knock off of the tradition of great American rock songs about women, but never quite finds its own voice. 56. Four Days This Desert Life This is a song of separationprobably a long distance romance, for which four days and nights feels like an interminably long period of time to wait to see someone again. As such, the song encapsulates a sense of young, impatient love, making marks on a wall like a prisoner. Its a beautiful, off-beat piece of music. 55. Millers Angels Recovering the Satellites Down trodden, mystified, with a hint of anger this song is a meditation on watching for angels that may not be so benevolent. Its a song of victimhood without a hint of recovery. I like it as a mood piece, and particularly like the contrast when it briefly transitions to more of a rock song. That said its not exactly a fun or entirely coherent listening experience. 54. Another Horsedreamers Blues Recovering the Satellites This song was purportedly written in response to Sam Shepards Geography of a Horsedreamer . about a woman who can predict which horse will win races and is subject to all manner of manipulation and mistreatment as a result. However literal that translation may be, the song is a simultaneously lovely and ugly depiction of a woman in crisis, trying to do whats right and escaping into a world of pill-induced sleep to escape from it all. 53. I Wish I Was a Girl This Desert Life Errant use of the subjunctive aside, this is a pretty profound little song about dreams of jumping to your death, and wishing people would trust what you say. I love the pleading to Elizabeth, which reads distinctly as a series of long distance phone calls. Its a both a song of resignation and absurdist speculation about what it would be like to be the opposite genderthough the band only addresses that theme explicitly in the title and its iteration in each chorus. I think that the popular interpretation of this song as Adam saying that women only trust other women and wont listen to men is a little too simplistic, but dont necessarily have a much better one. 52. Le Ballet DOr Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings Despite its relatively low ranking, this track represents one of my favorite qualities about Crows songs, introducing an edgy, mysterious, almost macabre sound at an unexpected point in the mostly mellow Sunday morning half of the album. The song earns bonus points for the liner notes bit, crediting Brian Deck for climbing inside a piano and playing it like a harp to provide the instrumentation for the end of the song. 51. You Cant Count On Me Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings Theres an interesting dissonance between music and lyrics on this one, particularly in the chorus which sounds so warm and inviting and yet is all about the narrator affirming that he shouldnt be counted on. Its a song about someone who toys with people and openly admits he isnt reliableand yet seems all the more magnetic for the admission. Its one of the catchier and certainly the most radio-friendly of the tracks from the Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings album. 50. Carriage Hard Candy I went to my first Counting Crows show in the autumn of 2005, and the band played a number of songs that would be featured on Hard Candy when it was released the following summer. This particular song may always stand out for me more based on the story behind itas Duritz explained it at the showthan the song itself which, while contemplative and laced with smart lyric choices, nonetheless feels a bit plodding and as though it never truly reaches its climax. Adam told the story of an unexpected pregnancy and the couple contemplating an abortion, deciding against it, only for the would-be mother to have a miscarriage. I particularly appreciated Duritzs rejection of the audiences cheers about deciding against the abortion he refused to take a side on the issue, placing it as a personal decision and not a moral stand. The recounting of the story offered a unique glance behind the curtain of another human beings life. 49. Washington Square Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings The opening lines of this song, narrating the choice to sell a piano, sets a tone of forlorn listlessness to key off the Sunday Morning half of this album. The song has been interpreted as one about going home (the traveling homeward to Washington Square lyric toward the end seems to support this reading), but given the itinerant motif and distance from family, I think its more about trying to forge a new home far away from a real home in the wake of major life changes. 48. Daylight Fading Recovering The Satellites Historically, I discounted this song for its seemingly out place countrified, laid back leanings on an otherwise more openly emotionally intense album. The track grew on me over the years, though. Melodically, its not as aggressively sad or angry as others on Recovering . but on further reflection, it feels more like a song of numbnesscoping with lack of meaning and inability to create, despite friends reassurances that everybody loves you and everybody cares. Its a song of quiet resignation and best attempts at patience, waiting for an emotion to pass so the narrator can get on with his life. 47. Speedway This Desert Life One of the sentiments I feel Counting Crows nails best in songs like this one is not so much emotional outbursts or agony as the sense of numbness and inaction that can come after breakups and other emotional trauma. The narrator spends so much of this song thinking about what he ought to do that it underscores how little he has actually done. 46. Ghost Train August and Everything After This song does a sensational job of synergizing the more literal interpretation of a ghostly, ethereal train with the metaphorical interpretation of looking at all of these past relationships and lovers as ghoststhe remnants and memories of which never go away entirely. The repetition of the Hey, how do you do first meeting is perfectly haunting on this off beat track. 45. Sundays Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings On an album of rock and roll, followed by melancholy reflection, this song marks a good balancing point, upbeat, fast, intricate, and conversationalthe narrator denied, rejected, or dumped depending on your reading of it. Given how fundamentally different they are from the rest of the song, the choruses either make or completely fail the song, depending on your interpretation. Im partial to the verses, myself. 44. Perfect Blue Buildings August and Everything After This song exists in the space between depression and catatonia, looking at everything as mundane to the point that it both runs together and becomes vaguely fantasticala perfect blue building, a green apple seamore visions from a painting than pieces of the world that the narrator could ever access himself. The song is alternately a little plodding and a little tidy for my tastes, but the line about getting myself a little oblivion still resonates with me after all these years. 43. 1492 Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings This hard rock anthem of a song is wholly different from anything else in the Counting Crows catalog, and offers a jaw-dropping intro to the Saturday nights half of the Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings album. Vocal tapestries of sex and violence flash across a back drop of a ripping electric guitar. I didnt much care for this track when I first heard it, but it grew on me upon repeat listeningsparticularly the desperation of the bridge as Duritz swells up to scream I am the king of everything, I am the king of nothing. 42. Time and Time Again August and Everything After I really liked Time and Time Again when I first heard August and Everything After and I still think its a good song, but ultimately more of a role player track on a great album than a stand out songs in its own right. It captures a lot of the angst that recurs and is arguably improved upon in the Counting Crows catalog, but does also paint some unique, impressive imagesthe idea of watching someone in reverse to see them coming home rather than leaving, and the idea of laying waste to a whole city and riding out into the desert. 41. Shallow Days August and Everything After (Deluxe Edition) Theres something simple and understated about this early demo that brings a smile to my face on every listen. Its ostensibly a love song about Adam and a girl named Mary Jane, more likely an extended metaphor for his relationship with weed. In the end, I prefer to focus on the sentiment of small people squeezing out a good life, who need a little good time. 40. Im Not Sleeping Recovering the Satellites There are times when this band teeters on the edge of artistry and just having too much go on at once. This is among the songs that walks that line, and while it doesnt land as one my favorites, I do feel that the overall product is successful in selling a narrators desperation and anger. Its difficult to tell if the ubiquitous she is a lover, the narrators mother, a friend, or more of a conceptlike his conscience or his paranoia. Regardless, the song works best on its explosions, which the shifts in dynamics set up beautifully, and Im particularly fond of the closing sequence, led off with a sample of Rain, Rain Go Away. 39. Monkey Recovering the Satellites This is probably the most light hearted track on the Crows darkest album. While doom, gloom, and hints of desperation weave together for an intoxicating collection of music, this songs includes the whimsical confession, Im all messed up, thats nothing new, which communicates a sensation of someone who has come to terms with his otherness and life problems just the same, its a mostly upbeat melody and comes across as at least an approximation of a love song, questioning where the narrators monkey has been all his life. 38. High Life This Desert Life This is, in a sense, the title track of its albumthe only song to explicitly reference this desert life. Its a fascinating bit of a dreamscape, navigating differences and overlaps between the desert and the big city, and the sense of waiting for someone and hoping shell stick around. The song has a distinctive sound and captures loneliness in an almost playful way. Its long and has an ethereal sound and, thus, I think it tends to get overlooked on this album, but its a real forgotten gem. 37. If I Could Give All My Love (Richard Manuel Is dead) Hard Candy This song is about Adam Duritzs revelation of the impermanence of all things, people, and relationships upon learning Richard Manuel from The Band had passed. I love the recurring guitar riff in this song, and will always feel connected to it for becoming acquainted with the track during a summer crush and envisioning it as more of a love song than an exploration of why its hard to love anyone at all. 36. Love and Addiction August and Everything After (Deluxe Edition) This early demo never made it onto a Counting Crows disc until the re-release of August and Everything After in 2007. Based on a few critical turns, I preferred the bootleg recordings floating around the interwebs to this album version. Just the same its a fun courtship song about the intersection of affection and obsession, with a whole lot of youthful ambition woven in. Its a worthy track that didnt quite fit the vibe of the August album, but that nonetheless stands up on its own. 35. Omaha August and Everything After Duritz wrote this song before ever visiting Omaha, and claims that having written it earned him the key to the city, which he felt pretty awkward about. More so than the city itself, its a piece about leaving a place only to come back to it, and a feeling tread upon. Omaha all but explicitly stands for any number of faceless places in middle America, and conflicting impulses to find a new life and to come back to whats familiar. 34. Accidentally In Love Shrek 2: Motion Picture Sountrack I actually like this song a good bit, but just the same lament that, behind Mr. Jones and A Long December, its probably the song casual listeners most readily identify with Counting Crows. Its not a bad song, but it is a bubble gum pop song that isnt meaningfully representative of much else from the bands catalog. But lets stay positive. As far as Im concerned, (Come on, come on) jump a little higher, (come on, come on) if you feel a little lighter remains one of the purest representations of what new love really feels like. And Ill be darned if this song isnt catchy. 33. Mercury Recovering the Satellites This off-beat, almost bluesy song is an interesting mood piece amongst an otherwise more obviously emotional Recovering the Satellites album. It tells the tale of a mercurial relationship and the narrators willingness to tolerate or embrace all of it. The song is simultaneously conflicted and understated for a pretty intriguing final product. 32. Kid Things This Desert Life Ive never quite understood the fad of leaving several minutes of blank space on a track before giving way to a hidden track on an album. Sure, the surprise of a bonus song is great, but couldnt you just leave it off the liner notes This trend seems to have given way to exclusive tracksas in, exclusive to iTunes download, or exclusive to buying a CD at Target. Or maybe thats just been the case for artists I like. Anywho, for those of us willing to hold down the fast forward button for a minute or so or who were too lazy to get up to change CDs after St. Robinson in His Cadillac Dream, the reward was Kid Thingsa plucky song with country roots in which Duritz implores his homebody love interest to come out and play, extolling the value of immature activities, and their potential to lead to greater things. Its a really fun song that Id probably love even more had it gotten its own track originally, and thus lent itself better to repeat listening. 31. Amy Hit the Atmosphere This Desert Life This is a mood piece in the melancholiest of senses. No, it doesnt carry the tragic weight of On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago or Raining In Baltimore but rather is, in a sense, is even sadder for the lack of energy and the general malaise of the song. This isnt a song of sudden heartbreak, but rather an ongoing one that the narrator has grown resigned to. I remember identifying with this song after long days during my high school careerworn out from early mornings to get to school on time, a heavy load of AP courses and extracurriculars, followed by late nights of homework and pining for a life that was less exhausting and more loving. The particular circumstances may vary, but I suspect weve all been there at one time and in one way or another. 30. Los Angeles Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings In the hyperactive Saturday night half of this album, Id argue that the Crows sound most at home on Los Angelesnot a hard rocker, more of a lazy party song about going out with friends and revisiting a Crows theme of coming to terms with fame and retaining ones humanity. 29. Einstein on the Beach (For an Egg Man) DGC Rarities Volume 1 By Duritzs own description, this was a song the Crows assembled when they were still learning to write pop songs, and he never intended for it to be released in any meaningful setting. Yet it went from a rarities compilation to radio play, and became one of the bands most recognizable tracks from its early years. No, its not the weightiest or more coherent Crows track, but it is the essence of a fun summer song, edging toward deep philosophical thought, but consistently tipping back to its lighter roots. 28. She Dont Want Nobody Near Films About Ghosts This early Counting Crows song never got a formal studio release until their greatest hits album. Like a number of Crows tracks it has an upbeat melody, but dont let that misguide you to thinking its a happy-go-lucky song. Its ostensibly a piece about social anxiety, wrestling with the competing impulses of a desire to be alone and fear of loneliness, all set against classic Crows pop song instrumentation. 27. Walkaways Recovering the Satellites Clocking in at one minute, thirteen seconds, its easy to dismiss this song, but I actually feel its one of the most underrated pieces of the brilliant Satellites album. Down-trodden and defeated, the song at first feels like one about abandonment, and yet takes a turn in the final lines in which Duritz sings that one day, Im gonna stay. But not today. The lyric hints at shared responsibility for lonelinessa culture of one-night stands and short engagements. Just the same, the finish sounds something like hopethat the narrator can foresee an end to that lifestyle amidst his current malaise. 26. On Almost Any Sunday Morning Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings This is the kind of track that its easy to overlook for just how understated it is, but I really dig the quiet depression and desperation inherent to it, reflecting on lonely Sunday mornings with a brand of disillusionment thats especially apparent after a raucous Saturday night. Its one of the clearest, most fully realized tracks of the Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings album. 25. When I Dream of Michelangelo Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings The title of this song is a callback to Angels of the Silences in which dreaming of Michelangelo hints at hidden depths and madness in the narrator. This beautiful ballad with a fundamentally different vibe lingers on that image and explores the space between being an artist and a person of strong opinions, and being torn between that and a plainer, less nuanced life and the love interest that seems to embody that simpler life. The soft, smooth instrumentation paints this inner conflict in a soft light, creating a beautiful song in its own right. 24. Colorblind This Desert Life This song will probably always receive disproportionate attention in the Counting Crows catalog for having been featured in a sexy scene from Cruel Intentions . Of course, its no more fair that I tend discount it because bandwagon fans only recognize it from the movie. All of that said, it is a beautiful piano-driven ballad that at once captures loneliness and a complete willingness on the part of the songs narrator to unfold and release himself to the trusting arms of another. 23. On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings I think of this song a bit like a poor mans Raining In Baltimore. The thing is that Baltimore is a such a good song that even a poor mans version is perfectly worth listening to. Its Counting Crows at the bands most down-trodden and melodramatic with a tragic refrain of the narrator pleading, come back to me. Its haunting. Its beautiful. 22. Baby Im a Big Star Now Rounders: Motion Picture Soundtrack This is a pretty infectious song, released as a hidden track on the vinyl version of This Desert Life and, more prominently on the Rounders soundtrack. It revisits Crows themes of disillusionment and self-loathing, with the catchiest of hooks that suggests an undercurrent of optimism and continuing to try. 21. Come Around Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings I remember listening to this track along a road trip to see my friends for the time in months after I first moved to Baltimore. The song perfectly encapsulates the spirit a reunionthe idea that old friends and family will find a way to come back around to each other, surviving all manner of short-term relationships and other pursuits. Sure, theres an underlying tone of abandonment and heartache to lyrics like, What I know is, shes going. When you know it, its all right. So you put yourself between you and your pride. Just the same, the song has more of the trappings of recovery than misery, and as such functions as an excellent track to close an album. 20. Have You Seen Me Lately Recovering the Satellites Throughout this countdown I refer to the narratora term that my background in writing workshops and literature classrooms has driven into my skull, demanding that the consumer never assume the author speaks for herself. That said, Duritz has been pretty open about the autobiographical nature of Recovering the Satellites (not altogether different from the bands other albums). The dynamic is particularly true of this song, a meditation on exploding from artist to superstar based on the commercial success of August and Everything After . and trying to decipher real relationships from faux ones real identity from public persona. On top of all of that, its a kickass rock song that subverts the expectations set by the songs that immediately surround it. 19. Holiday in Spain Hard Candy This whimsical, but downtrodden piece about a narrator retreating from a stark reality to an exotic location ostensibly caps Hard Candy (excluding the hidden track cover of Big Yellow Taxi). One of the sensations this band and particularly this song captures with pure artistry is the sense of keeping busy, keeping up appearances, and trying to stay cool when all the while you know your life is in shambles. For me, this is a song about attempting to recover, and just the same acknowledging that the flying away to someone new is part of cycle, not an elixir in and of itself. 18. Sullivan Street August and Everything After The debut album from Counting Crows is full of heartbreaking music. This conflicted song is all about the desperation that comes with a relationship falling apartthat uncomfortable period in which youre still together, but know that it will be over before long. From what Ive heard, Duritz wrote the song when he was in the habit of driving a girlfriend home, but the lyrics double up with the sensation of fighting a losing battledoing drivebys past an ex-lovers place with no real reason for doing so, no intention of stopping in. 17. Up All Night Hard Candy To me, this was the sweetest surprise of the Hard Candy album, a song that starts melancholy and lonesome that keys into feel like a late-night adventure, albeit one for which the narrator may still be forlorn. Indeed, Duritz ostensibly sounds as though he cant sleep for his dreams having slipped away. He acknowledges its too late to get high, in the same breath observing that his sleepless night may well give way to a cycle of sleeping through the daylight hours. The song seamlessly weaves together sensations of a partying and sex with disillusionment and disappointment, all against a backdrop of booming piano chords. 16. Hard Candy Hard Candy The title track of its album is all about memoriesstudying old photographs, remembering the best parts of a relationship past. The imagery of a girl standing by the water as a smile begins to curl and the evenings on Long Island when the colors start to fade always grab me when Im listening to this songwe may not all of have quite the same memories, but I reckon every one of us has specific people, signature landscapes, and moments that make us smile and sigh and reflect in all of the happiest and most gut-wrenching ways imaginable. 15. Catapult Recovering the Satellites This opening track is certainly off beat. It starts out with dreamy a quality before a solitary electric guitar chord shakes up the scene, crystallizes the vision, and stirs the listener to wakefulness. The song encapsulates longing, fear of abandonment, self-realization and so many other themes of the album that it functions something like a de facto overture. Ironically, its a song that I think listeners tend to overlook for such a loaded album to follow, but regardless, it is not a track for any serious listener to sleep on. 14. Hanginaround This Desert Life I know plenty of Crows fans tend to look down on this song as lightweight and uninspired. I think the lack of doom and gloom makes this song all the more special to me, thoughdespite the undercurrent of hanging around too long, theres also an unapologetic air about this song. Its not quite a party song, but more so a chill piece about hanging out with friends with nowhere to go, nothing to do, and little interest in changing all of that. Moreover, the song is smarter than folks may give it credit for, recorded using looping techniques that repeat the drum and guitar riff over and over again in a song about hanging around the same place. 13. Round Here August and Everything After The opening flicker of an electric guitar and lyrics about stepping out the front door at the beginning of this song function as an iconic introduction to the Counting Crows catalogthe first track on the groups first studio album. The song proceeds to take listeners along an emotional roller coaster about coming of age and disillusionment. The song most truly comes to life on the positively electric bridge segment about the girl in the car in the parking lot who says man, you should try to take a shot. The song comes full circle with a soft outro for which the instrumentation falls away to leave the narrator all alone, just like he started. 12. Angels of the Silences Recovering the Satellites For me this has always been a song about wanting to believe, and I love the choice for it to be an upbeat rocker, bursting with youthful energy. The sentiment that, all my sins, I said that I would pay for them if I could come back to you, is a perfect encapsulation of bargaining and the desperation to hold onto something thats already gone. Moreover, I appreciate the songs vacillation between bitterness, regret, desire, philosophy, and crises of faithperfectly conflicted and perfectly complete. 11. Miami Hard Candy I love the economy of this song. It, at once, has the mellow easy feel of a vacation song, but just the same, an undercurrent of longing for Duritzs angel who wont return his calls, and the borderline epic feel of a heros journey in the triumphant closing lines about shutting it down in New Orleans. The song also has its double meaning embedded in the title, with Miami purportedly equating to my Amy, a frequent Crows muse, and a brilliant way of showing the way in which a person and a place can be become one in a persons memories. 10. Rain King August and Everything After No doubt, Rain King charts as one of Counting Crows most recognizable songs, and fittingly so. In its original recording, despite bits of doubt and discontent, it nonetheless sounds like a carefree, rocking pop song. Moreover, Duritz has talked about the song in the context of an artists statementa song about being an artist and all the disparate pieces of a life that come together to manifest in the form of self-expression through music and writing. The song also accounts for the intrinsic sense of deserving morethe sensation that the artists work is worth more than hes getting credit for at this point. The closing exclamation of yeah, registers as something akin to Duritzs barbaric yawp. While Im focusing on original recordings, its also worth noting this song as the one the Crows may have reinvented more than any other on the live stage, and used as a portal to cover many, many other songs. 9. Good Night Elisabeth Recovering the Satellites Its difficult for me to separate this song from Rain King, for its most iconic line at the climax of the song. Theres a sparseness to this song that, for me, has always encapsulated loneliness, or perhaps more precisely the feeling of missing a specific person. The song portrays Duritzs lullaby to a lover he lost when he was on the road. The final verse in particular captures him in a phase of simultaneous acceptance and complete denial of his circumstances. Hes accepted he wont be with Elisabeth and readies himself to sleep with someone else, all the while thinking of, waiting for his true love. Its a beautiful, tragic, and very real song. 8. Mrs. Potters Lullaby This Desert Life This elaborate dreamscape of a seven-minute song probably never should have been released as a singlefar too long, thoughtful, and abstract for a top 40 audience. Duritz reportedly wrote the song as an ode to an actress, hence the references to singing to someone on a TV or movie screen and imploring her to come meet him he his framed the song as introducing himself, by way of encapsulating everything going on his mind. Lines like theres a piece of Maria in every song that I sing, speak to the roots of a writerthe people and the concepts that inform everything he does. Moreover, the song somehow manages to connect all of these disparate, abstract vignettes into one epic, greater whole. Its an unforgettable memoir of a song. 7. A Long December Recovering the Satellites Though I tend to think of Counting Crows signature sound as skewing melancholy, a disproportionate number of the bands singles are upbeat pop songs. This is one of the most prominent exceptions, probably the bands second most famous song after Mr. Jones and one of their most melancholy numbers. Its a song about everything going wrong, spending long nights in hospitals at the end of a cruddy year. And, just the same, its a song of remembering better times, like when all at once you look across a crowded room and see the way that light attaches to a girl. Better yet, theres the closing sentiment of getting out to see the ocean, which carries the suggestion of rediscovering the things that used to make the narrator happy. I listened to this track on repeat in my earbuds, walking alone, my very first time setting foot in the Pacific Ocean four years ago. 6. Raining in Baltimore August and Everything After When I first heard August and Everything After at the ripe age of 10, I remember being struck by it. It was tragic, and as such it was beautiful. Before I had experienced any real sense of heartache or loss in my own life, I instinctively embraced this song about being so far away from the person you love that it actively hurts. This song took on another level of meaning for me when I moved to Baltimore, closer to three hundred than three thousand miles from the people I knew and my girlfriend at the time, but nonetheless recognized so many of the sentiments of the song, perhaps on an altogether too literal level. As time has gone by, Ive developed a greater appreciation for a handful of Crows songs that I feel encompass not only sadness, but an additional layer of conflict and redemption. Just the same, the song remains a key teacher in my emotional education and a track that still holds up after all these years. 5. St. Robinson in his Cadillac Dream This Desert Life Excluding the hidden track at the end of the CD, St. Robinson wraps up This Desert Life and certainly fits as a closing numbercomplex, epic, and endlessly narrative. Its a song about dreaming and all the things that get between everyday people and all of the things they want for themselves. The song clicks on a whole new level for me on the devil-may-care FU to normalcy in the closing movements of the song, when Duritz retorts to whoever dare challenge him, there are people who will say that they knew me so well I may not go to heavenI hope you go to hell. The song ends on a delicious slice of Americana, the narrator inviting his lover get into his car, not to head toward any specific destination, but rather just to drive . 4. A Murder of One August and Everything After This is the epic, lovely, desperate, heartbreaking, rise-from-the-ashes finale of Counting Crows first studio album, and it is a masterpiece. The song is often misinterpreted as, in some way, being about homicide, and Duritz may well have been playing with that idea in a song ostensibly about an abusive relationship and urging someone not to waste her life. Just the same the song also seems to be about flock of crowsa murderand all the more interesting for the title suggesting a flock of just one. Like so many of my favorite songs, this one resonates me on a personal level. I remember listening to those gritted-teeth lyrics, Does he tell you when youre sorry Does he tell you when youre wrong as a junior high kid and thinking about the way my father controlled me and tried to tell me what was right or wrong from the perspective his aberrant and misguided sense of morality and prioritization. And I remember thinking of being feathered by moonlight as walking free and even taking flight. Counting Crows is often at its best on deeply conflicted song and this song nails so many emotions around confinement and freedom. Jeg elsker det. 3. Recovering the Satellites Recovering the Satellites For me, this is a song about rediscovering oneself and the realization that time is fleeting. Duritz sings about getting back to basics and staring at the sky in a way that feels very small town to mebut maybe thats my small town upbringing and recollections of my first encounters with this song that inform that interpretation, and the reference to this angel town suggests it might have been written about Los Angeles, where other Crows songs from this era are set. Regardless, theres a sense of inevitable loss and yearning to the song, particularly in my favorite lyric: we only stay in orbit for a moment of time. And youre everybodys satelliteI wish that you were mine. 2. Anna Begins August and Everything After Duritz inked this song in remembrance of a love affair he engaged in, backpacking through Europe in his youth. In my totally subjective opinion, its the most beautiful love song ever written. I can take or leave most of the verses, but each chorus pulls at my heart strings to truly profound effectthe sentiment of falling in love for every minor gesture a woman might make, such as sneezing the idea of lovers understanding each others every nonsense-sleep-talking mumbled syllable. Perhaps the song is a bit melodramatic, but as such it captures young love and infatuation in strikingly earnest ways. 1. Mr. Jones August and Everything After For all of my self-professed modesty and focus cast on the craft of my art as opposed to recognition, I cant deny the impulse to strive toward fame and fortune. The American Dream is engrained in me like so many of my contemporaries and those who came before me, indoctrinated in a culture of self-betterment and boot strapping, and the implicit suggestion that celebrity is the natural and inherently desirable reward of all that hard work. The song is about seeking celebrity without a concrete sense of why youre doing so, and the companion amorphous desires for love and companionship and influence, all couched with in the setting of San Francisco dive bar, making bold claims with a drinking buddy whilst watching a flamenco dancer strut her stuff. Mr. Jones is nothing short of a portrait of a generationa song all about dreams and desires that closes on the sorrowful, unspoken recognition that the narrator may never achieve his lofty goals. Read stories and miscellaneous criticism from Mike Chin at his website and his thoughts on a cappella music at The A Cappella Blog. Follow him on Twitter miketchin. Check out more articles on BuzzFeed
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