Mr Jones

“It’s really a song about my friend Marty and I. We went out one night to watch his dad play, his dad was a Flamenco guitar player who lived in Spain, and he was in San Francisco in the Mission playing with his old Flamenco troupe. And after the gig we all went to this bar called the New Amsterdam in San Francisco on Columbus and we got completely drunk. And Marty and I sat at the bar staring at these two girls, wishing there was some way we could go talk to them, but we were too shy. We kept joking with each other that if we were big rock stars instead of such loser, low-budget musicians, this would be easy. I went home that night and I wrote a song about it” That is the literal meaning behind it, but the more subtle meaning has to do with dreams and what motivates us to do what we do. Adam Duritz said on an episode of VH1’s Storytellers.........It’s really a song about all the dreams and all the things that make you want to go into doing whatever it is that seizes your heart, whether it’s being a rock star or being a doctor or whatever. Those things run from ‘All this stuff I have pent up inside of me’ to ‘I want to meet girls because I’m tired of not being able to’ … but it’s also kind of cautionary because it’s about how misguided you may be about some of those things and how hollow they may be too. Like the character in the song keeps saying, ‘When everybody loves me, I will never be lonely,’ and you’re supposed to know that that’s not the way it’s gonna be. I knew that even then.

Mr. Jones Lyrics Counting Crows From The Album August and Everything After (1993), Films About Ghosts (The Best of Counting Crows) (2003) [Intro] Shalalala la la la Uh huh [Verse 1] I was down at the New Amsterdam Staring at this yellow-haired girl Mr. Jones strikes up a conversation With a black-haired flamenco dancer You know she dances while his father plays guitar She's suddenly beautiful And we all want something beautiful Man, I wish I was beautiful So come dance this silence down through the morning Shalalala la la la la, yeah.. Uh huh, yeah.. Cut up, Maria! Show me some of them Spanish dances And pass me a bottle, Mr. Jones Believe in me, help me believe in anything 'Cause I wanna be someone who believes, yeah [Chorus for Verse 1] Mr. Jones and me tell each other fairy tales And we stare at the beautiful women "She's looking at you. Ah, no, no, she's looking at me." Smiling in the bright lights, coming through in stereo When everybody loves you, you can never be lonely [Verse 2] Well, I'm gonna paint my picture Paint myself in blue and red and black and gray All of the beautiful colors are very, very meaningful Yeah, well, you know gray is my favorite color I felt so symbolic yesterday If I knew Picasso, I would buy myself a gray guitar and play [Chorus for Verse 2] Mr. Jones and me look into the future Yeah, we stare at the beautiful women "She's looking at you. I don't think so. She's looking at me." Standing in the spotlight, I bought myself a gray guitar When everybody loves me, I will never be lonely I'll never be lonely Said I'm never gonna be lonely [Verse 3] I want to be a lion Yeah, everybody wants to pass as cats We all want to be big, big stars, yeah But we got different reasons for that Believe in me, 'cause I don't believe in anything And I, I want to be someone to believe To believe, to believe, yeah! [Chorus for Verse 3] Mr. Jones and me, stumbling through the barrio Yeah, we stare at the beautiful women "She's perfect for you, man, there's got to be somebody for me." I want to be Bob Dylan Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky When everybody loves you, ah son That's just about as funky as you can be [Chorus] Mr. Jones and me, staring at the video When I look at the television, I want to see me Staring right back at me We all want to be big stars But we don't know why, and we don't know how But when everybody loves me I want to be just about as happy as I can be [Outro] Mr. Jones and me, we're gonna be big stars Produced By T Bone Burnett Written By David Bryson & Adam Duritz Label Geffen Records Drums Denny Fongheiser Release Date December 1, 1993