What starts silence and ends with change, change, change with some king of the rain, blue buildings that may or may not be perfect in Omaha, some dreaming musician named Jones and a ghost train in between?
It was Friday November 5th, 1993 and I was on a Red Line CTA train with five other DePaul University freshman, headed to the Metro, a two stop ride from our Lincoln Park dorm. We were there to see Cracker, who had just released Kerosene Hat. Maybe you remember me talking about that one. We got there early so we could be right up front. I also liked seeing the opening acts. Sometimes what they played stuck. And that night it stuck.
Counting Crows was the opening act and I had never heard of them before that night. . But from the first note of the first song, I was hooked.
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| $13.50 for a ticket! |
The single guitar line, a very mellow three notes over and
over, the lead singer with these messy dreadlocks, a brown jacket with tassels,
such emotion in his voice, in the lyrics. Just a beautiful song. Another mellow
song. Then one that stuck in my head, as much for the way the singer danced and
sway and swung his dreadlocks while singing.
Ah, the first time I heard Mr. Jones.
They were the opening act so they only had about forty minutes,
but they played nine songs, and ended with A Murder of One, a great way to
close. (The joys of setlist.fm made it so I could find the setlist from that show. It opened with the first song on August and Everything After and closed with the last song on August and Everything after. Whoa!)
The next night I saw them again, with a different set of five freshman. They played a slightly different setlist but I still loved it. The next day I hiked the five blocks east to Tower Records at Webster and Clark and bought the Album – August and Everything after. It was the perfect album for winter in Chicago. Some mellow songs, some upbeat songs to get you moving and get you warm again. Right after that show, my roommate, Paul, apartment sat for his boss. His boss lived in an older brick high rise on Lake Shore Drive and encouraged Paul to have people over. So we all went there on a Friday night in late November, dark early, cold, looking out over Lake Shore Drive. I brought August and Everything After and it was the perfect album for that type of night, just a group of us hanging out in a fancy apartment we didn't really belong in.
It starts with twelve seconds of silence before the echoey guitar riff starts the song, three notes over and over.
Step out the front door like a ghost
Into the fog where no one notices
The contrast of white on white
Omaha, get right to the heart of matters
Ah, Mr. Jones. A song about chasing success
When I look at the television, I want to see me staring right back at me.
Oh boy, was Adam Duritz right because a few months later he was on TV everywhere. He got so popular he date Rachel and Monica!
Anna Begins: There was a girl in my freshman creative writing class named Anna. I thought of her every time I listen to this song.
Time and Time Again, the Rain King. The superbly sad and mellow Sullivan Street covered frequently by the best known DePaul house party cover band, Azure Blue (ah, costume shop parties). Ghost Train and Raining in Baltimore, keeping things mellow until the final song.
A Murder of One.
Boom, you’re back up on your feet. The Crows have been lulling you into a state of mellowness and now they are bringing you back up.
All your life is such s a shame,
All your love is just a dream
You don’t want to waste your life.
You’ve been mellow, you’re sitting in that couched knocked down, tired, and now the Crows are urging you to get up and go to something about. Go ask out that girl Anne from your creative writing class you thought was cute (I never did). Go chase those dreams of music stardom (still doing that in the suburban dad band way that I can.).
By January I’d listed to this album as much as Cracker’s Kerosene Hat. I learned how to play most of the album on guitar and would whip out Mr. Jones or Round Here to impress the ladies (it didn’t work, well, except once). I’m pretty sure my roommates were tired of both albums, but August and Everything After became my album to fall asleep to. It still is regularly in the rotation (like last night for instance).
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| You know its my CD because of the MS on the UPC |
Every time I listen to this album, I’m taken back to that Counting Crows show at The Metro, to my freshman year at DePaul, room 305 of Seton Hall, all the things that happen that first year, new friends, new things, new music. Everything in the future. All the things ahead.
You don’t want to waste your life.
Round Here
Another Horsedreamer's Blues
Mr. Jones
Anna Begins
Rain King
Time and Time Again
Open All Night
A Murder of One
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