Counting Crows

Counting Crows are an American rock band from Berkeley, California, formed in 1991. The band consists of Adam Duritz (lead vocals, piano), David Bryson (guitar), Charlie Gillingham (accordion, keyboards), Dan Vickrey (lead guitar), David Immerglück (guitar, banjo, mandolin), Jim Bogios (drums) and Millard Powers (bass).

Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows at EMC World 2010

Quotes

• I can remember being eight years old and having infinite possibilities. But life ends up being so much less than we thought it would be when we were kids, with relationships that are so empty and stupid and brutal. If you don't find a way to break the chain and change in some way, then you wind up, as the rhyme goes: a murder of one, for sorrow.
  • Adam Duritz, about "A Murder of One", from August and Everything After (1993)

Song lyrics

All tracks written by Adam Duritz unless otherwise indicated.

August and Everything After (1993)

• Step out the front door like a ghost
  into the fog where no one notices
  the contrast of white on white.
  And in between the moon and you
  the angels get a better view
  of the crumbling difference between wrong and right.
  • "Round Here" (Duritz, Dave Janusko, Dan Jewett, Chris Roldan, David Bryson)

• Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand
  says she'd like to meet a boy who looks like Elvis
  • "Round Here"

• She parks her car outside my house and takes her clothes off
  Says she's close to understanding Jesus
  She knows she's more that just a little misunderstood
  She has trouble acting normal when she's nervous
  • "Round Here"

• Round here we're carving out our names
  Round here we all look the same
  Round here we talk just like lions
  But we sacrifice like lambs
  Round here, she's slipping through my hands
  • "Round Here"

• Sleeping children better run like the wind
  Out of the lightning dream
  Mama's little baby better get herself in
  Out of the lightning
  • "Round Here"

• Then she looks up at the building
  and says she's thinking of jumping.
  She says she's tired of life;
  she must be tired of something.
  • "Round Here"

• Omaha
  Somewhere in middle America
  Getting right to the heart of matters
  It's the heart that matters more
  I think you better turn your ticket in
  And get your money back at the door
  • "Omaha"

• Mr. Jones and me tell each other fairy tales
  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.
  • "Mr. Jones" (Duritz, Bryson)

• We all want something beautiful.
  Man, I wish I was beautiful.
  • "Mr. Jones"

• I want to be a lion
  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 because I don't believe in anything
  and I want to be someone to believe.
  • "Mr. Jones"

• 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'm going to be just about as happy as can be
  Mr. Jones and me, we're gonna be big stars....
  • "Mr. Jones"

• It does not bother me to say this isn't love
  Because if you don't want to talk about it then it isn't love
  And I guess I'm going to have to live with that
  But I'm sure there's something in a shade of grey,
  Something in between,
  And I can always change my name
  If that's what you mean
  • "Anna Begins" (Duritz, Bryson, Marty Jones, Toby Hawkins, Lydia Holly)

• Every time she sneezes I believe it's love.
  • "Anna Begins"

• When I think of heaven
  (Deliver me in a black-winged bird)
  I think of flying down into a sea of pens and feathers
  and all other instruments of faith and sex and God
  In the belly of a black-winged bird
  Don't try to feed me
  I've been here before and I deserve a little more
  • "Rain King" (Duritz, Bryson)

• I belong in the service of the Queen
  I belong anywhere but in between
  She's been crying, I've been thinking
  And I am the Rain King
  • "Rain King"

• Hey, I only want the same as anyone
  Henderson is waiting for the sun
  Oh, it seems night endlessly begins and ends
  After all the dreaming I come home again
  • "Rain King"

• Take the way home that leads back to Sullivan Street
  Cross the water, home through the town
  Past the shadows that fall down wherever we meet
  Pretty soon now, I won't come around
  • "Sullivan Street"

• I'm almost drowning in her sea
  She's nearly fallen to her knees
  • Sullivan Street

• Take the way home that leads back to Sullivan Street
  Where all the bodies hang on the air
  If she remembers, she hides it whenever we meet
  Either way now, I don't really care
  Cause I'm gone from there
  • "Sullivan Street"

• These train conversations are passing me by
  I don't have nothin' to say
  You get what you pay for, but I just had no
  Intention of living this way
  • "Raining in Baltimore"

• I dreamt I saw you walking, on a hillside in the snow.
  Casting shadows on the winter sky; as you stood there counting crows.
  • "A Murder of One" (Duritz, Bryson, Matt Malley)

• I walk along these hillsides in the summer 'neath the sunshine;
  I am feathered by the moonlight falling down on me.
  • "A Murder of One"

Recovering the Satellites (1996)

• All my sins...
  I said that I would pay for them
  if I could come back to you
  All my innocence is wasted on
  the dead and dreaming
  I dream of Michelangelo
  when I'm lying in my bed
  Little angels hang above my head
  and read me like an open book
  • "Angels of the Silences" (Duritz, Charlie Gillingham)

• Waiting for the moon to come
  and light me up inside
  And I am waiting for the telephone
  to tell me I'm alive
  • "Daylight Fading" (Duritz, Vickrey, Gillingham)

• Daylight fading
  Come and waste another year
  All the the anger and the eloquence
  are bleeding into fear
  Moonlight creeping
  around the corners of our lawn
  When we see the early signs
  that daylight's fading, we leave just before it's gone
  • "Daylight Fading"

• I will wait for you in Baton Rouge
  I'll miss you down in New Orleans
  I'll wait for you while she slips in something comfortable
  And I'll miss you when I'm slipping in between
  If you wrap yourself in daffodils
  I will wrap myself in pain
  And if you're the queen of california
  Baby I am the king of the rain
  And I said
  Goodnight Elisabeth
  • "Goodnight Elisabeth"

• Children in bloom
  Cooking in the sun
  Waiting for a room of our own
  Leave my sister alone
  Cause she don't deserve this
  She is a flower
  And I am a flower
  And we are all alone
  • "Children In Bloom"

• Gotta get out on my own
  Gotta get up from this waiting, waiting at home
  Gotta get out of this sunlight
  It's melting my bones
  I gotta get up from this slumber
  Just get myself home
  • "Children In Bloom"

• Where's the funhouse this year
  The fairground's deserted and all the skies don't seem as near, but
  Nicole's my oldest friend
  But the altar is empty and she'll never be a little girl again
  • "Children In Bloom"

• Miller's angels are hovering
  in between the earth and the sun
  in the shadow of God's unwavering love
  I am a fortunate son
  • "Miller's Angels"

• So she takes her pills
  Careful and round
  One of these days she's gonna throw the whole bottle down
  • "Another Horsedreamer's Blues"

• A long December
  and there's reason to believe
  Maybe this year will be better than the last
  I can't remember
  the last thing that you said
  as you were leavin'
  Now the days go by so fast
  • "A Long December"

• The smell of hospitals in winter
  And the feeling that it's all a lot of oysters,
  but no pearls
  All at once you look across a crowded room
  To see the way that light attaches to a girl
  And it's one more day up in the canyons
  And it's one more night in Hollywood
  If you think you might come to California...
  I think you should
  • "A Long December"

• Drove up to Hillside Manor
  sometime after two a.m.
  And talked a little while about the year
  I guess the winter makes you laugh a little slower,
  Makes you talk a little lower
  about the things you could not show her
  And it's been a long December
  and there's reason to believe
  Maybe this year will be better than the last
  I can't remember all the times
  I tried to tell my myself to hold on to these moments as they pass
  • "A Long December"

• "I gotta rush away," she said,
  "I been to Boston before.
  And anyways,
  This change I been feeling
  Doesn't make the rain fall."
  No big differences these days
  Just the same old walkaways.
  And someday
  I'm gonna stay,
  But not today.
  • "Walkaways" (Duritz, Vickrey)

This Desert Life (1999)

• She sat right down on the sofa; I said,"Where have you been?
  I've been waiting for you.
  Cause last night I had something so good
  These days get so long and I got nothing to do
  I been hanginaround this town on the corner
  • "Hanginaround" (Duritz, Dan Vickrey, Ben Mize, David Bryson)

• We spend all day getting sober. Just hiding from daylight
  Watching TV
  We just look a lot better in the blue light
  Well, you know I gotta get out. But I'm stuck so tight
  Weighed by the chains that keep me...
  Hanginaround this town on the corner
  • "Hanginaround"

• If dreams are like movies then memories are films about ghosts
  • "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby"

• Well, I am an idiot walking a tightrope of fortune and fame
  I am an acrobat swinging trapezes through circles of flame
  If you've never stared off in the distance, then your life is a shame
  And though I'll never forget your face, sometimes I can't remember my name
  • "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby"

• All the blue light reflections that color my mind when I sleep
  And the lovesick rejections that accompany the company I keep
  All the razor perceptions that cut just a little too deep
  Hey I can bleed as well as anyone, but I need someone to help me sleep
  • "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby"

• And the price of a memory is the memory of the sorrow it brings.
  • "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby"

• I am covered in skin;
  No one gets to come in.
  Pull me out from inside.
  I am folded and unfolded and unfolding,
  I am colorblind.
  Coffee black and egg white.
  Pull me out from inside.
  I am ready, I am fine.
  • "Colorblind" (Duritz, Charlie Gillingham)

• For all the things you're losing
  You might as well resign yourself to try and make a change
  I'm going down to Hollywood
  They're gonna make a movie from the things that they find crawling round my brain
  • "I Wish I Was a Girl" (Duritz, Gillingham)

Hard Candy (2002)

• On certain Sundays in November
  When the weather bothers me
  I empty drawers of other summers
  Where my shadows used to be
  And she is standing by the water
  As her smile begins to curl
  In this or any other summer
  She is something all together different
  Never just an ordinary girl
  • "Hard Candy" (Duritz, Dan Vickrey, Charles Gillingham)

• You put your girl up on a pedestal
  Then you wait for her to fall
  I put my summers back in a letter
  And I hide it from the world
  All the regrets you can't forget
  Are somehow pressed upon a picture
  In the face of such an ordinary girl
  And when you sleep you find your mother in the night
  • "Hard Candy"

• American girls, all weather & noise
  Playing the changes for all of the boys
  Holding a candle right up to my hand
  Making me feel so incredible
  If I made you cry, please tell me why
  Cause I'll try again if you let me try
  American girls all feathers & cream
  Come into bed so edible
  • "American Girls"

• The gentleman caller in the blue suede shoes
  He don't know what to do
  He just wants to look good for you
  So he rushes in to tell you what he did today
  but he can't think of what to say
  I think you listen anyway.
  He wants to have a good time just like everybody
  He doesn't want to fall apart
  You watch him as he stutters over what to say
  It's just a little game you play
  • "Good Time"

• It was cold when I awoke
  and the day was halfway done
  nearly spring in San Francisco
  and I still can't feel the sun
  • "If I Could Give All My Love To You (Richard Manuel Is Dead)"

• Take some time before you go
  Think of Mondays coming down
  for the people that you knew
  and the one's that aren't around
  • "If I Could Give All My Love To You (Richard Manuel Is Dead)"

• I got a friend at the New Frontier.
  And Galen, she said: "This is not America.
  You need a girl with electrical hair,
  And the word you wanted was 'Aluminum'.
  • "New Frontier"

• Fix your hair just right
  and put your jeans on tight
  wear a dress so I can get it off real easy
  cause I been thinkin' I'd
  like to see your eyes
  open up real wide the minute that you see me
  • "Up All Night (Frankie Miller Goes to Hollywood)"

• Got no place to go
  But there's a girl waiting for me down in Mexico
  She's got a bottle of tequila
  A bottle of gin
  And if I bring a little music I could fit right in
  • "Holiday in Spain"

• They left the television screaming that the radio's on
  • "Holiday in Spain"

Films About Ghosts (2003)

• Albert's always sincere, he's a sensitive type
  His intentions are clear, he wanna be well-liked
  If everything is nothing, then are we anything?
  Is it better to be better than to be anything?
  • "Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman)" (Duritz, David Bryson)

• And all the king's men reappear
  For an eggman, falling, falling
  The world begins to disappear
  The worst things come from inside here
  And all the king's men reappear
  For an eggman, fallin' off the wall
  Will never be together again
  No never be together again
  No no never never never again, uh huh
  What you fear in the night in the day comes to call anyway
  • "Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman)"

Shrek 2: Motion Picture Soundtrack (2004)

• How much longer will it take to cure this?
  Just to cure it 'cause I can't ignore it if it's love (love)
  Makes me wanna turn around and face me,
  But I don't know nothing 'bout love, oh

  Come on, come on,
  Turn a little faster.
  Come on, come on,
  The world will follow after.
  Come on, come on,
  Because everybody's after love.

  • "Accidentally in Love"

Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings (2008)

• Oh, where do we disappear?
  Into the silence that surrounds us
  And then drowns us in the end.
  Where all these people who impersonate our friends
  Say, “Come again, come again, come again…”
  • "1492"

• You open windows
  And you wait for someone warm to come inside.
  And then you freeze to death alone.

  This dizzy life of mine keeps hanging me up all the time
  This dizzy life is just a hanging tree
  For me.

  • "Hanging Tree" (Duritz, Dan Vickrey)

• Now I live in the shadows where light is electric
  And time is a number that rests on a wall.
  And nobody knows me,
  My friends and my family,
  Are as far from this city as Washington Square.
  • "Washington Square"

• And I dream of Michelangelo when I'm lying in my bed
  I see God upon the ceiling,
  I see angels overhead.
  And he seems so close as he reaches out his hand,
  But we are never quite as close as we are led to understand.
  • "When I Dream of Michelangelo" (Duritz, Gillingham, Immerglück, Vickrey)

• If you think you need to go,
  If you wanted to be free,
  There's just one thing you need to know.
  And that's that you can't count on me.
  • "You Can't Count On Me"

• Have you seen the little pieces of the people we have been?
  Little pieces blowing’ gently on the wind.
  • "Come Around" (Duritz, Vickrey)

External links

• Counting Crows Official Site