Angels of the Silences is one of the songs I originally overlooked on the album Recovering the Satellites. At the time, I really liked the Counting Crows more melancholy songs and AotS is fast paced, fast moving song.
However, when I went back and listens to the lyrics, the songs really works. It has a message that can be sung in a slow paced self reflective song or a fast beat semi-angry rant.
From Adam Duritz and the Counting Crows Storytellers on June 7, 1999:
"I write quite a few songs where the sort of issue is faith, having faith, keeping faith
and this song in particular is about the difficulty in having faith in things
and finding things to have faith in, in yourself, in God, in like he said, in a woman
Faith is a weird thing, it in a sense it is all about waiting
It's not actually about getting anything, you know
Faith is about the wait because once you get something there is no need anymore
and so a lot about faith is just the willingness to sort of throw yourself on a fence
and hang there for a while
That's a very difficult and bitter thing, you know
In this song the, I keep saying the main character, 'I'
I said, 'All my sins, I would pay for them if I could come back to you'
It's not just about finding things to believe in
It's about wanting to be able to believe in anything too
And it's about all the voices that get inside your head
and whisper for you to do it or not to do it as well
Anna Beginsoff of the August and Everything After is still to me one of the most powerful songs off of the album.
From Counting Crows Storytellers on June 7th, 1999:
"There was this period where I got really, really sick of playing music
and I, I saved up some money from landscaping
and I bought a backpack and some boots
and me and a friend got tickets
and went over to Europe just to backpack around Europe
It was like the summer of 1989
I ended up on this Greek island and I met this girl named Anna
and I completely fell in love with her and I think vice versa
Which is a dumb thing to do in the middle of the summer on a Greek island
because the girl is from Australia and you're from California
and the last thing- you should have a fling, you know
But the last thing you need to do is fall in love with a girl from Australia
because you've got, you don't have years
You have weeks, you know
and then everyone goes home, you know.
We were kids and the plane tickets are too expensive
and you can't change these things, you know
and it was just really difficult
because no one wants to really cop to how important they feel about it
because it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a hole that you are gonna fall into, you know.
and so the song is really about denial, you know,
The characters in the song keep saying to each other
'No, no, I'm not ready for this sorta thing'
Until the very end when it's too late
and they realize what they really weren't ready for is the loss
and it's a terrible thing to find out because it's a, it's too late
Which is what it ended up being at that point
And it's, it's, it's funny she's married now and she's got a kid
and she still lives in Sydney and we still talk every once in a while, not too much
but whenever I talk to her she still tells me that she loves this song and I do too
This is, this is Anna Begins "
Adam's idea of denial in love makes the song real. Sometimes things don't always end as a fairy tale. In life sometimes the loss is what keeps with you and lingers. But love is there, even though it may have been unexpected. It's still there after it is over.
I also have another interpretation of the song for me personally. One of my daughters name is Anna. We named her after Anna Begins.
"And every time she sneezes I believe it's love and
Oh lord, I'm not ready for this sort of thing"
Those lyrics really sums up for me how unexpected I felt about her. She wasn't unexpected but the late nights when I was with her and rocking her to sleep, I would think of this song.
Another summer and another Counting Crows concert series is now complete. I love how the Crows continue to journey across America to perform their music. Let's hope that the Crows are touring again soon. Here are some concert footage from the performance in Virginia.
There is probably no better version of Anna Begins than on the original studio version on August and Everything After. The song is done on numerous occasions in live concert and also appears on multiple live albums such as Across a Wire: Live In New York Disc 1, Live at Town Hall, and August and Everything After Deluxe Edition Disc 2. Most of the live versions are done acoustically and have a softer sound. To me the live versions seemed artificially drawn out and does not have the melody and harmony that Counting Crows captured in the studio version.
In the studio version, the song and lyrics build to the one of my favorite parts when Anna is mentioned for the first time:
"This time when kindness fall like rain,
It washes her away and Anna begins to change her mind
'These seconds when I'm shaking leave me shuddering for days', she says
And I'm not ready for this sort of thing"
And then the song finishes off amazingly with the chorus and Anna is mentioned again:
"The time when kindness falls like rain,
It washes me away and Anna begins to change my mind
And every time she sneezes I believe it's love and
Oh lord, I'm not ready for this sort of thing
She's talking in her sleep.
It's keeping me awake and Anna begins to toss and turn
And every word is nonsense but I understand and
Oh lord, I m not ready for this sort of thing
Her kindness bangs a gong,
It's moving me along and Anna begins to fade away
It's chasing me away... She disappears and
Oh lord , I'm not ready for this sort of thing
The music that build up to lyrics is what makes the studio version great. It is the build up that I think the live version doesn't capture for me. Although the live versions are still good, I would listen to the studio version every time when listening to Anna Begins.
Below are the studio versions and an acoustic version.
I will admit that when Recovery the Satellites, debutedI didn't love it as much as I did August and Everything After. I will also admit to this day that AaEA is still my favorite album. However, I have a new appreciation of the Counting Crows second album.
My earlier impressions were that the album just sounded different from the first, and I was looking for more melancholy songs such as Sullivan Street and Anna Begins.
The sound of the band changed in second album mainly because they added second guitarist. The added sound can be clearly heard throughout RtS. The second track on the album is Angels of the Silences. It was a completely different song than say Round Here of the first album.
I began to listen to the song more and more. Then I started watching the video. I began to love the song more and more. I loved the simplicity of the video of them in concert just singing. The song's pace and lyrics are almost a perfect match with Adam's honest words as well as the band heavy hitting music.
In live versions of the song, the band has tuned down the strength and made an acoustic version. The best example of this is Across a Wire - Live in New York Disc 1. Although the volume of the song is different the meaning and lyrics does not differ in each version My favorite lyrics from the song has to be: "All my sins, I said that I would pay for them if I could come back to you"
Below are both versions of the Angels of the Silences
Miami is my favorite song off of their album Hard Candy. Adam Duritz has explained the meaning of Miami many times during their live concerts so I transcribed his words below.
Adam
Duritz from a concert in Manchester on May 11 2009:
"I was in love with this girl who was far away. I was on tour.
She was on the other side of the world
and I hadn’t seen her in a long time
and she was coming to see me
and I was at the airport waiting for her
and I was so in love
and then all the sudden it was like a chunk of my life just evaporated
and I couldn't remember myself, her, all that time
I mean I remembered that it happened
but it was a like a story somebody told me not anything that I felt anything for her
and I knew that meant that it would be over
I didn't know who she was anymore
and these things and you have everything at once
then you throw it all away
and you can’t keep it all in here
I don’t understand that, it just happens, to me
This time it happened on a beautiful sunny night on the southeastern tip of America
I threw away something that should have never have thrown away
In a city called Miami"
It is interesting to note that lyrics mentioned in this song refer to a Amy. Amy is also referred to in other song titled Amy Hit the Atmosphere.
The song to me is a reminiscence of a past relationship. Even the good ones or the bad ones eventually end and you try to hold to what is left. They lyrics disclose that "summer's gone, so are we"
But then I love how the next lyrics states "So come on baby, let's go shut it down In New Orleans"
and asking for one last time or one final moment before letting it go.
Miami is another example of how the Counting Crows can take a fast upbeat song on an album and in the live version change up the rhythm so that the song has an entirely different meaning and mood.
The original version is off their album Hard Candy. I love the pace of the original song. It somehow manages to weave the beat of the Miami TV show without sounding corny at the start of the song. I also love how the song cumulates with a declaration to "shut down in New Orleans, come on baby!"
Then I heard the alternative version of Miami during their live concerts. It was a great alternative. The beat is mellow and is great in the acoustic version. Although I still favor the album version, the live version is just plain stunning.
The live lyrics are usually similar to the album however the above performance contains these alternative lyrics:
Rain King is one of the songs that has multiple versions with alternative lyrics. The Counting Crows have performed the song on numerous occasions in concert and the songs appears in a number of their live albums. Apart from the original song from August and Everything After here are other prominent versions of Rain King:
Across a Wire: Live in New Your Disc 1
This is a slower version of the song compared to August and Everything After performed Chelsea Studios in NYC on 8/12/97. Not a bad version but could be better with out the mumbling of the alternative lyrics.
"Well every little big fish that sails
your gonna sink down, a well underground
And all the little things that
she does to me feels so good
I said "Every little bit of fun
and loneliness, and every little thing that
endlessly confuses me, and I still know she will"
Live from SoHo August Everything After: Live at Town Hall Face the Promised Land
Live From SoHo was an exclusive album only available iTunes. Along with Live at Town Hall and the rare album Face the Promised Land, the band plays a version that contains alternative lyrics from Bruce Springsteen's Thunder Road. Each version sounds slightly different and offer a different tempo.
"Well the screen door slams and Mary's dress waves
And like a vision,
she dances across the porch
while the radio plays Roy Orbison
singing for the lonely,
hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again cause
I just can't face myself alone again
Don't run back inside darlin'
you're just what I'm here for
so you're scared and you're thinkin'
that maybe we aren't that young anymore
Show a little faith,
there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty,
but hey, you're alright,
and that's alright with me
You can hide 'neath your covers
and study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers,
throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer
praying in vain for a savior
to rise from these streets
Well listen I ain't no hero,
that's understood
All the redemption I can offer girl,
is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow,
well what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window and
let the wind blow back your hair
As the night's busting open -
these two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real,
we can trade in these
wings on some wheels
Climb in back, Heaven's
waiting down on the tracks
Oh, come take my hand,
we're riding out tonight to
case the promised land Oh Thunder Road,
lying out there like
a killer in the sun
Hey I know it's late
we can make it if we run, Thunder Road
Look at Danny, he's got this guitar
and learned how to make it talk
And my car's out back if
you're ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat,
the door's open but the ride it ain't free
Tonight you're lonely for words
that I ain't spoken
but tonight we'll be free,
all the promises'll be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes
of all the boys you sent away
And they haunt this
dusty beach road in the
skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets
They scream your name
at night in the streets
Your graduation gown
lies in rags at your feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
Hear the engines roaring on
When you get to the porch
they're gone on the wind
Its a town full of losers
Come from a town full of losers
I come from a town full of losers
Baby Im pullin pullin
pullin out of here to win
Im pullin out of here to win"
New Amsterdam: Live a Heineken Musical Hall
Probably one of their best song, not just for Rain King. This is one of their best song that they have performed. Although this version doesn't have alternative lyrics, the pace and emotion of it make it one of my favorites. Take a listen for your self.
One of my favorite songs from Counting Crows. They do alternative lyrics on many different live version of Rain King. One of my favorite live performances can be found on New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall.
Adam Duritz from during VH1 Storytellers on August 12, 1997:
"I read this book in college when I was at Berkeley called 'Henderson, the Rain King'
and the main character in the book was kind of this big, open-wound of a person, Eugene Henderson, He just sort of bled all over everyone around him
For better or for worse, full of joy, full of sorrow
He just made a mess of everything
and when I wrote the song years later it didn't really have anything to do with the book
except the book had kind of become a totem for how I felt about creativity and writing
that it was just this thing where you just took everything inside of you
and just sort of sprayed it all over everything
and not to worry too much about it, I mean
You try and craft it but not to be self-conscious about it, in any case
And, it's sort of a song about everything that goes into writing, all the feelings
everything that makes you want to write, makes you want to maybe pick up a guitar and do it
and express yourself because it's full of all the doubts and the fears
about how I felt about my life at that time
And also the feeling that I really deserved something better
than what I had accomplished up to that point
I think it is sort of a religious song about the sort of undefinable thing inside you
or out there somewhere that makes you write, makes you create,
makes you do any kind of art form, you know
And makes me The Rain King"
To me, Rain King is about wanting to have more in your life. You can't help but feel down on your self because of how things are going, but you know you deserved better. You "belong in the service of the Queen." and you "belong anywhere but in between."
But even in this situation, you admit at how bad things are. You're even proud of it and labeled yourself the "Rain King." Ultimately, if things are going to end, you are ready. When you "think of dying" you hope that you are delivered in the "belly of a black-winged bird." For me that bird would be a Counted Crow.
