Rain King Versions

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.

Rain King Meaning

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.