Anna Begins Meaning

Anna Begins off 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.