Anna Begins Versions

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.

Studio Version of Anna Begins

Acoustic Version of Anna Begins

Angels of the Silences Versions

I will admit that when  Recovery the Satellites, debuted I 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

Recovering the Satellites version

Across A Wire version

YouTube Concert - May 2, 2012

Where: YoutTube HQ
When: May 2012
Setlist:

• The Ballad of El Goodo 
• Miami
• Four White Stallions
• Interview
• Q &A

Miami Meaning

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 Versions

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:

"If you knew everything

If you could see everything before it happens

Then what would you do?

If you knew that the love that you threw away

That meant everything to her

If you knew you could ruin her

then would you do?"

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.