Sunday Samples 129

May as well keep with a going theme.

There’s a certain progression when it comes to listening to romantic songs. First you’ll go for any cheesy, sappy, sentimental melody that comes along. A lot of people never really get past that point. But eventually you get too mature for that sort of thing. You recognize how simplistic and unrealistic those songs are, and you want something more sophisticated and nuanced. But then, if you’re lucky, you meet someone who makes you understand all those silly, sappy love songs. And if you’ve got any sense, you gain the perspective after they’re gone to know that they’re still silly and sappy, but there’s also a truth to them, and they can be perfect in the right context.

The thing is, the same thing goes for overdone sings about pain or loss or alienation. And like the protagonist of High Fidelity points out, there are a lot more of those out there. And it’s not just because they’re commercial. There’s a certain context where as oversimplified as they are, they’re still true.

Back in the mid-1990s, Counting Crows caught a lot of flack, but someone was buying all those albums. The anti-buzz started with their first hit single, 1993’s “Mr. Jones”

I was down at the New Amsterdam
Staring at this yellow-haired girl
Mr. Jones strikes up a conversation
With a black-haired flamenco dancer
You know she dances while his father plays guitar
She’s suddenly beautiful
We all want something beautiful
Man I wish I was beautiful

So come dance this silence down through the morning
Cut up, Maria!
Show me some of that Spanish dancing
Pass me a bottle, Mr. Jones
Believe in me
Help me believe in anything, ’cause I
I wanna be someone who believes

Mr. Jones and me
Tell each other fairy tales
And we 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

Well, I’m gonna paint my picture
Paint myself in blue and red and black and gray
All of the beautiful colors are very very meaningful
Yeah, well you know gray is my favorite color
I felt so symbolic yesterday
If I knew Picasso
I would buy myself a gray guitar and play

Mr. Jones and me
Look into the future
Yeah, we stare at the beautiful women
“She’s looking at you
I don’t think so. She’s looking at me”
Standing in the spotlight
I bought myself a gray guitar
When everybody loves me
I will never be lonely

I will never be lonely
I’m never gonna be
Lonely

I wanna be a lion
Everybody wants to pass as cats
We all wanna be big big stars
Yeah, but we’ve got different reasons for that

Believe in me
‘Cause I don’t believe in anything
And I wanna be someone to believe
To believe
To believe

Mr. Jones and me
Stumbling through the barrio
Yeah we stare at the beautiful women
“She’s perfect for you
Man, there’s got to be somebody for me”
I wanna be Bob Dylan
Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky
When everybody loves you, oh, son
That’s just about as funky as you can be

Mr. Jones and me
Staring at the video
When I look at the television I wanna see me
Staring right back at me
We all wanna be big stars
But we don’t know why and we don’t know how
But when everybody loves me I wanna be
Just about as happy as I could be

Mr. Jones and me
We’re gonna be big stars