| Mr. Jones From "August and Everything After" I was down at the New Amsterdam Staring at this yellow-haired girl Mr. Jones strikes up a conversation With this black-haired flamenco dancer She dances while his father plays guitar She's suddenly beautiful And we all want something beautiful I wish I was beautiful So come dance this silence Down through the morning Cut it up, Maria! Show me some of them Spanish dances and Pass me a bottle Mr. Jones Believe in me Help me believe in anything And I wanna be someone who believes Mr. Jones and me Tell each other fairy tales And we stare at the beautiful women She's lookin' at you? Oh-no-no she's lookin' at me Smiling in the bright lights Coming through in stereo When everybody loves you You can never be lonely I will paint my picture Paint myself in blue and red and black and gray All of the beautiful colors are very, very meaningful Gray is my favorite color I felt so symbolic yesterday If I knew Picasso I would by myself a gray guitar and play Mr. Jones and me Look into the future And stare at the beautiful women She's looking at you? I don't think so, she's lookin' at me Standing in the spotlight I bought myself a gray guitar But when everybody loves me I will never be lonely I will never be lonely Said I'm never gonna be lonely I wanna be a lion Yeah, everybody wants to pass as cats We all wanna be big,big stars But we got different reasons for that Believe in me 'Cause I don't believe in anything And I just wanna be someone to believe Mr. Jones and me Stumble through the barrio Yeah we stare at the beautiful women She's perfect for you Now there's got to be someone for me I wanna be Bob Dylan Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky When everybody loves you 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 how And we don't know why But when everybody loves me I'm going to be just about as happy As I can be Mr. Jones and me We're gonna be big stars |
| This song was for me, like most, the first time I ever heard Counting Crows. I was working and listening to Casey Kasem one Sunday and he described this song as being about keeping up with the Jones's. Well kind of, but not really. AD describes this song as really being about him and his friend Marty Jones. They went out one night to see Marty's father who was a flamenco guitar player. And he was playing at this bar called.....the New Amsterdam. I think it's in San Francisco, but don't quote me on that. Anyways, he and Marty were just standning around, drinking, looking at the scenery and thinking how easy it would be to meet girls if they were rich and famous. While that night gave AD the framework for the song, it is so much deeper than that. It's about everyone's need to be great. In one area or another, we all want to be the best at whatever it is we do. And when you're young and figuring things out, you think that when and if you get to that point, life will be easy. You won't be lonely, you won't have any needs. That just isn't true. Life is comprised of so much more than our successes- or our failures. You could have all the money in the world and still be jealous of the man who has true love. You could have true love and be jealous of the man with all the money. It's a never ending circle really, and the only answer is to find happiness in what you've got in front of you. I've made the mistake too many times in the past, trying to find the better deal. Pushing this person away because that seems better. Now here I am, with no one to share my life. But that doesn't mean there aren't people I care about, or who care about me. As much as I want and long for the love that will make everything else seem trivial, I completely appreciate the people who have the stamina to be around me. There are alternate live versions of this song that make it much deeper than this. But to me, this song is about being young and wanting. Having your eyes set on the future and not thinking twice about it. That can be good, but you also can neglect the present. |