Mr. Jones

Yep, yep.

Mr. Jones and me.

When approached by the flight attendant, Inzer stopped beating around the bush, put her pants back on.

Oh.

Pete?

Uh, mine's, uh, Mr. Jones by Counting Crows.

Oh, that's a-

Shit yes

Yay.

But you weren't there.

Hey, I wanna see you do, uh, Mr. Jones.

Done.

Click the link in the show notes or go to bookonrock.com. Now on to our show.

From August and Everything After and Recovering the Satellites, to This Desert Life and beyond, Counting Crows have given us songs like Mr. Jones, Round Here, Long December, Hanging Around, and Accidentally in Love.

My guest is Geoff Harkness, author of The Counting Crows: The Story of Every Song.

We will explore the stories behind many of the songs across the band's catalog.

The book gets into the studio albums, but also goes back to the demos.

There were demos that were recorded before the 1993 debut, August and Everything After.

They recorded demos that included Mr. Jones, Round Here, Rain King.

You describe their early sound as cleaner and more keyboard heavy.

uh, Mr. Brightside, James laid.

I know Christian loves that song and the, the counting crows, Mr. Jones, like these are songs that like, uh, big singalongs.

And then I'll also slow things down a little bit.

So like, Cold Place Yellow because everybody knows the words to that.

Just an old classic.

If you haven't heard it, Mr. Jones by Counting Crows.

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la Uh-huh, yeah The new Amsterdam Time with this yellow-haired girl, Mr. Jones Starts up a conversation with a black-haired flamenco dancer

Boom.

There you go, boys.

He had one song that I really liked, but I don't remember what it is.

It wasn't Mr. Jones.

No, I hated that song.

Remember there was the rumor that Mr. Jones was about... him, nevermind, doing stuff

to himself.

You remember that rumor? So

is that song about? And they were

like, oh.

listen.

Stand up 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 And we all want something beautiful Man, I wish I was beautiful So come dance the silence down through the morning

all right so i do love that song counting crows mr jones it's that's a oh man that's i want to listen to the whole thing um i uh i listened to it and i enjoyed it but it wasn't in my wheelhouse in this time so the years the years escaping me I'm going to guess 95, but I

don't feel good

And this did hit number one on several U.S. charts, also in Zimbabwe, the U.K. and Canada.

So we got another one.

And I looked up while we were listening to that one, Mr. Jones, the Counting Crows song.

That one hit number two.

Dressed up to the eyes, it's a wonderful surprise to see your Seek as a sheep spinning round and round Always take a big bite, it's such a gorgeous sight To see you eat in the middle of the night You can never get enough, in love with this stuff It's Friday, I'm in love I don't care if Monday's blue Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too Thursday, I don't care about you It's Friday, I'm in love fall apart Tuesday and Wednesday break my heart Thursday doesn't even start it's Friday I'm in love It's down at the New Amsterdam It's down 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 And

we all want something beautiful I know the song is beautiful So come dance the silence down through the morning Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la, yeah Uh-huh, yeah Cut up Maria Show me some of them Spanish dancers And pass me a bottle of Mr. Jones Because I want to be someone who believes, yeah.

Mr. Jules and me tell each other fairy tales.

And Mr.

Believe in me, cause I don't believe in anything.

And I wanna be someone to believe, to believe, to believe, yeah.

Stumbling through the body of every step The beautiful woman, she's perfect for you Man, there's got to be somebody for me I wanna be Bob Dylan Mr. Jones, wish that he was someone just a little more funky When everybody loves you