That article is interesting… but it doesn’t make that song suck any less.
That article is interesting… but it doesn’t make that song suck any less.
Personally, I like it. But “Rain King” is better.
RR
A link to the Staff Report is appreciated. In the Counting Crows song, is “Mr. Jones” the singer’s penis?
I always assumed that “Mr. Jones” was a reference to Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Jones” from the song “Ballad Of A Thin Man” on “Highway 61 Revisited”.
“You know something is happening,
but you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?”
It fits in with the interview text even if it wasn’t explicitly mentioned by Mr. Duritz.
*I always assumed that “Mr. Jones” was a reference to Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Jones” from the song “Ballad Of A Thin Man” on “Highway 61 Revisited”. *
I always thought it was talking about Duritz’ having a “Jones” for success and acceptance. Score one for simplicity, though.
RR
I always assumed it was about being a heroin addict, but I never bothered to listen to the lyrics. Most of the time, if you assume that some wants-to-be-alternative song is about heroin, you’re right. In fact I still might go around thinking it’s about heroin, just for the hell of it.
I took another listen to the song and he actually mentions BD explicitly at one point:
“I want to 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”
I guess that would make it fairly clear.
After reading the column, I’ve concluded I must be the only person who listened to that song and thought it was about the singer and a friend whose last name is Jones going to a club to admire women they haven’t got a chance with. Why did/do so many people read into it, the lyrics are pretty straight forward.