Counting Crows

Counting Crows are an American rock band from Berkeley, California, formed in 1991. The band consists of Adam Duritz (lead vocals, piano), David Bryson (guitar), Charlie Gillingham (accordion, keyboards), Dan Vickrey (lead guitar), David Immerglück (guitar, banjo, mandolin), Jim Bogios (drums) and Millard Powers (bass).

Quotes

 * I can remember being eight years old and having infinite possibilities. But life ends up being so much less than we thought it would be when we were kids, with relationships that are so empty and stupid and brutal. If you don't find a way to break the chain and change in some way, then you wind up, as the rhyme goes: a murder of one, for sorrow.
 * Adam Duritz, about "A Murder of One", from August and Everything After (1993)

Song lyrics
All tracks written by Adam Duritz unless otherwise indicated.

August and Everything After (1993)

 * Step out the front door like a ghost into the fog where no one notices the contrast of white on white. And in between the moon and you the angels get a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right.
 * "Round Here" (Duritz, Dave Janusko, Dan Jewett, Chris Roldan, David Bryson)


 * Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand says she'd like to meet a boy who looks like Elvis
 * "Round Here"


 * She parks her car outside my house and takes her clothes off Says she's close to understanding Jesus She knows she's more that just a little misunderstood She has trouble acting normal when she's nervous
 * "Round Here"


 * Round here we're carving out our names Round here we all look the same Round here we talk just like lions But we sacrifice like lambs Round here, she's slipping through my hands
 * "Round Here"


 * Sleeping children better run like the wind Out of the lightning dream Mama's little baby better get herself in Out of the lightning
 * "Round Here"


 * Then she looks up at the building and says she's thinking of jumping. She says she's tired of life; she must be tired of something.
 * "Round Here"


 * Omaha Somewhere in middle America Getting right to the heart of matters It's the heart that matters more I think you better turn your ticket in And get your money back at the door
 * "Omaha"


 * Mr. Jones and me tell each other fairy tales 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.
 * "Mr. Jones" (Duritz, Bryson)


 * We all want something beautiful. Man, I wish I was beautiful.
 * "Mr. Jones"


 * I want to be a lion Everybody wants to pass as cats We all want to be big big stars, yeah, but we got different reasons for that Believe in me because I don't believe in anything and I want to be someone to believe.
 * "Mr. Jones"


 * Mr. Jones and me staring at the video When I look at the television, I want to see me staring right back at me We all want to be big stars, but we don't know why and we don't know how But when everybody loves me, I'm going to be just about as happy as can be Mr. Jones and me, we're gonna be big stars....
 * "Mr. Jones"


 * It does not bother me to say this isn't love Because if you don't want to talk about it then it isn't love And I guess I'm going to have to live with that But I'm sure there's something in a shade of grey, Something in between, And I can always change my name If that's what you mean
 * "Anna Begins" (Duritz, Bryson, Marty Jones, Toby Hawkins, Lydia Holly)
 * Every time she sneezes I believe it's love.
 * "Anna Begins"


 * When I think of heaven (Deliver me in a black-winged bird) I think of flying down into a sea of pens and feathers and all other instruments of faith and sex and God In the belly of a black-winged bird Don't try to feed me I've been here before and I deserve a little more
 * "Rain King" (Duritz, Bryson)


 * I belong in the service of the Queen I belong anywhere but in between She's been crying, I've been thinking And I am the Rain King
 * "Rain King"


 * Hey, I only want the same as anyone Henderson is waiting for the sun Oh, it seems night endlessly begins and ends After all the dreaming I come home again
 * "Rain King"


 * Take the way home that leads back to Sullivan Street Cross the water, home through the town Past the shadows that fall down wherever we meet Pretty soon now, I won't come around
 * "Sullivan Street"


 * I'm almost drowning in her sea She's nearly fallen to her knees
 * Sullivan Street


 * Take the way home that leads back to Sullivan Street Where all the bodies hang on the air If she remembers, she hides it whenever we meet Either way now, I don't really care Cause I'm gone from there
 * "Sullivan Street"


 * These train conversations are passing me by I don't have nothin' to say You get what you pay for, but I just had no Intention of living this way
 * "Raining in Baltimore"


 * I dreamt I saw you walking, on a hillside in the snow. Casting shadows on the winter sky; as you stood there counting crows.
 * "A Murder of One" (Duritz, Bryson, Matt Malley)


 * I walk along these hillsides in the summer 'neath the sunshine; I am feathered by the moonlight falling down on me.
 * "A Murder of One"

Recovering the Satellites (1996)

 * All my sins... I said that I would pay for them if I could come back to you All my innocence is wasted on the dead and dreaming I dream of Michelangelo when I'm lying in my bed Little angels hang above my head and read me like an open book
 * "Angels of the Silences" (Duritz, Charlie Gillingham)


 * Waiting for the moon to come and light me up inside And I am waiting for the telephone to tell me I'm alive
 * "Daylight Fading" (Duritz, Vickrey, Gillingham)


 * Daylight fading Come and waste another year All the the anger and the eloquence are bleeding into fear Moonlight creeping around the corners of our lawn When we see the early signs that daylight's fading, we leave just before it's gone
 * "Daylight Fading"


 * I will wait for you in Baton Rouge I'll miss you down in New Orleans I'll wait for you while she slips in something comfortable And I'll miss you when I'm slipping in between If you wrap yourself in daffodils I will wrap myself in pain And if you're the queen of california Baby I am the king of the rain And I said Goodnight Elisabeth
 * "Goodnight Elisabeth"


 * Children in bloom Cooking in the sun Waiting for a room of our own Leave my sister alone Cause she don't deserve this She is a flower And I am a flower And we are all alone
 * "Children In Bloom"


 * Gotta get out on my own Gotta get up from this waiting, waiting at home Gotta get out of this sunlight It's melting my bones I gotta get up from this slumber Just get myself home
 * "Children In Bloom"


 * Where's the funhouse this year The fairground's deserted and all the skies don't seem as near, but Nicole's my oldest friend But the altar is empty and she'll never be a little girl again
 * "Children In Bloom"


 * Miller's angels are hovering in between the earth and the sun in the shadow of God's unwavering love I am a fortunate son
 * "Miller's Angels"


 * So she takes her pills Careful and round One of these days she's gonna throw the whole bottle down
 * "Another Horsedreamer's Blues"


 * A long December and there's reason to believe Maybe this year will be better than the last I can't remember the last thing that you said as you were leavin' Now the days go by so fast
 * "A Long December"


 * The smell of hospitals in winter And the feeling that it's all a lot of oysters, but no pearls All at once you look across a crowded room To see the way that light attaches to a girl And it's one more day up in the canyons And it's one more night in Hollywood If you think you might come to California... I think you should
 * "A Long December"


 * Drove up to Hillside Manor sometime after two a.m. And talked a little while about the year I guess the winter makes you laugh a little slower, Makes you talk a little lower about the things you could not show her And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe Maybe this year will be better than the last I can't remember all the times I tried to tell my myself to hold on to these moments as they pass
 * "A Long December"


 * "I gotta rush away," she said, "I been to Boston before. And anyways, This change I been feeling Doesn't make the rain fall." No big differences these days Just the same old walkaways. And someday I'm gonna stay, But not today.
 * "Walkaways" (Duritz, Vickrey)

This Desert Life (1999)

 * She sat right down on the sofa; I said,"Where have you been? I've been waiting for you. Cause last night I had something so good These days get so long and I got nothing to do I been hanginaround this town on the corner
 * "Hanginaround" (Duritz, Dan Vickrey, Ben Mize, David Bryson)


 * We spend all day getting sober. Just hiding from daylight Watching TV We just look a lot better in the blue light Well, you know I gotta get out. But I'm stuck so tight Weighed by the chains that keep me... Hanginaround this town on the corner
 * "Hanginaround"


 * If dreams are like movies then memories are films about ghosts
 * "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby"


 * Well, I am an idiot walking a tightrope of fortune and fame I am an acrobat swinging trapezes through circles of flame If you've never stared off in the distance, then your life is a shame And though I'll never forget your face, sometimes I can't remember my name
 * "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby"


 * All the blue light reflections that color my mind when I sleep And the lovesick rejections that accompany the company I keep All the razor perceptions that cut just a little too deep Hey I can bleed as well as anyone, but I need someone to help me sleep
 * "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby"


 * And the price of a memory is the memory of the sorrow it brings.
 * "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby"


 * I am covered in skin; No one gets to come in. Pull me out from inside. I am folded and unfolded and unfolding, I am colorblind. Coffee black and egg white. Pull me out from inside. I am ready, I am fine.
 * "Colorblind" (Duritz, Charlie Gillingham)


 * For all the things you're losing You might as well resign yourself to try and make a change I'm going down to Hollywood They're gonna make a movie from the things that they find crawling round my brain
 * "I Wish I Was a Girl" (Duritz, Gillingham)

Hard Candy (2002)

 * On certain Sundays in November When the weather bothers me I empty drawers of other summers Where my shadows used to be And she is standing by the water As her smile begins to curl In this or any other summer She is something all together different Never just an ordinary girl
 * "Hard Candy" (Duritz, Dan Vickrey, Charles Gillingham)


 * You put your girl up on a pedestal Then you wait for her to fall I put my summers back in a letter And I hide it from the world All the regrets you can't forget Are somehow pressed upon a picture In the face of such an ordinary girl And when you sleep you find your mother in the night
 * "Hard Candy"


 * American girls, all weather & noise Playing the changes for all of the boys Holding a candle right up to my hand Making me feel so incredible If I made you cry, please tell me why Cause I'll try again if you let me try American girls all feathers & cream Come into bed so edible
 * "American Girls"


 * The gentleman caller in the blue suede shoes He don't know what to do He just wants to look good for you So he rushes in to tell you what he did today but he can't think of what to say I think you listen anyway. He wants to have a good time just like everybody He doesn't want to fall apart You watch him as he stutters over what to say It's just a little game you play
 * "Good Time"


 * It was cold when I awoke and the day was halfway done nearly spring in San Francisco and I still can't feel the sun
 * "If I Could Give All My Love To You (Richard Manuel Is Dead)"


 * Take some time before you go Think of Mondays coming down for the people that you knew and the one's that aren't around
 * "If I Could Give All My Love To You (Richard Manuel Is Dead)"


 * I got a friend at the New Frontier. And Galen, she said: "This is not America. You need a girl with electrical hair, And the word you wanted was 'Aluminum'.
 * "New Frontier"


 * Fix your hair just right and put your jeans on tight wear a dress so I can get it off real easy cause I been thinkin' I'd like to see your eyes open up real wide the minute that you see me
 * "Up All Night (Frankie Miller Goes to Hollywood)"


 * Got no place to go But there's a girl waiting for me down in Mexico She's got a bottle of tequila A bottle of gin And if I bring a little music I could fit right in
 * "Holiday in Spain"


 * They left the television screaming that the radio's on
 * "Holiday in Spain"

Films About Ghosts (2003)

 * Albert's always sincere, he's a sensitive type His intentions are clear, he wanna be well-liked If everything is nothing, then are we anything? Is it better to be better than to be anything?
 * "Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman)" (Duritz, David Bryson)


 * And all the king's men reappear For an eggman, falling, falling The world begins to disappear The worst things come from inside here And all the king's men reappear For an eggman, fallin' off the wall Will never be together again No never be together again No no never never never again, uh huh What you fear in the night in the day comes to call anyway
 * "Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman)"

Shrek 2: Motion Picture Soundtrack (2004)

 * How much longer will it take to cure this? Just to cure it 'cause I can't ignore it if it's love (love) Makes me wanna turn around and face me, But I don't know nothing 'bout love, oh Come on, come on, Turn a little faster. Come on, come on, The world will follow after. Come on, come on, Because everybody's after love.
 * "Accidentally in Love"

Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings (2008)

 * Oh, where do we disappear? Into the silence that surrounds us And then drowns us in the end. Where all these people who impersonate our friends Say, “Come again, come again, come again…”
 * "1492"


 * You open windows And you wait for someone warm to come inside. And then you freeze to death alone. This dizzy life of mine keeps hanging me up all the time This dizzy life is just a hanging tree For me.
 * "Hanging Tree" (Duritz, Dan Vickrey)


 * Now I live in the shadows where light is electric And time is a number that rests on a wall. And nobody knows me, My friends and my family, Are as far from this city as Washington Square.
 * "Washington Square"


 * And I dream of Michelangelo when I'm lying in my bed I see God upon the ceiling, I see angels overhead. And he seems so close as he reaches out his hand, But we are never quite as close as we are led to understand.
 * "When I Dream of Michelangelo" (Duritz, Gillingham, Immerglück, Vickrey)


 * If you think you need to go, If you wanted to be free, There's just one thing you need to know. And that's that you can't count on me.
 * "You Can't Count On Me"


 * Have you seen the little pieces of the people we have been? Little pieces blowing’ gently on the wind.
 * "Come Around" (Duritz, Vickrey)