And people crowd around the poet and say to him
“Sing again soon”
and may your lips continue
to be formed as before,
because your screams would only
alarm us, but the music is charming.
The song "Murder Of One" has many levels. A murder is a group of crows. (The same way that a pride is a group of lions.) So to say a ''murder of crows'' is to say a group of crows. A ''murder of one''.In the olde English nursery tale...
One for sorrow
two for joy
three for girls
four for boys
five for silver
six for gold
seven for a secret never to be told...
----------------
(common in England)...they heard it in an old movie... one stands for sorrow. Seeing one crow means sorrow.
LiveDaily interview 2003:
Although singer/songwriter Adam Duritz doesn't anguish 24-7 like the protagonists in Crow anthems like "A Long December," "Raining In Baltimore" and "Round Here," he still is very hard on himself when it comes to his writing--suffice to say it's probably what makes his work so prolific, and songs so endearing.
Duritz recently spoke with liveDaily from Manhattan on a rare day off.
liveDaily: Was writing something you were always thinking about as a vocation? Apart from music?
Adam Duritz: I don't know if you think about those things vocationally. You just do them, you know what I mean? Other things you look at in terms of job prospects; you need to go into an entry-level position and work your way up in whatever you're going to do. It's not that way as a writer. You just write. Then you find yourself one day: a writer.
..... I feel like self-criticism should be an extraordinarily severe thing. In order to be any good, you have to be ... brutal. I always get asked these kinds of questions; I'm not a defining kind of person. I never spent any time trying to define these things, except in interviews...... In any of the arts, the biggest transition you make is the transition from "Isn't it wonderful to live a life of self-expression?" to the brutality. When you're a kid, you want to grow up to do something that seems fun, and art seems like one of those things to outsiders. To a lot of people, writing seems like, "Well, I don't have to go to work every day and be bossed around or go to a job." So it seems great. The truth of the matter is it's a lot harder than that.
People always ask me, "Do you love what you do, or is it a job?" My thing is, I don't think it's about loving what you do. I don't think that's important. Sure it would be nice if that were the way it is, but it's not about that. It's about doing something that's really good. For me, it's about leaving a legacy of something that I'm proud of.
I read somewhere, you said that you don't have to tell somebody you're depressed, you can just tell them what the room you're sitting in looks like. That the way you look at the room communicates your mood. When did you figure that out?
You learn that the first time you read [William] Faulkner describing the turtle crossing the road. The devil is in the details. It's always about that to me. It's not saying you can't tell someone how you feel, but when you say "I love you," what does that mean? It's been over-said. Not that it doesn't have meaning, but if you want to say "I love you," you'd better really be able to communicate that at that moment so that it feels true. It doesn't impart a lot of meaning in and of itself. There are so many phrases that have become idiomatic because they are so used--they go in one ear and out the other.
But if you tell someone something in a smaller way, in between the lines is where all that feeling is. In "A Long December:" "All at once you look across a crowded room / and see the way that light attaches to a girl." You know how that guy feels about that girl at that moment. You don't have to say, "She takes my breath away," or all these things that you've heard. Rather than say that she takes my breath away I'd rather explain that I can't breathe. "She takes my breath away" doesn't mean anything. The first time somebody wrote it, it meant a lot, but now we say it and it's just a phrase. So I want to find a way of saying that, that communicates the meaning, but in a different way. But I think all of that pre-dates songwriting for me. It's in Faulkner. It's in Hemingway.
What's kept the Crows going for all these years? How do you think you've been able to sustain?
I think it's been persistence. We've worked. We tour a year and a half for every record. I don't know anybody that's pursued it as a career more than us. And I don't mean in a commercial way, it's just there's very real work to be done with keeping a career as a musician. There's writing and recording, but longevity is achieved through touring. The people who last are the people who can bring it onstage.
.... the people that you play for on any given night, the people who share something intimate with you that they've never seen before, they treasure that. And they come back for the next record, because they were there for all the songs. And they come out for the next tour, and they bring their friends.
Interview by Serena Altschul, 2004, MTV:
Duritz: I think the record is about being in a state of flux...but it's more about coming to grips with the fact that life is about being confused. And the problem isn't that you're confused or you don't know where you're going. It's only a problem really when you despair, and I think this album is about not despairing at those moments.
"High Life" is a song set about ten years after "Hanginaround" takes place, when you find yourself at a wild time in your life again, and wondering is that hollow, or is that okay? I think the guy comes to grips with the fact that maybe he isn't where he thought he'd be, but, it's certainly who he is now.
The last two lines in the song are "But, oh this desert life, this high life / Here at the dying end of the day / I wasn't made for this scene / But I was made in this scene / And baby it's just my way." It's just about, well, this is where I am, and that's all right.
Altschul: Some of the images and motifs from "August" and "Satellites" appear once again in "This Desert Life," including the trains and the rain. But there are also certain names, like Elizabeth and Maria, which keep reappearing. Why do you keep returning to those things?
Duritz: I think I reuse images because they are the pictures I relate to when I think of certain subjects. I reuse names because the songs relate to the people again. But as words, I try not to make them necessarily mean the same thing in a lot of trite senses of those words.
I wrote a song on the first album called "Ghost Train," and it sort of refers to the idea that your life is like a train with cars stretched out behind you, and it's filled with ghosts, which are your memories. And then when you're in love with someone, you have to sort of get on the same train together with each other's ghosts, and get to know all of them, which is a hard thing to do -- to want to ride around with your ghosts all day long.
In "Good Night Elizabeth" on "Recovering The Satellites," the first line is, "Wasted in the afternoon, waiting on a train." You know, waiting for that place where you can come together and waiting for your life to pick you up, and on "High Life," the second verse is "Waiting for the trains that just never come."
Altschul: You recorded this album over an eight month period in a house, in the same kind of setting you also used in the last two records. What is so appealing about that environment?
Duritz: We've always made all our records in different houses, and I'm not really hot on going into studios. I'm not comfortable in them. I think it's the wrong atmosphere to create in. Usually, we've done some overdubs in the studios, but this record was all done in the house. We even mixed some of it in the house.
But it was a different experience this time, because we didn't rehearse or write songs before we started the record. So we really went in kind of cold with nothing. We had one song, I think, and that was a whole different experience. It made it take a little longer, but it was really cool. We were really wide open to anything anyone would think of.
------------------------------------------------------------
The best crows site is Lisa's: click here.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Rain King, (he changes em live at times though):
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
[chorus]
I belong in the service of the Queen
I belong anywhere but in between
She's been crying and I've been thinking
And I am the Rain King
[verse]
And I said mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone
I can't go outside
I'm scared I might not make it home
I'm alive, I'm alive
But I'm sinking in
If there's anyone at home at your place, darling
Why don't you invite me in?
Don't try to bleed me
I've been there before
And I deserve a little more
[chorus]
I belong in the service of the Queen
I belong anywhere but in between
She's been lying and I've been sinking
And I am the Rain King
[bridge]
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
[verse]
When I think of heaven
deliver me in a black-winged bird
I think of dying
Lay me down in a field of flame and heather
Render up my body into the burning heart of God
in the belly of a black-winged bird
Don't try to bleed me
I've been here before
And I deserve a little more
[chorus]
I belong in the service of the queen
I belong anywhere but in between
She's been dying and I've been drinking
And I am the Rain King
------------------------------------------------------
Just down the street from your hotel, baby
I stay at home with my disease
And ain't this position familiar, darling
Well, all monkeys do what they see
Help me stay awake, I'm falling...
Down on Virginia and La Loma
where I got friends who care for me
You got an attitude of everything I ever wanted
I got an attitude of need
Help me stay awake, I'm falling...
CHORUS:
Asleep in perfect blue buildings
Beside the green apple sea
Gonna get me a little oblivion, baby
Try to keep myself away from me
It's 4:30 A.M. on a Tuesday
It doesn't get much worse than this
In beds in little rooms in buildings in the middle
of these lives which are completely meaningless
Help me stay awake, I'm falling...
(CHORUS)
I got bones beneath my skin, and mister...
there's a skeleton in every man's house
Beneath the dust and love and sweat that hang on everybody
there's a dead man trying to get out
Please help me stay awake, I'm falling...
(CHORUS)
I can't keep myself away from me
in a perfect blue building
how I'm gonna keep myself away
how I'm gonna keep myself away from me
keep myself away
how I'm gonna keep myself away from me
keep myself away
how I'm gonna keep myself away from me
-----------------------------------------------------------
Blue morning Blue morning Wrapped in strands of fist and bone
Curiosity, Kitten,
Doesn't have to mean you're on your own
You can look outside your window
He doesn't have to know
We can talk awhile, baby
We can take it nice and slow
All your life is such a shame, shame, shame
All your love is just a dream, dream, dream
Are you happy where you're sleeping?
Does he keep you safe and warm?
Does he tell you when you're sorry?
Does he tell you when you're wrong?
I've been watching you for hours
It's been years since we were born
We were perfect when we started
I've been wondering where we've gone
All your life is such a shame shame shame
All your love is just a dream dream dream
I dreamt I saw you walking up a hillside in the snow
Casting shadows on the winter sky as you stood there
counting crows
One for sorrow Two for joy
Three for girls and four for boys
Five for silver Six for gold and
seven for a secret never to be told
There's a bird that nests inside you
sleeping underneath your skin
When you open up your wings to speak
I wish you'd let me in
All your life is such a shame shame shame
All your love is just a dream dream dream
Open up your eyes
You can see the flames flames flames of your wasted life
You should be ashamed
You don't want to waste your life baby
I walk along these hillsides in the summer 'neath the sunshine
I am feathered by the moonlight falling down on me
Change, change, change
-----------------------------------------------------------------
On certain Sundays in November
When the weather bothers me
I empty drawers of other summer's
Where my shadows used to be
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
And in the evenings on Long Island
When the colors start to fade
She wears a silly yellow hat
That someone gave her when she stayed
I didn't think that she returned it
We left New York in a whirl
Time expands and then contracts
When you are spinning
In the grips of someone
Who is not an ordinary girl
And when you sleep
You find your mother in the night
But she stays just out of sight
So there isn't any sweetness in the dreaming
And when you wake the morning covers you with light
And it makes you feel alright
But it's just the same hard candy
You're remembering again
You send your lover off to China
Then you wait for her to call
You put your girl up on a pedestal
Then you wait for her to fall
I put my summer's 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
But she fades just out of sight
So there isn't any sweetness in the dreaming
And when you wake the morning showers you with light
And it makes you feel alright
But it's just the same hard candy
You're remembering again
Again 4X
It's just the same hard candy
You're remembering again
Again 4X
And it's just the same hard candy
You're remembering again
Go ask her to come around
And see me late after dark
Don't ask me to come around
Then wait to if there's a spark
3X
---------------------------------------------
Why Should You Come When I Call?
It's 1:30 in the morning
but that's alright by me
Weren 't you just waiting by the phone
I should give a little warning
but I need the things I need
I'm not proud to need a hand
but I just don't understand
So, Why should you come when I call?
I never say nothing at all
why do I go, when I go?
it's leaving me here all alone
You ought to get out on your own
ain't necessarily a bad thing
to believe the things I say
cause you can make yourself feel good
you know it's really not a good thing
to give everything to me
I'm just waiting for the show
cause I got no where to go
So, Why should you come when I call?
I never say nothing at all
why do I go, when I go?
it's leaving me here all alone
you ought to get out on your own
Cause nothing makes me feel so good
gets me high
so I sleep at night
and lets me know that everythings alright
I feel nice
I'm so sorry in the morning
could believe what you believe
I'm used to waking up alone
And if you think about it
Anyone you think about is better love than me
but if you've not fallen quite asleep
I might call tonight
if that's alright...
why should you come when I call?
I never say nothing at all
why do I go, when I go?
it's leaving me here all alone
you ought to get out on your own
----------------------------------------------
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.
I walk in the air between the rain
through myself and back again
Where? I don't know
Maria says she's dying
through the door I hear her crying
Why? I don't know
Chorus
Round here we always stand up straight
Round here something radiates
Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand
she said she'd like to meet a boy who looks like Elvis
and she walks along the edge of where the ocean meets the land
just like she's walking on a wire in the circus
she parks her car outside of my house
takes her clothes off
says she's close to understanding Jesus
she knows she's more than just a little misunderstood
she has trouble acting normal when she's nervous
Chorus: 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
Sleeping children better run like the wind
out of the lightning dream
Mama's little baby better get herself in
out of the lightning
She says "it's only in my head"
She says "Shhh I know it's only in my head"
But the girl on the car in the parking lot
says "Man you should try to take a shot
can't you see my walls are crumbling?"
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 she's always on my mind
Round here hey man got lots of time
Round here we're never sent to bed early
and nobody makes us wait
Round here we stay up very, very, very, very late
I can't see nothing.. nothing round here
will you catch if I'm falling
will you catch me if I'm falling
will you catch me cause I'm falling down on you
I said I'm under the gun around here
I'm innocent I'm under the gun around here
and I can't see nothing
nothing round here
------------------------------------------------------------
Big Yellow Taxi (original by Joni Mitchell)
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They took all the trees
Put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Hey farmer farmer
Put away that DDT now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please!
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
All of the sudden she disappears
just yesterday she was here
Somebody tell me if I am sleeping
Someone should be with me here
(cause I don't wanna be alone)
I wanna be the knife that cuts into my hand
and I wanna be scattered from here in this catapult
What a big baby won't somebody save me please
You won't find nobody home
All of these quiet battered voices
wait for the hunger to come
we got little revolvers and stupid choices
and no one to say when we're done
(Well I don't wanna bring you down)
I wanna be the light that burns out your eyes
`cause I know there's little things about me
that would sing in the silence so much rejection
in every connection I make
I can't find nobody home
I wanna be the light that burns out your eyes,
cause I know theres little things about me
that would sing in the silence
So much rejection in every connection I make
I wanna be the last thing that you hear
when you're falling asleep....
I wanna be the knife that cuts into my hand
and I want to be scattered
from here in this catupult
What a big baby won't somebeody save me please I can't find nobody home
-----------------------------------------------------------
Get away from me, just get away from me
This isn't gonna be easy
but I don't need you
believe me
You got a piece of me
but it's just a little piece of me
And I don't need anyone
these days I feel like I'm fading away
Like sometimes when I hear myself on the radio
Have you seen me lately?
Have you seen me lately?
I was out on the radio starting to change
Somewhere out in America, it's starting to rain
Could you tell me the things you remember about me
and have you seen me lately?
I remember me
and all the little things that make up a memory
Like she said she loved to watch me sleep
Like she said:
"It's the breathing, it's the breathing in and out and in and..."
Have you seen me lately?
I was out on the radio starting to change
Somewhere out in America it's starting to rain
Could you tell me the things you remember about me
And have you seen me lately?
I thought that someone would notice
I thought somebody would say something
if I was missing
Can't you see me?
Come on color me in
Come on color me in
Give me your blue rain
Give me your black sky
Give me your green eyes
Come on give me your white skin
Come on give me your white skin
Come on give me your white skin
I was out on the radio starting to change
Somewhere out in America, it's starting to rain
Could you tell me the things you remember about me
And have you seen me lately?
Have you seen me lately
--------------------------------------------------------------
She comes to me at night when I'm sleeping
She comes to me when I'm alone
She comes to me, she holds my head when I'm crying
She comes to me, she shuts my eyes
She brings me home
But I'm not sleeping anymore, anymore
But I'm not sleeping anymore, anymore
She tells me when you look at me, she tells me when you're lying
She tells me when you talk about me, she lays me on the floor
She tells me when you're whispering, she lies beside me naked
She tells me when you laugh at me and she locks all the doors
But I'm not sleeping anymore, anymore
But I'm not sleeping anymore, anymore
1-2-3-4-5-6-7a.m.
all alone again
But I've been through all this shit before
Spend my nights in self defense
Crying about my innocence
But I ain't all that innocent anymore, more, more
I see her on the TV, I see her in the movies
I see her in these animals that dance beside my bed
I'll follow you down baby, down into this valley
I'll follow you down baby, but I won't come up again
But I'm not sleeping anymore, anymore
No I'm not sleeping anymore, anymore
I'm not sleeping
I'm not sleeping anymore
I said rain rain go away
come again some other day,
cause I got all this shit to say
but I've gone back to find my way.
My sister's mother's favorite son
lost among the chosen one,
but I've got news for everyone
cause I"m going out that door
---------------------------------------------------------
I was wasted in the afternoon
waiting on a train
I woke up in pieces and Elisabeth had disappeared again
I wish you were inside of me
I hope that you're ok
I hope you're resting quietly
I just wanted to say
Goodnight Elisabeth
Goodnight Elisabeth
We couldn't all be cowboys
So some of us are clowns
Some of us are dancers on the midway
we roam from town to town
I hope that everybody can find a little flame
Me, I say my prayers, then I just light myself on fire
and walk out on the wire once again
And I say
Goodnight Elisabeth
Goodnight Elisabeth
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
I'll miss you when I'm slipping in between
If you wrap yourself in daffodils
I will wrap myself in pain
If you're the queen of California,
baby I am the king of the rain
And I said
Goodnight Elisabeth
Goodnight Elisabeth
Goodnight Elisabeth,
The moon is a satellite
and wont you fall down on me now,
wont you fall down on me
wont you fall down on me now
wont you fall down on me
cause Im all alone, you ain't coming home
we just settle down down into bone
I said I'm all alone. you ain't coming home
we just settle down down down into bone
-----------------------------------------------------
She is trapped inside a month of gray
And they take a little every day
She is a victim of her own responses
shackled to a heart that wants to settle
and then runs away
It's a sin to be fading endlessly
Yeah, but she's alright with me
She is leaving on a walkaway
She is leaving me in disarray
In the absence of a place to be
she stands there looking back at me
hesitates, and then turns away
She'll change so suddenly
She's just like mercury
Yeah, but she's alright with me
Keep some sorrow in your hearts and minds
for the things that die before their time
For the restlessly abandoned homes
the tired and weary rambler's bones
and stay beside me where I lie
She's entwined in me
Crazy as can be
Yeah, but she's alright with me
----------------------------------------------
Gotta rush away she said
I've been to Boston before
anyway, this change I've been feeling
doesn't make the rain fall
No big differences these days
Just the same old walkways
Someday I'm going to stay, but not today..
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