August & Everything After

Or Happy Birthday Adam Durtz!!! Maybe the fact that his birthday is on August first has something to do with that title??? Dunno. Is Counting Crows my favorite band??? I don't know that I have a true favorite, it seems to change from week to week, but I'd definitely say they are always in my top 10, and I think they are my all time favorite live band.

I fell in love with Counting Crows when that album came out. There was a pretty long break between that release and their next, Recovering the Satellites. One morning at work I heard an announcement that they were going to be in concert at the Grand in Hollywood that evening, tickets go on sale at noon. I called up my brother in law (who was between assignments at that time) to see if he could pick up a pair of tickets for us. He could and did, and that was my first time seeing them live. They were introducing the new songs from Recovering the Satellites, which if I remember correctly was almost six months after that. I've heard that a bootleg recording of that night is out there, entitled "Launching the Satellites". I would love to have a copy of that!!!

Next time I got to see them was when Hard Candy came out, and Big Yellow Taxi was getting some airplay. Adam told the story that evening of how they had been recording a show for Leno to air that night, and he had made up a story about how one of the band members had been an air traffic controller and had almost caused a major crash. Awesome show, I fell in love with them all over again. I have seen them three times since, the latest at the Disney Concert Hall with the Philharmoic Orchestra. My oldest son's first concert.

Here is a great song that you might have trouble finding, if you were to look. I've caught it live in concert twice, but have never found it other than live. Entitled August and Everything After:

They're wakin up Maria Cause everybody else has got some place to go
She makes a little motion with her head, rolls over,
and says she's gonna sleep for
A couple minutes more

I said I'm sorry to Maria
For all the cold-hearted things that I have done
I said I'm sorry by now, at least once
To just about everyone

She says I've forgotten what I'm supposed to do today
And it slips my mind what I'm supposed to say
We're getting older and older and older
and always a little further out of the way

You look into her eyes And it's more than your heart will allow
And August and everything after
You get a little less than you expected somehow

Well I stumbled into Washington Square
Just as the sun began to rise
And I laid down on the lawn of the cathedral
And laid down and the shadow of St. Mary's in the sky

And I'm just one of these late model children
Waiting for the king
But there ain't no sign of Elvis in San Francisco
It's just me and I'm playin' this rock and roll thing
She wants to be just like me
And I want every damn thing I can see
You know one day you're Daddy's little angel
The next day you're everything he wanted you to be

They dress you up in white satin
And they give you your very own pair of wings
In August and everything afterI'm after everything

I said yeah yeah yeah yeah - lalala

Well I've got my reservations
And I've got my seven-million dollar home
I've got the number of some girl in New York City
Who's always wide awake
So I never spend the night alone
I've got a nasty little habit
Of peekin down the shirts of all the little girls
As they pass me by
And I wonder when it all catches up to me
And they finally take me down
-Am I gonna cry?

Well I already got my disease
So take your fuckin filthy hands off of me
Yeah well I hope you weren't expecting me to be crucified
-The best that they can doIs to hang me from the nearest tree

It's midnight in San Francisco And
I'm waiting here for Jesus on my knees
And August and everything after
I want somebody else to bleed for me

I said yeah yeah yeah lalala...

Well I came down from North Dakota
Cuz I had confidence in the military mind
And now everyone I know is turning showgirl
And dancing with their shirt off In some Las Vegas hotel line

So I'm going to New York City
Cause it got a little sleazy here for me
When I find myself alone I know I'm never going home
I make the changes, the changes that I need

But I no longer know how to pray
I live in dog town and it's a Dalmatian parade
And I, I change my spots over and over
But they never seem to fade away

I am the last remaining Indian
Looking for the place where the buffalo roam
In August and everything after
Man them buffalo ain't never comin home

And I said in August and everything after
Man them buffalo ain't never comin home

I said oh yeah yeah yeah lalala

While I was looking for that, I found a cool alternatve lyric for the verse about New York City:

So I'm going down to Los Angeles
To plead for my immediate release
And the lawyer says, yeah we'll let you go
But you gotta give us a better reason
than "please, please, please"

I also found a site that has the entirety of a 1994 concert for free download!!! It's under August 9th if you have interest in free music :Þ