While I'm a big fan of the original, I absolutely love this version of this song.

love this song!!!

I HATED the counting crows vehemently for Adam Duritz' warbling inability to sing...until I heard this, and the live version of Rain King off the same album. Frankly, I cannot fathom why anyone would prefer the lame, generically poppy album version over this wonderfully sincere and emotional variation. There is so much more DEPTH to this song than there was before. The first time I heard the changed lyrics, especially the last line of "Mr. Jones and me, we don't see each other much anymore." I was in awe because I'd NEVER have expected something like this from a group I had long since relegated to the talentless hack pile.

And for the record, VERY few artists can pull off using an accordion in pop music. I'm quite surprised to include these guys in that small number.

I admit that these guys have potential but the singer constantly annoys me. They get a 1 for this. I faded away from it as soon as I realized he was bastardizing the old Byrds chestnut in the intro.

I don't even like the Counting Crows, but I respect a band that will experiment with its music in live shows. I like the CCs better because of this version.

Alright, I know a lot of people people don't like this version, but I really do. I Think people become accustome to hearing a song a certain way,
and when they hear it another way they aren't able to hear what the new version has to offer. This time around the song is slower, more somber (what some people are hearing as a lack of energy I think) but I think there is an emotional quality to this song not evident in the original. The original is upbeat and catchy, while this one lends itself to a greater degree of emotional strain. He's sad when he's singing this, and in many ways this IS a sad song. "When everybody loves you, you should never be lonely". But sometimes when you are in the middle of a ton of people you can be very lonely. If you hear it again, give this version a chance. Very good.

phineas wrote:
Upload an uncensored version and I'm quite sure RP will play it--just be sure and note that it's uncensored in the upload note. I think they work with what they get, and if that's what they get, well, at least they're playing the song.

It's a pretty funny statue, too (at the Guggenheim house in Venice)....

Nice to hear a different version of this. I like!

The merits of this song aside (OK, it's a terrible take on a decent song), I find it fascinating that we get to hear him sing "that's just about as fucked up as it can be," but we get a censored verion of Spirit of the West's If Venice is Sinking, when they sing a line about a statue of a "little man, with an erection on a horse." Heaven forbid we'd be forced to hear that word!

I like it .

I really like these guys in the studio but this makes me never want to see them live if this is how they treat their songs.
:P

It seems as if the accompaniment is playing a different song than what he's "singing", if you could call it. NO energy on either side.

jayladdin wrote:

Their one big song? Their ONE BIG SONG? Granted it was their first big song.

Businessgypsy wrote:
Yeah. Meh. Listening to this version is like watching an almost-deflated balloon trying, unsuccefully, to float away.

I said it before and I'll have to say it again. Please don't play this anymore. (could I be any more politically correct?)

Anyone ever see the movie Georgia? Jennifer Jason Leigh does a great job as a waif/punk-like, almost never sober "singer" with a sister who is a famous and talented country/folk singer. Anyway, Leigh's character is totally, passionatly into every song she sings (and she sings several in the film) but has absolutely no singing talent what so ever. And the songs she sings are purposely (on the part of the film maker)excrutiatingly painful to sit through.

For some reason that movie comes to mind everytime I hear this song. Why do you suppose that is?

weepixel wrote:
No doubt they got bored to tears with doing this in the original way, but it's impossible to think they would have broken through with a version like this.

Ha! These cheezy lounge singer remakes of top forty hits always make me laugh! Oh, wait, it's by the original artists. The Horror. The Horror.

I hate it when artists take their one big song and change it in such a way that it bears no resemblance to the song that made them popular in the first place. I could bear the original; I can't bear this one. :P

OMG! Pleeeeaaseee make the pain go away. I've never said ANYTHING bad about any tune before. I guess there is always a first time for everything. As a matter of fact while you are at it - you might accidentally delete ALL the counting crows mp3's (Oops.. did I say that out loud?)

This version adds no value to the original.

Gaaaah! Where's the mute button!!!!

great great great version

This version is better than the original. I've never much cared for CC but this song gives me a new perspective. Thanks so much for letting us hear live versions from so many different artists.

I would hardly say that they are talentless. I think they are a very talented bunch. SOmetimes they border on the bland. But have many great songs. This is one of em. Always fun to sing.

He really is a great songwriter-- I just wish they would get someone else to sing the songs. It's like he doesn't have enough confidence in his writing/voice and has to oversell every note. It's even worse live.

this song sucks

Counting Crows make me

thank goodness for the mute button

They put on a very good show IMHO. :D