we talk like lions, but we sacrifice like lambs

"longing"

date taken: october 31, 2008

photo by: me

subject: mom, and my soulmate

day 19 - a song from your favorite album

august and everything after came out when i was 13. i can't listen to it all that much these days. even in the 2 hours or so that i've been listening to the album so i can blog about it, it's triggered a pandora's box of meaning and memory. i don't mean to sound sentimental. it's just that this CD is loaded, and i've been living with it a long time.

i guess i could say something useful about it that some of you may not have known. the title track never made the album, it was replaced by raining in baltimore, a gorgeous track originally written for bonnie raitt. august and everything after was of course in reference to the day adam duritz was born (august 4 or 5, i don't remember), and everything after. the rumor was that the only person with a copy of the song was adam's dad. then in 2003, the band went on tour and did this thing where they let the audience vote online on what songs they wanted to hear at the show. well, naturally, people overwhelmingly voted to hear "august and everything after." adam issued an apology on the band website, he had never recorded the song, and didn't remember the lyrics. the rumor about his dad having a copy was false. the next day, a fan posted the complete lyrics to a song that purported to be august and everything after. every true fan was holding their breath. it looked real, like something adam could have written. adam confirmed that the lyrics were familiar, and he agreed to perform the song. they began their tour in the bay area, and they played the song. people were crying and shit. i was in rochester at the time, but eagerly waiting on cloudkookooland.com for news. and someone posted the bootleg, and i was verklempt. it wasn't nearly their best. but for fans of the album, it was the proverbial holy grail.

i am not posting AAEA. and i'm not posting anna begins, which is my favorite counting crows song. i'm posting the "go to sleep, little angel" alternate live version of round here, that gets cut off before the end. why post an incomplete track? because it's sublime, and because it was recorded at the fillmore in may 1994. i have a bootleg of this somewhere. if i find it, i'll repost. just a note about this song, the character maria (who appears in other tracks) is actually a fictional representation of adam duritz.

counting crows - round here (fillmore 1994)