Counting Crows: "You Can't Count On Me"

[singingsparrow]

With the Counting Crows currently in the middle of their Triple Play Rock N Roll Ballpark Tour, speculation is out among the Counting Crows official web-site community that the lead single from their forthcoming November 6 release "Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings" will be announced just after Labor Day weekend.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u8E09_Mh9c

Rumors are also moving around there that "Insignificant" may be the lead single, which has been confirmed by Duritz as the second track on the edgier "Saturday Mornings" half of the album, though the rumor has yet to be authenicated. You can find a new live performance clip of the song at the link above.

Gauging by the live clip, "Insignificant" is a great rocker, and I am delighted to see the band getting back into an edgier form after a poppy album ("Hard Candy") and two consecutive overproduced hits ("Big Yellow Taxi", "Accidentally In Love"), even when I didn't mind the latter too much.

If "Insignificant" does end up being the lead single, however, as amazing as the song sounds live, and likely to top the Triple A chart, I don't think it would perform all that well on Hot AC and, coupled with the fact Counting Crows haven't received any play on Alternative since "Hangin'around" got limited play there in 1999 ("Insignificant" would be a hit there if released in the mid-90's) I think they surely have to have better single candidates than this, even as dark as I heard this whole album is.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[singingsparrow]

Here are some live clips of two other new songs that will be included on "Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings".

www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9aZ1U15HJo&eurl=

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Hzes0fkq0&mode=related&search=

The former is titled "Cowboys", and is the opening track on the "Saturday Nights" half of the album. The latter is titled "When I Dream Of Michelangelo" (perhaps a spin-off from lyrics of their 1996 single "Angels of The Silences") and will be part of the softer "Sunday Mornings" half of the album.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[smadavid]

I saw the crows this past saturday night at the New Britain show -- great show, BTW, they're really on top of their game right now -- and they played Insignificant. Definitely has the potential to be a single, depending on how the studio recording is produced. Another likely candidate is Come Around, which they had posted to the site a while back -- I think that's got a good chance at being a little more Hot AC friendly.

[singingsparrow]

smadavid said:

I saw the crows this past saturday night at the New Britain show -- great show, BTW, they're really on top of their game right now -- and they played Insignificant. Definitely has the potential to be a single, depending on how the studio recording is produced. Another likely candidate is Come Around, which they had posted to the site a while back -- I think that's got a good chance at being a little more Hot AC friendly.

I haven't heard "Come Around" yet, but I do think "Insignificant" may be too loud to be a big hit on Hot AC, unless the studio version is less edgier and more polished (where even, lyrically it may still be too edgy)

They've also been playing "Washington Square" again, which is a gorgeous acoustic, but didn't really strike me as single-material either.

I'm very excited about their forthcoming album, and I have a gut feeling this may end up becoming their best album since "Recovering The Satellites" (which is a huge compliment given "This Desert Life" was also an excellent album, in my opinion). I honestly never thought Counting Crows would ever really try an edgier sound again because Adam Duritz endured some vocal cord damages in recent years from singing too many high notes while being physically strained, but am pleasantly surprised they're not only returning to an edgier sound; they're rocking just as hard as they had during the "Recovering The Satellites" era, while also maturing.

Despite some stand-out songs on the record, particularly "Miami", "Butterfly In Reverse" and "Up All Night", I was left feeling underwhelmed by "Hard Candy", because the music just sounded too overproduced. Then, although I actually didn't mind "Accidentally In Love" too much in that Duritz just thought it'd be nice to write something the children would like, I also got more worried this was a harbinger of what direction the band intended to move in musically.

But they have blowed all my worries away with these strong new songs and live energy, and I haven't been this excited about the Counting Crows since before the release of "This Desert Life" in 1999.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[smadavid]

singingsparrow said:

I'm very excited about their forthcoming album, and I have a gut feeling this may end up becoming their best album since "Recovering The Satellites" (which is a huge compliment given "This Desert Life" was also an excellent album, in my opinion). I honestly never thought Counting Crows would ever really try an edgier sound again because Adam Duritz endured some vocal cord damages in recent years from singing too many high notes while being physically strained, but am pleasantly surprised they're not only returning to an edgier sound; they're rocking just as hard as they had during the "Recovering The Satellites" era, while also maturing.

Agreed -- I'm hoping that this album ranks right up there with Recovering the Satellites, which in my opinion is a masterpiece, certainly their best album. I'm excited that Gil Norton is producing the first half of the album.

Whether or not there's much in the way of radio-friendly tracks remains to be seen; their albums generally have one or two singles at most. Although its interesting that Hard Candy, which I think is one of their more radio-friendly albums to date, received very little play outside of Big Yellow Taxi. When American Girls was released I was pretty confident it would do well, but I think it topped out around #23 or 24 on Hot AC. I think that was in large part because at the time they really weren't perceived as a Hot AC artist; most of their previous hits were primarily on Alternative radio (and of course AAA). But with both BYT and Accidentally In Love going Top 5 at Hot AC, the format may give them a better chance this time around.

[singingsparrow]

smadavid said:

singingsparrow said:

I'm very excited about their forthcoming album, and I have a gut feeling this may end up becoming their best album since "Recovering The Satellites" (which is a huge compliment given "This Desert Life" was also an excellent album, in my opinion). I honestly never thought Counting Crows would ever really try an edgier sound again because Adam Duritz endured some vocal cord damages in recent years from singing too many high notes while being physically strained, but am pleasantly surprised they're not only returning to an edgier sound; they're rocking just as hard as they had during the "Recovering The Satellites" era, while also maturing.

Agreed -- I'm hoping that this album ranks right up there with Recovering the Satellites, which in my opinion is a masterpiece, certainly their best album. I'm excited that Gil Norton is producing the first half of the album.

Whether or not there's much in the way of radio-friendly tracks remains to be seen; their albums generally have one or two singles at most. Although its interesting that Hard Candy, which I think is one of their more radio-friendly albums to date, received very little play outside of Big Yellow Taxi. When American Girls was released I was pretty confident it would do well, but I think it topped out around #23 or 24 on Hot AC. I think that was in large part because at the time they really weren't perceived as a Hot AC artist; most of their previous hits were primarily on Alternative radio (and of course AAA). But with both BYT and Accidentally In Love going Top 5 at Hot AC, the format may give them a better chance this time around.

Gil Norton's been quite prolific as of late. He's also the producer of the new Foo Fighters album "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace" (who also produced their sophomore record "The Colour & The Shape")

I'm also excited about the more acoustic half of the record as well, for Brian Deck is producing the half, who produced Modest Mouse's criticaly-acclaimed (and then again, since when has the band never been critically-acclaimed? ) "The Moon And Antactica". I've already heard "When I Dream Of Michaelangelo" and it is very touching, as is "Washington Square", which live has a great blend of mandolin and harmonica in there.

I remember when there was a lot of scorn thrown towards the Counting Crows when they released "Big Yellow Taxi" as a single, including from many here, where some even said they had lost some respect for the band because of that, while others feared they were becoming too much of a pop band with "Accidentally In Love" following (though that single received much more favorable reviews in comparison, even if not ecstatic).

I believe this record is going to dispel most of those worries and frustrations away.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[Kid Pulse]

I hope they release another song along the lines of "Round Here" or "A Long December". I generally prefer the slower songs by this band than thier faster ones.

[smadavid]

Stereogum has the studio version of Cowboy:

www.stereogum.com/archives/mp3/new-counting-crows-cowboy.html

[singingsparrow]

smadavid said:

Stereogum has the studio version of Cowboy:

www.stereogum.com/archives/mp3/new-counting-crows-cowboy.html

That song is great, and I've liked it a lot since I heard and saw a concert performance of the song on YouTube. The lyrics are very descriptive and reflective, and hold much aesthetic imagery in them I haven't seen in a Counting Crows song since "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby".

I don't think "Cowboys" would make a good single, though. Firstly, the song is too aggressive-sounding, just like something that could have come right from the "Recovering The Satellites" era and receive decent airplay on Alternative during the 90's, but fail to make any impact elsewhere.

Secondly, the lyrics are especially cryptic and dark in this track, and just lacks the accessibility earlier releases like "Hanginaround" and "A Long December" had. You might argue "Round Here" wasn't that accessible either, but I think most of the reason it became an airplay hit was because it was riding on the heels of the smash success of "Mr. Jones", while "August And Everything After" was selling like crazy.

Finally, the duration of the song clocks in at 5:20, and there's two problems with this, the first being the more obvious one that while artists could get away with runaway hits in longer tracks in previous decades, nowadays virtually all hits are constrained to a particular duration between three and four-and-a-half minutes (Tool gets away with making hits of long tracks, but it's because they built their reputation on pushing the envelope musically and because it commerically paid off, they enjoy that benefit). Secondly, it's a problem because this is a very descriptive track lyrically, where virtually all the song includes Duritz's vocals and there's no lengthy instrumental breaks and such, thus editing any single part of the song will take out much of the lyrical grist and meaning of the song.

I'd have to say, thus far, I haven't heard a song from the new album yet that strikes me as a runaway smash. I've heard some things regarding "Come Around" sounding quite melodic, and haven't found a YouTube or MP3 of that song yet, but I think the rockier songs like "Insignificant" sound too edgy for radio these days while the softer songs like "Washington Square" sound too moody and atmospheric for radio today as well.

Other songs I have yet to hear from the new album include "1492", "You Can't Count On Me" and "Anyone But You".

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[smadavid]

singingsparrow said:

I don't think "Cowboys" would make a good single, though. Firstly, the song is too aggressive-sounding, just like something that could have come right from the "Recovering The Satellites" era and receive decent airplay on Alternative during the 90's, but fail to make any impact elsewhere.

Secondly, the lyrics are especially cryptic and dark in this track, and just lacks the accessibility earlier releases like "Hanginaround" and "A Long December" had. You might argue "Round Here" wasn't that accessible either, but I think most of the reason it became an airplay hit was because it was riding on the heels of the smash success of "Mr. Jones", while "August And Everything After" was selling like crazy.

Finally, the duration of the song clocks in at 5:20, and there's two problems with this, the first being the more obvious one that while artists could get away with runaway hits in longer tracks in previous decades, nowadays virtually all hits are constrained to a particular duration between three and four-and-a-half minutes (Tool gets away with making hits of long tracks, but it's because they built their reputation on pushing the envelope musically and because it commerically paid off, they enjoy that benefit). Secondly, it's a problem because this is a very descriptive track lyrically, where virtually all the song includes Duritz's vocals and there's no lengthy instrumental breaks and such, thus editing any single part of the song will take out much of the lyrical grist and meaning of the song.

I'd have to say, thus far, I haven't heard a song from the new album yet that strikes me as a runaway smash. I've heard some things regarding "Come Around" sounding quite melodic, and haven't found a YouTube or MP3 of that song yet, but I think the rockier songs like "Insignificant" sound too edgy for radio these days while the softer songs like "Washington Square" sound too moody and atmospheric for radio today as well.

I agree on pretty much every point here -- I doubt it'll be a single. Unless for some reason they try to make a comeback at alternative radio. Which I haven't listened to in a long time, so I don't even know if that'd be a good fit.

"Come Around" is really the only song I've heard so far that strikes me as having good potential as a single. Its easy to like (if a little bland on the first couple listens until the melody sinks in). I wouldn't be suprised to see it do well at Hot AC. My only complaint is that, for the purposes of radio, it could use a stronger hook in the chorus. Its about 4:30 in length, and I wouldn't be surprised if they find a little to trim off, perhaps from the bridge. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see what they choose, it shouldn't be long now, I imagine that if they haven't shipped it out to radio yet that will be happening very soon.

[singingsparrow]

*

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMyqZgnDaCo

Another new live performance version of one of their new songs has surfaced onto YouTube, titled "Hanging Tree".

I'm very excited about this new album, as y'all can tell, as "Hanging Tree" is yet another strong offering from this group, in my opinion.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[Chase]

www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003655693

Meh.

[singingsparrow]

rebelsweetheart said:

www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003655693

Meh.

From an artistic standpoint, I'd have to agree with Duritz on this decision, considering they were promoting the deluxe edition of "August & Everything After", which was released as recently as a month ago.

Commerically, though, this is very risky for them. January is a terrible month to release a new album in, given it follows the whole holiday season and there's generally no uptick in sales until mid-March, when you have the Grammy Awards and boosts from spring break specials.

January through mid-March is one of the worst times to release an album commerically, and the Crows are likely going to have to make the right moves here in terms of single selection, aggressive touring and other promotional muscling, or it could potentially fall between the cracks, like "Hard Candy" initially had done until a cover of "Big Yellow Taxi" gave the album a second wind and helped it sell not too far south of a million domestically.

But from what I've heard thus far, this really doesn't seem like an album determined for mass airplay, thus there may be no radio-friendly tune to save them this time around if it falls steeply upon its initial release a la "Hard Candy".

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[Ragin]

January is horrible for releasing anything. People just can't get into it. Plus your lead single generally can't gain traction with the holiday music interrupting the charts, tough to keep the bullet for a song trying to climb the charts, not to mention that PDs just aren't going to be interested in pushing a new single during that time.

As much as I want to hate these guys though, I always find myself enjoying their songs, so I am looking forward to the single.

[Chase]

Moreover, it sounds like the release will only consist of one disc, not two. I had been hoping for an In Your Honor type two-disc set from the band, but that article intimates that we may see a bipolar single disc.

[singingsparrow]

*

countingcrows.com/news/news.php?uid=2445

Adam Duritz annouced in a brand-new voicemail message to fans released today that the band will release a "digital 45" to precede the March 25th release of "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings", featuring one track from each half.

anna-begins.com/multimedia/audio/rare_songs/1492.mp3

It will consist of "1492" from the "Saturday Nights" half and "When I Dream Of Michelangelo" from the "Sunday Mornings" half. An early cut of the former can be heard via the link above.

There's no word yet if this suggests either one of these will also be the lead airplay single for the album, though the latter is radio-friendly, in my opinion.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[singingsparrow]

*

countingcrows.com/digital45.html

The aforementioned "digital 45" is now available on their official web-site, free for everyone to download.

All I have to say is this album is going to rock.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[smadavid]

I like what I've heard so far... 1492 has a different feel from the live performances back prior to hard candy, but its really rocking... and WIDOM is beautiful. Looking forward to the album, and hopefully we'll have a single soon!

[singingsparrow]

Jan 17, 2008 12:45:38 GMT -5 smadavid said:

I like what I've heard so far... 1492 has a different feel from the live performances back prior to hard candy, but its really rocking... and WIDOM is beautiful. Looking forward to the album, and hopefully we'll have a single soon!

Surely it'll be announced within the next two weeks, as lead singles are typically released two months before the album is released.

Of all that I've heard thus far, "Come Around" probably makes the most sense for a lead single since it's middle-of-the-road musically, whereas both "Cowboys", "Insignificant", "1492" and "Hanging Tree" would sound too loud for some and "Washington Square" would sound too soft.

Of course there's some tracks that have yet to be heard, including "Le Ballet D'or", "There Goes Everything", "Anyone But You" and "You Can't Count On Me" (all of which will be on the "Sunday Mornings" half) and two more tracks on the "Saturday Nights" that have yet to be known ("Suffocate" might be one of them)

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[smadavid]

Jan 17, 2008 22:33:11 GMT -5 @singingsparrow said:

Surely it'll be announced within the next two weeks, as lead singles are typically released two months before the album is released.

And here we go... this isn't official yet, but from a post on CountingCrows.com:

"I work in radio and got this email this am from interscope/geffen:

Counting Crows "You Can't Count On Me" will land via UPS overnight on Monday 1/28/08.

Officially Impacting on 2/04/08.

From their forthcoming album “Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings” in stores 3/25/08"

[smadavid]

www.geffen.com/artist/player/default.aspx?mid=3844&aid=83&bhcp=1

[Chase]

XPN played it this morning. I think that this will be the album that solidifies the band as a Triple A only group. So far, I haven't heard anything that could remotely cross over to Hot AC. And even though they were once and alternative band, I doubt they'll draw much attention over there.

[Chase]

Sweet performance of new tunes on World Cafe Live today.

You can listen here: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18777266

[singingsparrow]

Feb 5, 2008 16:50:05 GMT -5 Chase said:

XPN played it this morning. I think that this will be the album that solidifies the band as a Triple A only group. So far, I haven't heard anything that could remotely cross over to Hot AC. And even though they were once and alternative band, I doubt they'll draw much attention over there.

I disagree with you mostly here.

While I don't expect this to quite reach the Top 5 of the Hot AC chart like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Accidentally in Love" both accomplished, I think this can dent the Top 10 or come close.

I actually think this is quite radio-friendly because musically it has that familiar glossy production, and lyrically its even more accessible, where Duritz isn't really telling a story this time around and this time goes straight to the jugular of those coping with the grief of heartbreak and/or separation, while conjuring the haunting imagery of clouds and such to make the song emotionally poignant.

This is likely to top Triple A (unless R.E.M outpaces them) but I think will also be a moderate hit at Hot AC, and it is off to a great start on iTunes, reaching #63 today.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[Chase]

Feb 8, 2008 17:28:54 GMT -5 @singingsparrow said:

Feb 5, 2008 16:50:05 GMT -5 Chase said:

XPN played it this morning. I think that this will be the album that solidifies the band as a Triple A only group. So far, I haven't heard anything that could remotely cross over to Hot AC. And even though they were once and alternative band, I doubt they'll draw much attention over there.

I disagree with you mostly here.

While I don't expect this to quite reach the Top 5 of the Hot AC chart like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Accidentally in Love" both accomplished, I think this can dent the Top 10 or come close.

I actually think this is quite radio-friendly because musically it has that familiar glossy production, and lyrically its even more accessible, where Duritz isn't really telling a story this time around and this time goes straight to the jugular of those coping with the grief of heartbreak and/or separation, while conjuring the haunting imagery of clouds and such to make the song emotionally poignant.

This is likely to top Triple A (unless R.E.M outpaces them) but I think will also be a moderate hit at Hot AC, and it is off to a great start on iTunes, reaching #63 today.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

Allow me to clarify. I don't think that anything I've heard so far has the capacity to create a huge buzz about the Counting Crows at Hot AC this time around. A couple of songs might be able to hit the format, but I question their impact and longevity. The themes and moods that this album conveys might not be able to find a place in Hot AC catalogs. Hot AC 2002-2004 is certainly different from Hot AC 2008. I hope I'm wrong, but I just don't see much material from this album generating a buzz at Hot AC.

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

How did Collective Soul and the Goo Goo Dolls do with recent singles? There are some other bands who were big in the 90s that managed to have some hits in the early 2000s but have since had disappointing showings on Hot AC in the last few years. I'm thinking the Counting Crows might join them as well. I haven't heard the song yet but I hope it's good. I like them! But I don't see a Top 20 hit for them...

[singingsparrow]

Feb 8, 2008 21:46:34 GMT -5 Rose "Payola" Nylund said:

How did Collective Soul and the Goo Goo Dolls do with recent singles? There are some other bands who were big in the 90s that managed to have some hits in the early 2000s but have since had disappointing showings on Hot AC in the last few years. I'm thinking the Counting Crows might join them as well. I haven't heard the song yet but I hope it's good. I like them! But I don't see a Top 20 hit for them...

The Goo Goo Dolls have charted ten consecutive Top 10 hits at Hot AC (their last song not to make the Top 10 there was "Dizzy") so they are very much still on a roll, despite lukewarm album sales since "Dizzy Up The Girl".

Collective Soul, on the other hand, have had little success since the "Dosage" era, with "Better Now" being their only real hit on Hot AC since then, which even that failed to chart the Billboard Hot 100 despite going Top 10 at Hot AC, while "Why" was their last real hit on the rock formats.

*

I don't think the Counting Crows are all that much like either of those bands, despite touring with them both within the past several years. The former two always have struck me more as singles bands primarily, while the Counting Crows, while making efforts to chart a song each record, are primarily a touring/jam band, especially when you consider the length of time between albums and being known for constantly performing their older songs in different styles and renditions.

I agree with you, by the way, that most of the new songs I've heard thus far, especially from the "Saturday Nights" part of the album, won't perform well here. The lyrical themes are just too dark and complex to reach listeners there, from murder in "Cowboys" to wanting to leap off a building because you believe you can fly in "Insignificant", and musically it makes it even more unlikely in that all the songs are just too loud, where "1492" would have even been too loud for Alternative, arguably, in 1998.

"You Can't Count On Me", however, strikes me as something that can cross over, even if not having the same longevity as "Hangin'around", "A Long December" or, obviously, "Mr. Jones". Both lyrically and musically, it passes as something listeners there are able to swallow and relate to, and isn't far off from the melodic production that dominated "Hard Candy" (and I say that well aware they only got one hit from that record, a hit they didn't even write)

And I think this song will connect to enough Hot AC listeners for the very reason Duritz explained in that World Cafe Live broadcast: he composed it in a way where he musically takes you in and you're thinking "Awwwww!" but the crunchings of the guitar riff and biting yet sensitive lyrics toss in a sucker-punch that holds your attention. And often it's those kinds of songs that manipulate that sort of aesthetic tightrope that do well on the airwaves: not too overemotional to where one looks as though he/she is wallowing in ones own pretension, nor too harsh to where the listener is unable to sympathize with the artist.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

[smadavid]

Counting Crows have always been hit and miss with radio, you can count on half of their singles succeeding to some extent, and half of them failing. Radio is probably used to that by now and won't write them off entirely if "You can't count on me" doesn't hit it big. But I do think the song has a good hook and should have a decent run.

The other two songs that could work are Come Around (I would be very surprised if this wasn't the second single) and Insignificant, which is dark, but has one of the best melodies I've heard off this album. Granted all I've heard so far are live versions... so the production on the album may not work with radio, but I'd love to see this song get some play.

[Hot AC Archiver]

R&R/Mediabase Chart Histories

Counting Crows

1. Mr. Jones 20
2. A Long December 6
3. Daylight Fading 17
4. Hanginaround 6
5. American Girls 24
6. Big Yellow Taxi 4
7. She Don't Want Nobody Near 20
8. Accidentally in Love 3

Collective Soul
1. December 16
2. The World I Know 21
3. Run 10
4. Perfect Day 28
5. Better Now 8
6. How Do You Love 16
7. Hollywood 21

Goo Goo Dolls
1. Name 3
2. Iris 1 (15 weeks)
3. Slide 1 (1 week)
4. Black Balloon 2
5. Broadway 4
6. Here Is Gone 3
7. Big Machine 11
8. Sympathy 11
9. Give a Little Bit 1 (7 weeks)
10. Better Days 3
11. Stay with You 5
12. Let Love in 9
13. Before It’s Too Late 9

[smadavid]

Here's some background on "You Can't Count On Me" from a recent interview with Adam (Source: ryanssmashinglife.blogspot.com/):

RYAN:
"One of the questions I try to ask of all the artists I do interviews with is how they arrived at the final product. - Can you take a song from the new album and tell us how it came to be?"

DURITZ:
"I think the most interesting song to talk about for the 'whole process' discussion is probably 'You Can't Count On Me'. I started writing it a few years ago sometime during the latter end of the long touring period that followed Hard Candy (2002-2005), probably around mid-2005. It fascinated me that I'd written four entire albums worth of reasons why any sane woman should stay as far away from me as possible and that THAT was somehow still 'romantic'.

"I wanted to write a song about leaving someone that alternated between honest sad feelings about the loss and brutally honest admissions about the damage done. However honest my regrets have been and however much I 'did the right thing.' I don't cheat.

"There's still no changing the fact that people I cared about were hurt very deeply. So I wanted to write lyrics that drew you in with the honest beauty of the reminiscence and then punched you in the face with the truth about my own culpability.

"So in the 1st verse:
You watch the sky
It's a pale parade of passing clouds
That cover the bed upon which we laid in the dark
And the memories that I made of a laughing girl
But you're just my toy and I can't stop playing with you baby

"Or in the last verse:
I watch all of the same parades
As they pass on the days that you wish you'd stayed
But all this pain gets me high
And I get off and you know why

"It pulls you in and then punches you and both sides are just statements of honesty. They're contradictory but they're still true. And that's why the 'Can' in the chorus has a 't' on the end of it. You'd almost always expect the line to be 'You Can Count On Me' but it's not. No one ever says 'You Can't Count On Me' because it's not a very nice thing to say about yourself. It's also not as 'hit single'-y in people's minds. I know this because people actually suggested removing the 't'. I know some of them were joking but not all of them.

RYAN:
"Wow this is some amazing stuff, Adam. Really... How did the music and the words for "You Can't Count on Me" finally come together?"

DURITZ:
"I wrote the song on the piano and my original music was very much like a combination of the picking acoustic guitar part and the piano part Charlie plays on the record. The two parts are, in fact, derived from different parts of my original piano recording. I always knew the song was never supposed to be pretty.

"The music had to be like the lyrics: sentimental, punch, sentimental, punch. This proved to be harder than I thought. We tried it a few times over the years at sound checks and it always sucked. Eventually I gave up on it and completely forgot I had ever written it."

RYAN:
"What was your inspiration for this one? To see it through, I mean?"

DURITZ:
"When we were beginning to work out the songs for Sunday Mornings, my friend Dave Gibbs, formerly of Gigolo Aunts and now Low Stars, said 'Why don't you record 'You Can't Count On Me'?' I told him I had no idea what he was talking about. He said it was one of his favorite songs of mine and sent me an mp3 of my original demo.

"I listened to it and realized it was the perfect song for the middle of Sunday Mornings because Sunday Mornings needs to NOT be a record about redemption. It's a record about struggling to get your s**t together after you've wrecked your life; not necessarily a record about getting your s**t together. But the songs are mostly very sad and very beautiful, especially in contrast to Saturday Nights, which can land you in the trap the song's about. Sunday Mornings needed 'You Can't Count On Me' for the same reason I needed to write 'You Can't Count On Me.'

RYAN:
"And that reason?..."

DURITZ:
"So that you don't make the mistake of getting to the end of 'Anyone But You' thinking 'Poor Adam, if only I could make all the pain go away'. Because 'Poor Adam' will still hurt you very badly if you're not careful. If you don't still feel that, the rest of the record that follows doesn't really work."

RYAN:
Thanks... Tell me about the recording process.

DURITZ:
The acoustic demos we cut at my apartment while we were finishing Saturday Nights all sucked for the same reason my original demo sort of sucked: they were too pretty. So when we went out to Berkeley to record Sunday Mornings, we took a different tack.

We started out electric, figuring it would make a jarring centerpiece to the latter album. It didn't work. The drums and bass made the song too bombastic. It wasn't jarring at all. It was just turning into an arena rock power ballad. Which sucked."

RYAN:
(Note to Readers: Amazing! There is the potential here that this was going to be an all-electric album. Read on:)

DURITZ:
"So then we took the drums and the electric guitar out and went back to playing it acoustically with a dobro, an upright bass and some percussion but that just had no balls at all so we had to abandon that as well. Because that really sucked.

"Finally, after singing about 20 versions of the song that day, I went out to dinner and most of the guys went home. I came back a few hours later to find our drummer Jim and our producer scurrying around the hallways excitedly between our studio and one down the hall that was empty. They'd had an idea.

"They set up a really stripped down drum kit in the small square room with only three mics: two over heads about 3-ft above the kit and one kick drum mic about 6-7 feet away from the kick (as opposed to inside the drum where you'd normally put it. By setting it up this way, you could beat the living crap out of the drums and they never sounded big or bombastic.

"They're violent but they go 'crack' instead of 'boom'. We called our bass player Millard, woke him up, and made him run back to the studio with this little Hofner Beatle Bass. Then, with everything we'd recorded muted (except the piano track so we had something to play to), Jim, Millard, and me played the song as hard and as loud as we could play it. We had Jim keep his high hat open so it sounded really sloppy and we just beat the crap out of the song until we had this insane aggro version of it. Then we went home."

DURITZ:
"The next day when the other guys came in, Brian had them set up to play the pretty acoustic version but made them play it to these insane drums, bass, and vocal tracks. And that didn't suck at all. It worked.

"The song would seem really pretty and then it would blow up in your face. You could hear all the violence and the edge in the drums and bass without overwhelming piano arpeggios or picking acoustic guitar. The last step was finding the thing to go on top. I'd always wanted someone to slash at it with a distorted electric guitar like a Replacements song and Dan had been trying out just that sound on some other song so I had him play it on this song instead.

"We made him play as hard as he could because we wanted mistakes and bad notes and some dissonance. Dan just killed it. He was inspired and a little disturbing. We actually got more than HE wanted. Brian and I loved it but we had to talk Dan out of fixing some of it.

"Although I think some more 'economically-minded' people would probably prefer it had stayed 'prettier', for me, I was just happy it finally turned out to be the song I'd always wanted it to be. I had no idea how to get it there but that's why we're a band. We collaborate and find a way to take this thing I bring in, which is really just a skeleton or a blueprint at best, and turn it into a song... From top to bottom, that's how we took one idea and turned it into a song."