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00:00:01
E29: Rain King
315 Plays3 months ago
Eric and Chris discuss all things RAIN KING. As part of this analysis, Chris identifies 12 videos which highlight the amazing versatility and alternates of the song.
Our video companion list can be found here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEYZi_3uytg&list=PLHuwOko4BepJkuLoUc0xTJ3Fj7i4YqQl6
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Transcript
Introduction and Personal Stories with 'Rain King'
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome to Sullivan Street, where we are going to do the Rain King episode. And I guess I'll preface by saying when I think of the Rain King, my college roommate, he was the self-proclaimed Rain King when because he was a college freshman when that song came out. Then I kind of want to be the Rain King when I see Adam um capturing the adornment, I guess, of the crowd and thousands of people when he has his hands up sitting out of the, you know, you know, get it wanting to get out of the rain.
00:00:44
Speaker
But my co-host, Chris Maggs, and what he has ah done and his love of the song, he might be the true Rain King. Chris, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you. Well, i and I do have ah a jacket a bunch of years ago, I want to say 2018.
00:01:02
Speaker
ah They produced rain jackets, the crows did, that say, I am the rain king on the back. and I get a lot of compliments on that one from people who don't know who Counting Crows are. They're just like, that's awesome that you're just in this you know rain jacket that says, I am the rain king. oh That's pretty funny. Yeah. don't because i'm and I will tell you, I don't really like the rain. I'm not a rain person despite loving songs about the rain.
00:01:28
Speaker
i I love songs about the rain, don't like the actual rain, but I do like wearing just a bright yellow rain jacket that says I am the rain king on the back. That's funny. Well, if you know a good test to be a good test would be to see if you like the rain or not is to move to Southern California. and I'm not just saying this because of the fire situation going on now, but it doesn't rain out here ever. That's how I realized I do love the rain. When I was living in Ireland for a little bit,
00:01:57
Speaker
I wanted it to rain every day. I was like, this is the best. Yeah, now I like i like rainy days. Reminds me of that Saturday Night Sunday morning's album cover a little bit. um Okay, so. Yeah, rain jacket then. It's gotta be online somewhere. And I did wear, and i since we're talking about now, this is the Rain King episode, we did I did um have, I worn it out, even though I guess it would only be, what, four years old? But I did buy the Rain King t-shirt that they were selling, I think, for the Butter Miracle Tour is when that came out.
00:02:25
Speaker
And it has the these are the guys face hidden with the umbrella, but I do. I love that.
Live Performances and Jesse Malan's Comeback
00:02:30
Speaker
I actually did get a couple compliments with that from strangers on the street being like, Oh, that's cool retro shirt. Like they thought I bought it being like.
00:02:39
Speaker
you know, a hipster retro person, not a big Cannon Groves fan. So anyway. Yeah. So, so we're going to go all into The Rain King. We got, we got um our reviews of the live performances or let's just say top 10, I guess you a top 12. Chris Miggs put that together just like he did with the Round Here ah live performances. We're going to talk about the song generally. Let's start with news and notes.
00:03:04
Speaker
And that would be i guess the yellow christ you want to talk about the jesse malan shows yeah so ah i actually got to see adam and emmy two nights in a row at the beginning of december um they were ah playing as part of jesse malan the new york singer songwriters comeback shows so jesse had a spinal stroke in 2023,
00:03:30
Speaker
um had a really, really long road to recovery. um There was a benefit album um that was produced that Adam and Emmy did a song on. um called Oceana, which is a Jesse Mallon song. um but So for these shows, and it's actually very interesting, I sort of expected that all of the sort of guests, and there were many guests on these shows, Elvis Costello, ah Lucinda Williams, Butch Walker, Jacob Dillon, a whole like group of people, I sort of assumed that they were going to do stuff and then Jesse was going to come out as the main event.
00:04:05
Speaker
But interestingly, Jesse, Jesse's put on so many benefits over the years. He was always always kind of the funny thing of ah of this was sort of like, you know, Jesse's done so many benefits and now he's sort of he's like, I'm like, I'm so embarrassed to have benefits for myself. But such a such a modest guy that a couple of people came out just as a couple of songs to kind of warm things up.
00:04:25
Speaker
And then his he and his band came on immediately. And so Jesse opened basically was like the opener at his own comeback show. um But they played for a long time. They played like like a 90 minute set. Immy, who has played in Jesse's band before, played with ah Jesse a lot of the night, um really just kind of having fun ripping solos. A lot of strong Immy content. um The other guests,
00:04:52
Speaker
all did one song. um I sort of expected that Adam would do Oceana since it was from the record. um But Jesse ended up doing it both nights. And apparently Jesse asked Adam if he would do A Long December. um So they did that both nights. It was actually really interesting to hear A Long December played by a different band. So it's Adam It's Emmy and it's the rest of sort of Jesse Mallon's band, which all a lot of great talented musicians, terrific band. um But it was really interesting to hear because, you know, the crows have played that song hundred like 800 times or something like that. And so there's a little bit of like roteness to it. You know, they've done it. um So it was really kind of fun to hear it a little bit with a fresh angle. um My favorite thing was ah
00:05:45
Speaker
ad actually in they go to the get to the guitar solo and Adam goes, Emmy, it's your turn. Finally, which is a joke for like the 12 crows fans in the audience, right? Like no one else knows that Emmy doesn't play the solo when the band plays that's a dance below. Yeah. And finally, this is Emmy's turn to play the solo. Um, but the band sounded great. Adam sounded awesome. um He told a couple of great stories, actually different stories both nights, which was great. He told a story about how the Counting Crow's old sort of gear manager had, who passed away a few years ago, Tom, um he had been worked for Jesse Mallon, like the band Degeneration, Jesse's band in the 90s.
00:06:34
Speaker
was a huge fan, and he's like, that's how I originally found out about the guy, because um he would always tell us um that about them, and he would go work with them whenever he could, whenever he had the opportunity. um And so we talked a little bit about that. And then also, he talks about meeting Jesse, interestingly, on like the set of the answering bell video, um because Jesse is friends with Ryan Adams. and um He's like, yeah, there was this is this guy playing his new record just sitting in the back of and in the back of this place. And I was like, oh, I guess I'll take a listen. And he played me TKO. And I was like, damn, this guy's guys pretty good. It might be going places. um So yeah, it was a great fun shows. um You can check out, I'm sure, the video online.
00:07:22
Speaker
um If you go actually, and I'll give a plug, my friend ah Wendy, if you go diz bomb on Instagram, d-i-z-z, um I'm pretty sure she's got videos up from both nights if you want to go see some very clean video of ah Adam's performances. um But yeah, it was nice.
00:07:42
Speaker
It was nice December at the beginning of December, right? It's always just kind of... I'll always take more, but for the night, it was kind of the perfect amount of of all the guests and and of Jesse's comeback. And Jesse was wonderful and inspiring if you don't know the story and don't know his music. um I actually really i really highly recommend, obviously, his records, particularly the fine art of self-destruction is a great sort of entry points first record.
00:08:07
Speaker
um But also just go if you go listen to the the tribute record, a lot of great versions of his songs here from a lot of different voices. You can hear Adam and Emmy doing one of them. um He's wonderful and a great inspiration. So that was a good, a good life. And for those that don't know, I'll spell out it's Jesse J-E-S-S-E and then Malin M-A-L-I-N.
The Evolution and Emotional Depth of 'Rain King'
00:08:31
Speaker
if So, yeah, we might have to, you know, we're going to mention at some point, um you know, talk about um like songs that Adam has done, like not on records or right. And that might be one of, you know, we'll cover that particular song at some point. We got to talk about it. Yeah.
00:08:50
Speaker
Okay, so let's focus on the ranking. I said this is the ranking episode. Mostly we're going to talk about the live performances. I, you know, I would argue that, I mean, you know, casual fans that want to, that, that, that don't know, or just casual music fans or 90s music fans that go see kind of crows, I guess when they go, they'll say, Oh, I want to hear Mr. Jones along December.
00:09:14
Speaker
That's what I think they want to hear. And then maybe around here, ah the second choice or something like that or third choice. But I would argue nowadays, it's interesting that ranking is almost the most, right, it's their show stopper and it's almost the most counting, crowsy, I don't know, song live. Like that now that's kind of, it's become almost their theme song in a way. I think it kind of was always in some ways a theme song. I think that's one point that I love about it is sort of, I kind of feel like there's a lot of the, it's interesting. I was thinking about this today relative to the rest of August and everything after.
00:09:53
Speaker
Rain King is a little bit of an abstract song, right? You think about like Mr. Jones, he's down at the new Amsterdam, he's staring at this yellow-haired girl, right? um ah know In round here, he steps out of front door, then there's some stuff, but it's like, you know, there's a lot of lot of details, right? She's talking in her sleep, it's keeping me awake. yeah Whereas Rain King is a lot more abstract, even the stuff that it does have detail is,
00:10:23
Speaker
sort of vague in a lot of ways. But think about like, when I think of Heaven, Deliver Me in a Blackwing Bird, right? Is not, is an evocative image, but it's not like a thing that's happening, right? right And so in in that way, I think the song sort of acts a little bit though, as kind of like um a mission statement that you can pour your own energy into, right? I think a lot of people who are counting Crows fans, they always say like,
00:10:53
Speaker
Oh, you got to college, turns out you're a Counting Crows fan. It's because there's a certain yearning of like, where am I going? Who am I supposed to be with? I'm trying to find love. I'm just, that sort of energy going into the world. And I feel like Rain King, for me at least, and I think for a lot of people, um sort of represents that energy of just sort of yearning. And like Adam describes it, there's a, in the storytellers ah thing,
00:11:21
Speaker
He talks about, um you know, this book is, ah into it's based on a book, Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow. It's not based on a book, but it's sort of like, it takes a little bit of that, at least the words, right? At least named after the book. 1959, by the way, that novel was ah written. um And he says like, he's like, Adam's like, the the the book is about someone who's just sort of like,
00:11:44
Speaker
like spraying himself all over the world. Like he's just sort of dump, you know, like just, it's all kind of coming out, right? And I think that's, I think again, it's evident in the song and I think that's,
00:11:58
Speaker
Again, I think maybe a somewhat common personality type for a Counting Crows fan, I don't know. And so I think that's where the song really kind of connects. And I think one of the great things about it, about the fact that it's become a song where they put a lot of alternate lyrics into, is that it's a song that, because it's a little bit big and open, although it has a very specific evocative image,
00:12:23
Speaker
um It's interesting that you you put all these things into it, right? And it can it can kind of flower in ways that, you know, other songs maybe wouldn't the same way because the details are the details, right? And there's only so much, like Anna Begins is like a story, right? It's very complete. And if you dropped extra lyrics into Anna Begins, I don't know how that would work and how that would feel, but Rain King, it's sort of very natural to be like, let's take this,
00:12:53
Speaker
somewhere else too and see what that does. um But yeah i yeah i yeah, I love this. song I mostly say, because we were talking, I put that the the, it's like a 12 song list together and we'll share it on YouTube. um I listened to this just straight through. We were talking to, but ja i I just put this on and listen, I can listen to Rain King just on a loop. like it Legitimately, it might be my favorite song and like in the world. Certainly, it's top five for me of songs. You could play me, especially live versions. You play me live versions of Rain King. I can listen to it. I could probably go several hours if you needed me to. That's really funny. I put it high yeah i guess you did i think you did put it number one when we did our song, Rain King. It might have been number two for me.
00:13:43
Speaker
Um, no, I think you're right. I think you explained, um, it very well. Um, like the name of it and that stuff. I, I guess he, he did say, yeah, he was part of the, yeah, that he felt that he was a ranking, but you're right about it's something about that. He, when he was writing.
00:13:59
Speaker
he was trying to throw all his emotions um out into the writing. The fears, the doubts, the but also the the the the good you know the happiness as well. ah So I guess throwing all his emotions out into a song lyric helped make him feel like the Rain King. And by the way, because I kind of hinted at this already, how how especially like maybe like post-pandemic, how powerful do you think it felt when he does that ending, you know, I am the Rain King, you know, like and then the the the crowd's going nuts because that's usually when the crowd is the loudest.
00:14:38
Speaker
And then, you know, all of the band playing and he's just like looking up to the sky kind of in a religious way. um That must be very ah vindicating, I guess, and make him feel great. I'm sure he feels I don't think he's just going through the motions there. I think he loves it. Yeah. Oh, and it's one of the great again, it's it's big I think for a long time now, it's been one of the great like dramatic moments in their set, too, is that um Although it's also been, i can i part of what I like about the song too in that regard is that there are some songs that are meant to be like ah a closer or something, right? That they're that they're sort of, yeah they're they they're there for that thing or they're like, like Holiday in Spain would I feel like feel pretty weird in the middle of a set. Cause it's kind of, it's it's it's meant to sort of the slow kind of like ending. Whereas Rain King, they play it and we'll talk about this as we go through some of the versions we're gonna hear.
00:15:32
Speaker
um They play it in so many different ways, right? So it can be the epic closer, but it can also be the the opener that's just sort of easing you in emotionally to the show and it can be in the middle and it can be at the beginning and the end and it can just, they've poured a lot of different things into that song over the years. Like that's against one of the things I really um love about it is that it's not tied to anything. i It's what, again, really, it's one of my favorite openers of theirs is the acoustic, um not the full sort of quiet acoustic, but the more sort of like band version acoustic, right you know, version of ranking that they used to, they used to open with it a lot. Like I want to say 2003, 2004 was a big opener for them. um And occasionally they do it now. It's come very occasionally, but
00:16:22
Speaker
um I like it as that too. I like it as the epic and I like it as the quiet thing and I like it everywhere in between. And um as I said, just feed me versions of Rain King all day and I'll be i'll be happy. i will Well, before well ah most of the show is gonna be about ah your selection and discussion ah about the 12 particular live performances. ah I guess just last little fun facts before we get into it. ah Rain King ah was an official single
00:16:53
Speaker
Um, officially their third single from the album, although the, uh, Einstein was thrown out right before this one, Einstein on a beach. Uh, so that, that was right, which again, didn't really have Adam's permission to be released as a single, but strangely enough, there's the weird history too, with this song and that it's, it's a single. And so there's, More people know it, I think, because it was a single in some ways. But this is the song where Adam had said, I think because of the way Einstein was blowing up and stuff, he was like, no, no, but he put the brake, like, there's no video for this song. Right. That's what I was about to say. for for and it so Because it would have been a much bigger hit if they had a video. There is no doubt about it. um ah Yeah. and And was that to also
00:17:36
Speaker
to I don't remember if it was Rain King or Mr. Jones that that that maybe even the ah record company wanted it released as the first single. i That i I don't remember. Maybe originally they wanted to and he said, oh, maybe later or something. Yeah. I think Rain King was the one they wanted to lead with.
00:17:54
Speaker
um And then he and then as you said because of the einstein then because that's kind of a poppy song and rain king i guess you could call it somewhat poppy to compare to the rest of the album ah but you're right and so and so it it did.
00:18:08
Speaker
chart on the um the mainstream rock So it was one of the highest ever on the mainstream rock charts. It reached number four, which is higher than round here ah made, which was number 11. Mr. Jones got up to number two. As far as the U.S. radio songs, it did probably because it did not have a video, did not crack the top 40 where Mr. Jones around here did. In fact, Einstein got up to number 45, which is amazing since, you know, it was totally unofficial. and Yeah, all that kind of stuff. i Do you remember hearing Einstein on the radio, actually? I do not. I don't. Yeah, I don't. I don't recall. i'm Yeah, it doesn't it doesn't ring a bell. Yeah, it said on the U.S. the alternate replay. Anyway, we'll talk about Einstein some other time. So anyway, that that's where. ah Yeah, so that that's where we are with the ranking and a little ah backstory there. I do remember hearing it on the radio a bit.
00:19:01
Speaker
I remember yeah yeah the last thing i'm going to say i think i even mentioned this once before i i worked at like a real blue collar place the one summer i guess it was the summer of ninety four i guess that makes sense yeah and ranking came on the radio and some guy who i think his favorite.
00:19:17
Speaker
The band was Pavement or something. He said something to me like, you probably like this stupid Rain King song or whatever. Because to him it was too soft. he And I was like, yeah, I do like this song. And he might have threatened to beat me up or something. So um so let's go into the top. yeah And I'll caveat. so So I would not say that the versions on this are necessarily the top 12 best versions. okay um What I did hear, this is a representative sampling.
00:19:44
Speaker
um Also of what's on YouTube right at the goal here, is right? Um, you know a what's on YouTube because I think this is the easiest way to share stuff um And also video, right? I like seeing video like seeing Adam do it. So there's not video of every great version of rain King um And so we've tried to I've tried to do here is kind of cover And I think I have covered all of the major sort of big alt, right? interestingly a little bit relative to round here and where Adam tends to go off in a sort of more different directions. Rain King, there's sort of a group of alts. There are times where Adam goes off in kind of his own direction. We'll get to one of them um later in this. um But a lot of times, those are kind of shorter and a little more tossed off. And a lot there's been a lot in Rain King of ah sort of a group of of sort of songs and alts that are, they think, the traditional ones. So I've wanted to make sure we covered
00:20:41
Speaker
the full range of that and that's what we've done here. And so that some sort of an opportunity to talk about um each of the big ones at least and talk about what we like about them and what we connect to, maybe what we don't like.
00:20:54
Speaker
in certain circumstances. yes so um Please listen along or or watch one video and then come back to our commentary or et cetera. So um the first one you chose, first one on the list, I think is, well, there might've been another, I think only two of them, the first two are pre-2000, if I ah look correctly. so so So this one is 1994.
00:21:18
Speaker
um uploaded by Barely Out of the Tuesday, who we've talked about before. A lot of these are, who has the best YouTube accountant crows kind of off the beaten path, you know, uploads in a lot of ways. um From whats what's it called, the Adam the Untouchable boot. That's what some people called it, which I don't know much about that particular boot.
00:21:39
Speaker
Maybe you can add a little bit about that. But yeah, please. It's just a show from Europe that that just happened to be called that. and Oh, so it was a European show. okay that one i wasn't Some of these I looked at where they were from. but um so please talk about I have some stuff, but please talk about this. Sure. so this And this is just sort of a pal sort of the the sort of palette setter, I'd say. um This is what the song sounded like pretty much with them playing it in 1994.
00:22:03
Speaker
right kind of coming out of the gate. um There's no alt in this one. um What's kind of always interesting about the 94 version of anything um is that Adam kind of sings it differently every night. And so there's always kind of interesting kind of subtle things. um It's always listening, interesting listening to a 94 tape because they're just um Again, every every night, Adam, his whole ethos at that point is like, I'm going to pour myself into these songs differently every night. um But at the same time, this is just sort of the baseline, right? They've already veered a little bit from the original arrangement. It's not exactly the but album version, but they they haven't gotten all the way out there yet in the way that they're going to over the years. This is just sort of there as the the baseline.
00:22:51
Speaker
to remember, also to help you remember, there's a great Adam story where um when Rob Thomas was on tour with them, he came out. And when they were doing Rain King in the Encore, he would sing a little bit with them. And he sang the bridge part, um I Only Want the Same as Anyone, Henderson's Rating for the Sun. And Adam was like, Rob, wow, like the melody he put on that, that's so good. Man, just great job, man. He's like where like where'd you get like, where'd you think of that? And Rob Thomas is like, I i just sang the one on the record.
00:23:30
Speaker
I listened to the melody on the record and then I sang it. And Adam was like, oh, I hadn't heard it in so long. I thought you'd come up with a brilliant invention of how to sing this melody. And I apparently just had forgotten what I'd done. And he's like, I'm going to try to start singing it more like that. And he did afterwards. um But he just there's so much evolution of this song that he literally was stunned to into hear it by hearing the original version, that he thought he had forgotten that he was the writer of that melody. all right so um So yeah, it's interesting to just to hear again, just as this is the sort of the the baseline of like, let's start here and then we'll go.
00:24:13
Speaker
Yeah, and by the way, when you're saying to write, you know, I guess this is, way I mean, Wikipedia is generally pretty accurate, but um if you go to the ranking entry, it lists the entire band, the five main or the five original band members as the songwriters. But I do do not think that's true. If you go to the liner notes and I think some other notes we have, a ranking actually was written by just Adam and Bryson, as we know but Bryson was Involved in a lot of the music back then of writing the music and of course the words were all Adam so um The only thing I had about this one is I said this one I thought out of all the ones you picked was the most mid-tempo we Yeah, it wasn't too fast or too acoustic and then I I I'm not a die-hard fan of Adam's I
00:25:04
Speaker
Like, no, I mean, it's good, but you know Adam at this time period was what I call a little mopey sometimes when he was singing a lot of these songs. So a little bit, especially compared to what he does now. ah But yeah, being a bassline, it also had no... um Ending like, you know, what I mean didn't have right coming out from rain. It just said I am the rain king and then it and then it ended but I don't know. I wonder if Adam ever did I mean one thing that we've hinted about Has Adam ever live and you've listened to much more live than me actually end rain king with that yell that he does on The recorded version that casual fans think he's going to do live in concert, but he's not going to do
00:25:49
Speaker
Oh, you know, I actually, if it was, it was very, early I'd be curious to go back to maybe like the earliest like taped versions that we have and to see if he does it. Cause you're right. I mean, not really. yeah i don't And that's what I was almost expecting. me That's why I noted that. Cause I was like, Oh, maybe he will. Cause it's a pretty early version. So we'll say, you know, maybe sometime if you go back to whatever 93 or something. Okay. Next one is, and and I guess this is, I think you picked two,
00:26:17
Speaker
things from Amsterdam throughout the 12 at different times. So this Amsterdam one is something that I, gosh, you know what, I think I heard of this once and totally forgot about it, but this is from something called the, and you can explain it, the two meter sessions.
00:26:35
Speaker
1997, Amsterdam. You might even have talked about this in the Amsterdam episode we had earlier in our podcast. Remind of a little bit, yeah. Yeah, so please talk about this. Yeah, so this is, so the two-meter sessions is a Dutch television, music television program um that the the Crows played in 97, then again in, it's either 99 or 2000. I actually can't remember which, up but on the, this Desert Life tour.
00:26:59
Speaker
Um, this is really cool. It's sort of a, like a, kind of a companion to storytellers because they're all of the songs on that version, um, of an, in the 97 are the acoustic versions. They play basically, it's it's basically like the, the, the storytellers versions.
00:27:15
Speaker
with the exception of Adam plays a solo long December version at the very end, which is also very cool. um This used to be on like the Amazon, Amazon had like a- Yes, I saw that. yeah Oh, it's maybe it's still there. No, I mean, I saw that before, like a couple of years ago, I remember seeing that. so yeah like ah yeah um Yeah, the whole thing used to be up there on like this Amazon music streaming service that I'm not sure exists anymore.
00:27:42
Speaker
Voodoo, maybe? Is that a thing? Maybe I'm right. Maybe I forget. Yeah, I think it was Amazon, but yeah. It was something with Amazon. Yeah. um and But he' I've set up there now. i but Maybe it's up there now. Someone can double check me on that. I'm sorry. I wish I had better information for you.
00:27:59
Speaker
and That's a level of prep. I did, I built a whole list for this. I didn't do do other research with, um, but so I think this is, again, this is sort of, again, the baseline in the sense of an acoustic version, right? Um, this is them kind of doing that full acoustic rearrangement. and They played this acoustic on like the August tour, like radio stations and things like that. But this is them doing really a full proper acoustic arrangement.
00:28:22
Speaker
You also start to see the beginnings of all. There's a a middle thing about, you know, what's wrong with me. Um, which again, again, I wrote that. Yeah. i wrote that If you're, if you're counting crows, we talked about ethos of counting crows fans going, what's wrong with me? Um, probably very, very, yeah, especially in jet and Gen X, are right? That almost is, I know. and yeah That's almost a joke about it, too. Yeah. And um there's also an ending line, which they used a lot actually also on the August tour. But Goodnight Elizabeth, I'm so sorry now. Yeah. um Which, again, obviously, these two songs, Goodnight Elizabeth specifically references being the Rain King, they're always sort of linked. um yeah I always kind of like hearing them, the explicit
00:29:08
Speaker
references between them. um We'll get to a version later that has an even more explicit sort of use of of the Elizabeth lyrics. But um yeah, so again, that's more just here. Again, we're sort of set in baseline still. I just think it's a really beautiful version. And again, if you haven't heard the whole two meter sessions, that's what I'd really recommend seeking out because just it's just really nice. it's ah Yeah, you're right. By the way, it's 20 minutes. It said that it's not on. It said they did have a 40 minute um ah version on Amazon Prime and it said the rights are expired. Gotcha. Okay, so maybe at some point they'll be back at least in the US maybe some VPN you can get somewhere else but that's that's what it said here.
00:29:48
Speaker
Uh, okay. Yeah. I had that I said, acoustic, same. Yeah. You basically had the same, uh, things as me. I, you know, I, I, it's kind of fun now. I mean, even though I sometimes get sad about us all, uh, getting older, um, and we're always changing as, as Adam would say, but it's kind of fun to go back sometimes and see. Like video of them at that point. Right. It's just how, how people change. And in even, I guess because of this reminded me of the VH one.
00:30:17
Speaker
and the VH1 video is not readily available, right? That this allowed me to kind of live through the VH1 one without it being VH1. I kind of got a kick out of Ben with the big drum in the back, you know like almost you know the big drum that they would use you know in a big marching band or something and just touching it but you know and touching the cymbal very lightly. and um I always kind of like when they show people doing their background vocals at certain points to Charlie and Dan doing them and focusing on that. So um yeah, I really, it's so so thanks. so This was a nice one to to to to look at, especially if you like the VH1-ish acoustic version. Yeah, it's really beautifully shot, that that the two-meter session. And it's weird. the um
00:31:05
Speaker
the 99 version whatever however they've laid out the studio for that is actually i actually kind of visually kind of odd the 97 two meter sessions that um it's a beautiful shoot it's really like a perfect capture of like the band and in that era just it's just well shot it's it's great yeah I still laugh at any time now I see Dan without a hat, right? Because now, I mean, he's been wearing a hat for 20 years, probably. So this might have been right before he started wearing a hat every time. Okay, number three, this is, um I don't know, you can tell me, I almost think you were at this one, but you could tell me. I was. see i do i do it See, I kind of know you better than I, or my subconscious. So this was live from Town Hall.
00:31:47
Speaker
ah the Someone wrote incorrectly on YouTube. This has to do with the re-release of August and everything after the live version. But I think it was a 15th anniversary about. Somebody put 10th, which is not true, right? Right. I don't think they released it on here. It was the 14th. It was when they released the deluxe edition of the album. They did that show, which then became the August Everything After Live at Town Hall DVD, which We'll talk about that DVD at some point in great detail, right? It's a live release and we'll, yeah, that's partly why I did some of these. I didn't have as many comments, partly because I know we'll probably cover it at some point on other things, but please, uh, your, uh, memory is going there and what, what makes this one stand out. Uh, hint, uh, yeah, I think Bruce has something to do with it. Yeah. Well, and that's and so when, and just again, from the ordering perspective, as we did round here, I did everything just kind of in date order.
00:32:42
Speaker
And what I kind of decided to do here was to go, again, more an alt order than date order, um because the first big alt, the one that is become sort of,
00:32:54
Speaker
really kind of famous among Crows fans in Rain King is Thunder Road, right? It's the Bruce Springsteen song. We talked about this with the Face the Promised Land, right? Because he did that there, I think. Right. its he yeah done um that's That's when he started that they started doing it. They returned to it sometimes. And it's interesting, this one, they hadn't done it in a long time right before they did this. um But when they decided to do Adam told a story, they decided when they were going to decide to do all of August for this show at Town Hall, um they decided they should do Rain King Electric. And then they realized that um Millard had never played Rain King Electric since he joined the band. So he had to learn it. And as I guess and part of like going back and doing that, that's kind of sparked Adam into Thunder Road for the first time in a long time. That's what they did um a couple of times leading up to
00:33:47
Speaker
this show and then at Town Hall. um I've always, this is not my favorite one. I will talk about which ones are are my absolute favorites. I have always thought this is really works. And I had never really realized why. and it was i Maybe I talked a little bit about it during the Face the Promised Land episode. But I think Thunder Road and Rain King have this very similar sort of narrator-driven thing.
00:34:16
Speaker
that's happening. Plus you get the thunder and rain reference or thunder and rain connection. could You know, honestly, I was going to go on a ah three sentence thing. That's probably the right answer is just rain and thunder. but I agree with you. I think you mentioned this before about the ne narrative. I never put it together either. But yeah, please. Yeah, no, just like, yeah, he's, you know, the whole rain King is like ah a sort of a pleading. He's talking to a person, you know, um,
00:34:40
Speaker
you know if you're if anyone's home at your place darling please invite me in and thunder road it's almost like he goes to he's like i don't really care if she's home or not i'm going to go to the house or maybe he goes and he finds her there i don't know um but you know because that the lyrics of thunder road are like um don't run back inside darlin you know just what i'm here for you're getting you know he's kind of He's trying to convince her to like take off into the world with him, which is also that's actually also interesting. It's kind of that's become kind of a recurring theme for Adam and round here. Right. Come outside. um And a lot of the stuff over the last couple of years where were are basically like go run away with me. Like we don't have time. Like a lot of those lyrics, if you sort of.
00:35:21
Speaker
their original Adam lyrics um in all those versions, but they are like analogous to roundier and know lot to to to sorry to Thunder Road. right that The sort of come on, take off, heaven's waiting down on the tracks, you know we're riding out tonight to case the Promised Land and all that stuff. um but Yeah and i also again i part of it's i just like the way the band plays this in the band plays it great and i think you know almost reminds me of this i almost think that this was the early version of what we get now like you can see you know what i mean like this is kind of the first yeah chapter of the modern yeah one that they play.
00:36:00
Speaker
ah Yeah, no, I like it. It doesn't even, yeah, I said, I like the, one of the reasons I don't love all the round here ones, alts is because I think for a song that's already kind of long, sometimes it can make it drag depending on how long he goes. And again, part of this is memory he used, to I think, to longer alts, you know, 20 years ago. um But I think this one,
00:36:25
Speaker
it even though there's some slow parts in it, it does not drag, at least for me. I i thought it just flowed and you're right, I think there's reasons that they choose Sunda Road um and not just because of the you know town full of losers. um you know i one thing i've realized There's two things I realized, is of course,
00:36:42
Speaker
this the The camera focused on anything where the camera can focus on Charlie and certain points of what he adds. I think a lot of times now, of course, now i my I have trained my ears, but a lot of times I think we don't realize how much Charlie adds unless the camera focuses on him and you're like, ah, that's that little part or sound effect or he's doing this there.
00:37:05
Speaker
um But one thing I'll have to really compliment Adam about, i I know that he talked about, you know, there were certain parts, I guess, around are certain times maybe like Saturday night, Sunday mornings around that time when I don't know if it was because of issues with the with the pharmaceuticals he was taking or something that, you know, he's like, Oh, I didn't put the best effort in or there are certain times that we weren't the great. But in general, one thing I really like about it, because I think you you can't be 100 out of 100 every night. And I think he tries a lot of times, like with his voice, to really put a big effort. And I'm like, geez, he just did this four out of the last five days or something. But when he knows he's being recorded, I think he puts, like he he he he really is ah is great at that. He puts 100%. He knows the showmanship. And anyway, I just thought that this was a perfect example of that.
00:37:56
Speaker
so yeah Yeah, know and that whole performance, we'll talk again, we'll talk at great length about that one, I'm sure at some point, but that's a great show. Yeah. Part of that is I think Adam at that point is kind of coming out of that difficult period. Yeah. um And he's really he's fit and he's ready to go and he's like, yeah, fired up. Um, I really feel like 2007 2008 or some of the best shows I ever saw the band play um and I think I think you're right in that space and a a lot of it is just his like he's going and uh yeah that's why I really there's a lot of great 99 2000 versions of of this with rough Thunder Road but man they they really crush it pretty hard on this version now let's see if I still know you well like I read that but that must have been so well again we'll talk about that when we do the show okay so
00:38:47
Speaker
I'm guessing this is one of your top two or three, maybe even number one, because this is from one-on-one 2015, and it has reigning in Baltimore in the middle, and I know you like reigning in Baltimore, so please, do you want to talk about it? I don't know what the one-on-one is. is who so One-on-one is Ehud Lazin.
00:39:09
Speaker
the um there who's become really like their videographer that's his oh their photographer and videographer right this is just a concert they played in long island at the para mountain huntington oh this is another one i was at and actually i realized and watched i had watch hadn't watched this video in a while um i realized in the right corner of the screen um you can see me in the sort of like far side front row the first time i'm just sort of like locked and i'm just really locked in thought. And then later um there's a part where like you can, I feel like you can see my wife saying something to me and I feel like it's something to the effect of, are you okay?
00:39:49
Speaker
And I'm like, it's but it's fine. It's just I love this. um But yeah, so this is this is um round here. I'm sorry, round here. Rain King with Raining in Baltimore, um which is I would say this is probably my number two. We'll get to what my number one is. um But I we talked about a a bunch in Raining in Baltimore, but I love these two songs together. I think the combination of the images, they're obviously both songs about rain. Yes. But um I just think they just work perfectly. They're like you know peanut butter and jelly in terms of how they just like fit together and make this beautiful thing. I also really like this arrangement.
00:40:30
Speaker
it's a sort of I call it like sort of the electric acoustic version, right? I call it modern acoustic. Now, some people in the comments don't like it, whatever. But I um i agree. Yeah. Yeah. it's sort of It still has the swells in it um that the electric version has, but it's got that kind of more laid back aspect to it. um you know i just Again, I think the emotional resonance of these two together has just always worked for me. it's always it's Part of it may be error-wise in that this was the thing they played most in Rain King when I was starting to go to shows and listening to bootlegs. In fact, the first time I went to see the band, this was the first song, was they opened with Rain King with Raining in Baltimore in the middle. And again, to the point of everyone's different tastes and whatnot, my dear friend who was sitting next to me he was also a fan of the band and not a hater or anything like that.
00:41:26
Speaker
when they went back into Rain King, he was like, are they still playing Rain King? I thought we were right you thought on the line, but we're so we're still in Rain King. And I'm like, of course, Adam. Actually, that guy's also named Adam. I'm like, of course, Adam. and This is, you know, come on, man. This is Rain King and reigning in Baltimore together. um But yeah, i this is to me,
00:41:49
Speaker
It's perfect. Again, I just, I love, I love this. And there's so many great versions. Again, I'm not saying this is like the definitive version of that. It's just really well shot and really nice. um And again, if you want to see me emotionally react to Rain King and reigning in Baltimore, this is your opportunity. Good look for you in there. You'll have to point it out to me. I'm not, I didn't have a beard yet though. It's a little bit trickier because you've got to know what I look like without a beard or be able to imagine what I looked like without a beard.
00:42:17
Speaker
he sounds like Yeah, I put two that and they weren't that long but they there's some like little mini solos in the middle I think it's right might be before the Elizabeth part But anyway, Charlie like has a I thought a great little solo and then it goes to like Emmy doing a little part And then, of course, Dan does some of the guitar when, you know, I want to hear a little guitar, right? and Yeah, um for the reigning in Baltimore part. um Yeah, I'm guessing we don't see this much anymore because Rain King is their showstopper nowadays. And but anyway, yeah, yeah, I thought that was. Yeah, i know I'd love to hear them do a real reigning in both, you you know, with. Yeah. In the but.
00:42:57
Speaker
This is pretty decent. So yeah, yeah, they it's right. This is kind of towards the end. Maybe it's like a year or two after that where they, where they kind of went towards, I think it's at that Rob Thomas thing where they went back towards like, yeah, we're going to use rain King in the encore and we're going to do like more of a.
00:43:18
Speaker
like a harder hitting version of it, either either in the encore or towards the end of the main set. And so I think there's something to that. I would obviously love to see them play a longer Rain King, um but I do think, you know, again, if you also I always say if Adam's not feeling it, if Adam doesn't have a bunch of stuff in the middle to say,
00:43:39
Speaker
It is what it is. like i don't yeah it's not It's no good when he's forcing it either. That's true. Let's then go to number five. This is also from Amsterdam. also two thousand This is 2003. I think there's a couple from 2003 for whatever reason around that time. um This is ranking with the O. Susanna in the middle. and this I do want to make a note before you get into you.
00:44:05
Speaker
Um, that this time, uh, remember is like the time that I think is in some ways, one of the more interesting with that had Jim and Matt Malley in it, that short period of time that they overlapped.
00:44:18
Speaker
And Jim kind of cracks me up back then, because again, he's clearly younger than everybody else, right? He looks like a young, he looks like a young little hotshot with his like bleached hair, right? I think he has like bleached blonde, if I remember correctly, hair. Yes. um And he probably looks the most different. I mean, Jim just looks like a younger version of himself.
00:44:37
Speaker
um Matt is playing right like there's some bass I think in the front where he kind of anyway I'm just saying Matt kind of stand oh no no sorry my point was that I thought out of the versions Matt's bass playing stood out a little but he added some extra little things but anyway those are my notes so let's go to and what I don't love oh Susanna but I thought it was actually great here Yeah, mean they do a good version with that, but that's like, that's my big thing with Osuzana is like, I've never figured out what the hell that has to do with Rain King. right um I love the, um I just, I welcome anyone else's opinion who's listening. Write us, tell us what on earth
00:45:22
Speaker
the connection between O. Susanna and Rain King is. yeah um I guess maybe the guy in Rain King is the one who has come from Alabama with a banjo on his knee. I guess there's a seeking aspect of Rain King you could sort of connect the two, but ah wife it has rained all night the day he left. It rained all night the day he left, now the weather it was dry. So I guess there was a literal connection there. I've just always, when they go into that, I'm just like, oh man. i thought you know for me I wrote that, um when they started doing the Osozana part, that I thought it was going to be more guitar-based, but it was piano-based, and I thought that was an excellent choice. Yeah, no, it's the arrangement is cool. Yeah, the arrangement the arrangement is really, really, really, really good. um I don't know who makes all these little micro decisions, but but it sounds great. But anyway, any other thoughts on that one? I think that's kind of, its and that's actually, again, it's one of my favorite things about this song, as it's evolved over the years, is that all of these versions are kind of different.
00:46:22
Speaker
Yeah, right in terms of Yeah, you could say you could break them into like acoustic and electric, but there's a lot of different stuff happening in them. I think it's kind of a combination of Adam and the band, you know, to me, it's always like,
00:46:34
Speaker
the band is throwing ideas out and Adam's kind of always the one to catch them and be like, yes, more of that. you know And so I think it's that kind of group mind um that that they play with. This is, by the way, this is from Amsterdam in 2003. This is definitely from the same run of shows as the ah the new Amsterdam ah live show that live thing. I think this might be the version on it. I can't 100% remember. I think it's an O, Susanna that's on Yeah, I can't remember either. I think that's it. But again, that's another one we'll get to. We'll talk about those shows in great detail when we get to the that tape. Yep.
00:47:11
Speaker
Okay, so um number six then, it'll be halfway through, another 2003. This is from Rolling Stone Studios, Acoustic, and it was, it's just Adam, Dan, and Emmy, if I'm pretty sure. charlie And Charlie. Oh, Charlie is in this one? Charlie's sort of in the background somewhere tinkling on piano. I don't think he's very visible, but. Okay, so please, any comments on this one?
00:47:36
Speaker
So that I have many comments. Okay. So this is, um, uh, we put, I put it in the middle just cause it kind of made sense as we were going through here. Um, this is, so let me, I love this. but let's just start with that I love this and I'm going to count the ways. So the first thing is that I love the arrangement of just,
00:47:57
Speaker
Adam, Emmy, Dan, Charlie. It's a beautiful, so still and so perfect. I love that. That's a really, they just bring a lot out of like textures. I've always liked that version of the band comes up very occasionally. It's like the Outlaw Roadshows, they've did those sometimes you know when they'd be doing like um radio sessions. And this is for Rollingstone dot.com. um That's what this is is for. eighteen i really they They really compliment and find a lot of interesting, beautiful ways through those songs.
00:48:34
Speaker
And of the songs they tended to play in that arrangement, Rain King's probably my favorite. So these these versions really stick out. So this is one of my, um I love the arrangement of it. Also, Someone to Watch Over Me is, um we buried the lead, but that is my favorite Rain King alt. I think the lyrics to Someone to Watch Over Me, Gershwin's song, are just in terms of things that connect up, at least for me, the way I emotionally view that song and the way that links up. um
00:49:06
Speaker
you know I'm a little lamb lost in the woods. I know I could always give her something to watch over me. um I know i may not be the girl i mean i mean I may not be the man some girls think of as handsome, but to my heart, she carries the key. is that's Again, if if that's like the ethos of Rain King,
00:49:22
Speaker
and and the sort of the the perspective of of the person singing that song, Adam or some version of Adam or whatever. i Yeah, that one is that one's perfect to me. I think that's that's my all-time favorite. I actually used to have a ah this t-shirt that I got done um on Spreadshirt back in the day when you could just kind of like make shirts. It was like Rain King on the front and like, ah like varsity letters, but then the lyrics to someone to watch over me on the back with a pic. I've always wanted, if anyone out there, I'm going to put this out there. I'm going to put this out there. If anyone out there really enjoys graphic design and wants to design a Rain King shirt with me that really captures Adam's hands in the air.
00:50:05
Speaker
um And I promise if anyone's listening from the band's management, I will not sell these if we do anything with them would be for charity or i'll give them away. But I've always had this idea and I've never really been able to execute it but it comes from again like him reaching up through this song. um I've just always again, there's a So yeah, this this is to me, I know I said earlier that this is not necessarily my favorite versions. This is actually maybe my favorite ranking ever, full stop. There was a brief period where it wasn't on YouTube for some copyright reason, probably, and someone re-uploaded in its state, and thank God. um Go watch it now. if you only watch If you're listening to this and you're like, I don't know, only if you only watch one, watch this on my recommendation.
00:50:52
Speaker
Um, well, you should almost have the one recommendation for like, this is the acoustic, right? And you should almost have one recommendation for the, for the, for the electric one as well. So you might have to think about that. That's a good question. Yeah. i think I mean, if someone doesn't like the slower one and they want to watch one that maybe, uh, yeah. I also, in terms of visuals, I always love here, the Adam.
00:51:14
Speaker
has like he's wearing a cowl hoodie. yeah He's wearing a hoodie. which He's got the pineapple dreads and he's got the hoodie all the way up over the pineapple dreads and he's just he's not he's not feeling it. It's interesting because there's from ah um around the same time it might even be the same day potentially because it's like the same songs. There's a VH1 session um where they play the same songs but Adam I think is not he doesn't seem quite as like pulled up so I don't know what's happened between those two sessions oh that's funny um but I because it looks it looks like it's the same day I don't know anyway um it's certainly like the same songs and the same arrangements that Rain King is very good too but this this Rain King is perfect go watch it
00:52:00
Speaker
All right, so now that I've poured my heart out to you, Eric, what did you think of this version? I don't know, yeah. As I told Chris offline, I said, I listened to these, I think yesterday I listened to eight, back to back to back to back to back. Yeah, this one reminded, I told Chris, I said, I think they did a similar one, this I guess was not as surprising, they did a similar one on Howard Stern around that time. I think that might even be,
00:52:28
Speaker
on YouTube or was it was at one point. It definitely was at some point. Yeah, at some point. um So it kind of reminded me of that and I liked it. um Yeah, so I yeah, i don't I don't want to make a strong opinion. I guess in general, I mean, I i i i love the storytellers. I said I like that, you know, some of the mid tempo stuff in general, I tend to prefer the electric versions of Rain King, where everybody, because I guess they don't have, especially nowadays, they don't have as many songs that like gets the crowd hyped up. I love to see the whole band into it.
00:53:04
Speaker
You know, yeah, um and it's and it's kind of a more of a band song, right? We're like Long December is really an Adam song. There's other but but there are some songs that I think right the whole band plays a starring role, I guess. Yeah. Well, this is obviously also, I mean, it's like, I think one of the beautiful things about the song is that it's a wide, it's such a wide spectrum. And this is the quietest. This is the quietest version of Rain King.
00:53:29
Speaker
in the bunch that we listen to. yes And it goes and this gets this is very, very quiet. And so yeah, there's that those middle grounds where they did more of the band acoustic versions that have a little bit more lift to them. And obviously they've got the kind of heavy rocker versions. So yeah, if if if you're feeling like, ah, it wasn't really in the mood for something like that quiet, it yeah it's a it's definitely a mood piece. Like I don't listen to this like every day, but it's if you're feeling that sort of quiet mood,
00:53:56
Speaker
this this sort of hits that spot, but yeah, it's a specific, it's a vibe. And I do agree with you about the lyrics that the kind of wash your, I do think that those are the good choices. I guess I like Thunder Road a little better, but I also appreciate, um yeah yeah, those alts. Okay.
00:54:12
Speaker
ah So um some more to go. Now some of these, not all of them, a couple of these are available on other sources we'll get to. But this this this one, I'm not saying it's my favorite, but this was definitely I think the most interesting one, the next one.
00:54:27
Speaker
um with Augustana, Augustana, Augustana, and 2009, Cincinnati. This was somebody just taping um you know from their phone, I guess. um And then Augustana sang the first verse, right? Well, they sing an old song called Razor Ruckus as an as an intro. To your point, there's a lot going on in this one. yeah there's There's a lot of stuff happening. Oh, exactly.
00:54:54
Speaker
Um, you start talk oh yeah so so this is, he this is but basically, this was kind of ranking call it from like the end of the 2008 tour when Augustana was kind of helping out. and I think we talked a little bit about this. Oh, we talked about with Dan Eisenberg, right? Because he had come on the tour, um, because Charlie and, um,
00:55:14
Speaker
Charlie and Dave had both left the tour to have babies and um we for their wives to have babies. um But so Augustana was helping them out a lot. And that's where this version started to evolve. And then 2009, 2010, when they were doing the traveling circus and medicine show, this was basically the Rain King version. It was always in the encore. um And there's again, there's just a lot happening here. um they play Augustana does a vocal acapella thing called Razor Ruckus at the top. They click into Rain King. um What's really notable here, I actually think more than ah the other stuff I'm going to talk about, is that this is where
00:55:58
Speaker
The band finds the dropouts in the chorus that they still use to this day. you know It's like, oh I belong and I just drop out in the service. I was wondering when they added that because I didn't see them for a number of years and then yeah all of a sudden I noticed that that that was in it. yeah It's here, which I think is one of the best in terms of the figuring out of the arrangement of that song and the evolution of it.
00:56:24
Speaker
I also, especially in terms of what you're talking about, like this becoming like the epic show-stopping closer, yeah the dropouts are what does it, right? The original chorus works fine, but the way they do that with the dropouts really kind of brings, there's something about it that's perfect and kind of brings the energy up.
00:56:42
Speaker
It gets the crowd singing more, I think, because it's gotten quieter, but it yeah never loses the energy. But that's so it's around here where they pick that up. Then in the middle, in the alt section, they wheel a piano out, like the long December piano out in front of Adam. They play the Beatles with a little help from my friends.
00:57:02
Speaker
And then. That's funny. but is it Yeah. Because not only did it have the kip out with a little help from my friends, which I don't know if they ever played outside of that tour, but what caught my attention to was Adam on the piano. Yeah. Yeah. They literally just wheel fill the piano out for him. And then they did a thing that's related to, it's not all of good night, Elizabeth. They basically, it's like a sort of a sped up version, but, um, it's, uh,
00:57:26
Speaker
you know there you see he starts seeing the lyrics a good night eli but then he segues into this thing that's from this which is um You can measure the love you lose against the songs you gain, but this is just another song about the rain. um And it's there's a lot of stuff like that, like you're the Elizabeth and basically like these things you lose, you try to do these things, but at the end of the day, this is It's just a song about the rain, right? And it's that, um that I think is one of the, ah it's like such a beautiful thing. A, because again, I think Goodnight Elizabeth is also one of my favorite songs. And I think the intersection of those two songs always works. But that idea of like, On the one hand, this art is very meaningful and it means a lot to us. If you're a big Counting Crows fan and you've traveled to see them and you see them multiple times, like this is all means a lot. But also, this is just a song about the rain, right? You can get a lot from this, but you know it's just a song. And so that feeling of like that that young Adam who's seeking and wants to be an artist and who's spraying himself all over and
00:58:30
Speaker
you know, being this kind of difficult person who maybe, you know, maybe that girl on the other end is like, you know, yeah, I get what you're going, but I also, I don't know if, I don't know if I want to deal with this. You know, he lost her, presumably in this song, um because he's not dating, and you know, married to anyone from 1993. So you measure again, you measure the love you lose against the songs you gain, but, you know, just song about the rain.
00:58:57
Speaker
um So I really like the versions with Augustana. This is towards the top for me. okay um i but I think there's kind of a fun energy to it, but yeah, it's definitely, they're throwing a lot at it. There's also versions from that 2008 tour where they also dropped some Mr. Jones lyrics in the middle of it. So there's just, and we'll talk about Mr. Jones again in a minute, but there's, it's a big version. It's worth seeking out. If you weren't around in this era, it's worth seeing at least one of those.
00:59:26
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely did not see this. What what was this, 2003 we said? 2009. Basically, so it's late 2008, 2009, 2010 are these versions, but they never really did them after. Yeah, okay, good. Yeah, I did not see it. No, as I said, it's one of the most interesting, definitely worth watching. It's fun. It's definitely fun ah for for a big Crows fan.
00:59:46
Speaker
Okay. Five more to go. Now the next one, I don't have too many comments. We might cover this album, but this is, uh, you highlighted their version from the echoes of the outlaw roadshow, uh, CD that these, those were recorded in 2012 and released in 2013. I think I was there for this one. Cause I think this was the first time, I think they only did this alt at the end of the tour. I think maybe.
01:00:12
Speaker
Again, unless there was a version from a few days before where I never heard the tape or no one noted it to me or something. um but i Because I know I was there on that tour towards the end to see them play this. ah This version has um a song called Lippy Kids by the band Elbow. Elbow was sort of in that same group of but um English bands as Coldplay.
01:00:34
Speaker
Um, and, uh, this is kind of a cool, is this is an interesting one. It's not like my favorite in terms of that. Um, I really kind of like what they do with the arrangement here. You, if you haven't, if you've heard, you may have heard this and not realized this, um, as I'm talking about it, cause they never actually say the words lippy kids. Um, what they say, what Adam says a bunch is build a rocket boys. Um, and that I kind of just like how Adam sings that I kind of like how this one sounds. It's not my favorite.
01:01:04
Speaker
Um, but it's a cool one. And it's one, they did a bunch in 2012, 13, 14. So people may have heard this one. It's funny. The one that you linked the, the um, which has no video, but, um, that, uh, you know, there's a couple of YouTube comments and they mentioned a lip. I mean, I would have had no idea, but they mentioned lippy kids. And then someone says, um, there's actually the one ah part of the lippy kids lyrics is they mentioned crows.
01:01:30
Speaker
Yes. Settling lippy kids on the corner tonight. Lippy kids on the corner. It begins settling like crows. Settling like crows. Yeah. That must be. So that's kind of funny. Oh, so they do say lippy kids in the middle. But they, you don't remember, if you hear that for the first time when you're technically listening, you don't remember lippy kids. You remember build a rocket boys, which kind of sort of like triumphantly says.
01:01:50
Speaker
yeah and then he yeah Yeah, and then he has, of course, like, ah right. There's a rocket ship reference to all my friends, right? but another Another rocket reference. ah Cool, okay. So that takes us to, we are up to number nine, four more to go. So this is from something in 2009 called The Biz Session. Yeah, this is something from the UK,
01:02:16
Speaker
when they were on like a UK tour promoting Saturday nights and Sunday mornings. And this is why I didn't think, and again, maybe I just missed it, that one that you love from Rolling Stone. Again, I didn't see Charlie in it, and for some reason, may I'd have to listen, I didn't think Charlie, but definitely this one has Charlie, and you know, charlie or Charlie's, you know, they show the four, right? ah Dan, Emmy, Charlie, and Adam. Yeah, all four of them playing, yeah. And this one is notable. This has a very cool alt. So this is, again, this this sort of very stripped down acoustic version.
01:02:46
Speaker
um But this has Mr. Jones and Murder of One as alts. And it's pretty interesting. I like the way ah Adam sings, and the way he sings in this context, she's suddenly beautiful. Like the way he sings it in the context of this is is pretty good. I like this ah a lot. This is one they had done less. They did, as I mentioned, they'd done they'd used Mr. Jones a little bit in 2008 in Rain King.
01:03:14
Speaker
um but less common, and this is kind of an interesting, kind of one-off version from a radio session that's worth it. Well, this is definitely one that people, the cool thing about this one is it's one that most even hardcore Crows fans have not seen or listened to. So if you're looking for something on this list that like, oh, I want to hear a new version of Ring King that I never heard before, this is probably one of them. Yeah, I get these last few. So again, I guess we're in our transition here. The ones we've talked about before are really kind of like,
01:03:46
Speaker
the sort of list of Rain King alts, right? The things that like have been used pretty regularly over the course of the years. Now we're getting into stuff that's more kind of one-off interesting things um that are less common.
01:04:01
Speaker
Um, this is what, again, certainly this arrangement with this thing is not common at all. And it's kind of a cool thing. I think I'm the one that uploaded this video. no It's only got like 500 views. So yes not a lot of people have seen this one. No, fantastic. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Okay. um So let's go to number 10 of 12. So this is a show we've talked about a bunch. I guess at one point, I'm not really, you know, it's funny on the Sullivan street podcast, one of the things I wasn't planning on doing necessarily was reviewing an entire live show that was not an official live release. But I think one exception to that might be one that we've mentioned multiple times and featured here, which is the Codfish Hollow Barn 2012 Rank King. I don't have a lot of particular comments. I do want you to talk about what alts they're using. um Yeah. And this is one I don't think they ever did before. It did before or after. So I wanted to have at least one on here that was an Adam Riffing.
01:05:00
Speaker
version right because with Rain King there's a lot of different interesting ones where they're kind of ripping especially now most of the time if there's an alt it's really just Adam kind of ripping off a couple of lines yeah um this is an interesting longer one like a kind of comeback Maria I want to be what you dream about at night. And I don't want this dream of mine to come true without you, which is kind of interesting thing. And then he references, I'm i'm positive, right? my My ears weren't deceiving me. He talks about comeback Maria at the beginning. And then at the end, he's talking about come home, Amelia. Yeah, exactly. That's what I wasn't sure about. Exactly. I wrote that. Come home, Amelia. Yeah. Yeah. Which obviously Amelia is the one, the Miami and that stuff, yeah that era.
01:05:46
Speaker
And Maria is, you know, whether Maria is a person or Adam has been one of the great Counting Crows debates. But it's a really interesting kind of piece of just Adam riffing and the version is great. And um yeah, I don't think we talked too much about this one um when we did the Codfish Hollow discussion. So yeah, I think it's worth pulling this one out again and and kind of taking a look at it. It's just a great, I mean, I don't know. This is almost like,
01:06:15
Speaker
peak I mean, as as I said before, maybe the only knock about the Codfish Hollow is is is if it was right after Underwater Sunshine, right? so if you don't want to so i So if you want to see those songs played, which they don't play a lot, this is a great show.
01:06:32
Speaker
you might think that there's too many covers because they're featuring some of those shows, that would be the only possible argument. ah But but would you would you argue that this um overall show and Rain King's on there, this nine minute version is one of the most intense shows like they have high intensity the entire time like this is basically like you almost wondered did they have to take drugs ahead of time like they're on a hundred out of a hundred the whole show uh and it's fantastic so yeah i think and i think 2012 is a great year for them and that's thing i think this is the peak of that yeah and it's very if you again if you haven't watch watched that whole show when you're a fan of this band like definitely go do it because it's just they're so great
01:07:13
Speaker
all the way through. um That's why I mean that echoes the Outlow Roadshow album which again we'll get to down the line is really good because that's that that whole tour. They were crushing it. Like I flew out to LA to see the end of that tour, just they'd been so good. And also because my wife wanted to see No Doubt, but that was that was actually one of the perfect travel weekends I've ever had from them. Because my wife was like, m should we go to LA? Like No Doubt is coming back and they're playing the Universal Amphitheater. And then I looked at the schedule and I was like, well, you're telling me we can see the crows in LA.
01:07:45
Speaker
go to No Doubt and then the next night we can see the Crows again in Anaheim. Yeah. And she was on board with it and so that was a tremendous music travel weekend because No Doubt was great too. I mean, No Doubt's not my favorite band, but if you ever get a chance to see No Doubt live. I'm sure they put a good show together. They're pretty great. Yeah, that was a great musical weekend. But 2012 Crows, man, they were a hot shit band that year, more so than there again always great but that was like that year is what i think one of their peaks and yeah they had a couple and it's funny because they you know they've done ah too much of a tangent you know there's there are certain songs that they know exactly how to play now and adam's voice might not be able to reach everything but it's still great so many of the times but you know age is something that catches up on all of us and i was thinking around this time they were like late 40s right so still
01:08:36
Speaker
relatively, yeah, and as you said, I think they were kind of reinvigorated at that time. I i think, yeah, this this was a great time of the band post their popularity as a whole, I guess, ne national popularity. um I do agree with with you. And and they released, by the way, both of those, you know ah Wonderland and, um like, they were all kind of backed up, because then they had, like, Echoes plus Underwater Sunshine, and then And then Somewhere Under Wonderland, we're pretty close back to back to back, right? Yeah. It's kind of the last, and we'll talk about this more, I guess, when we get over to those records, but like, it's kind of the last big evolution of the band evolutionary period, right? Because going from doing all those covers to doing Somewhere Under Wonderland, you know, and then the band, you know, from like 20, because 2014 is Somewhere Under Wonderland, 2015 to 2018, there's not a ton of band evolution, I guess is what I'd say, right? The band is still out there on tour and they're great.
01:09:37
Speaker
theyre they're you know they're doing playing a lot of great shows, but there's they're not evolving as quickly as they were over. like you know You go from 2012 to 2014, there's a lot happening.
01:09:48
Speaker
And that's very different than 2009 and 10, which is very different from 2006 and seven. yeah There's like, yeah you know, though that's right. They were, it was 12, 13, 14, by the way, underwater sunshine, 2012 echoes 2013 and then somewhere 2014. Um, and then I know, I think part of that is not only their age, but, but you know, Adam's talked about, he was disappointed in the sales of somewhere on the wonderland.
01:10:08
Speaker
And that really upset him. And not just the sales, but the overall reception and impact on society. So, ah but I agree with you. I think this energy that they're bringing was from recording and ah that they, sorry, that they were really under water sunshine and they were going to start working on a new album, right? Like and this this kind of new energy was in there in that time and it shows up. And so go watch Codfish Hollow. We might have to do a whole episode on that one of these times. so Yeah.
01:10:38
Speaker
Okay. So we got two more to go. Let's go to, and this, I had no idea about this, um, alt, uh, version. Uh, so this was, um, from 2013 at the entire band. This was a Sirius XM promo, but not the, uh, troubadour show. This was at the spectrum. I, um, in a recording studio, it looks like, right. yeah And, uh, the whole band was there and a slow temple, slow tempo, but with the whole band.
01:11:07
Speaker
and it had a Washington Square interlude. Yeah, pretty I mean they mean, if they did it more than once or twice other than this, it's not it's not much. um So yeah, this is kind of an interesting one-off version. um And Washington Square, I think, especially in that acoustic version, maybe part they haven't played it acoustic as much back in the day, because it does feel like that's another one that does kind of fit the tempo and the vibe. um It's sort of almost an updating, right? If you think about the original version being Adam in San Francisco. like There is that sense that that character, that narrator, could you can see how they would also be kind of wandering through Washington Square trying to find something. you know They stepped out the door and they're now they're they're walking around through Washington Square. They used to be walking through San Francisco trying to find this girl and now maybe they're hopping uptown
01:12:03
Speaker
up to up to Union Square or something like that or Chelsea. Um, so yeah, I think I like this one. And again, it's one of the if you haven't, if you're not a, ah if you weren't watching YouTube videos, or like performance stuff in 2013, this one might have slipped you by. So I wanted to get that one in here. So I think it's, it's an interesting, it's a very, it's a very good version. um And it's, ah it's nice. It's a good one.
01:12:27
Speaker
Might be one of the only one. Oh no, that wouldn't be true. Cause he'd be 2012. I was going to say Millard's in this one, although he's not in a lot of these. So, okay. Good. So then we have the final one from your list of the worth checking out, um, ranking versions, catching, you know, a wide variety of, as you said, the pace.
01:12:48
Speaker
Tempo and the Yacht lyrics and everything else. This is from 2013.
Exploring The Blue Nile and Musical Influences
01:12:53
Speaker
It was from the tour with the Wallflowers. I guess Wallflowers are not joining them. No. Hammerstein Ballroom, were you at this one? I was there again. Yeah, that's another way I was at. Yeah, I wanted to pull this one out. The lyrics here are from a song called Stay by the Blue Nile. that Adam has talked about that band a lot on the podcast, on his podcast. And I think I can't remember if we talked about On Air or Off Air, but we talked with Chris Porterfield, because I know he's a big fan of them, um of the Blue Nile as well. And so I just wanted to drop this one and because it's it's kind of interesting. They only played this two or three times. I know they played this like the next night in Buffalo, and maybe they played this a bit more after that. But it's kind of, it's a really nice one.
01:13:35
Speaker
um the the lyrics it's called the song is called stay it's like stay and I will understand you um which I also think again it's it's a ah song that really works with rain king of that pleading um kind of character ah and also again if you've heard If you've heard Adam wax poetic about the Blue Nile on his podcast, um this is just kind of interesting to hear him kind of combine those things. I think he said this was some like a dare from Bryson or something or something they were joking about and he just decided to like bust it out. They'd never done it before and just kind of like surprise Bryson and see where it went. um And it went pretty well and I think it's a pretty good version of it.
01:14:12
Speaker
um what's say that's what Who sings the original song? The Blue Nile. okay They're an English band from the 80s. There's basically a whole episode of the Underwater Sunshine podcast about this band. Okay, I'll have to listen to that one. Yeah, and they're really cool. They're sort of like ah an early 80s electronic band. They were apparently... There's some story, and I may be getting this slightly off, but their first album was basically made as a demo of like an early Moog synthesizer or something. um It was like just like sort of show off what this thing can do and like they literally it became an album and and so it's a very cool
01:14:55
Speaker
It's a very 80s sounding record, um but it is a very cool record. And isn't this, going back to stuff we've talked about before, and I guess maybe model society, and doesn't this tie into what some of the ideas of the original bands might have been, and like in the song of New Frontier, which is obviously right a tribute to 80s British um' know Yeah pop pop pop is that what they call it. Yeah i mean this is these these things tend to be kind of slower than new frontier but yeah i mean i definitely think this is sort of a harken back to media where the band was kind of coming from.
01:15:30
Speaker
um or thinking about it, especially, you know, when you think about like the demos a little bit, right? Where they still had some of that slickness. Yeah. Like part of what kind of happens is there's that original kind of concept. Yeah. Of where maybe Adam's mind was in the eighties that sort of evolves into before you at before we all hear August, right? The band has sort of evolved away from that in a certain way. But yeah, yeah, there's a sense that that that Blue Nile record is kind of a like,
01:15:59
Speaker
the the influence of a different or earlier version of what this band could have been if they didn't more together and again it's just a ah cool version of the song yeah i wouldn't put it at the top but you know and speaking of which i really like i guess that ties into it a little bit but during the interlude they have like the sound effects in the back are different i think it's like kind of sit it's almost like electronic i don't know if you noticed that I couldn't tell if it was victory or charlie or both i mean i always love when dan victory does some people don't like it i love when he adds his little guitar effects to things that's one of my favorite parts of dan actually. um
Upcoming Content and Listener Engagement
01:16:36
Speaker
So yeah we listen to that when we sign off here but there's something going on during the interlude it it might be both of them.
01:16:43
Speaker
Yeah, I like that I definitely have never heard in any other live version of ranking so well without what but I'll do off Eric I'll send you a version that's like a much cleaner sounding version. This is just like an audience tape But there's versions that are just a clean Um, okay. It was like the sounds if you're, if you're picking out stuff. So trying to figure out. Yeah. Okay. So, um, well, thank you Chris for putting that list together and, uh, thank the audience for listening. I hope you check it out. We will, um, attach or link to Chris's, uh, list on our YouTube, uh, channel as well.
01:17:17
Speaker
Which is, um I don't even know what it is. I think it's just Sullivan just sullivan Street, right? Sullivan Street kind of grows podcasts. So I think Sullivan Street podcast is actually the handle. um Anything else you want to add before we sign off? I i think that's it. Go listen go listen to like 10 versions of Rain King. wrote You don't have to listen to watch our playlist, just go listen to 10 versions of Rain King. And it's it's what one should do with their day.
01:17:42
Speaker
and figure out why yeah you know right why you should come in out from the rain or whatever. I feel like the next big one, we got to do Elizabeth at some point. and that's ah But we got to build we got to build up to that. I feel like we went like a year between round here and rank maybe 2026. We'll go real deep into Goodnight Elizabeth for another hour.
01:18:00
Speaker
Yeah, and even if we didn't do this, Rain King is worth talking about because of you know the importance of the song to both the live shows and and their identity and everything. So, no, I appreciate it. And I appreciate you guys listening and we'll have more exciting episodes about Cannon Crows in 2025 and hopefully we'll get some new music relatively soon. That's what they say. We'll see. Thank you so much. See you down here in Sullivan Street.