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E10: Recovering the Satellites Celebration (Part I)
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Eric and Chris are again joined by "Counting Crows Historian" Geoff Harkness, as well as superfans Zephry and "Florida Eric". Together, they celebrate the 27th anniversary of Recovering the Satellites.
The group talks about the history/recording of the album and their first memories with it. They also analyze, and provide trivia about, seven songs off the album (with the other eight to come in Part II).
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Recovering the Satellites'
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome to episode 10 of Sullivan Street Accounting Co's podcast, where today on the anniversary of Recovering the Satellites, October 15th, we are going to get into a deep dive song ranking, et cetera, history behind what some critics and a lot of fans think is their best album, Recovering the Satellites. But first, let's talk to my co-host, Chris Miggs. Chris, good afternoon. How are you?
00:00:42
Speaker
hey i'm good i'm good um i'm excited to uh to talk about this record it's an interesting it's interesting to go back to this record all the way through in part because the band tends to focus on certain songs so there's there's some songs i hear very regularly other songs i don't hear as much especially as someone who likes to like listen to live recordings so it's kind of interesting and it's uh we'll get into it as we talk about it's interesting to sort of compare those songs that are
00:01:11
Speaker
more commonly heard one of which is I think by this point the most played song ever right um versus some other songs that have been played you know two or three times so it's an interesting it's yeah it's an interesting kind of an interesting as opposed to august right which is much more obviously there's some that get played more than others but pretty much all of that is a common part of the canon so it's kind of a different vibe i think then that's very excited to get to it and very excited to have uh our guest with us today
00:01:41
Speaker
Yes, we have three guests today to help us sort through recovering the satellites.
The Fan Journey: Personal Stories
00:01:46
Speaker
First, we will say hello to a who someone who I think will be a regular in Sullivan Street, counting crews, resident historian, Jeff Harkness. Jeff, good afternoon. Hello, and welcome, everyone. How's it going? Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah. Very excited to be here. Love the album. It's gonna be really fun to talk about. I think that
00:02:09
Speaker
If you're a big Counting Crows fan, there's at least some point at which Recovering the Satellites is your favorite album, where you're like, this is the one. I know for me, for a long time, I ranked it as my very favorite album by them. So I'm excited to talk about it. It's been really fun to re-listen to it. And also to rank the songs was very fun too. I can't wait to see what everybody came up with.
00:02:34
Speaker
Absolutely. And for our other two guests today, both new to the program, one of them, I'll first say hi to Zefri. Now, Zefri, I just met recently, maybe a month or so ago, outside of the YouTube theater and where I kind of hunted him down where he looked like a hardcore Counting Cruise fan. And I was right. And we really got along. So I thought, hey, you might be a good guest on the show and glad to see you here. So Zefri, hello.
00:03:01
Speaker
Hello, Eric and Chris and Jeff and other Eric and other Eric so we'll get into the album in a bit, but but please tell us how You became a big kind of crows fan and what keeps you coming back and as I mentioned in the pre-show You are a few decades Younger than us you're in your 20s I have to say which makes your story a little more interesting I think about how you became a crows head
00:03:27
Speaker
yeah well i'm actually not even as old as this album so i'm 26 so but yeah i mean oh great i'm out of here no i i don't know what it what it is i mean there's there's a couple bands for me that you know you just we all have a couple bands that we just absolutely love everything about for me it's it's rush and counting grows and most people are just like what those are so different how could you like them but i i just do they're they're the best so
00:03:57
Speaker
with Counting Crows. So with Counting Crows being a younger fan, I would say, you know, my parents always had the radio on in the car and Counting Crows was one of those bands that even if I didn't know the song, when I heard Adam's voice, I knew like Mr. Jones and maybe Rain King, but I hear Adam's voice and I would just go, this is Counting Crows. I didn't even know the song. And I'd look at the radio and be like, yep, that's Counting Crows. And just, he had that voice.
00:04:27
Speaker
that just drew me right in and his voice was so captivating and it was like he was whispering in my ear or something and everything he sings about is just so true and personal to him but I think it also resonates with other people and so there was something about that and then of course just how great the band is and how great their songs are but there was something about that genuine honesty
00:04:51
Speaker
that just threw me right into this band. And I would say my first introduction to them was probably Shrek 2 back in 2004 whenever that movie came out with Accidentally in Love. You know that song is it's still one of my favorite Counting Crow songs because it's kind of different for them. It's extremely positive and upbeat where some of their songs are not.
00:05:14
Speaker
But I think that's what always drew me to them. And then it wasn't until about 2014, which was about the Somewhere Under Wonderland era, that I really dove in when I started. My senior year of high school was that year, and I started to dive into them throughout the next couple of years and went down the rabbit hole, so to speak. But it started with Shrek 2, because I was a young kid when that movie came out.
00:05:42
Speaker
I had always heard that that might, that some fans did get into them because of that song and went down the rabbit hole, but you're the first person I actually met due to that. We'll move on just in the sake of time. It's interesting though that, cause I think we've all talked about sort of our paths with the band. And I do think there is something about reaching a certain point in your life where these songs start to make sense. So let, you know, like, I feel like I got, became a bigger fan when I was 18 and Eric when he, you know, it's like,
00:06:12
Speaker
It's just different times when we turned 18 or 19 or 20. And there is something to that, and it's interesting to hear that as a theme. Just out of curiosity, do you know which album you purchased first? I think it was Films About Ghosts, because that's usually what I do when I get into a band. I'm like, all right, I got to check out The Greatest Hits.
00:06:33
Speaker
Okay. Then after that, I guess, which of the non-greatest hits album, do you know? It was either the Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam show, or Somewhere Under Wonderland. Yeah. That's so interesting to have listened maybe to Somewhere Under Wonderland. I mean, owning that first before August. So interesting. We'll go to our fifth person on the podcast today, Eric Redding, or I guess maybe I'll call you Florida Eric.
00:07:04
Speaker
So, Florida, Eric, what got you into the cruise? What keeps you coming back? Basically, I've always been a big music person. I grew up listening to music. My dad had a record, one of those old school record players with big towers back in the 80s, whatever. And I started getting into, it was right at the end of the 80s, early 90s, when rock was dying out, like the hair bands. And I was into Mr. Big and Extreme.
00:07:26
Speaker
I played a little of my dad on the way to drop me off at school. He's like, hey, you like this rock, check out the greats and check out Beatles, Rubber Soul and Jimmy's already experienced and stuff like that. And I would listen to that just hours listening. So I've always been a big music fan. And as we crept into the 90s, I liked the heavier bands, some like Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains, I love the grunge scene. And all of a sudden I'm driving one day and I hear, I think it was Mr. Jones down here in South Florida came out first, I think.
00:07:53
Speaker
I'm like, Oh my God, listen to him a moat and Adam's voice and the lyrics. It's really, really touched me. And here's a guy that I mean, I have a lot in common, you know, I too dated, dated, uh, Courtney Cox and Jennifer Aniston. I know I was healed, but no, no, seriously, I could just.
Recording Insights and Challenges
00:08:09
Speaker
identify with them when the mental health struggles sometimes there were relationship struggles and like I said the voice and the lyrics and you know here's being a music fan here's a band that sounds like to me Van Morris and REM the band and you know all mixed into one I'm like man that's just a unique sound from you know Alice in Change or Pearl Jam that I was used to and I just I stuck with them ever since and I grabbed August was my first album grabbed August and ever since then I just went in order and I've just been
00:08:34
Speaker
I've been sticking with her ever since just Eric and I talked a while back, you know before I went on the pod and Just the the lyrics and the depth that it's only just grabbed a hold of me unlike any other band and I'm just stuck with them and I think I think the world of
00:08:48
Speaker
All right, great. Fantastic. I do want to get into the history. I also want to mention or ask people when they buy. Maybe I'll ask though, Jeff, to first talk a little bit about the unique recording of recovering the satellites and of course being the sophomore effort. And I guess that's what a lot of the album is about, of trying to record after your first album was such a major hit.
00:09:16
Speaker
you know, was a seven million in the US, I think August sold, you know, one of the most recognizable lead singers at that time. And yeah, and then all of a sudden, they try to do it again. So, Jeff, your take or some interesting history notes, which by the way, you can find some of these notes in Rain King, the life and music of Adam Dirts and Cannon Crow is available on Amazon, which by the way, Kindle hardcover and paperback.
00:09:41
Speaker
Right. Oh, and audiobook should be out by the end of the month. So look at that. It's six hours of me talking. My my wife is very excited. So she calls it Tuesday. So anyway, yeah, I mean, to me, this is one of their most interesting albums, the story of
00:10:05
Speaker
this album is insane. You could make a documentary about it. In fact, I think that's exactly what they're doing with HBO. So that's very exciting. And I can see why. This album, first of all, you've got the second album. I'm a big fan of second albums in general. I always love it when a band has a really interesting debut and then they have to follow it with something. And
00:10:28
Speaker
That often produces a real confidence in the group that results in a lot of touring. In this case, that results in a very strong second album. We could talk about second albums for a long time. But I think in this case, Adam, one thing is that some of the songs were really road tested in advance. So you have songs like Children in Bloom, which was around almost from the very beginning of the August tour. They were playing that.
00:10:56
Speaker
Goodnight Elizabeth became a staple of that tour as well, pretty early on. And then you even had stuff like, have you seen me lately, Daylight Fading, another Horse Dreamers Blues being played early, prior, long before the album was released. So they had about half the album or even more than that written before they went into the studio. They also had sort of the support of the record label to do something
00:11:26
Speaker
insane. And in some ways, this is Adam's most ambitious record. He decided to write the ultimate sort of treatisey on celebrity and fame. It's well-worn material, but he decided to go for it. And he conceived a double album that would be comprised of two sides. And each side was going to have a three or four song little suite. So you have these four suites. All of this went away after the album was released.
00:11:55
Speaker
It's very interesting because this is really his concept and he was very wedded to this concept. He talked a lot about it in the early interviews surrounding the release of the album. So he had this double concept. The first side was going to be about what it was like to experience overnight celebrity from multiple angles and side two was going to be about the sort of
00:12:17
Speaker
um learning to deal with that and the recovering from that and also as he described it the possibilities that stem from that so he had this you know grand concept and um they recorded again in the house but this time they had a huge budget and um they rented a 13 000 square foot
00:12:37
Speaker
mansion called, I'm going to say Artemisia, is the pronunciation that's on a video on their website. It could be Artemisia, as an artist, and it's pronounced differently, but the video on their site says Artemisia, so we'll go with that. But this giant house, and they wanted to record there. Adam this time did not live in the house because he lived in LA, and Matt Malley did not live in the house either, so some differences there.
00:13:01
Speaker
But they got Gil Norton to produce. Gil Norton was the producer most known for the Pixies in a very different sound. The record company, everybody wanted them to do September and everything after, basically just regurgitating the first album. They wanted T-Bone Burnett to produce it again.
00:13:20
Speaker
let's bring in the same team and recreate that magic and get the dollars rolling in. But Adam was very steadfast in refusing to use T. Brown Burnett again and I think that was a great artistic decision, one of the early ones and he really fought to bring this vision to life.
00:13:40
Speaker
So the mansion itself, I mean, I'll be very interested to see if they get into this in the documentary. But they had to do all this crazy stuff to prepare the mansion. They had to soundproof it because there's all these, you know, mansions next door and rich people.
00:13:55
Speaker
they had to they couldn't you couldn't touch any of the walls and so they had to erect this whole series of tents so that you couldn't touch the walls all of these rules and restrictions they brought in a whole team to measure the acoustics and they built all of these had all these custom things built to
00:14:11
Speaker
you know, put the amplifier boxes and all this crazy stuff. So really, I mean, they went crazy spending and also to instead of just renting a bunch of equipment for months and months, they decided let's just buy it. You know, it's cheaper to just buy it. So they're buying like ten thousand dollar microphones. And really, I mean, Gil Norton said he'd never seen so much money spent on an album and said still to this day, it's the most extravagant album he's ever seen made. And he's done a lot of, you know, big time albums since then. So
00:14:39
Speaker
This was a big grand concept. Adam was swinging for the fences with this. And I love it when an artist does that and says, I'm just going to go for it and try to make an absolute masterpiece and go for it. And so that was kind of how they entered things. At the same time, of course, he had moved to LA because his life had become untenable as this celebrity star back in Berkeley. So it was a whole new thing and I think an exciting time for the band to be
00:15:08
Speaker
this young you know sort of fresh hot band that everybody was looking at and waiting to hear what they were going to do next and you know here they come with with uh you know this album so that that's kind of how it started hopefully hopefully that'll get us get us uh launched as it were
00:15:25
Speaker
No, that was great. Thank you. Double platinum, I think it went. So they're second highest selling. I think, like I said, in the US, the original seven million. It's worth saying that officially this was the time that they got a new drummer and
00:15:40
Speaker
and a new guitar player. And that obviously changed the sound of the crows, right? And it's something that Adam has subsequently said, that he always wanted a lead rocking guitar player. They just didn't have one on the first album. Because I know some people maybe want to go back to that more, I guess, folksy or less hard sound on the first album. But interesting, though, right, that they're new from an album perspective. But both of them had been playing with the band.
00:16:09
Speaker
Dan McCree joins basically right at the beginning of the August tour. And then Ben Mize had joined, it's like May of 94, where he joins and replaces Steve. Maybe it's August. May or August. It was late, like, yeah, August, September, I think. I think the last shows were September with Bowman. Did Steve finish the tour, the August tour? No. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah.
00:16:34
Speaker
Yeah, so the last three or four months of the tour are bent, so he'd played with, basically just that he'd played with the Moretti and been, I guess, playing at least some of the material. Yeah, I go, they got
Buying the Album: First Impressions
00:16:49
Speaker
along at that point. Yeah, they didn't get along, yeah. Right away. I guess it's worth mentioning, before we dive into the songs, I do want maybe very briefly to talk about if you remember when you bought the whole album, assuming that all of you have,
00:17:05
Speaker
And did it mean anything to you? I guess I'll just start by saying, I actually, you know, in my recollection, it came out in summer 96. So it shows you what I knew. But I think that's because I worked at, I think I said this before, I worked at Circus City at the time, which is kind of like Best Buy, but it's out of business.
00:17:22
Speaker
But then I remember I worked there in the summer of 96 before moving to New York City in September. And I guess I thought I bought the album there. But in retrospect, I guess what it was is they just had the promotional flats everywhere. So hyping me up about it. So I I forget, though, if I went back and bought it because I New York's not too far from where I grew up or if I bought it in New York. But I remember I bought it pretty quickly. It wasn't maybe the day it came out, but if it wasn't,
00:17:49
Speaker
Probably maybe two weeks after I just remember loving it, but it was very different I you know in my memory too I think they which is weird because it's not the advent the internet but the internet was kind of just becoming the internet then is I want to say they launched counting crews calm like to coincide with the release of recovering the satellites because I kind of remember very early and
00:18:11
Speaker
after buying the album down because it was a big deal at the time like they had photos on the website and i can download those photos of of charlie playing the harmonica and put it as my wallpaper um seven hours seven hours to download the yeah exactly there is actually i think they also had like maybe the early like videos because they had they certainly have like a lot of footage which is by the way it's interesting if
00:18:38
Speaker
the house looks very cool. Like you can see some of the house in the videos. And I just remember it really does. You do get the impression of like they are recording in a mansion. Like I can see it like in my mind's eye just the vibe of like, yeah, they're in a very, very nice house.
00:18:55
Speaker
So anyway, I don't have much to say except that like you said, it's definitely more, we'll talk about it, it's definitely a more complicated album. It's definitely than August, right? It's definitely something that, what songs you like will probably change over time. Some songs take more, longer to grow on you, where I guess, you know, maybe compared to August, but I'll go, we'll just go in order. Chris, I'll go to you about,
00:19:14
Speaker
your memories of buying the album? So it's funny because you asked that first album question. I'm this is definitely the first crows album I owned because I did not own August when it came I went back and bought it just because I was young and just hadn't I don't know whatever reason hadn't acquired that one. I am pretty positive I got this one for Christmas in 1996.
00:19:36
Speaker
based on the back of really, you know, a long December, just being really into that song. And definitely listened to it again, didn't, I don't know how deeply I dove into it in a lot of ways, but this was definitely my first. Yeah, it was a lovely, a lovely Christmas present. And I'm sure
00:19:59
Speaker
I might still have that CD somewhere. I'm not sure. I got rid of most of my CDs at a certain point. But yeah, that was that was number one. And I actually, to be honest, I actually think that this might have been my first CRO CD because the August at the time I only had on tape. I later went back and bought it on CD. Jeff, I'll go to you. What about you?
00:20:19
Speaker
So I also I got it when it came out. And, you know, interestingly, this I was a college writing for the college newspaper at the time, I was like a baby music journalist. And I think this was the first CD I ever reviewed in print. It was one of the first two. The other one was Pearl Jam that sometimes album album was sometimes on it. No code.
00:20:43
Speaker
And so, you know, my initial impression, I loved August, huge fan of August. And my initial impression of this album, I was like, I wasn't I was like, not I didn't get it or something. I didn't dislike it, but I wasn't like, oh, yeah, this is this is genius. I was sort of like it.
00:21:03
Speaker
I didn't love it but then a few months later I was working in this coffee shop and somebody put on August and everything after and I was like oh my god I like remembered how much I love this band and then it made me want to go play this out much I still had the CD and I was like and then I was like oh my god this sounds so good that I like kinda realize how great it was
00:21:25
Speaker
So this album then grew on me and really became for a long time my very favorite Counting Crows album. And, you know, so by the time Desert Life came out, I was a hardcore fan and really into it and like super looking forward to that release. And I think it was this album that really, really made me a Counting Crows fan like forever, because I still think it's I don't know if it's my favorite album today, but it's, you know, it's a 10 out of 10 album for sure.
00:21:53
Speaker
Zephyr, what about yourself? So this album, I think it was probably in the middle of the road where I discovered, because when I became a fan, you know, Somewhere Under Wonderland had just come out. So to my, I remember I was in college working at McDonald's at the time and I used to be the closer and I would take my, I had a big like speaker, like almost like a small PA speaker, maybe like this big.
00:22:20
Speaker
And I would bring it there and bluetooth my phone and and just drive everyone nuts and once I started to really get into the counting crows I was blasting all their bootlegs while we were closing the grill at like two in the morning and I remember I was like okay I was going through the discography I haven't gotten to satellites yet let's put that one on and I remember putting that one on and just from
00:22:38
Speaker
catapult i remember just turning it up and then they entered what's angels of the silences next turning it up and just turning it up and up as the album went on and just like this is amazing because i had only heard what was on films about ghosts at the time which is you know two or three songs off recovering the satellites i think so it was it was very different than their other albums and it's i think it still is but um it just grabbed me right away because adam's voice and the sincerity was there just like august and the other albums
00:23:07
Speaker
But man, what what a rock and roll record. I mean, what musicianship I mean, just, you know, adding Dan on guitar and just the compositions and the guitar tones and just it, it just grabbed me right away. And I was like this, it really solidified my entrance as a as a hardcore fan. Absolutely.
00:23:29
Speaker
And you brought up something to this day. I still get annoyed about some people that only know maybe the crows from their singles almost don't consider them a rock album. Well, they don't rock. They're kind of little folksy and with the piano. And I'm like, jeez, their second album could show you how much they rock. Eric, please, Chris, you had something to add real quick. But part of that is, though, when I'm thinking about my experience with that record,
00:23:52
Speaker
A Long December is the big single from that record. And it's very different than a lot of the rest of the record. I think that's one of the reasons why it took me a while with the record was that what I loved was A Long December and not maybe so much the first time around Catapult or, you know, anyway.
00:24:08
Speaker
No, that's true. Florida Eric, your experience with recovering a satellite is the album. Yeah. Like I said before, I was a fan from the jump and I was always just a music fan in general. So one time, I remember once I went to specs music down here, it was no longer there, but of the 90s, it was a big record store in town. I was looking for something else. And I think I remember driving up and seeing a sign in the window and obviously marketing wasn't big online or anything back then, but sign the window. Counting Crew's new album, covering the satellites, get it here or whatever. Like, oh my God, I'm running the store and I just purchased it.
00:24:36
Speaker
And I have a, it's complicated status with this album. I told Eric a couple weeks ago when we did the little meeting pod at, I understand why they wanted to make this album a little bit different from the first one. And I'm glad Adam told the label to stick it, but out of the first three, it's probably my least favorite out of the three. But with, with Counting Crows, I'm gonna keep it G rated. It's like pizza. It's like, even when it's not your favorite, it's still good. So, you know, the, the, the Crows least favorite out of the three is better than any other band. So, so, you know, that's where I
Singles, Rankings, and Impact
00:25:03
Speaker
stand with them. I love it. I'm ready to get started talking about it.
00:25:06
Speaker
All right, great. Well, that being said, let's go right into the scene. I do want to say, because last time I mentioned this as we talked about the songs, but I think it's worth mentioning as we're going to rank the songs. What were the official singles? And they actually had four official singles. Angels of the Silences was actually the first single, which was rocking.
00:25:24
Speaker
and officially it's funny like charted pretty high the the US alt rock number three and US mainstream rock number four where long December did not chart as high on the rock charts number five on the alt and number nine on the mainstream now of course like staying power and video plays long December I'm sure
00:25:44
Speaker
was a lot higher. Neither of them, I guess, charted on the top 40. I don't think they've ever since until hanging around actually had a real top 40. Daylight Fading was an official single. I remember hearing that on the radio a couple of times in New York City charted in the top 30 on the rock charts.
00:26:01
Speaker
And this I don't remember as much, but I kind of vaguely remember, have you seen me lately? Also, was a single top 40 on the rock charts in the US, and the video, they didn't really play at all. Daily Fading, I remember seeing the video a couple times, either on BH1 or whatever. So those are their four official singles, and we'll see how they go when we go through our rankings, which I guess we'll start right now. Here we go. 14 songs on recovering the satellites,
00:26:31
Speaker
We all put in our votes. No one knows each other. Lower scores are the better. I kind of found that there were five tiers of songs. The third tier was kind of just one song by itself, but other than that, there were four other tiers. So the three at the bottom, let's start with number 14. So number 14, all of us had it in our kind of bottom five, which would be Counting Crows, I'm Not Sleeping.
00:26:53
Speaker
Number 14, uh, anybody have some thoughts they want to share about, uh, well, I'm not sleeping. Why they might've put it low. No one actually, ironically, no one put it at the 14th, but we all had it in our bottom five or so.
00:27:05
Speaker
Yeah, well, also I'll have this yet at the top of my bottom five. I really so what's really cool about this song is the string arrangement, right? It's an incredibly interesting string arrangement. And that's actually one of the things I think is interesting. I found made this record very hard to rank was that there's kind of cool bits in every song. So even a song that maybe didn't connect to like this song,
00:27:31
Speaker
I don't particularly strongly about in a lot of ways. I don't really connect to it. But that string arrangement, if you've got headphones on, is really, really cool. I think it's like Paul Buckmaster, right? He's done a crazy amount of string arrangements for records. I think some of them, like McCartney records and Elton John. So it's a really cool song, but I also...
00:27:55
Speaker
You know, I don't know. I also did think of this song as maybe a rejoinder to hanging around because if you get to stay up very, very late, at some point that becomes not cool and it becomes insomnia. And then you write sad songs about it as opposed to yearning songs about getting to stay up late.
00:28:16
Speaker
Yeah, and I guess I kind of thought this, but until you were speaking, it didn't really hit me. I kind of saw this as either, I guess, a precursor to actually all of Saturday Night Sunday mornings, because I think this is the one song on here that shows maybe his mental illness more than anything else, kind of like a descent into madness, if you will. Yeah, and exactly, I also love the strings. That's my favorite part.
00:28:43
Speaker
Um, and then they had that, you know, of course a lot of it's a love, uh, part two. Uh, but, uh, yeah, is that for you, Jeff, or, uh, Eric? Any thoughts? Yeah, this was my twelfth, I think. I had it twelfth on the list. Yeah. I mean, the strings are phenomenal in this song. I've actually grown to like it more. I remember the first listen, I was like, ooh, I don't like this. But then the last year I was like, you know,
00:29:04
Speaker
This is actually a pretty cool song, like the dynamics are quite amazing and I love that Dan's like, I think it's Dan, his like swells he's doing at the verses and the big, big kind of guitar solo and then the very end where it goes up, up, up, up, up. And I remember hearing a story of how it was recorded where it was like four in the morning or something and Adam woke up the engineer and he's like,
00:29:27
Speaker
I got it, I got it. And they go down to record it and he's like jumping up and down and you can hear him like jumping up and down at like one point in the chorus halfway through the song. And it's a really good arrangement, the whole song. And so I think that's grown on me more over the years. And it's one of those things where there's not a bad song on this album, but there's so many just amazing songs. And I think that's the only reason why I put it at 12 and not any higher. But it's it has grown on me over the years for sure.
00:29:58
Speaker
Jeff, your take.
00:30:00
Speaker
Yeah, I think, I mean, I placed it at the lower end too, but, you know, this is an album where, you know, you're kind of splitting hairs because it's got a lot, you know, every song's pretty good. I think that, you know, here you have that theme of insomnia really coming to the fore, which we'll see again in songs like, you know, Goodnight LA. So really talking about insomnia, but also this, it's at a key point in the album, you know, it's the fourth song on the album.
00:30:30
Speaker
And this is that part of the album where he's talking about the crisis of fame. And there's a double meaning here. So he's not sleeping. It's really about insomnia, but it's also about, and he mentions who we think Jennifer Aniston in there,
00:30:49
Speaker
but it's also about something's like woken up in him that had been sleeping all these years and you know he's got this new life now and there's something he can't turn off anymore so it's a really key sort of in terms of the theme of the album it's a key lyrically and a key moment in the album i also want to mention in addition to the strings adam's vocal performance at the end of this song is pretty incredible and i mean this is an album where he really
00:31:19
Speaker
I mean, as much as everyone praises his singing on the first album, I really think his singing on this album is just unbelievable. And on a song like this, he's showing it too. I mean, what he does at the end of this song is something that, you know, is pretty incredible. So even though this didn't rank super highly on my list, I still really like the song a lot. Eric, any final thoughts on I'm Not Sleeping?
00:31:45
Speaker
I did too. I agree with pretty much everything you guys said. I think with Chris, I think he said I had it at 10, the top of his bottom five. I did too. I do too like the string arrangements. I also like the fact that it goes along with the theme of, I'm a star and now I got to bear this cross to bear. You want me to play all these shows, you want me to do all these interviews, you want me to rock Messiah, but I don't know if I want that. I wanted that. I don't know if I do anymore. It keeps them up at night, which is what the song was about. Like I said, I really love it.
00:32:13
Speaker
Not that it's low and it's bad or anything's wrong with it, but it's just, you know, satellites have such great songs that I had to put it somewhere. Right, right. All right. Thank you. All right. So here we go. Number 13. Now, this is a song that probably would have ended up in last place if it wasn't for me. I ranked it in the top 10. Nobody else did, which would be the shortest song, which would be the swan song. The final song walkaways written, I think by Dan, interestingly enough, which kind of surprised me. It sounds like
00:32:40
Speaker
It would be, I don't know, my guess would have been someone else, but I think Dan and Adam wrote that. I love Walkaways. I don't know. It's short, sweet, makes you want more. I don't really have an excuse of why it's so high for me because it's such a simple song compared to everything else. But I do, I just think it's a...
00:33:00
Speaker
I don't know. It's a great goodbye song. And he's kind of, I think he, it almost feels like it's like a fake short. It's not like a one minute song, right? But it almost seems like it's going to be a real song.
Song Deep Dives and Personal Connections
00:33:10
Speaker
And then he's like, you know what? Sometimes you just have to walk away. And I am. Goodbye. And it makes you want more. Yeah, I'm with it. Again, I had this, you know, again, I think just below I'm not sleeping. So I guess that would be 11th.
00:33:27
Speaker
I also really, again, I was kind of surprised it ranked so low, it just kind of didn't, I was a little surprised that it didn't bump anything else, but it just kind of didn't when I was doing the rankings. I've always loved this song as a concert closer, which they've used it a lot, certainly a ton on the Recovering the Satellites tour. They then went back to it, like 2008, yeah, 2008, they used this a lot as a closer. And I think it's kind of a delightful, like little,
00:33:54
Speaker
like coda on the end. And I think they should bring that out for the rotation. Not to say it should be the one every time, but yeah.
00:34:05
Speaker
It's a good way to end the show. Absolutely. Is that for your take on Walkaway? Yeah, it's a great song. I actually did a cover of it on my YouTube channel. I'm a guitar player myself. I play in a couple of bands and so I did a little cover of a song and I played it at college for a little ensemble performance once. At the end.
00:34:24
Speaker
Yeah, at the end of the show, please plug your YouTube or I'll put it in the description. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's I mean, it's such a beautiful song. I mean, it's it's short. And I think I remember because I know they played it obviously on the Satellites tour. There's a version of them in Cape Town, South Africa. I think it was right before the Desert Life tour. I don't think the album would come out yet. And then like Chris mentioned in 08, they kind of resurrected it a bit. And I think Adam had said at one point when they were writing it like
00:34:52
Speaker
I was talking to Dan and he's like, should it be any longer? And they're just like, no, I think it's perfect just the way it is. And it's one of those things where I personally just think that song is just absolutely perfect the way it is. And they feature it in the VH1 recording of Recovering the Saddle Oats, which I'm sure they'll bring back when the HBO comes out. They show them recording it and it's just Dan and Adam down in the basement of that big house. And Dan's got a
00:35:16
Speaker
ISO booth or whatever because he's recording guitar and then Adam's singing the vocals and it's really cool to see they Probably did that in just a couple of takes like at the same time So it's just it's just a beautiful song great way to close the album great way to close a concert I'd love for them to like alternate that with holiday in Spain or something at the end of concerts because I think the diehard fans would would really go nuts I know I would I Agree Jeff your take
00:35:42
Speaker
Yeah, it is. I agree. It's such a perfect closer to this album. This is a really well-sequenced album. And so the opening with Catapult and closing with this song, you couldn't put this song anywhere else other than at the end of the album. And I love it for that reason. It also, in some ways, it reminds me a little bit of Her Majesty, which is the, if I'm not mistaken, it's the last song on Abbey Road, but the little,
00:36:09
Speaker
It's very short song and and again, this song's just over clocks in at just over one minute and a lot going on but it's it's um Yeah, I think it's a little gem. It's one of the the The three to four songs that's very overtly about kortney cox as well. So um the the fourth suite of the album Um, which is monkey mercury long december and walkaways, uh, three of those four songs are specifically about kortney cox including this one
00:36:42
Speaker
The Super Geeks would get into like, which of the four suites is your favorite? This is part of that Courtney Cox suite for those of you keeping track at home. I like it for that reason too. It is a real gem for sure. I love it. Although it didn't rank highly, I think it's a great closer for the album. Absolutely. Eric, any thoughts?
00:37:07
Speaker
I agree as well. I think it's a gem. The only reason I didn't rank it higher, in fact, is because it's only a minute, you know, and you guys like it. But me, I was like, no, I want more. I was into it. I think it's fantastic. And I would have loved a three minute, you know, whole song version of it. But that's the only reason I ranked it low. Not because it was bad, it's just I wanted more.
00:37:25
Speaker
My only my funny I'll try not to give too many personal stories, but I do have an interesting I do like kind of random things for especially songs that are not like really well known but I I was like in my traveling mode and mood at the time and I was backpacking and let's just say at the time crashed a couple nights at some local girls or women's young woman, maybe I don't know 2021 maybe
00:37:50
Speaker
at the time for a couple of nights. And then things weren't going, not that they were bad, but they just weren't as good as I thought and kind of were becoming a little bit awkward. And I think there was some, you know, in my opinion that she wasn't being open to some stuff and actually liked me more. And it's funny, I kind of left a day early and it wasn't like I left and stormed out. Like she knew I was leaving and this, but I actually, I don't know what got ahold of me. I actually left the lyrics of this, maybe somewhat passive aggressively as I left.
00:38:20
Speaker
But what's interesting is not that I did that, but when we wrote later on email, or maybe she did it when, oh, you know what? It was actually a snail mail. She actually said it made a big difference and that she did realize, because I left these lyrics, she realized she was being a little immature and vowed to be more mature when it came to like man and dating and stuff.
00:38:43
Speaker
So who knows right Adams, you know Adams power poet he's changing lives. That's interesting though I'm not sure I've ever I'm sure I know I've left some notes with song lyrics in my life I'm not sure if I've ever used a crow song in that way
00:38:58
Speaker
but that is uh and i don't know if i ever did more than one lot i mean maybe on somebody even a friend's i might have put one line just to be funny or or cute but that's the first time i ever did something like that so anyway and speaking of women that are kind of hot cold we will go to our next one which is mercury if you haven't guessed now i'm sorry uh uh
00:39:20
Speaker
Chris, I say this because you hinted in an earlier podcast that you love this song. And then when I placed it last on my list, I was like, jeez, Chris might break up with me as a podcast host. So two of you, I'll say Chris and Jeff both had it as a top 10 song. The rest had it on the lower group. But we can talk about Mercury. I always thought it was a fine song. It's definitely not a dislike. But even from listen one, and I think to now,
00:39:48
Speaker
I know a lot of Chris fans love it. And don't they need a B-side with like a 13-minute version or something? I don't know that I own. But yeah, Chris, I'll go to you. I'll just say, I have this one sixth. And this is one of the songs on the record that I struggled with most, in part because I think the album version is a good song. It's an interesting song. I was going to have it in the top half of the record. I think it's a really effective tune.
00:40:17
Speaker
the live versions with the love and addiction stuff in the middle. And there's a lot of really, really cool stuff in there. And that really brings the song out, right? I think there's
00:40:31
Speaker
The song is kind of short and I think is a little ambiguous in certain ways and that the live version, it really pulls a lot of that stuff to the forefront in a way that I think is really beautiful. I have gotten to see them, since I've only gotten to see them play it like two or three times, the first time I ever got to see them play it, I was
00:40:54
Speaker
very, very excited. And I was with a friend of mine who was like a crows fan, but not like a super huge crows fan. And this was at the Wellmont Theater in 2008. And Adam goes into an alt in the middle that's not the main one that they played a lot. And it was basically like a stick a needle in your arm and it feels like love. And my friend just looked at me like,
00:41:16
Speaker
this is the one you like? And I was like, yes, I swear it's not really, it's hard to explain. Let me go home and burn you a CD with eight versions of this. But yeah, I really like the song and it's great, but yeah, not at the very top, but very, very cool. And if you haven't listened to a version with love and addiction in the middle, you should.
00:41:39
Speaker
is Zephyr, your take on this. Yeah, I've actually put it at the bottom and honestly, I think it is better live. There's a version from, it's on Nuggs, it's from Cape Town where on that tour is when Emmy joined the band and I think he's playing lap steel and oh, that version is so cool.
00:41:56
Speaker
and Adam starts with the stick a needle and it talks about that what the song is about the girls that are so addicted to guys that are just so like toxic these toxic relationships and they keep coming back and stuff so he kind of explains what the song's about but it the song just kicks in with with Immy on that lap steel and and then again i think they played it some more on some other tours or some versions on nugs but i think it's like one of those things where
00:42:23
Speaker
It just brings the song out more on the album. It's like, yeah, it's good. It's cool. It's different, you know, the way it starts. I think Ben is playing like a bass drum and Dave has like a resonator guitar or whatever, but the live version is just, it just like, that's what got me into this song. So.
00:42:45
Speaker
Jeff will go to you. Am I wrong by saying that this is, I don't know, at the time, the most bluesy of the songs? Is that accurate at all? Jeff, do you take on that or no? Yeah. I think the steel guitar on a slide guitar gives it that tenor.
00:43:05
Speaker
Yeah, I love it. I had it as number seven and you know, I probably could have ranked this even higher than that. This is one of my, I just love this song a lot. I think one is that there's really nothing else on the album like it other than it's sort of like this is the song that
00:43:22
Speaker
walkaways once wanted to be and wasn't. You know, because in some ways they're, they have, those two to me seem very much like companion pieces, but this to me is a much more successful sort of attempt at what they were doing here. You have like something that's very experimental in some ways, it's a step away from what they normally do,
00:43:44
Speaker
And it reminds me as kind of a precursor to songs like Le Ballet d'Or, which I think is also a really cool song. It's got that, say, maybe it's that drum that Ben Mize is using. Absolutely. That's the song that it reminds me of, Jeff, which I also don't love. I'll give a free speech. I think those are like companion pieces.
00:44:07
Speaker
And then also, I just I think the lyrics to this song, I mean, a lot of great lyrics, Adam Duritz writes great, great lyrics. But I think this is a really, really like I love this lyric, a really insightful piece and even the theme of Mercury. And I don't know, I'm just I'm a big fan of this song for sure. I think it's great.
00:44:28
Speaker
That's true, a pretty good analogy. I have to say that. That analogy will always be imprinted upon me. Eric, your thoughts of Mercury? I actually had a rate 12 and in my notes, everybody talked about a great bluesy feel. That's literally what I wrote in my notes. I wasn't too familiar with the song when it first came out in a couple of years when I spun the record backwards and forwards. It didn't stick out to me, but as we said a million times before, it's not that bad. It's just an album of great songs.
00:44:54
Speaker
Zephry alluded to the theme of the song and I was talking to Eric like it said to get Accomade to the pod and meet him a couple weeks ago and I was trying to get my 17-year-old daughter into the crows and she kind of likes him and it has such a great message I wanted her to listen to it as well and
00:45:08
Speaker
You know, she probably listened better. They changed the name to Taylor Swift, but that's the way it goes. You got to play her that version. Yeah, well you got to play her that version of A Long December with the one in front of it and she's going to be like, now this is good. No, Chris, I have and she loves it, man. She does.
00:45:27
Speaker
Oh, that's great. So that so that goes to 141312, which what I would call clearly those were the tier five songs because there was then a little space separating those from the next two. So the next two would be kind of that tier four. I think neither of these are a surprise, actually. I bet if I had you guess what the next two are, I bet you could get it. Maybe not in order.
00:45:47
Speaker
But here we go with number 11, which is one that most of us also had in the bottom five although Eric had it a little higher Florida Eric and Then we'll get the little tale about this because I'll even start with him because Jeff inexplicably had it in the top three No, it's very interesting how to do the top three, which is another horse dreamers blues. So Jeff I'll start with you just because you had it as a number three So talk about why you love this song
00:46:13
Speaker
What? Oh my god, how can this not be ranked so high? Yeah, I mean, I was wrestling whether to put this as my number one song on the album. I think this is one of Adam's very finest vocal performances. If ever anyone was in doubt about his ability to sing, I think this song just ends any debate or discussion there. So for that reason, I really love it. I also think that it's,
00:46:43
Speaker
You know, it just again, it showcases, they weren't doing this to get a hit. They were doing this because they were trying to make wildly experimental, interesting music. And so to me, you have the strings here, you have the performance of the band, which is just really stellar. And then you have the lyrics, which I think are cool and interesting and literate. It's based on this play.
00:47:08
Speaker
But I think the selling point to me is Adam's vocal performance, which to me, I think this has to be his best vocal performance on this album, in my opinion, and maybe one of the best of his career. I think it's just an astonishing achievement in terms of his singing. So that's why I put it high on my list. There's my plug.
00:47:28
Speaker
I also like the song, Jeff. In fact, in retrospect, I probably should have put it one or two spaces higher. I probably couldn't go higher than that. And I agree with you about the singing. Now, I know Chris is probably going to mention that how it's a
00:47:45
Speaker
companion piece, it really is a companion piece, right, to Marjorie, which I still don't know a ton about, but that Marjorie's Dreaming of Horses and stuff, so you can talk a little bit about that. I will say, I don't have much else to say, but I'll look at the lyrics as we move on, but twice this has happened in my life, where somebody who was not a Crows fan did a weird Crows reference, which was that,
00:48:11
Speaker
I had a woman stay at my place once, out of a couple times, and as you did in the 90s and 2000s, when you visit each other's places, you go over the CD collection, maybe the movie collection if they have one, which by the way, young kids nowadays, college kids can't do that, right? You can't just, oh, how do we pass the time? Well, what CDs do you have, right? I mean, what do you say? Give me your iPhone. That's why we collect vinyl records. That's why we collect vinyl records.
00:48:38
Speaker
But she saw my The Recovering the Satellites album and she goes and she said, oh, I don't know a lot about this. But I had an ex-boyfriend who said he always thought of me when he listened to another Horse Dreamers Blues. So I found that totally random, totally interesting. And Chris, I'll move. Yeah, that was right. You keep gambling on horses like I'm curious. But I just I just love stuff when stuff like that happens, especially because of my love of the Crows. But Chris, I'll move to you for your take.
00:49:08
Speaker
So again, it's interesting because I don't disagree with anything Jeff said. I think it's a super cool song and I like Adam's vocals. I like a lot of the pieces of it. Really love the sax solo, I think is really good. And actually, I think the one period where they played it live after the original record was in 2009 when they had, in Michael Franti's band, a sax player sort of on the road with them. And it's a very, again, it's super cool. Yeah, just, and I think
00:49:39
Speaker
This may have indicated to me, part of what I think I end up ranking these songs on when we're doing these, tends to be sort of like emotional resonance. And I just don't emotionally resonate with the story of the girl who dreams of horses. It's cool and it just doesn't never hit me. So I think that's probably why it sort of falls a little bit lower, but I'm with you. It's a cool and interesting song.
00:50:04
Speaker
Jeffrey your thoughts on yeah, this is I mean, you know again, they're all great. I had this one at 13 You know, I like the version of Marjorie, which there's a few Nugs recordings from 94 or whatever, which I think obviously this song probably came from
00:50:19
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, the instrumentation, the arrangement of the song, I love how it comes in with the Rhodes, which Adam plays live too on the tour. There were some videos and stuff where you could see that. And I think it was on the Desert Life tour where they had a saxophone as well instead of the organ solo in the middle, which
00:50:40
Speaker
to me, I thought was not cooler, but just different. And then later when they played it in a way, I think they had the trumpet on carriage and then the saxophone on this one as well. So for me, this song, yeah, I can't really relate to the lyrics as much as other ones, but it's incredible musically, like Jeff, you said his Adam's vocal performance is amazing on this.
00:51:02
Speaker
and the dynamics on this song it's one of those songs that I've shown some people that aren't crows fans and they go wow that was amazing because it's just so interesting and there's so much going on in it and that's just what they do and so you know I think it's a beautiful song. Florida Eric you're taking it.
00:51:22
Speaker
It is a beautiful song and it's kind of funny, guys. I think I made a grave error. I had it at number nine. I think it should be ranked higher. It just sells such a great, great story. As I listened to the album over and over, being the least favorite of the first three, I wanted to get ready for the show. So I was listening over and over and I almost emailed Eric and said, hey, can I rearrange my rankings or whatever? But it just sells such a fantastic story of this.
00:51:46
Speaker
girl who uh steeps her her troubled life you know through riding horses and it's another world to her and it's her her sanctuary and I think it's I can't relate to it personally but I think it's just fantastic and beautifully written and performed and it's just it's really great it's got a doors like organ to me you know Raymond's Eric you know played the organ with the you know keyboard for the doors I think a lot of that keyboard organ sounds like him to be honest so I love it
00:52:11
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great point. It does have that kind of doors build and climactic thing to it. One other thing I was going to say is I never knew what this song was about. I'm not somebody who pays that much attention to lyrics.
00:52:27
Speaker
If somebody like Adam's singing, hey, I don't care, sing the phone book. But I always thought that this song was about a woman who was addicted to heroin. I thought that that was the horse's heroin and the dreaming and the psychedelic music and all of the lyrics and stuff. I always thought it was more about that and this other part of it I read about later.
00:52:53
Speaker
It's another one of the signs that you can interpret it in different ways and it takes on different meanings too. Anyway, I'm glad people do like it, even if it didn't rank highly on everyone's list.
00:53:09
Speaker
All right, and now on to number 10, which for years I kind of, well, I've given away probably, I thought it was, you know, similar in sounding to Ominates, now I'm not sleeping, but one that's kind of been slowly moving up my rankings. So two of you had it quite low.
00:53:26
Speaker
Two of us had it in the middle, and Zephry had it quite high at number five, which is one that they brought back on this tour, Children in Bloom. And I thought the latest tour version, I don't want to repeat what I said a couple episodes ago, I thought what is amazing. They added some extra parts to it. They kind of showcase each band member at some point. It's a rocker, but also kind of smooth. Anyway, I like Children in Bloom. So Chris, what's your take on it?
00:53:56
Speaker
Yeah, I actually had this one last and I was actually kind of surprised as I was ranking it. I was surprised myself because I was enjoying hearing them play the song, you know, listening to the tapes this summer. But yeah, just again, one that sort of didn't hit me the same way, but a very cool song. And again, they had an interesting history that is one of the oldest
00:54:20
Speaker
songs on the record that they had kind of perfected probably by the time they got in the studio. Yeah, I'll leave it there. Again, I was surprised myself, but again, I think it speaks to where all of us kind of felt with this record. Yeah, it's one of their more unique songs. I'll go to Jeff, and then actually the other two have it a little higher. So Jeff, your take on Children in Bloom or any historical notes you have about that song?
00:54:49
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, just that same thing, I think is the oldest song that actually made the album. And it was one of the ones that was played a lot. So when they came into the studio, they were able to bang it out pretty quickly. I think the one thing I noted when I was re-listening to the album is
00:55:09
Speaker
Wow. Matt Mally's bass playing on this song is just tremendous. It is really, really good. He's somebody who doesn't get very much credit, I think. I want to give a little shout out to the bass playing because it's a tremendous. Listen to the end of the song. He is just jamming. It's great. It's funny. I think it was off, not on one of the podcast episodes, but when Chris and I were just talking either before or after or in addition, I said the exact same thing.
00:55:38
Speaker
I thought, there's one of the songs on August, now I'm forgetting, I guess it's Ghost Train or Time and Time Again, but this was the one that I thought he really stood out, and I thought that's a great part of the song. Let's go to Zephry, who had a Children in Bloom in his top five. He stepped off for a second, so Florida Eric, you had it in the number eight. What did you think about this song? I did, yeah. I think it's a great little song, great lyrically. I also noticed the bass playing was fantastic too, and that's a
00:56:05
Speaker
an instrument you don't usually hear a lot of you know stand out inside from some some of the famous rock players you know but um like i said i i don't have anything that stands out overall it's just a really really solid song so you know i can't say anything bad about it zephyr you had it ranked the highest top five children in bloom what's your thoughts
00:56:23
Speaker
Yeah, this song to me is just a musical journey and I lost my mind when they started playing it being I was in the second row at the LA show it was just I was it's my it was definitely my top five
00:56:39
Speaker
Bucket list songs and I never thought they'd play it and they played it and that was amazing But to me this song is just it's full of everything. It's got a great Start to the song with the keyboards kind of like round here and and Dave's guitar riff is kind of like round here and then it just kicks in super hard and I love the the melody of the vocals at the chorus and I love there's two guitar solos and
00:57:02
Speaker
And I love the bassline after the solo, and I just love everything about this song. And they have played it differently over the years. In 2009 or 10, Dave and
00:57:13
Speaker
or Emmy and Dan did like a guitar duel and then this last tour like Adam walked off the stage and and I think Emmy just kept soloing for like gosh it must have been like three to five minutes I mean Eric you were there it was just yeah no it was great like how great for you if this is your bucket list song this is not one that you'd expect that they would have brought out this tour when they've been playing more greatest hits or if
00:57:37
Speaker
maybe they're playing second tier hits, or maybe dream of Michelangelo, something a little kind of softer, but for them to bring out children in bloom at this stage, what a treat for people like you that really wanted to hear it. I agree with you, and as I said, I think Charlie maybe is understated in the album version, but in the live version, he added a bunch of extra parts to it now, and even Dave gets into it. He rocks on that, even though maybe he doesn't show it as much.
00:58:04
Speaker
By the way, I don't know if it was for this song, but you do know that they showed you on the Jumbo Tron or whatever a couple times during that. And one time you got even a loud roar because there was some reaction you had. I don't know if it was to that song or not, but I don't know if you realize that, but where they actually showed you and you're really enthusiastic and people cheered a little bit. So, so good for you. All right. That was cool. That's cool.
00:58:31
Speaker
Nildred and Bloom, number 10. So now we get into, so that kind of ends the, what I call the lower two tiers, as far as our ranking goes. Now we've all kind of said we basically love every song on recovering the satellites. Now we get to what I call tier three, but it was really just one song that stood by itself.
00:58:51
Speaker
Partly because the rankings were all over the place but also the number eight was clearly more favorite and children in bloom was clearly not as Popular so this song me and Chris had it in the middle and Zephry and Eric had it a little lower and Jeff had it number two part of his suite, which would be kind of grows monkey
00:59:13
Speaker
Courtney Cox, I'll go, let's start with Jeff, just because he added it number two, then I'll chime in. Everybody hates all my choices. No, I like it. No, I'm kidding. No, it's great. So first of all, I really was strongly considering putting Monkey as number one. It's one of my very favorite Counting Crow songs. I think it's one of the best songs on this album.
00:59:36
Speaker
I think it's unique in their catalog. I don't think that they have other songs that sound like Children in Bloom or Recovering the Satellites. Monkey, to me, is really a standalone song. They don't really have anything else that sounds like this in their catalog. But that's not reason enough to love it. I think that itself is just such a great sounding song. I think the first time they really did something
01:00:03
Speaker
super unique and interesting with the backup vocals which are going all over the place and doing something really like this kind of Beach Boys use of the backing vocals they got into a lot more of that on like Desert Life and especially Hard Candy you saw them using drawing upon that concept a lot more not just you know doing harmonies but doing these like interesting intricate background vocals that are going all over the place
01:00:27
Speaker
I just think it's the lyrics I love. I think it's a beautiful song. I think it's a beautiful tribute to this woman that he's really in love with. And yeah, like I said, I was strongly debating whether or not to put this as my top song on the album. So to me, yeah, love it. I guess I'll give my take. I love Monkey in Effect.
01:00:50
Speaker
I actually listed it as one of the top five songs and maybe the first right nothing on August and then this is the only song on recovering that is kind of on my, you know, top five songs I'd like to hear him play live. I agree with the I almost
01:01:06
Speaker
Maybe I kind of think it's one of their first takes on a pop song. I agree with you actually about the backup. You actually do hear maybe a bit of early hard candy in it because it's kind of that beat-a-lesk, short and sweet, poppy. I don't know if you heard the podcast where I said, Jeff, how weird is it that this is the first Crow song that references
01:01:30
Speaker
Another band which would be Ben Folds and it's before they got two of the ex Ben Folds band members in the band and if you hear them play that live now or see them Jim rocks the Ben Folds line and like basically him and Miller wink and you know nod to each other at that part and
01:01:50
Speaker
So it's really interesting. Yeah, I like the song. It's grown to me through the years. I don't know how much we'll move up. I had it as number eight, surprisingly. But yeah, Chris, I'll go to you. I had it at nine. Again, I'm with you. I love the song. One of the things I really like about this song is that
01:02:12
Speaker
Um, that reference to monkey sort of floats its way into other songs. And it's part of the way, because the way Adam tells these stories, it connects to different things. Obviously most probably holiday in Spain, right? But that it's, it's just kind of, I love that.
01:02:28
Speaker
the way he uses that to float through other things. And it's that story, those little kind of crumbs that you can kind of piece, you know, piecing his own story together, especially with the way these songs were all written at different times. And again, it's a beautiful pop song and I'm a fan. All right. Florida, Eric, go to you for Monkey. I thought it was okay. Just kind of lend itself to the beginnings of what's on Hard Candy. That's kind of the start of, you know, I like the
01:02:57
Speaker
first three albums the best and after hurricane it couldn't quite get into as much as the other ones but I do like it it's it's a beautiful song I like the fact that a lot of the album is you know him trying to deal with stardom and you know it's tough to deal with and depressing but here's a girl who might actually make life worth it so I kind of like that angle of it as well Hey Zephry your take
01:03:17
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I put it at 10, but honestly, this is it's such a great song. It's just you're dealing with like, we keep saying amazing songs on this album. I like what Jeff said, and this is what I think draws me to this song is the is not call and response, but like another melody at the chorus where I don't know who's singing, I guess, just, you know, whoever, but there's another melody going on with the vocals under Adams vocals at the chorus. And to me, that just
01:03:45
Speaker
Drew me to this song because it's so powerful and it's so Positive and it's just so catchy. I don't know it sounds kind of cliche, but it just to me that's like so cool and it definitely did interesting you guys said paved the trail for a lot of the Backing vocals that later showed up on hard candy and Saturday nights and Sunday mornings and stuff and yeah, I just think it's a really fun song and
01:04:10
Speaker
I agree. Because it's interesting, it's not in the lyrics. I actually am not 100% sure I know what the backing vocals are saying in the chorus. Yeah, same. I don't know. I was looking it up, trying to figure it out today. I was reading the lyrics, like, is this listed on the lyrics? It's not. So I don't know what they're saying. But also, the Charlie's piano playing, so good, too, on this one.
01:04:35
Speaker
Oh, if somebody can help us out with that, send us an email. Sullivan Street PC at protonmail.com. Please send us. Yeah, there's a couple songs with the backing lyrics where I'm not always 100% what they say. So, no, good point. Okay. Well, that wraps up part one of our recovering the satellite's deep dive. Be sure to check back in a couple of weeks where we will continue
01:04:57
Speaker
this analysis we're going to go into the top eight songs according to us. Jeff along the way is going to give us all sorts of trivia about these songs in the album that most fans including most of us here at Sullivan Street don't know and we're also going to hear from Zephrey and Florida Eric a little bit at the end about some of their interactions with Adam all that and more on the next episode of Sullivan Street.