Music Friday: "Up All Night (Frankie Miller Goes to Hollywood)"

I haven't featured Counting Crows in a good while, and this song came across my iPod shuffle when I was making pancakes for my family this morning. 

Music Friday: "Elevator Boots"

I picked up the new Counting Crows EP a while ago, and I don't think I featured any of its songs on these Fridays. 

So here's "Elevator Boots." 

Music Friday: "Long December"

It's been a long December, and next year probably won't be better than the last. 

Music Friday: "Holiday in Spain"

A holiday in Spain sounds really good right now. I thought about this song after hearing "Raining in Baltimore" on my iPod's shuffle. 

Music Friday: "A Murder of One"

I'm sitting here in a rocking chair at the Baltimore airport. My co-author and I gave a presentation and workshop at a focus group deal put on by our publisher. My flight doesn't leave until 10:30, and I get into the Indianapolis airport around midnight. After that I have  a two-hour car ride ahead of me until I make it home. 

It's rainy out there, folks. Lots of wetness happening here on the east coast. 

You would think that today's Music Friday post would be "Raining in Baltimore," but I've posted that before. Then there's "Baltimore Blues" by Deer Tick. Done that too. 

So let's go with the song after "Raining in Baltimore" on August and Everything After, which is "A Murder of One." 




A Murder of One
Blue morning, blue morning,
wrapped in strands of fist and bone.
Curiosity, Kitten, doesn't have to mean you're on your own.
You can look outside your window.
He doesn't have to know.
We can talk awhile, baby.
We can take it nice and slow.


All your life is such a shame.
All your love is just a dream.


Are you happy where you're sleeping?
Does he keep you safe and warm?
Does he tell you when you're sorry?
Does he tell you when you're wrong?
I've been watching you for hours.
It's been years since we were born.
We were perfect when we started.
I've been wondering where we've gone.


All your life is such a shame.
All your love is just a dream.


I dreamt I saw you walking up a hillside in the snow,
casting shadows on the winter sky as you stood there counting crows.
One for sorrow,
two for joy,
three for girls, and four for boys,
five for silver,
six for gold, and
seven for a secret never to be told.

There's a bird that nests inside you
sleeping underneath your skin.
When you open up your wings to speak,
I wish you'd let me in.


All your life is such a shame.
All your love is just a dream.
Open up your eyes.
You can see the flames of your wasted life.
You should be ashamed.


You don't want to waste your life.


I walk along these hillsides in the summer 'neath the sunshine.
I am feathered by the moonlight falling down on me.

Change, change, change.

Music Friday: "Elvis Went to Hollywood," "John Appleseed's Lament," & "Raining in Baltimore"

This week I stumbled upon the fact that the Counting Crows have a new album, Somewhere Under Wonderland. It came out this month. 

I snapped it up. It's a pretty darn good if you like the Counting Crows, which I always have. 

August and Everything After is one of those albums that brings me back to a certain time and place in my life. I heard "Mr. Jones" played a lot at my fraternity house. I might have even danced to it while cavorting with women and buzzed by Schlitz, which is a key to getting me to dance. 

The final song is from the their first major release. I remember my friend and brother Roy telling me that "Raining in Baltimore" was his favorite song on that album. When that song played at his funeral, I broke down crying. I miss that ginger-haired, music-trivia-knowin', goofy-ass, argumentative, loquacious bastard. 

And I say "bastard" with love. 

Wintry Mix and Counting Crows

The forecast for driving tomorrow doesn't look good. Weather.com provides the menacing "wintry mix" descriptor of what'll be like on the roads. Thank goodness it's all interstate from Chucktown to Waterloo.

But we'll be taking our time.

A friend from high school quoted a snippet of "Anna Begins" from the Counting Crows as one of her Facebook statuses (or stati?) today, which then turned me on to listening to August and Everything After.

That's a great album, and like Blind Melon's first album, August... reminds of a certain place and time (Kirksville and in particular the "Gin Mill"). Good times were had, people.