7thGen

Counting Crows是我大学时最大的发现，不是说我喜欢数乌鸦——上海好像没看到什么乌鸦——而是那支有着浓烈民谣特征，喜欢吟唱带有深刻意境的叙事摇滚的Rock Band。

1993年这支来自旧金山的乐队凭借处女作《August…And Everything After》横扫了摇滚乐坛，是90年代少见的赢得了传统摇滚和非主流两大阵营认可的专辑。专辑中的11首歌首首动听，主唱Adam Duritz用他十分独特的嗓音讲述他自己撰写的11个故事——没错，每首歌都是一个故事，而其中的《Mr. Jones》更是他自己的故事，歌中那句“I want to be Bob Dylan”虽然是假借虚构的人物“Mr Jones”说出的，但是没有人怀疑这就是Adam的心声——这大概也可以解释Counting Crows音乐中浓郁的民谣气息。为了表达那种民谣的淳朴精神和Adam歌词中强烈的忧郁感，吉他手David Bryson特意效仿U2的The Edge，从吉他上去除了低音弦，并且选择了美国中部一个极其安静的山谷中的小木屋来录制原声，这使得整张专辑呈现出了一种几乎未经混音的Lo-Fi韵味——坦率的说，不是每个人都会喜欢这种音效，我就是在吓了一跳之后（以为我的Diskman坏了）慢慢的接受，然后才越来越喜欢的。

当然要我说，我最喜欢这张专辑的还是Adam的词和唱。听Adam的演唱经常会有想哭的感觉，因为他是那种会100%投入的歌唱的歌手，有着巨大的感染力，而歌词更是让我爱不释手，《Round Here》中阴郁的小镇和找寻Elvis的女孩，《Mr. Jones》中渴望用歌唱表达自己内心的年轻人，从Adam口中唱出的都是真挚的心声，难怪感人至深。

Counting Crows这个名字也是我喜欢的原因之一，如果你想象不出那是一种什么样的意境，那么你可以去看看那部叫做《Train Spotting》的英国电影，数乌鸦和猜火车有着异曲同工的意味。好，最后用我最喜欢的两段歌词来结束这又一次难以描述的音乐乱想：

I will paint my picture
Paint myself in blue and red and black and gray
All of the beautiful colors are very very meaningful
Grey is my favorite color
I felt so symbolic yesterday
If I knew Picasso
I would buy myself a gray guitar and play
——《Mr. Jones》

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
——《A Murder Of One》

Round Here

Words by: Adam Duritz
Music by: Dave Janusko, Dan Jewett, Chris Roldan & Dave Bryson

Step out the front door like a ghost
into the fog where no one notices
the contrast of white on white.

And in between the moon and you
the angels get a better view
of the crumbling difference between wrong and right.

I walk in the air between the rain,
through myself and back again.
Where? I don’t know
Maria says she’s dying.
Through the door, I hear her crying
Why? I don’t know

Round here we always stand up straight
Round here something radiates

Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand
She said she’d like to meet a boy who looks like Elvis
She walks along the edge of where the ocean meets the land
Just like she’s walking on a wire in the circus
She parks her car outside of my house,
takes her clothes off,
Says she’s close to understanding Jesus
She knows she’s more that just a little misunderstood
She has trouble acting normal when she’s nervous

Round here we’re carving out our names
Round here we all look the same
Round here we talk just like lions
But we sacrifice like lambs
Round here she’s slipping through my hands

Sleeping children got to run like the wind
Out of the lightning dream
Mama’s little baby better get herself in
Out of the lightning

She says, “It’s only in my head.”
She says, “Shhh….I know it’s only in my head.”

But the girl on the car in the parking lot
says: “Man, you should try to take a shot
Can’t you see my walls are crumbling.”

Then she looks up at the building
and says she’s thinking of jumping.
She says she’s tired of life;
she must be tired of something.

Round here she’s always on my mind
Round here I got lots of time
Round here we’re never sent to bed early
Nobody makes us wait
Round here we stay up very very late

Mr. Jones

Words by: Adam Duritz
Music by: Adam Duritz & Dave Bryson

I was down at the New Amsterdam staring at this yellow-haired girl
Mr. Jones strikes up a conversation with this black-haired flamenco dancer
She dances while his father plays guitar
She’s suddenly beautiful
We all want something beautiful
I wish I was beautiful
So come dance this silence down through the morning
Cut Maria! Show me some of them Spanish dances
Pass me a bottle, Mr. Jones
Believe in me
Help me believe in anything
I want to be someone who believes

Mr. Jones and me tell each other fairy tales
Stare at the beautiful women
“She’s looking at you. Ah, no, no, she’s looking at me.”
Smiling in the bright lights
Coming through in stereo
When everybody loves you, you can never be lonely

I will paint my picture
Paint myself in blue and red and black and gray
All of the beautiful colors are very very meaningful
Grey is my favorite color
I felt so symbolic yesterday
If I knew Picasso
I would buy myself a gray guitar and play

Mr. Jones and me look into the future
Stare at the beautiful women
“She’s looking at you.
Uh, I don’t think so. She’s looking at me.”
Standing in the spotlight
I bought myself a gray guitar
When everybody loves me, I will never be lonely

I want to be a lion
Everybody wants to pass as cats
We all want to be big big stars, but we got different reasons for thatBelieve in me because I don’t believe in anything
and I want to be someone to believe

Mr. Jones and me stumbling through the barrio
Yeah we star at the beautiful women
“She’s perfect for you, Man, there’s got to be somebody for me.”
I want to be Bob Dylan
Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky
When everybody loves you, son, that’s just about as funky as you can be

Mr. Jones and me staring at the video
When I look at the television, I want to see me staring right back at me
We all want to be big stars, but we don’t know why and we don’t know how
But when everybody loves me, I’m going to be just about as happy as can be
Mr. Jones and me, we’re gonna be big stars..