“MR. JONES”

Counting Crows

ALBUM: August And Everything After

1993

CHART POSITION: Number 2 on U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Tracks

Songwriter(s): David Bryson, Adam Duritz 

Sha la la la la la la  

I was down at the New Amsterdam

staring at this yellow haired girl

Mr. Jones starts up a conversation

with a black haired-flamenco dancer

You know she dances while his father plays guitar

She’s suddenly beautiful

We all want something beautiful

Man I wish I was beautiful

So come dance this silence down through the morning

Sha la la la la la la  yeah   

Cut up Maria

Show me some of them Spanish dances and

Pass me a bottle Mr. Jones

Believe in me 

Help me believe in anything

‘Cause I     want to be someone who believes   yeah

Mr. Jones and me      tell each other fairy tales

And we 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

Well I ‘m gonna paint my picture

Paint myself in blue or red and black and gray

All of the beautiful colors are very, very meaningful

Yeah well you know gray 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

Yeah we stare at the beautiful women  “She’s looking at you.

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 will never be lonely, I’m never gonna be    lonely

I want to be a lion    yeah everybody wants to pass as cats

We all want to be big big stars,

yeah but we got different reasons for that

Believe in me ‘cause I don’t believe in anything

and I want to be someone to believe,

to believe, to believe, yeah

Mr. Jones and me stumbling through the barrio

Yeah we stare 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, aw 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 I can be

Mr. Jones and me, we’re gonna be big stars…