“A Long December”—Counting Crows

60 Songs That Explain the '90s

The Ringer

Music

4.7 • 849 Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2021

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rob explores what happens when you make music your everything. Through the lens of Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz, Rob breaks down the band’s ballad “A Long December” before The Ringer’s Bill Simmons joins to contemplate Adam’s struggle to prioritize happiness. This episode was originally produced as a Music and Talk show available exclusively on Spotify. Find the full song on Spotify or wherever you get your music. Host: Rob Harvilla Guest: Bill Simmons Producer: Justin Sayles Associate Producer: Lani Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Watch is the latest and the greatest in pop culture from best friends Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald.
0:05.1	Join them as they discuss TV, movies, music, and much more.
0:08.8	Check out The Watch on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:11.6	On alternative rock radio throughout the mid-90s, one could hear several times a day, a grown man make this noise.
0:26.5	What do you suppose counting Crow's frontman Adam Duritz meant to convey exactly with this yelp,
0:35.6	this whoop of virile gregariousness that punctuates his band's
0:39.7	1993 hit Rain King.
0:42.7	That song title is a Saul Bello reference.
0:44.9	Have you read Saul Bellow?
0:46.5	You up on Saul Bellow?
0:48.1	He's acclaimed 1959 novel Henderson, the Rain King.
0:51.4	You got that reference, right?
0:53.3	Yeah!
0:57.0	Of course you did.
0:58.0	Rain King by the Counting Crows is about being a struggling writer or artist or whatever,
1:03.0	and getting pissed off that not enough people like your stuff yet,
1:06.0	and complaining to your mother about it.
1:09.0	Relatable.
1:10.0	I said, Mama, Mama, mama. Why am I so alone?
1:16.9	That's my interpretation anyway. I'm into it. We can agree that when I think of heaven,
1:22.4	deliver me in a black-winged bird is an excellent opening line for an alternative rock song. Other great
1:28.5	alt-rock opening lines from 1993 include, all I can say is that my life is pretty plain,
	...

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