When I told Alex this week would be a tribute to the music of our courtship, she immediately guessed two of the songs I was featuring. The first was ‘Galileo’. The second was this one.
I’m not sure which of us “discovered” Counting Crows. The ‘Mr. Jones’ video was in constant rotation, so it might just have been osmosis. But we both took to August and Everything After immediately. We saw them in concert that year, with Fiona Apple as the opening act. Alex definitely discovered Apple, as she likes to point out.
My most vivid memory of this song is sitting in my bedroom with Alex and listening to it, lyric sheet in hand, doing a line-by-line analysis. Now, she must have really loved me, because that is not the sort of thing Alex likes to do. I guess it’s the equivalent of how I used to go clothes shopping with her, giving her the impression I’d be a willing participant for years to come. The old bait-and-switch.
She found particular meaning in the line “everytime she sneezes I believe it’s love” because my loud sneezes (both then and now) reminded her that she must love me to put up with such an offense.
As for me, this song is a reminder of a time when I was discovering that, unlike the relationship-averse lead singer, I was increasingly “ready for this sort of thing.”
Meet Me In Montauk 
🙂 Very sweet. I’m with Alex; that line still gets me every time, and not because Dana (or I) sneeze loudly. It just so perfectly captures the mundane. Forget all the fireworks and brass bands, it is the most innocuous moment or gesture that prompts you to realize “you’re ready for this sort of thing,” though clearly poor Adam wasn’t (and still isn’t). This is certainly on my short list of favorite songs of all time. Oh, and just to clarify, I discovered The Counting Crows.
With all the sincerity that this old sarcastic guy can muster, that really is a sweet memory and sentiment, Clay. And perhaps in light of the ongoing discussion over at Amy’s blog, you need to consider whether that Crows album is your “Ensenada.”
It is, for sure, a fantastic album, and Anna Begins is right up there with Mr. Jones as a highlight for me. I’m a sucker for songs that slowly build in intensity…that crescendo, climax, and then pull back. (much like Amy is a sucker for songs with a well placed musical pause)…and Anna Begins does it just about as well as any song I have heard. Round Here, by the way, may be a close second in that category. Great pick, Clay…and thank goodness you and Alex started doing something more in the bedroom than going over lyrics, or we might have never had Sophia or Fiona:)
Leave it to Dana…
yes, leave it to Dana. I’m enjoying your reflections on the music and your courtship with Alex. Very sweet. When I think of music and our courtship, it’s always Sinatra–Dad singing all those wonderful songs in the first VW he had without a radio, and I must have been in love because I thought he had a wonderful voice.