Spinning the Lyrics

I had the chance to see my favorite band perform last weekend, and it was really such a good concert. I’ve always loved the Counting Crows’ lyrics, and of course their melodies, too. But speaking of their lyrics and melodies, they do tend to change them up a bit when live. Many artists do this, but the Crows in particular like to shake things up. In fact, while talking to a friend in the days leading up to the concert and I mentioned that the Crows were my favorite, she said she likes them but doesn’t like how they don’t sing their songs like they are on the albums when they’re live.

I guess I take the opposite approach, where I like the live shows because you DO hear songs done differently. The very first song I heard the Counting Crows sing live the first time I saw them in concert over 20 years ago was Have You Seen Me Lately, and Adam sang the chorus just slightly different from the way I’d heard it on the album, and I liked it even better. Every time I listen to that song, even all these years later, I sing it to myself in the way Adam did it live that night. And a highlight of every concert is the mash-up-style they always do with Round Here and another theme and melody in the middle. Because those are things you’re never going to hear just that way again. Those are the highlights.

Something about this feels writerly to me, I guess the idea that even things that seem set in stone (or in recorded or printed formats) don’t always have to be. I love that artists get to continue to be creative, even after they’ve created something. Adam spoke to the crowd last week about how unbelievable he still finds it that he makes money at this thing he loves. He told the audience to encourage kids to pursue the arts. Even if the odds that they can make a living are slim to none, encourage them anyway, he said. Create, re-create, even if you don’t sing it the same way twice. Maybe it’s better that way.