lyrics project

Cut Maria!
Artist: Counting Crows
Song: Mr Jones
Album: August & everything after
Model: Avant Garde
Location: Chippenham

Notes:-
Mr Jones was a song I came to a while after it was released. It was at a time when we were forming our band and reminds me of those early village hall practices, full of hopes and excitement, never knowing where we were going to go with it.

It reminds me of innocence and hope, although we never had any pretences of stardom or fame, we did hope we’d be quite good and be able to perform so we’d give our audiences a buzz as well as us. We did and we did (mostly)!

I’ve never hankered after being ‘famous’ as such. I have however, always dreamt of being hugely talented at something. When I was younger it was to be a musician, perhaps given my formative years and punk it was odd I always wanted to be an amazing pianist. When I discovered Jools Holland, I realised I wanted to be able to play like him. I tried several instruments (trombone of all things and bass guitar) but realised I had as much talent in creating music as a blade of grass so realised I’d never be able to fulfil this dream. I sang in a band and whilst able to hold a tune, I was never able to really ‘create’. I guess I’ve now satisfied my creative desires with photography. I learned the technical side quite quickly and now find I can quench my thirst by ‘playing’ around with looks, styles and storytelling through this medium.

I wish I had a voice like Counting Crows’ writer and frontman Adam Duritz. His effortless musicality is both wondrous and annoying. How can one person have so much talent? His song writing is also awesome and ‘Maria’ crops up in several of his songs, across different albums and timescales. He’s never let on who she is but I don’t think she’s anyone, just a fictitious kinda dream girl. Mr Jones is about hopes and dreams and talking rubbish with a friend into the early hours. Something I’ve done plenty of times over the years, so it resonates hugely.

I’d toyed for some time with shooting the image in a bar but realised it’s about personal dreams so a more personal location (my living room!) was chosen. The image also captures a couple of other references to the song with beer bottles and self-portrait ‘staring right back at me’ from the TV.

Cut Maria!
Artist: Counting Crows
Song: Mr Jones
Album: August & everything after
Model: Avant Garde
Location: Chippenham

Notes:-
Mr Jones was a song I came to a while after it was released. It was at a time when we were forming our band and reminds me of those early village hall practices, full of hopes and excitement, never knowing where we were going to go with it.

It reminds me of innocence and hope, although we never had any pretences of stardom or fame, we did hope we’d be quite good and be able to perform so we’d give our audiences a buzz as well as us. We did and we did (mostly)!

I’ve never hankered after being ‘famous’ as such. I have however, always dreamt of being hugely talented at something. When I was younger it was to be a musician, perhaps given my formative years and punk it was odd I always wanted to be an amazing pianist. When I discovered Jools Holland, I realised I wanted to be able to play like him. I tried several instruments (trombone of all things and bass guitar) but realised I had as much talent in creating music as a blade of grass so realised I’d never be able to fulfil this dream. I sang in a band and whilst able to hold a tune, I was never able to really ‘create’. I guess I’ve now satisfied my creative desires with photography. I learned the technical side quite quickly and now find I can quench my thirst by ‘playing’ around with looks, styles and storytelling through this medium.

I wish I had a voice like Counting Crows’ writer and frontman Adam Duritz. His effortless musicality is both wondrous and annoying. How can one person have so much talent? His song writing is also awesome and ‘Maria’ crops up in several of his songs, across different albums and timescales. He’s never let on who she is but I don’t think she’s anyone, just a fictitious kinda dream girl. Mr Jones is about hopes and dreams and talking rubbish with a friend into the early hours. Something I’ve done plenty of times over the years, so it resonates hugely.

I’d toyed for some time with shooting the image in a bar but realised it’s about personal dreams so a more personal location (my living room!) was chosen. The image also captures a couple of other references to the song with beer bottles and self-portrait ‘staring right back at me’ from the TV.