Overplayed

What you are about to read is both funny and tragic, and may prompt feelings of pity.

Riding home from the West Jordan team wrestling tournament this afternoon, I heard Counting Crows give a "live" performance of the song "Mr. Jones." You may remember the pop hit from the late nineties that cemented Counting Crows in our collective unconscience.

But this time, the song had undergone a tweak.

Here's the evolution of the tweak: Band writes song. Song is a hit. Hit gets overplayed. Band is forced to play song at concerts or get booed. Band gets bored. Lead singer adjusts lyrics to help audience grasp the song's deeper meaning. Lead singer feels the lyrics are now so deep that they must be stated, not sung. Both the original song and revised song become total crap.

Here is how the song went, no joke:

Original lyrics:
We all want to be big big stars, but we got different
reasons for that

Tweaked lyrics:
We all want to be big big stars, but now we got our
second thoughts about that

Original lyrics:
Believe in me because I don't believe in anything
and I want to be someone to believe

Tweaked lyrics:
Do not believe in me, because I don't know what to believe
and I don't want to be someone to believe

Original lyrics:
Mr. Jones and me, we're gonna be big stars...

Tweaked lyrics:
Mr. Jones and me, we don't see each other much anymore...

And it went on and on. Painful.

Now, to be fair, all of us would deal with the trauma of having to sing that song over and over again in different ways. I would prefer, for example, to swallow glass chards. Adam Duritz (lead singer) has simply removed notes and trashed the lyrics. Maybe it's a passive-aggressive way of avoiding playing the song altogether.