The Story of the Hit Song Mr Jones: The Way Counting Crows Crafted Their Defining Track

The Lead Singer Recalls the Beginnings

Our first four records were primarily produced in homes situated in the hills above Los Angeles. August and Everything After signified a significant step for the group, as it was their inaugural release on a large record company. We each got an upfront payment of $3,000; with it, I to buy a 1971 cherry red VW Karmann Ghia and drove it to LA.

Each day, my routine included by playing Pickin’ Up the Pieces by Poco, which sounds like the Beatles venturing into country music. Additionally, I was into a jazz record that my father had picked up as a free giveaway at a Texaco station when I was young.

Mr Jones was included on a demo that we submitted to labels, but it was a challenging track to finish. We didn’t have a solid grasp at first. It’s not a leisurely tune or a fast-paced number; instead, it gallops along, demanding a real feel to perform. It’s soul music – closer to the Memphis soul sound than folk.

The band’s drummer struggled to grasp the track as the others did – thus T Bone brought in one of his idols to perform on it.

We looked at several production candidates, but when I spoke with the producer, he really get where the group was headed. We had great potential, but I didn’t like with our sound – we were still learning how to be a band. We removed all the synths and guitar effects. The drummer couldn’t sync with the tempo, so T Bone called in a renowned drummer, one of Steve’s heroes, to lay down the drums. It’s a funny story, but it was hard on Steve at the time.

My best friend Marty and I performed in groups together before Counting Crows. Marty’s dad, a flamenco musician, had made it in Spain and was back in the Bay Area doing a series of shows. Attended one of his performances and spent the night with the flamenco troupe visiting bars. The next morning, I went home and wrote the song. It’s about me and Marty that night, wishing we were accomplished artists so we could talk to the women more easily.

I believe, it’s one of the best songs I’ve ever written. We performed another track on SNL in 1994, the record climbed dozens of positions weekly for five or six weeks. Following that, Mr Jones became a huge hit.

The Multi-Instrumentalist Shares His Perspective

Back in the 80s, the band members were sharing a space in a industrial building in Berkeley. Previously, I performed with Camper Van Beethoven and had an offshoot band named Monks of Doom.

One evening, I found Adam with a new demo he’d just done with the guitarist. I heard this track titled Mr Jones. It was done with a Dr Rhythm pocket drum machine that resembled a video game or popcorn popping, but his singing were on another level.

Once T Bone got involved, it was a total reinvention of Counting Crows. They shifted toward roots echoing folk and soul legends.

Adam called me asking, “Hey, man, can you come down and play on this record?” When I got there, the producer had moved us to a studio in LA’s Encino – previously used by a Jackson 5 member. There were guitars that Bob Dylan had recently used.

T Bone instructed me to play my guitar slightly behind the beat. He said, “Playing too fast ahead of the drums makes you sound like an adolescent hurrying.” He has a southern accent, and his guidance was to imagine putting your feet up on the console and staying casual while playing.

The band was, in some ways, a response to grunge. The tragic end of Cobain seemed the final act. At the time, many were on heroin. The goal was self-destruction, not mind expansion. That negativity had reached an extreme, and the pendulum swung toward something more human and heartfelt. Their music blended acoustic and electric with a strong influence of Van Morrison soul.

Mr Jones never gets old. Sometimes, when performing with the singer, I remember that moment when he first shared the demo. Absolutely incredible.