Counting Crows: Round Here Meaning
Song Released: 1994
Round Here Lyrics
Into the fog where no one notices
The contrast of white on white.
And in between the moon and you
Angels get a better view
Of the crumbling difference between wrong and right.
And I walk in the air...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:Ok here goes I could be completely wrong but. I believe this song to be about a young woman maybe who is looking to fulfill her dreams. She may be somewhat nieve but far from stupid. Her personality is caring and one who likes to see the good and potential in people. Her dreams for something or to be somewhere bigger and better plague her thoughts to the point where she wonders her place in life.
Along the way to finding something bigger she meets a man. He is a man who is plagued with mental illness probably personality disorder possibly the cluster b type. He also has a variety of other issues as well. This man starts to manipulate this young woman, make her feel special make her believe she's the one that shes special and he's going to help her fulfill her dreams. She falls into his trap losing sight of her dreams. He just brings her down because of his own illness. The relationship they have is a vicious cycle of manipulation and self loathing. Neither one of them never find what their looking for in life.
I like to come up with my own ending even though it's not part of the song. I feel the song ends on such a depressing note I wanted to add a happy spin on it. Only because I love this song.
In the end the young woman leaves that town and that man realizing he had trapped her there. Not because his manipulation worked but because of her own desire to help him. She thought he needed someone but only ended losing sight of her own hopes. He didn't need anyone though just himself. He can't be helped ever so she moves on from their friendship/relationship or whatever it may have been.
It's amazing what someone can take from a song. I'm probably way off but this is my veiw. I love the song and can relate. I had someone who I thought was special like this I thought he needed someone to care about him. He was easy to spot for me and couldn't believe others didn't see his pain. He was so great at hiding it. Even though he was/is incapable of truly caring for anyone I took a liking to him and tried to be close to him. It never changed him though and I had to leave him be. Sad but I still love that man and hope the very best for him. Even though it's been sometime since I've seen him I still wonder how he is. His core was gentle and kind, his exterior beutiful but his mental illness consumed him. Amazing that sometimes music can bring such strong deep emotions. That's the beauty of music we all take away our own message or interpretation. -
For me this song is primarily about mental illness and suicide. The singer takes us on a nostalgic cruise through a time and place where he knew and was in love with a girl who finally lost hope and committed suicide. The meaning is hidden in the song in the same way it is hidden in the singers subconscious, it is repressed, but it leaks out through the couple of highly emotional moments during the song. Absolutely amazing song, makes me cry just thinking about it. I know this doesn’t align with the singer’s explanation for it but he may wish to keep that side of the song more opaque, in keeping with the spirit of the song. The great thing about poetry is people can (and will) interpret it and if it touches one, it’s a valid interpretation.
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I agree with whomever said carving out our names has the meaning of to keep going. It's about making our mark. Our sense of belonging our enjoyment of this world. Our awareness of ourselves. Our longing for and yearning for our self dignity. Overcoming our boundaries and stepping out into our shared worlds. Yet so vast is the world we are all so seperate yet no
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I reckon the songs about the immediate vicinity of the guy who done wrote them lyrics yeah? You know like he keeps coming back to the lyrics 'round here' which I fink is like shorthand for 'around here' you know what I mean? I mean I'm just guessing hey but just thought I'd put it out there. And he's saying yo' around here there's like stuff going on and shit and he seems pretty like full on about wearing his hats and how they can be too big and go down over his eyes? Like when he goes you know like it's 'always on his mind' (ie. like wearing a hat on your head or 'on your mind' yeah?), or how he goes he goes 'can't see nothin, nothing round here' (ie. Course he can't hey? Cause he's hats too big and he's like wearing it down around his neck).
So yeah, it's pretty obvious when I put it like that aye but don't feel all like ahh damn how come I couldn't see that?! I've always just had this like gift where I can fully see things that no one else can you know what I mean? I mean I guess I'm just better than other people. I mean not better as in better. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying I've been chosen somehow to be better than other people. Better as in just able to do things in like a better way than others you know what I mean? -
On Vh1 Storytellers this was Adam's (kinda) meaning for the song:
'The first way Counting Crows ever sounded, it was me and Dave in bars and coffee houses playing open mics, doing this song this way. The song begins with a guy walking out the front door of his house, and leaving behind this woman . But the more he begins to leave people behind in his life, the more he feels like he's leaving himself behind as well. The less and less substantial he feels like he's becoming to himself. And that's sorta what the song's about because he feels that even as he disappears from the lives of people, he's disappearing more and more from his own life. The chorus is, he sorta keeps screaming out these idioms these lessons that your mother might say to you when you were a kid, sorta child lessons ya know, "round here we always stand up straight", "carving out our names". Things that you are told when you are a kid that you do these things that.. that when you're grown up it'll add up to something, you'll have a job, you'll have a life. I think for me and the character of the song they don't add up to anything it's just a bunch of crap kinda. Your life comes to you or doesn't come to you but those things don't really mean anything. By the end of the song he's so dismayed by this that he's kinda screaming out that he can stay up as long as he wants and that no one makes him wait...the sort of things that are important if you are a kid. You know that you don't have to go to bed, you don't have to do anything. The sorta of things that don't make any difference at all when you're an adult, they're nothing. And uh and uh this is a song about, about me....
We wrote this song in 1989 ... We were all in bands and we had shitty jobs.
We would wash dishes, work in record stores and wash windows and ... by day, so that we can be in a rock and roll band at night. You know? And it was after college and our friends are getting on with their lives. And they had good jobs, well... boring jobs... but they all had more money than we did, and they had futures and we didn't. There comes a point in the life of everyone in a rock and roll band that you have to sort of decide, am I going to do this with my life, or am I going to go get one of those other jobs? Because I can't deal with washing dishes anymore and I can't dig any more holes, and I can't wash another window. And there is those that go, and there is those that stay. And you walk out on the edge of the world and you balance yourself there for a while and you try to figure out just which one you're gonna be. And a lot of our friends are doing other things right now. And we're standing right up here on this stage.' -
Boarding School. He wrote it about Taft. The song has both negative and positive connotations of Boarding school. "Round here something Radiates". Yet, "Round here no one notices the contrast of white on white." Both very true. Lastly, "Round here we stay up very, very, very late". All true statements of boardingschools in the U.S.
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Well said,
This song definitely penetrates any type of linguistic barrier; you can feel the sadness in his voice. Our society is in a sad state right now, there is sooo much potential for all of us to be our beautiful, empathetic, and natural selves. I think a large portion of ourselves have fallen victim to this economic and cultural system that intentionally fuels a cycle of individual degradation.
We know, in our deepest sub-conscious how truly joyful and easy flowing we LONG to be in this life we’re given. The numerous child references in this song, “Run home, sleeping children, better run like the wind” - “momma’s little baby better get herself in out of the lightning.” The innocence and unconditioned radiance of a care-free child are what we all really want to get back to. In a sense, I think he’s referencing how when we grow older, within this unnatural system, we can fall deeper into an un-awakened state that leaves us prey to disillusionment.
“We talk just like lions, but we sacrifice like lambs.”
Sure, a lot of us talk a big game, put up a shield, and deflect the truth so we don’t have our structured “life-walls” crumbling around us as the progression of awareness takes hold. But in reality, we still have a lot of growing to do as a species, so young and so vulnerable to the power of suggestion.
Really sad song, when you think of all the people that have left us in vain.
But there’s a hint of hope I find through listening to this song, co-existing through the mumblings of self pity, and it’s that we are all kidding ourselves. In the simplest of terms we need to learn to let go, loosen up, “carve your name” in any way you choose because we all have a few screws loose. You are not alone, we will catch you. -
I believe that the theme of this song is acceptance, or lack there of. Maria is a symbol of all the odd people in this world and how they don't fit in. The chorus sings about how "round here we always stand up straight", which, I believe, is just explaining how, for the most part, society is very uniform, and everyone is aiming for perfection. However some people, such as Maria, stand out from the crowd, and they are a little different. They are "misunderstood" and they "have trouble acting normal when they're nervous". And in the end Maria gets tired of not being capable of fitting in and she is debating with the idea of suicide because she is tired of not being accepted because she is just a little different.
However I may be completly wrong here. I read a quote from the lead singer if Counting Crows and he said it was about a man who left behind a woman. Through the song he keeps leaving behind people but as he leaves them behind he feels he is leaving himself behind as well. I suppose both that quote of his and my interpritation of the song could intertwine, but I could be completly wrong. However, lyrics ARE poetry, and poetry can be open to any meaning the reader sees fit, as long as they can proove their point.
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