This song is a commentary on fame. With the line, "When everybody loves me, I will never be lonely," lead signer Adam Duritz is stating - with more than a touch of sarcasm - that fame will make everything better ("never be lonely" is repeated to drive home the message: This guy is delusional). When it became the first hit for the band, Duritz was suddenly recognized all over America, which he found discomfiting. The newfound notoriety sent him into a prolonged funk; suddenly he found himself singing a song about dreaming of fame when he was quite bitter about it. With the song resonating his troubles, he came to loath singing it. Duritz stopped writing for over a year, and the Counting Crows second album, Recovering the Satellites, wasn't released until three years after their debut.
Looking back on the song Adam Duritz, he explained that even though it is foolish to think that the adulation of fame will solve your problems, it's hard to resist. Said Duritz:
"You're supposed to see through that guy: 'When everybody loves me, I'll never be lonely.' You're supposed to know that's not true. For one thing, there's no such thing as 'everybody loves me.' Nobody knows you in that case. So I knew that wasn't going to happen that way. But you still want it: you want life to be easier, you want to be a rock star so it's easier to talk to a girl. It's the same crazy person sitting there with the girl later, though. So it doesn't fix things."
Lyrics
Shalalala la la la
Uh huh
I was down at the New Amsterdam
Staring at this yellow-haired girl
Mr. Jones strikes up a conversation
With a black-haired flamenco dancer
You know she dances while his father plays guitar
She's suddenly beautiful
And we all want something beautiful
Man, I wish I was beautiful
So come dance this silence down through the morning
Shalalala la la la la, yeah
Uh huh, yeah cut up, Maria!
Show me some of them Spanish dances
And pass me a bottle, Mr. Jones
Believe in me, help me believe in anything
'Cause I wanna be someone who believes, yeah
Mr. Jones and me tell each other fairy tales
And we stare at the beautiful women
"She's looking at you. Ah, no, no, she's looking at me."
Smiling in the bright lights, coming through in stereo
When everybody loves you, you can never be lonely
Well, I'm gonna paint my picture
Paint myself in blue and red and black and gray
All of the beautiful colors are very, very meaningful
Yeah, well, you know gray is my favorite color
I felt so symbolic yesterday
If I knew Picasso, I would buy myself a gray guitar and play
Mr. Jones and me look into the future
Yeah, we stare at the beautiful women
"She's looking at you. I don't think so. She's looking at me."
Standing in the spotlight, I bought myself a gray guitar
When everybody loves me, I will never be lonely
I'll never be lonely
Said I'm never gonna be lonely
I wanna be a lion
Yeah, everybody wants to pass as cats
We all wanna be big, big stars, yeah
But we got different reasons for that
Believe in me, 'cause I don't believe in anything
And I, I wanna be someone to believe
To believe, to believe, yeah!
Mr. Jones and me, stumbling through the barrio
Yeah, we stare at the beautiful women
"She's perfect for you, man, there's got to be somebody for me."
I wanna be Bob Dylan
Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky
When everybody loves you, ah son
That's just about as funky as you can be
Mr. Jones and me, staring at the video
When I look at the television, I wanna see me
Staring right back at me
We all wanna be big stars
But we don't know why, and we don't know how
But when everybody loves me
I wanna be just about as happy as I can be
Mr. Jones and me, we're gonna be big stars
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