open all night
"it's 9 AM, shit I've been drinking all night"

When I first heard this song, I didn't like it, plain and simple. Maybe it was because I didn't really have a great recording of it, but the song simply struck me as uninteresting, period.

I already figured that this was an "old" song, so my automatic pre-conception of it was that it wasn't as amazing "lyrically" or message-wise as compared to the other more notable Crow songs. It was all this stuff that probably made me really like this song in the end...a lot.

Let me explain, I always prided myself at the fact that I had NOT heard a Counting Crow song that I didn't like (yes even their rendition of "Ghost in You" has its moments), yet here was this song, "Open all Night" that wasn't so...great. That was not possible! How could I NOT like a Counting Crows song? It was this mindset that made me give this song a second, and third, and fourth try till I came to the conclusion that "hey, this song ain't that bad". To be fair, there really is nothing wrong with the song, except for the fact that it's not flashy, it's a straight forward song the has a real old feel to it. Like "Margery Dreams of Horses" this is really a "live" song, something that could be a great show opener.

There's nothing extraordinary about the song, the message is pretty clear, but I just have to stress that I just love the key lines...."we're open all night, so won't you come inside, it's gonna be alright....". Something about offering solace, just leaves a warm feeling inside. The chorus just goes on and on about driving all night, being all messed up, literally or figuratively, it really doesn't matter, what matters is that after all the shit, we can all have a place we can go back to, a security place where we can forget about everything, be taken care of. I know that this a very central theme in many Crow songs....recovering one's satellites, some may say it's over used, but well, it's a concept I personally can't get too much of. I mean, having such a concept of rebuilding yourself, taking some time to lick your wounds is a very human thing, helps people go on in life. Some people are very lucky, and have many places to go, others hardly have any, but if you really try and look, you'll find someone.

As corny as this may sound, there's a lot you can learn from Adam's lyrics. People would probably say that all he does is mope about his problems, but well, that's only part of the pie. Wjat's more important is the fact that even after all the shit that happens, you still recognize that there's still an upside to anything no matter how small, "maybe next year will be better than the last" is such a powerful line, it sums it all up, but not as powerful I believe than "We're open all night, so won't you come inside, it's gonna be alright"......you know, if you really believe in it, things all will fall into place, somehow.