The Stone

For today's post I was determined to acknowledge 9/11 and the new album from the Dave Matthews Band. The connections are weak, but nonetheless, I present The Stone.  

As you may know I am an avid fan of the Dave Matthews Band so the first song I want to share from them is one that I consider to be a favorite ¹. The version in the Youtube video above is quite old and short ². Most live versions are closer to 11 minutes and the flow of the song has changed since 1999 when this video was shot. Regardless, this is a fantastic version.

The Stone is a song that exemplifies great music paired with deep haunting lyrics. According to Wikipedia, the meaning of the song is unknown but it is thought to be Dave Matthews proposing marriage to his long time girlfriend (now wife), Jennifer, or about the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. At first, it seems preposterous that a song is ambiguous as to being a proposal of marriage or about the person Dante's bottom level of hell is named for. When the lyrics are investigated though, it almost makes sense:

If I leave now I might get away
God knows it weighs on me
As heavy as stone and as blue as I go
I was just wondering if you'd come along
Hold up my head when my head won't hold on
I'll do the same if the same's what you want 

But if not I'll go
I will go a long way
Far from that fool's mistake
And now forever pay 

In part this seems like Dave arguing with himself that he could leave Jennifer and not confront his feelings for her or he could stay and they could forever support each other. A complicated profession of his love, but it's profession nonetheless. On the other hand it is easy to see these words as if spoken by Judas, apologizing to Jesus for his betrayal. Dave Matthews has long had religious themes in his songs so it would not be stretch to believe either of these scenarios ³.

My favorite part of the song is at the beginning when Dave almost whispers "I've this creeping suspicion that things here are not as they seem." It gives me the chills, he says it with so much on his mind and with such angst. Following this, the words seem to almost be a stream of consciousness ⁴.

On the studio version of the song ⁵ the outro plays right into "Crush" ⁶, a Dave song many of you are likely more familiar with. The Stone almost fades out and next thing you know the familiar plucks at the beginning of Crush have begun and you're taken to a new world. 

On live versions of the song, such as the one above, the song goes out into a jam towards the end and just when you think that it is over, BAM, they hit you with a surreal crescendo ⁷.

Last season on the cultural phenomenon American Idol ⁸ the winner was Philip Phillips. Aside from kind of looking and singing like Dave, Phillip is a big of the band ^9,10. Anyway, the judges hated him, because, well, they're dumb. He won though because he was by far the most talented of the contestants ^11,12. Phillip chose to sing The Stone during one of the weeks (I told you he was cute): ¹³ 

 

Apparently AI has taken down the actual performance from the show from Youtube, whatever.

Like I said, Dave Matthews Band released a new album today. YAY! It is called Away From The World and is a departure from the more upbeat Big Whiskey. I have listened to the whole album a few times already, but I cannot even begin to review it or place it into the context of other DMB albums so I decided to present you with The Stone instead!

Okay, my connection to 9/11 is slight, but regardless I wanted to point this out. I think it shows the frame of mind we as nation were in the days and weeks that followed. Clear Channel, the company responsible for so many mediocre radio stations, made a list of songs that were "lyrically questionable" and were not to be played until such time that it was considered appropriate. This list included songs like "Ob-la-di Ob-la-da" by The Beatles and "Crash Into Me" by Dave Matthews Band. I have no idea why Ob-la-di is on this list. I can understand Crash, I suppose, except the song is borderline pornographic - "Crash into me and I will come into you" - I do not think Dave Matthews had airplanes on mind when he was writing this song. Regardless, Clear Channel was appropriately crucified in the media for this memo ¹⁴. I didn't want to write a whole article about Crash, because I am sure you have all heard it a million times anyway.

Play count while writing blog: 8
Number of versions on iTunes: 8
iTunes play count: 99 ¹⁵ 

1. So do other Daveheads, AntsMarching.org, the unofficial Dave Matthews Fan Site, last year named the 50 best Dave songs and The Stone, was number one.
2. Unfortunately Dave does not have quite so much hair these days.
3. I think I like the marriage proposal better, because well, I'd marry Dave, no questions asked.
4. Too bad when I blurt out random stuff there isn't kickass music in the background.
5. from Before These Crowded Streets, a name that always makes me think of U2...
6. Actually the album goes Halloween -> The Stone -> Crush and is an absolutely beautiful 15 minutes. The progression of the songs make sense too. Halloween is an angry beast of a song, The Stone is like making up, and Crush is talking about the complications of love.
7. This was not adequately captured in this video, but if you feel so inclined, you can find newer versions online.
8. I hate American Idol. 
9. He is even a member of AntsMarching 
10. AntsMarching.org played an April Fools joke and switched all the forums over to titles referring to PP.
11. Not that I would know, I didn't watch.
12. Also he is cute and American Idol's audience pretty much consists of 13 year old girls who think they one day might marry him...
13. Jennifer Lopez (AI judge) had never heard the song before... was she too busy making bad movies in the 90s to listen to Dave??
14. Although I guarantee every other media outlet had similar guidelines in place.
15. All of my iTunes play counts were zeroed out into 2010 as a result of a computer crash.