COUNTING CROWS - The Band That Changed My Life

I'd never heard anything like it before. I never knew it was possible. I didn't know you could put that much emotion into what you do. I still don't think anybody else has ever come close.

The fear that you'll never find the love of your life is a terrifying one. But even worse: what if you never find the band of your life? Genuinely, I don't know what I would have done without Counting Crows. They gave me a new angle on life. They painted the way for how I would value myself as an artist, about what it would all mean to me. How many people can you say that about?

The records are incredible, and I insist you listen to all of them. But the Crows are a live band. What I love as a writer, director and even a viewer of films is rawness, realness, spontaneity. And that's also what I always loved about music, but it was so hard to find. And then I found Counting Crows. 

You know what? Sometimes they SUCK! Sometimes Adam Duritz, the lead singer, is miserable, depressed, and just not on it. But it's FASCINATING! It's REAL! He just gets up onto the stage and pours his heart out in front of you. Occasionally you get fooled into thinking it's just a shtick, but then he'll come out bouncing and be wild and hilarious -- other times he won't talk to the audience but they'll do a seventeen minute version of a rare song with a bit of a Springsteen cover thrown into the middle -- and you're just blown away. Counting Crows don't paint over anything, there's no front, it's just them. 

Listen to this. Stop reading, dim the lights. Give 12 minutes of your life to this. You might love it, you might cry, you might think it sucks. But by the end you'll definitely have an opinion, and that's more than you can say for so much that passes for music these days.



That song changed my life. I got obsessed with 'Round Here'. I have, literally, hundreds of versions. I remember seeing them live in Ireland, it must've been eight or ten years ago, and they did 'Round Here', and it was heartbreaking. That was until the middle of the song, when they broke it down, changed it up, and launched into the Van Morrison song 'Sweet Thing', and it was electrifying and joyful! At the end of the song they swerved back into 'Round Here'. Incredible. You think you know a song inside out, but then Counting Crows take it and reinvent it and your whole perception of everything changes. 

Even if they sing 'Rain King' with Springsteen's 'Thunder Road' mixed in for five nights in a row -- even that is spontaneous-- because one night they'll do the whole song, other nights Adam will just hint at the lyrics for five seconds then dive off into another song -- or maybe they'll do the whole thing acoustic and Adam will do some weird talking-screaming-poetic-rambling thing for eleven minutes. Probably sounds horrendous if you're not a fan -- but for those that are, it's EVERYTHING.

I don't know any band that takes you so far into the very MOMENT that you're experiencing. They make you aware you're LIVING. I've wanted to write this post for three years, but how the hell do you explain the things you love?

Here's a stripped down version that they did on the Howard Stern show a few years ago. Just Adam and a few band members.




When do you ever hear something like THAT on the RADIO? It never happens! WHAT? That level of emotion and truth? They're not phoning it in, they're IN IT. It's so refreshing - artists who are FREE to be themselves. With Counting Crows it is ALL about expression. You feel it in every thing that every band member does.

Sure, they do it for a living, and they got very rich. But it would have been so easy for them to go on auto-pilot. But they take risks. They dropped the label and went independent so they could control their art. They play giant venues, they tour tiny venues. They come up with crazy ideas like the Travelling Circus and Medicine Show, and Adam's project with Ryan from Ryan's Smashing Life blog, The Outlaw Roadshow.

They're great with the fans, too. I've been at festivals, turned around and seen Jim Bogios and David Immerglück (band members) standing behind me. And you go to awkwardly say hello, just cause you're a loser fanboy, and then they stick around and talk to you for thirty minutes about all their favourite bands. With Duritz, I've always sensed he's a bit like Woody Allen -- awkward with the crowds and would prefer to not have his picture taken - but he is always polite and always suffers it. He knows it's about the fans, he knows how much they care; so he puts in the time and effort.

But his place is really on the stage. He'll come out at the beginning and do a solo piano song, which is a cover of some track he found on the bootleg of a copy of an album of a band you've never heard of who only ever recorded six demo's, 24 years ago, yet somehow his performance is the greatest thing you've ever heard. It's just incredible.

Here's a song that was only ever played once. This is the only recording. I'm pretty sure Duritz made it up about thirty minutes before the show. The emotion just knocks your socks off. Makes me think of every girl I ever saw leave. Heartbreaking.




How the hell does he do that? Is it talent? Did he get dropped on the head as a child? Incredible.

Counting Crows are rough, raw, temperamental, moody, genius, depressing, uplifting, boring, exhilarating. It's years later and still they're my favourite band by a long long way. You have to see them live, there's nothing like it.




Their new album, 'Underwater Sunshine (Or What We did On Our Summer Vacation)' was released today. Head over to their website to check it out.

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Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You

Strange that this was written by Dolly Parton, because it's always seemed like such a Whitney Houston song, don't you think? That happens sometimes. Neil Diamond wrote "Midnight Train To Georgia" but it's the version by Gladys Knight & The Pips that resonates.

I think Whitney Houston understood the song better than Dolly Parton did. "Bittersweet memories, that is all I'm taking with me." The whole song plays like a bittersweet memory. It feels like a love song at first until you realise how it's something far more complicated. The woman's jaded, the love is gone. All she can do is love something that isn't there anymore. She's serenading a guy who, it seems, isn't even listening.

"If I, should stay, I would only be in your way." Was there ever a sadder and more truthful opening line in the history of music? Whitney's heart seems to break on the opening word "If", and the way her voice swerves and bends on the word "way", it's as if you hear her heart faltering all inside one word.

We can write songs like this off as cheesy, but there's a reason you always hear it on the radio. Same with "Nothing compares 2 U" by Sinead O'Connor, they ring true. They capture the heart, breaking. Most artists are too scared to spill out their guts, just like people are in life.

Despite the drugs and controversy, people will mourn the loss of Whitney Houston in a big way, and it's largely down to this song. It's the one track of hers that everyone can name.

"We both know I'm not what you need, and I will always love you." Isn't it horrible!? I love you, you don't need me, goodbye. She's that loser who clings on, long after the love died. And we would ridicule her if the song didn't happen to be about every single one of us at one time or another.

RIP WHITNEY HOUSTON

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This Day In My Life Will Forever Be Recorded...

..in a CD I made.

I've done it all my life. Probably since I was about 8. Then, of course, it was tapes. When I got into my teens, I began labelling them by date. When I was 17 or so, I'd make CD's pretty much every day, because music is so powerful at that age.

Now I don't really have the time or patience to make myself a CD that often, but occasionally I do. Today, I had a weird day -- one of those days when you can't be productive and you're just annoying yourself, and every thought in your head is just stupid and annoying and going nowhere.

I didn't know what was going on, or what I was meant to do with myself -- until it hit me suddenly. I want to listen to some music.
So I did. Recorded is an 80 minute track of the songs I listened to.

A good mix tells a story; a far bigger and more personal story than is often achieved in more traditional forms. I guess it's because you get to cheat and use other people's art. Bob Dylan is always going to be a lot more profound than I am.

Not that I meant to be profound. I just listened to music.

But you soon realize, nobody just listens to music. Your tastes, your choices, your decisions; they all come in to it. Maybe not so much when you hit shuffle. But when you sit down for an hour and a half with the sole intention of indulging in music -- the personal nature of it is undeniable.

Do you want to hear it? An 80 minute mp3, which I'll upload somewhere for you to download, if you're interested. Who knows, you might find a new favourite song, or reconnect with a song that you let go of some years back. Chances are, you'll learn something about me too.

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Things I Love About Music

I love live Jason Mraz recordings, when he totally underplays a key line and makes it a hundred times more powerful. I love the way John Mayer delivers the line "I don't remember you looking any better," in the song 'Who Says.'

I love how Counting Crows make pain poetic. I love how Bruce Springsteen gives the struggle meaning. I love how you think you know what Tupac is, but then you listen to 'Dear Mama' and get completely blown away. I love that Mumford and Sons exist.

I love all the famous Lionel Richie songs. I love how sincere Rod Stewart is on record. I love what it meant to be an Oasis fan. I love that Hanson kept going and quietly became amazing. I love the softer Pearl Jam songs.

I love absolutely everything about Tom Petty. And Aretha Franklin. And Dave Matthews Band. I love what happens to a room full of people when Sinatra's "My Way" gets played. I love Joni Mitchell's 'Blue'. I love every piece of Jazz music that ever came out of New Orleans.

I love that you can listen to an Ennio Morricone film score and have a better experience than when you watched the movie. I love Michael Kamen's 'Band Of Brothers' score. I love how 'Ooh La La' by The Faces was used in 'Rushmore', and I love the Elton John moments in Cameron Crowe movies.

I love 'Ave Maria', and 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered', and 'What A Wonderful World', and 'When The Saints Go Marching In.'

What I am saying is this: I love music. 

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Wings For Wheels

"Thunder Road" is my favourite song by Springsteen. Well, It's basically my favourite song by anyone.

But before "Thunder Road", came "Wings For Wheels". We only have the live versions. Is it really a great song? I don't know. I don't care! The important thing is the energy! If you want to know where The Boss finds all his energy, it's in this SONG!

You can hear his young excited mind whirring up and whizzing by and firing out into the world through this song. You can hear it in the whole band. There is no way they could have performed songs like this and NOT ended up as one of the greatest bands ever.

"Now the season's over and I feel it getting cold,

I wish I could take you to some sandy beach where we'd never grow old,

Ah but baby you know thats just jive,

But tonight's bustin' open and I'M ALIVE"

That line just kills me, in a GREAT WAY. BUT TONIGHT'S BUSTIN' OPEN AND I'M ALIVE!

This was Springsteen in the 70's. "Thunder Road" went on to be one of the greatest and most loved songs ever written. But this came first. This was "Thunder Road" before it was "Thunder Road." 

Makes you think about all the times you didn't quite nail it and wanted to ditch your work. It's important to remember you don't make your greatest hits right out of the gate, you gotta create a whole life's worth of junk first. 

But here's the thing. The junk ain't junk. "Wings For Wheels" has a magic that is undeniable. The energy and the vision and the idealism and the beauty; it screams through your speakers and makes you want to wake up in the 1970's at a concert, as part of a small group of people who really got to be a part of something.

That's all we want in life, to be a part of something. To matter.

"Wings For Wheels" matters. The scraps of junk you create on the road to your masterpieces, they matter. They're pieces of you. Probably bigger pieces than you realise. And the people who dig these pieces will dig everything you do. It's like the girlfriend who likes all the things about you that everyone else finds insufferable. You reach people by just putting yourself out there; by saying TONIGHT'S BUSTIN' OPEN AND I'M ALIVE!

"And maybe I can't lay the stars at your feet,
But I got this old car and she's pretty tough to beat."

That could be a metaphor for Springsteen's career. He beat everyone. He did it honestly, with integrity, and he outlasted all the other acts. He doesn't top the charts, but he sells out every venue he plays, all around the world. His fans are obsessed. It's a religion. 

And I'm telling you right now; if he played "Wings For Wheels" at a concert, the roof would explode. And if the gig was outdoors we'd all build a roof over it just to prove how powerful the moment was. 

I can feel all of Bruce Springsteen's career in this song. I can feel my own too. That's what the best songs do -- they sound like you, they encourage you, they ARE you. I don't have the creativity or the genius or the magic of Bruce Springsteen; but when you really really delve into a song you love, a song that makes you want to jump up and scream and run and write and dream and see and believe -- you think, even if just for a moment; WHY NOT? Why can't I achieve greatness? 

That is why I Love Bruce Springsteen. 

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My Ideal Woman, In Song

She'd be a mixture of these three songs.

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Shuffle Theory

I have this theory. I think that whenever you play music on your iPod or similar device, if you hit shuffle/random, the song that plays first is exactly the song you need to be hearing at that precise moment in your life.

Whatever you're going through, however your day has been, that song carries the wisdom of the day. It knows how you feel and what you need.

I'm serious, I trust this theory more than I trust the government.

Okay, bad example. I trust it more than my girlfriend, and all the guys she's sleeping with.

No, but really; shuffle theory. Try it.

I was heading home last night and on came Rod Stewart's "Mandolin Wind". The song sounded like me. It was me, just in mp3 form.

Tonight, I was heading home on the tube just a couple of hours ago, when I put on my headphones and hit play. The song was Van Morrison's "Into The Mystic".

I'd skipped that song three times already this week. But tonight? The shuffle Gods got it right. I needed that song. It took me off into a dreaming world. I was on the tube yet also everywhere else all at once.

And the lyrics resonated. The song has wisdom. It knows life. It knows my life. And it was exactly what I needed. Exactly where I am and who I am and how I am.

Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic.

And my soul really did. Flew all up in the London air all crazy and joyous. Only music can do that.

I wanna rock your gypsy soul
Just like way back in the days of old

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How Do You Consume Music These Days?

I am playing around with Last.fm today, realizing I kind of missed the boat, everyone moved on to Spotify. I've ditched iTunes, and have gone through a period of ripping mp3's from videos on YouTube. But the audio quality is bad. And my CD's are gathering dust. 

I'm in transition. I love music, I just don't know how to listen to it. Gone are the days of radio, and gone is the joy of Napster when you'd wait an hour for a song to download, and gone is the CD album. 

I guess what I'm saying is that, as much as I love music, I'm not loving the experience of buying/stealing/listening right now, because I don't really know what I'm doing. I haven't found something that works for me. 

Where are you at?

Regardless of where you are at, personally, I think we are all in transition. The distribution of music is changing, and no-one quite knows how it's going to turn out. 

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REBECCA BLACK

"De do do do, de da da da

Is all I want to say to you

De do do do, de da da da

They're meaningless and all that's true"
-Rebecca Black

"Oo-ooh-ooh, hoo yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah
Yeah-ah-ah
Yeah-ah-ah
Yeah-ah-ah"
-Sting

Rebecca Black is a 13 year old girl somewhere in America who, for whatever reason, made a pop song and a video. If it had only been witnessed by seven people - would it still signal the end of music as we know it? At the time of writing, close to five hundred thousand people have hit the 'dislike' button on her YouTube video. These aren't 13 year old girls disliking it, they're angry forty year old men who are pissed that nobody's listening to Metallica anymore.

I don't see how Rebecca Black is relevant to me. Her video is fun. I remember being fourteen - it was similar to the video. You talk shit, you see your friends, you look forward to the weekend. Great, I hope the kids enjoy the song. It wasn't made for me. I only saw it because of the media storm.

So 500,000 hit 'dislike.' That's a lot of hate. Couldn't we do something more productive? The comments are mostly people bitching about how awful the music industry is, how this is the worst thing ever. But how many of them are creating the alternatives? Like it or not, the talentless can get famous in five minutes, but for the talented it takes years. The forty year old singer/songwriter might have more talent than Rebecca Black, but none of his songs are as good as Bruce Springsteen's. That's not Rebecca Black's fault. The guy just needs to keep making music. Whether Rebecca Black exists or not; everything is still the same.

But Black actually has some talent. She performed it acoustic. I've heard worse. There's a bunch of young girls in the audience. They seem to dig it. Should we force them to listen to Bob Dylan records?

Good music, good films, good art, whatever --- they don't exist in a vacuum. You can't get the good stuff without the bad. We enjoy Tom Petty because he isn't Rebecca Black. But the Petty's don't exist without the Black's and the Britney's. If the mainstream loved what we love on a personal level, it wouldn't mean anything. When Springsteen sings about bustin' outta town, or when Aretha Franklin sings about freedom - they're powerful because they come from outside, they come from a place that hurts. That matters. The mainstream frames this perfectly, it's what makes it meaningful. That's why the greatest hits are never your favorites, they mean too much to too many.

But we don't need to be so angry every time a teenager sings about the weekend. She's just a kid.

What's the meanest thing you've read, that hurt you the most? -Interviewer.

I hope you cut yourself and I hope you get an eating disorder so you'll look pretty. And I hope you go cut and die. -Rebecca Black, 13.

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A Part Of Me That I Just Found.

I used to make Tapes. I used to make CD's. I used to sit by the radio waiting for a great song to come on back when they used to play great songs on the radio. I used to make CD's. I said that already but I'm saying it again because it was such an important thing to me. When I made tapes, it meant sitting there and listening to ninety minutes of music as I recorded it to the cassette. When I was seventeen, I had this job in town - this horrible, depressing job; and the only way I could stomach it was to make myself tapes, every night, that I would listen to on the way to work, during my lunch break, and on my way home.

I have tapes and CD's scattered everywhere. In them they hold the memories of girls who have been and gone, friends who have moved on and away and loved ones cherished and lost. I've made tapes during hard times that beamed with joy and I've made CD's during great times that bleed with pain. I have my whole life as told by Springsteen, and Van Morrison, and The Spice Girls and Billy Preston and whoever else came by at the time. There are people who've stayed along for the ride (Bruce) and people who were there very briefly and often for the oddest reasons (The Spice Girls). They've come and gone, just like everything in life.

I guess it's a part of growing up where you don't find the time to make tapes and CD's. You see, when I make a CD with 80 minutes of track - it takes me 80 minutes. Whether using a CD Mixer or a programme on a PC; I would mix 80 minutes together continuously. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean 'mix' like a super talented DJ who matches beats and rhythms. I'm talking me; starting out thinking I'm in a Led Zeppelin mood, and three tracks later finding I'm in a Joni Mitchell mood, before pondering why the hell I'm in a Simply Red mood before finally realizing I'm in a Neil Young mood.

Music was everything to me. It was a great leveller- whatever is going on in my life was only half the story, the music told the rest. A Mix CD was like art-- like a setlist, like a movie. A lot of people don't like the same music as me, a lot of people don't have the patience to play a continuous mixed 80 minute track. But a lot of people did. I have a few close friends who I used to give CD's to regularly. They know more about me than most people.

Last night, I watched 'Almost Famous' - a film that was my favorite film until a few years ago when I started saying it was 'Cinema Paradiso' and 'The Apartment'. I think it may be 'Almost Famous' afterall. Regardless, the film was exactly what I needed. The music is what I needed. Tonight, my plan was to watch a film. That plan didn't happen - not one film in my collection interested me. Then it happened-- I realized, I really wanted to make a CD. So I did.

Would you like a copy? Email me your address; and I'll pop a copy in the post.

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You're Coming Along At A Very Dangerous Time For Rock 'N Roll.

"They don't even know what it is to be a fan, y'know, to
truly love some silly little piece of music,
or some band, so MUCH that it HURTS."

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Songs I Am Loving Right Now.

I get really obsessive about certain songs, at certain times. I love music as much as I love films really - but I have no talent for music. Sometimes, I'm going to talk a bit more about music round here. I find music and film very similar; films are about rhythm, good dialogue is liking dancing to great music, and of course - the use of music in film is half of the secret to great films. Likewise, the music I like is very cinematic, I mean -- listening to a Springsteen or Dylan song is like watching a short movie - it's impossible to listen to 'Simple Twist Of Fate' or 'Thunder Road' without beautiful imagery forming in your head.

Anyways, here are three songs I'm listening to right now.

U2 - Stuck In A Moment

I only vaguely recognized this song, like I do most U2 songs - I don't really love them, just the obvious songs that everyone loves like 'With Or Without You' and 'Where The Streets Have No Name.'

But I was lucky enough to see them live at Wembley Stadium last year, two nights in a row, and it was this song that really got me. And I think it's better live, in big stadiums, because it's really uplifting, it's really a communal thing. And I think this version gives some indication of how great it can be to see and hear it at a concert.

"I'm not afraid

Of anything in this world

There's nothing you can throw at me

That I haven't already heard

I'm just trying to find

A decent melody

A song that I can sing

In my own company"

Tracey Chapman - Fast Car

I feel like this should always have been my favourite song - but it wasn't. In fact, it's been a song I only kind of vaguely recognized for years and years. And then a few months ago I was in my Dad's car and it came on the radio, and I was like 'wow, who is this? what is this?' My Dad mentioned it was Tracey Chapman. I went home and listened to it again and again and again. There is something about Tracey Chapman, and specifically this song - something that can't be just put down to her voice, or the lyrics - it's that mysterious thing, somewhere between God and genius and luck and something spiritual--- it's just, ugh-- I can't even explain. But why would I want to explain when instead we could all just listen to it? Perfection. This is the best song I know about living.

"Any place is better

Starting from zero got nothing to lose

Maybe we'll make something,

Me myself I got nothing to prove"

Fort Minor - Where'd You Go?

Just amazing, really.

"I want you to know it's a little fucked up,

That I'm stuck here waitin', no longer debatin',
Tired of sittin' and hatin' and makin' these excuses,
For why you're not around, and feeling so useless."

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'The Glory Of The Long Train Journey'

The great thing about sitting on a train for hours is that you get to make the soundtrack for it. Your mp3 player is packed full of your favourite records; you've got those dodgily recorded Dylan bootlegs, those rare Oasis demos that aren't rare anymore because no music is rare since the internet. Except that beautiful recording you've got of your friend Tina singing 'Tiny Dancer', it's the most beautiful song in the world and only you have it. And you ripped the YouTube video of that bald guy covering Eminem. You have everything you need. Between the towns passing by in your window and the tunes dancing into your ears - you have everything you need to convince you that life is wonderful.

You start off with 'Miami' by Counting Crows because it is exactly about one journey ending and one beginning. Then you listen to Springsteen who you're pretty sure got into making music just so that he could give you this moment right now as the night busts open and you feel these tracks. Could. Take. You. Anywhere.

We all like to make mix tapes and CDs for people but the problem is A) it's your ego wanting to prove it has great taste and b) the person you made the mix for never *quite* gets it.

But right now this playlist is just for you. You can dance to disco without moving an eyelid, you can sing along to Hanson without embarassing yourself.. Nobody is in this moment but you. And that amazing girl/boy is sitting opposite you but you don't even notice them because you're in the crowd at Woodstock singing Neil Young's words back at him.

By the end of the train ride you realize your problems are just problems - but none of them hurt you as much as Joni Mitchell breaking your heart, or Ryan Adams fixing it, or Aretha Franklin making you focus on your soul instead.

The journey ends. You've arrived, location: everywhere. You have arrived at life.

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The Magic Of Music

The power of music in films is probably nothing new to you. Certainly, anyone who's ever been in an editing room has seen the difference a piece of music can make - turning a rather average scene into something full of energy, or full of emotion. Famously, Quentin Tarantino uses music to pull in the opposite direction of what you're seeing. 'Son Of A Preacher Man' in Pulp Fiction springs to mind.

On those rare occasions that I find a film that has truly become one of my all time favourites; it's usually a piece of music that clinches the deal. I remember seeing 'Juno' for the first time; and I absolutely loved it. But the real clincher was that last scene, as Juno peddled her way to Bleekers house. As they sat on the wall and sang 'Anyone Else But You' together - that was when I knew it was one of my favourite films.

I guess that's the most powerful point for a song, right at the ending. In a second you can change the meaning or feeling of a film, with the audience leaving the cinema a lot different to how they expected. One of the most powerful ways I've seen music end a film was with 'Harold And Maude,' a movie that I actually didn't love that much - but the last ten minutes were subtly touching and beautiful. For those of you that haven't seen it or don't remember; the last five minutes or so see Harold losing Maude to the tune of Cat Stevens' 'Trouble'. It's truly heartbreaking. The scenes of her passing away and Harold in the waiting room struggling to comprehend it are juxtaposed with him speeding away in his car. It ends with his car flying off a cliff and crashing to the ground. Up until this point it is a very sad yet very moving end to the film. But then the camera tilts up to reveal him on the edge of the cliff, Banjo in hand. What happens next is truly sublime.

He begins plucking away at his Banjo. And he picks out a bit of 'If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out' -- and then the real version by Cat Stevens plays - Harold walks away from the camera, dancing about on the hillside whilst playing his Banjo as the credits begin to roll. Not only is it very moving, but strangely inspiring and uplifting - a complete reversal of the scenes before it. It's a true piece of movie magic.

Similarly, the film 'Rushmore' has an inspired ending. The film ends with the song 'Ooh La La' by The Faces, and it seems to inform the whole movie; it adds a different flavour to the film, right at the very end.

What fascinates me about these great examples is how they're not just great cinema or good choices, they transcend that.. they're examples that have stuck with me long after I saw them, there's something a little magic about them. Can filmmakers do this on purpose; can they KNOW how perfect a Cat Stevens song can fit, or can they only hope?. I always found Cameron Crowe to be incredible at hitting the right tone with music in his movies. Who can forget Paul McCartney's 'Singalong Junk' in Jerry Maguire when Jerry is fixing Dorothy's strap on the front porch, or perhaps more famously -- the band-in-the-bus sing-along of 'Tiny Dancer' in 'Almost Famous' or the elegant score of Nancy Wilson when William runs back to his Mother's car after agreeing to go to Morocco with Penny Lane.

But then Crowe made 'Elizabethtown'.

In interviews everywhere he kept talking about the importance of music in his movies, he even had a podcast explaining his music in the film. He flaunted this great skill he had everywhere -- take a look at this documentary, where he has that smug look on his face, - feeling very proud of his work - but the problem is, it doesn't work. I mean, sure, it works. The scenes have the effect he wants as a Director. But they don't reach the viewer in the way Springsteen's 'Secret Garden' did in 'Jerry Maguire' - they're simply functional. It was too much of a conscious effort by Crowe, and it just seems self-indulgent.

So I guess it only really works when it's by accident, or at least not as carefully executed as with the previous example. And I guess it's a really personal thing as well. Maybe the ending to Rushmore isn't all that great, it's just that 'Ooh La La' by The Faces happens to be one of my all time favourite songs. But sometimes things just fit - like all the 80's music in The Wrestler. The writer put those in the script, they were intended - apart from 'Sweet Child Of Mine' which Mickey Rourke wanted to use. And funnily enough, when you hear that tune in the film it is incredibly apt and moving-- more so than was probably expected.

Anyways, I'm going to carry on watching movies in the hopes that a piece of music moves me when I least expect it - because on those rare occasions that it happens, it's more powerful than any piece of dialogue. I leave you with a clip of my all time favourite scene with my favourite piece of film music. The film is Dito Montiel's 'A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints' - a film that throws its energy and ideas in a million different places (I mean this in a good way) -- but it's not until this scene that you realise what the film means to you. The beautiful piano music is unlike anything in the film up to that point, and along with the deceptively simple Directing and the astonishingly pitch-perfect acting performances; it's a scene that has always struck me as being perfect.

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