The Creation of Mr Jones: How Counting Crows Produced Their Iconic Track

Adam Duritz Remembers the Beginnings

Our first four records were primarily recorded in houses located in the foothills above Los Angeles. Their debut major label album signified a major milestone for the group, as it was their inaugural release on a large record company. Each member got an advance of $3,000; I used mine to buy a classic red convertible and drove it to LA.

Each day, I would start by listening to a Poco track, which resembles the Beatles venturing into country music. Also, I was into a Benny Goodman album that my dad had picked up as a complimentary item at a gas station when I was young.

The song Mr Jones was included on a demo that we submitted to record companies, but it proved a challenging song to complete. We didn’t have a solid grasp at first. It’s not a slow ballad nor a fast-paced number; rather, it moves with a rhythm, demanding a real feel to play. The style is soulful – more akin to the Stax Records sound than folk.

The band’s drummer couldn’t hear the track like the rest of us did – thus T Bone enlisted one of his heroes to play it.

We looked at a few production candidates, but when I spoke with the producer, he really get where the band was at. We had a lot of promise, but I wasn’t satisfied with our overall tone – we hadn’t learned how to work together. We removed all the synths and effects pedals. Our drummer Steve Bowman had trouble with the song’s rhythm, so the producer called in a renowned drummer, one of Steve’s heroes, to play on it. It’s a funny story, but it was tough on Steve back then.

My best friend Marty and I had played in groups together before Counting Crows. His father, David Serva, had made it in Spain and was back in the Bay Area performing a tour. Attended one of his shows and hung out with the flamenco troupe bar-hopping. The next morning, I returned and composed Mr Jones. The lyrics reflect me and Marty that evening, dreaming we were cool musicians so we could talk to the women more confidently.

I believe, it’s one of the best songs I’ve composed. We performed another track on SNL in 1994, the album jumped 40 spots weekly for five or six weeks. Following that, the song became a huge hit.

David Immerglück Shares His Memories

In the late 1980s, Adam, David Bryson, and I were sharing a space in a warehouse complex in Berkeley. Previously, I performed with Camper Van Beethoven and was in an side project named Monks of Doom.

Returning home one night, Adam had a fresh recording he’d created with the guitarist. I heard this song titled Mr Jones. Recorded with a Dr Rhythm pocket drum machine that sounded like a arcade sound or random noise, but his vocals were on another level.

Once T Bone got involved, it felt like a complete transformation of Counting Crows. They shifted back to basics influenced by folk and soul legends.

Adam called me asking, “Hey, man, can you join us and contribute to this record?” By the time I got there, T Bone had relocated us to a recording space in LA’s Encino – previously used by Tito Jackson. There were instruments that Bob Dylan had just recorded on.

T Bone told me to perform behind the tempo the beat. His words were, “If you rush before the drums comes off like an adolescent hurrying.” With his Texas drawl, and his advice was to visualize relaxing on the mixing board and chewing gum during the performance.

The band was, in some ways, a reaction to grunge. The tragic end of Cobain seemed the culmination. Back then, many were on heroin. The aim was self-destruction, not enlightenment. That negativity had gone too far, and the trend shifted toward something more human and heartfelt. Their music combined acoustic and electric with a heavy dose of Van Morrison soul.

The song never gets old. On stage, when I am rocking out with Adam, I recall that time when he first shared the demo. Absolutely incredible.