2/19/2007- Mister Jones & Me

While driving home this afternoon, I heard the song "Mister Jones" by Counting Crows on the radio. Now, while I like this song, I usually don't listen to it, as I've heard it roughly nine hundred bojillion times since it was released way back in 1994. But this time I left it on, and near the end of the song (at around the three minute, thirty-five second mark), there is a line which goes, and I quote...

"I wanna be Bob Dylan,
Mister Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky.
When everybody loves you, ah, son,
You're just about as funky as you can be."

Now, does this line mean A) that everybody loves Bob Dylan, and therefore Bob Dylan is as funky as he can be?; or
B) that everybody loves Mister Jones and therefore Mister Jones is as funky as he can be?

(Responses follow)

Lou B: My question is regarding the first two lines:

"I wanna be Bob Dylan,
Mister Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky."

Does Mister Jones want to be someone more funky than Bob Dylan or does Mister Jones want to be a little more funky than himself? I've always liked this song. It has some really great lines.

Jen: Brendan I think (b).Bara I think more funky than Bob Dylan.So the song should say, "I wanna be Bob Dylan, Mister Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky (than Dylan), When everybody loves you (Mister Jones), Ah, son, you're just about funky as you can be." At least that's what I always thought.

Me: Fair enough. I actually half agree with you; I think Mister Jones is saying he wishes he was someone more funky than both Dylan and himself, and Adam Duritz is saying that Mister Jones is already as funky as he can be because everybody loves him.

Angela: they are both as funky as they can be...BUT the singer doesnt think he's funky enough or that everyone loves him, so he wants to be bob dylan.

Nancy: yup Ditto to B.

Devon: Mr. Jones might want to try to be a little more funky, because according to the song "Me and Mrs. Jones", released in 1972, his lady and soul singer Billy Paul have "got a thing going on".

"Me and Mrs.Jones
We got a thing goin'on
We both know that it's wrong
But it's much too strong
To let it go now."

He then goes on to say:

"We meet every day at the same cafe
Six-thirty and no one knows she'll be there
Holding hands, making all kinds of plans
While the juke box plays our favorite songs"

I mean seriously, Billy Paul must not think much of Mr Jones because he is basically broadcasting the time, location and specifics of the "thing" that he's got going on with Mrs. Jones.

Of course, while writing this it dawned on me that "Me and Mrs. Jones" was released in 1972 and "Me Jones and Me" was released in 1993. So it is very possible that the reason Mr. Jones no longer feels that he is funky or that everyone loves him is that he heard Billy Paul's song and realized that there was a thing goin' on behind his back. Then perhaps he spent the better part of the next twenty years down at the New Amsterdam drinking himself to death until eventually he formed a friendship with a young man who shared his feelings of loneliness, although it seems that the young man felt that the ultimate solution to being lonely is to "be a lion". Personally, I hope Mr. Jones ends up with the Flamenco dancer after he is inspred by his friend's rise to stardom, rather than just sitting in the New Amsterdam thinking about his ex-wife making sweet, sweet love to soul singer Billy Paul.-DEVON!

Me: That would mean that Adam Duritz(who was a surprisingly old 29 when this song was released) was hanging out with someone who was old enough to have been both married and cheated upon all the way back in 1972. Even if we really stretch it, would make him at least 38; married in '71 at sixteen, cheated on by '72 at seventeen, twenty-one years later, he's thirty-eight.) Now, twenty-nine to thirty-eight is not an insurmountable age difference for a friendship; I personally spent several hours last night hanging out with a guy thirteen years my senior and had a wonderful time, but I don't necessarily see cuckolded middle-aged men hanging out with aspiring rock singers, particularly if their marriage had been sullied by the interference of a musician so long ago.I think more likely, given the scenario Devon has posited, that the "Mister Jones" of the song is the illegitimate spawn of the affair between Billy Paul and Mrs. Jones, but was raised as the son of her husband. Mister Jones wishes he was more funky, but when he says "more funky," he really means, "not a bastard child, raised by my harlot of a mother and wimpy non-father who was powerless to stop his wife's affair even though he knew where she and the cocky soul singer who is actually my dad were going to meet every day."

Song... solved.

Devon: I'm glad we've finally put that mystery to rest. So now, it's time to move on to a mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes, "McArthur Park":

"MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down...
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!"

What in the name of sweet and merciful Papa Smurf could that possibly mean?!I mean seriously, what the hell?!-DEVON!

Me: According to Wikipedia, it's a about a lost love and a rendezvous in the titular park, and a lot of the lyrics are metaphorical or something, which I find ridiculous. Though I find it curious that this song was originally recorded by Irish actor Richard Harris, probably most famous for the playing the role of Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies. Also this song has been referenced no fewer than three times on The Simpsons and has been voted, in a nationwide survey conducted by Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist/novelist Dave Barry as "The Worst Song Ever Recorded."

Devon: Using Wikipedia is cheating. You are disqualified. Thank you for playing. Here is a copy of our home game.-DEVON! (Pst! Don't tell anyone but I used Wikipedia to find out who sang "Me and Mrs. Jones". Shhhh, it's a secret.)