Mr. Jones and Me

When I first heard the alternate, live version of Counting Crows' Mr. Jones on the 'Live on a Wire' CD, I got shivers down my spine. There is what might almost be a prologue to the song proper.

'If you want to be a rock 'n' roll star,
then listen now to what I say,
just get an electric guitar and learn how to play,
just learn how to play.'

Seeing as the original song was about the desire for fame, and all the good things that fame seemed to promise, the live version on that CD is different, altered, more retrospective. The band got their fame, but it wasn't all it appeared to be...and the song changed to reflect that.

But the prologue is a statement, an altruism, which applies to a lot of things. Coupled with it's original version, there is a sensation of learning, of progression, but with the prologue, it's like a bit of advice.
If you want what we wanted and got, then you can't just sit there.
But it might not be everything you think.

If you want to be anything, then you can't just sit there. If you want something different than what you've got, you don't just have to want it, you have to put effort in and learn how to get it, and then you have to learn to live with it once it is yours.

Today's experiment (you don't have to do it if you don't want to): apply this to your dreams, and act accordingly...

Now, I don't necessarily want to be a rock'n'roll star, but learning to play the guitar is on my 2004 To Do List.
I played a lot last night, and in one evening went from doing scales...through the nightmare that is the torture chord F Major...all the way to my first (rather wobbly) rendition of 'House of the Rising Sun'.

Cliché?

Hell, I was chuffed with myself.