Counting Crows – Amy Hit The Atmosphere

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If I could make it rain today
And wash away this sunny day down to the gutter
I would just to get a change of pace
Things are getting worse, but I feel a lot better
And that's all that really matters to me

Well, Amy hit the atmosphere
Caught herself a rocket ride out of this gutter
And she's never coming back I fear
Anytime it rains she just feels a lot better
And that's all that really matters to me

We've waited so long
For someone to take us back home
It just takes so long
Meanwhile all the days go drifting away
And some of us sink like a stone
Waiting for mothers to come

There has to be a change I'm sure
Today was just a day fading into another
And that can't be what a life is for
And anything she said well she feels a lot better
And that's all that really matters to me

We've waited so long
For someone to take us back home
It just takes so long
Meanwhile all the days go drifting away
And some of us sink like a stone
Waiting for mothers to come

I want to know, I want to know,
I want to know, I want to know
I want to know, I want to know,
I want to know, I want to know
And all I really know is I want to know
And all I really know is I don't want to know
And all I really know is I want to know
And all I really know is I don't want to know [last two lines repeat]

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Lyrics submitted by ShiverForMe

Track duration: 04:37

"Amy Hit the Atmosphere" as written by Daniel John Vickrey, Ben Mize, Adam Duritz, Charles Gillingham, David Bryson, Matthew Malley

Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

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Amy Hit The Atmosphere song meanings
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19 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:You know, not everything is a drug reference. Taking the entire "This Desert Life" as a whole, it is an absolute masterpiece, from beginning to end. Some of the best songwriting accompanied by some of the most deeply written lyrics that I've encountered in a long time. All the surface-thinkers on this site & many others seem to believe this is about some girl named Amy & her drug trip. It really is nothing more than a beautifully written song about a lucky girl named Amy who caught a rocket ride out of the orphanage where she and her friends kept "..waiting for mothers to come...", and where the unlucky kids still wait, some of them "sinking like a stone". And it's true. So many of them are daily waiting for mothers to come.
    The long and short of it is that sometimes we need to simply take the whole into consideration and look at the other songs on the album and realize that their meanings are just barely veiled on the surface, and yet deeply meaningful as this song and "Colorblind" were.
    Flag itizwutitizon May 06, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I think "hitting the atmosphere" must be some kind of metaphor for the high you get from drugs, and that this Amy must have had an overdose. "Some of us sink like a stone waiting for mothers to come." That is a very telling lyric, as many people indulge in self-destructive behaviors waiting for someone to "save them." An excellent song, although not very uplifting, but life isn't always that way. Adam knows how to write a good song, he is one of the best, and this is one of his better songs when it comes to telling a story. The end of the song is very telling as well, "All I really know is I wanna know, and all I really know is I don't wanna know." That has to do with the duality of saying you'll help people with their problems and at the same time not really meaning it, at least to me.
    Flag komickazeon April 08, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I like to think the narrator doesn't know whether Amy came out alive and he is waiting to find out, hence "I wanna know, I wanna know" etc. but he's really scared that he'll find out she's died: "And all I really know is I don't wanna know". But that's just my take on it.
    Flag moradoon February 27, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Before reading any quotes I immediately thought it was about someone escaping a bad situation. It is not Amy's story that is even interesting here though. The narrator is left behind and it is all abou how he feels.
    Flag clovuson June 03, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:What does this song mean to you?
    It is really strange, but this is a song that i'm listening when i need some encouraging.. thank you, Raining8s, for posting this. I prefer to think that she is fine now, and this is all that matters to me :) i also think it's a 2 part song. the first part (the first 6 lyrics) is adam's, and 2nd part (the rest) is about that group and about what they think.
    this is a really deep song, and it is just.. beautiful.
    Flag Aza1408on July 23, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i c how its the story adam tells. but it sounds like its told from her still suffering friends. hense the whole thing about them thinking amy is dead and the last line all i wanna no is i dont wanna no
    Flag TeresaMac23on July 07, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:what about the second verse's background lyrics?
    can anyone decipher those?
    Flag xStickxCorexon April 13, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Here is the text posted on annbegins.com about the song.
    ___________________________________________
    tells the tale of a young girl who managed to bail out before she crashed and burned. "It's about a creative group I knew of writers and painters. The whole group became junkies.. They all slipped into the heroin culture There was this one really young girl named Amy, she was about 18. She got sucked right down there, but she managed to get out. A sweet kid, she moved back to Wyoming. And cleaned herself up. Went back to being a ballerina, went back to college. That's what that song is about."
    _____________________________________________



    I have a bootleg where he talks of the song in more depth. Amy did indeed stay clean; however, his true inspiration for the idea of the song came from visiting the people that Amy used to live with. Adam would visit them(all junkies) and they all wondered if Amy stayed clean; however, they wouldn't let Adam tell them what happened to Amy. They wanted to know, but they really didn't want to know. They thought that Amy had killed herself(hints as to why a lot people think Amy is dead), and they would make up long stories(to tell each other) about how great Amy was doing, and that if she kicked H then they could too. It gave them hope to think that Amy was better; however, they all truly thought she was dead and they didn't want to know the truth about her.

    NOTE:this isn't my "take" on the song. This is what Adam said at a concert from TDL tour.
    Flag Raining8son January 31, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this is my favorite song of theirs...


    i really dont know what this song means....=)
    Flag youcanbreathe_nowon May 27, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I went out with a girl called Amy and she left me in a rubbish flat on my own and went away to live with some drummer in a nice house in the burbs. So thats what it means to me. I don't know where the rocket ship comes into that, we can't aford rocket ships not in like in the USA; we've got easyJet. I don't think they goto the atmosphere, just mainly Benidorm.
    Flag notuyourmateon June 29, 2005   Link

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