Lyrics for Round Here as interpreted by kevin

Round Here Lyrics
Step out the front door like a ghost
Into the fog where no one notices
The contrast of white on white.

And in between the moon and you
The angels get a better view
Of the crumbling difference between wrong and right.

I walk in the air between the rain,
Through myself and back again.
Where? I don't know
Maria says she's dying.
Through the door, I hear her crying
Why? I don't know

Round here we always stand up straight
Round here something radiates

Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand
She said she'd like to meet a boy who looks like Elvis
She walks along the edge of where the ocean meets the land
Just like she's walking on a wire in the circus
She parks her car outside of my house, takes her clothes off,
Says she's close to understanding Jesus
She knows she's more that just a little misunderstood
She has trouble acting normal when she's nervous

Round here we're carving out our names
Round here we all look the same
Round here we talk just like lions
But we sacrifice like lambs
Round here she's slipping through my hands

Sleeping children got to run like the wind
Out of the lightning dream
Mama's little baby better get herself in
Out of the lightning

She says, "It's only in my head."
She says, "Shhh....I know it's only in my head."

But the girl on the car in the parking lot
Says: "Man, you should try to take a shot
Can't you see my walls are crumbling."

Then she looks up at the building
And says she's thinking of jumping.
She says she's tired of life;
She must be tired of something.

Round here she's always on my mind
Round here I got lots of time
Round here we're never sent to bed early
And nobody makes us wait
Round here we stay up very very late
---
"Round Here [#]" as written by Adam/bryson Duritz
Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing
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RuTangOU
02-08-2002

 Rated  +2 
he's free and yet now the structure is gone

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marbar1182
03-06-2002

 Rated  0 
reminds me of myself.

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tms6879
04-04-2002

 Rated  +4 
most beautiful song ever written. without a doubt. we try to hide our true selves to seem normal and popular. why be normal and popular?? We all have expectations of how to live our lives placed on us by other people. It just makes more sense to live life for ourselves. All in all, we are all a little misunderstood and confused, but that shouldn't make us want to hide our fears due to embarrassment. first nine lines are ridiculous.

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rha106
04-20-2002

 Rated  0 
amazing song...it shows Adam's true lyrical genious. i also love the first 9 lines, and also the lines "she walks along the edge of where the ocean meets the land just like she's walking on a wire in the circus."

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source_4
05-01-2002

 Rated  0 
Although not intended this song is about West Point.

Every morning we step out to formation where we contrast gray against gray.

Angels have seen the transitions of the Honor Code, the scandals, the crumbling differences between wrong and right. The Honor Codes means nothing on crumbling stone, but takes full meaning when inscribed on our hearts.

We walk through ourselves and back again when we parade and walk tours, but in between the rain.

As we live and work in our rooms we hear many things through our doors. Everyone here cries out about wanting to die at one point.

Here we always stand up straight
Something really radiates from WP

On R-Day we all came here with a suitcase in our hands
And as New Cadets and Plebes we walk fine lines trying not to get hazed, and balance cadet life.

On R-Day we all removed our civilian clothing and replaced them with uniforms.
In Beast many people turn to God for support.
We all spaz out sometime.

Just like our names carved out on our name tags, we are all here to try to carve our name out. The names of many Grads are carved out in stone around here.

We all talk like lions, like warriors, but in battle we sacrifice like lambs.

98% Lose their G/F while at WP

Children better run when they hear the thunder of war, out of the nightmare's of war.
We will get flashbacks of combat, but its all in our head.

Again, WP drags everyone down at some point and we think of bailing out, as we look up the buildings that look like a fortress.

Round here she is always on our minds,
We have 46 months worth of time
We are never sent to bed early
No one makes us wait
And the night before we stay up very very very late.


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5 Replies  · 
LiveUrLife
05-02-2002

 Rated  +1 
This is such a beautiful song. its one of my favorite songs ever. Counting crows are such a great band, i wish they would put some more stuff out.

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Lilac Wine
05-08-2002

 Rated  0 
"Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand
she said she'd like to meet a boy who looks like Elvis..."

That's such a great line!

Source4, I'd never looked at it that way before. Interesting...

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dmbfan14
05-09-2002

 Rated  0 
this song, reguardless of the meaning, is beautiful. It in a way is kind of depressing as well..the girl talks about life being pointless and she is sucidal. the line..
"Then she looks up at the building
and says she's thinking of jumping
She says she's tired of life
she must be tired of something" is my fav. line yet the whole song holds such a great meaning you cant help but fall in love with this song.


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CountMyCrows
05-14-2002

 Rated  0 
i love this song so much, adam always sings it with such passion...i must say, you should definitely check out some of the live versions of round here, they are equally amazing..my favorite being from the vh1 storytellers when he sings
"would you catch me if i was falling, would you kiss me if i was leaving, would you hold me 'cause i'm lonely without you"
ahh it gives me chills just thinking about it

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2 Replies  · 
roger wilco
05-14-2002

 Rated  0 
wow, Source4, interesting analogy.

never did like this song, tho.

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rainbow6583
05-15-2002

 Rated  0 
i agree with you, countmycrows, the live versions are incredible. my favorite song of all time is the version from the other disc of across a wire. i love how he works lines from "have you seen me lately" into it, and when he says (with more passion each time) "can't you see me? can't you see me? can't you see me? no." i fall apart every time i hear it.

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Disarm
05-19-2002

 Rated  0 
You all should go to Kazaa or Morpheus and download some of the live boot-legs of this song. He adds parts. there are 2 versions that are over 10 minutes long each. they are so much more amazing than ANY of the album or live album versions. You find them by searching for the song titles and then looking at the file sizes and song lengths. there are 2 for sure that are over 10 minutes long. one is a live in paris in '94 and im not sure of the origins of the other but its like 10:51 long.

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nietzsche_66
05-21-2002

 Rated  0 
This is my favorite song ever. Every time I hear it, I cry. Especially at the part where Maria wants to kill herself. I am reminded of me...

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radar3141
05-23-2002

 Rated  0 
i think that this song is about hollywood, as many of his songs are. the hopelessness of hollywood is talked about in the body of the song, while in the courus he talks about what people in hollywood do, how they live a certian way
"Round here we're carving out our names
Round here we all look the same "
it is hollywood
he doesn't seem to like hollywood much, seeing as how he puts it down in several of his songs.
this song is just amazing, especially the first several lines.


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osubuckeye420
05-27-2002

 Rated  0 
I think its all about conformity, and how we all do it at points in our lives in different ways, yet it's wrong.

We try to be popular and cool to fit in, but in the end we are just alienating ourselves by chanigng who we are.

I think it also sends out a message of condolance to those people who truely try to be individuals, cause he talks about Maria and how she is always on his mind. I mean he starts out saying all these weird things she does, yet in the end he is always thinking about her, because of her individuality.

I dunno, it's 4:30 AM and I'm tired, but that's the meaning I contrived.

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osubuckeye420
05-27-2002

 Rated  0 
Also in the live versions theres lines where he says, "Well I don't wanna be like you she said. I dont wanna be like you... Just leave me alone, leave me alone she said."

I dunno, it's like Maria left Adam because when she first met him he was an individual, or at least she thought he was, but in the end it turned out that he was just a face in the crowd like so many of us out there.

I also think that everyone needs to listen to the Live in Paris version, it is truely amazing, takes the song to a whole new level.

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vandalized
05-30-2002

 Rated  0 
beautiful.

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Death on Arrival
06-07-2002

 Rated  +1 
This song is so beautiful. I love it. To me it's about a girl who is singled out, she's not like everyone else. And she likes this guy be he's just another face in the crowd. At first I don't think he understands her and he isn't like her but then he decides that he wants to be different. He wants to be with her. She's obviously suicidal, and he wants to be with her no matter what anyone thinks. They would stand out together. :' ) Brings a tear to m eye, reminds me of myself.

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just_a_dreamer12
07-18-2002

 Rated  0 
words don't even begin to describe...

if you guys like the "august and everything after" version of this song, check out the version on the first disc of the "across the wire: live in new york" version.

it's unbelievable.

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goatboy72
07-20-2002

 Rated  0 
I figured it was about some random small town for a long time. Some place isolated. But then I really listened and I feel that it's about Hollywood and famous people. We're all sick and tired of something.......

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the_toolshed
09-01-2002

 Rated  0 
I remember reading somewhere that Adam said that Maria was in fact him...

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sambo28
09-01-2002

 Rated  0 
this song was written a while before counting crows were famous. its about all the stupid rules that adults give us as kids and when hes older he forgets about them('we stay up very late') and that it dont make a difference ('round here, i cant see nothing'). i think maria is adam duritz, like a girl version of him. so when he talks of how maria feels i think itw what he feels

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the_toolshed
09-03-2002

 Rated  0 
While i'm on the subject there should be a mention of
"Step out the front door like a ghost
into the fog where no one notices
the contrast of white on white."

Adam has sang rather prominantly 'Thunder road': "There where Ghosts in your eyes of all the boys you sent away"
And 'The Ghost in You': "The Ghost in you, (s)he won't fade away"

Ghosts in this context could be discussed in terms of previous relationships, the 'imprints' that past loves have left on our soul. The hurt, the shame, the regrets; the sense of doing something with someone who may truely love us but we can't ever forget of that night when we kissed another girl/guy on the very steps that you stand on when you hear another tell you, 'I love you'. I have foound as I grow older that the ghosts can affect the next relationship, on both sides. That something as simple as leaving your partner to call out for some grocieries leaps down their psyche to recall some unpleastness a previous boyfriend delivered on them. In the context of 'round here' the lead character could be said to be considering themselves reduced to being devoured by ghosts so that it has climbed inside their skin and removed the pigments, that as they walk through the fog whatever spark that they possesed as their own has been vanquished into nothingness. That no one notices the contrast of white on white. This could be carried further in that despite that Maria is clearly a little nutty, but deeply in love with the lead character the character cannot save her to save himself because he has been reduced to this shadow, this whisp in the corner of our eyes. A nothing that walks beside us. So as she calls 'SAVE ME SAVE ME, "I'm thinking of jumping" All the lead character can offer is that 'everybody is tired of something', and then as sambo states previously, the character upon seeing that what (s)he has become, starts screaming out the little things that seemed to mean something when we where little. The things that you thought being an adult where all about.
"Round here we're never sent to bed early
And nobody makes us wait
Round here we stay up very, very, very, very late"

And this friends and neighbours was one of those songs that changed my life, this was one of the songs that did more than make me bop round my room. This song made a part of who I am, and it is part of my psyche that I ahve come to rely on time and time again not only for myself but for my partner as well. And i hope that the ghosts will not linger for you as they do in the 'Ghost Train' I hope they nod their heads and move on. Good nite peeps

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2 Replies  · 
semicharmedgirl
09-11-2002

 Rated  0 
I can make neither heads nor tails of this song. Perhaps my brain is crashed from too much school, and therefore complex lyrics are beyond me.

:: listens to Atom and His Package - Anarchy Means I Litter ::

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spydermunkie101
09-24-2002

 Rated  0 
I love this song, I believe it is the most beautiful song ever written. But I disagree with all of your meanings to it. I believe it is about woman who is mentally ill. Adam sings alot about Maria in many of his songs, so I believe he really did fsall in love with a mentally ill flamenco dancer named maria. and she killed herself and he feels that he could have prevented it.

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