Round Here

Album: August And Everything After (1993)
Charted: 70 31
Play Video
  • Step out the front door like a ghost
    Into a 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

    Well, 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
    And 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 and takes her clothes off
    Says she's close to understanding Jesus
    And she knows she's more than 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 better 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, "Shh, 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
    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, hey man, 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, very, very late

    I can't see nothing, nothing
    Around here
    You catch me if I'm falling
    You catch me if I'm falling
    Will you catch me? 'Cause I'm falling down on you
    I said I'm under the gun
    'Round here
    Oh man I said I'm under the gun
    'Round here
    And I can't see nothin', nothin'
    'Round here Writer/s: Adam Fredric Duritz, Charles Thomas Gillingham, Christopher C Roldan, Dan Ryan Jewett, David A Janusko, David Lynn Bryson, Matthew Mark Malley, Steve Bowman
    Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 30

  • Brittney M from IndianaThis song speaks so many volumes. I was at a really hard time in my life (and Im not your everyday brained person...but i cant explain it and make sense) i try to explain myself as "lucky in the craziest/most unlikely ways."

    Anyway....one day,out of the blue..i kept trying to remember how this song went. (I was born in 86....so i was young when i learned it) but for some reason i NEEDED hear it. Well i was in the car a few nights later w a friend and i was telling her how i NEEDED to hear this song. So of course....she busts out youtube w the lyrics turned on.

    I FINALLY UNDERSTOOD WHY I WAS SO OBSESSED WITH HEARING THIS SONG. IT HIT HOME.......BAD!!!!!

    I was curious...i searched what the meaning behind....
    "There's a girl in the car in the parking lot, says man u should try and take a shot...cant u see my walls are crumbling . Then she looks up at the building...says she thinkin of jumping. Says she tired of life..must be tired something...round here..
    . shes always on my mind.

    I WAS HEART BROKEN when i read that the meaning behind that wasn't he saved her and she was on his mind when he needed a good place to go think....or take shots. I dont really know if the meaning was true that i read....but im still hoping the meaning for me needing to hear this song turn out better....if not...i totally get it
  • Jason from BostonHow is it 30 years later this song still hits so hard?
  • Carter from Seattlefor me this song is about yearning love, depression and bittersweet melancholia.
  • Lori Mckay from Brooklyn MichiganLikely cause both my own childhood and having worked with troubled adolescents this song made me think it was about a trouble teen boy in a group home and his feelings for a even more troubled girl, He’s dreaming of moving on and yet held back by the pity in his heart for her, and fear she likely won’t make it. Seems in my adolescence I seen so many in those situations and we don’t all make it out. Grateful I did, but My heart does pain for the ones that didn’t.
  • Noah from Somewhere I always thought this song was about a guy who falls in love with a girl who’s suicidal. But I do see the part about childhood now that I think about it. This song makes me cry every time I hear it.
  • Erin from Westville When I first heard this song I loved the words, as I continued to really reflect on the meaning it sorta reminded me of being in purgatory!
  • Gray from Chicagoland I had a rotten childhood, but I’ve been blessed with a great family now. Never had cable, never saw the video. To me, it affirms the goodness we’ve got ‘round here in my house. But I think Steve from Gloucester City, Nj has a great interpretation I’d like to see in a video.
  • Chris from DcThis is complete diversion. Adam wants you to figure it out. Took 20 years but I have it and it has made a huge impact.
  • A Friend from AlbanyI have mental illness. My moods would change so fast as I would to focus on the many thoughts that were running through my head and outside my head.
    I am schizophrenic. I was trying to hide it because I was in grad school and I didn't want to be known that I was crazy.
    Counting crows' made me feel less alone.
    The biggest mistake is that l made was not getting help sooner. Find help when you think something is wrong before it gets out of control.
  • Hunter Goldberg from Junction City, OregonI think this song is about our unreal computer reality, presumably after the end of time. The spinning clocks in the official music video give that away. In other words, time has become irrelevant. The stuffed racoon is interesting. Raccoons are magical little creatures. They live in the dark and catch crayfish (hint: Crays). In other words, the racoon is God but it is dead, stuffed, just a memory. The computer has outlived God himself. The lyrics in the first few minutes of the song are the most telling. "Round here, we always stand up straight" means people are phony and unreal, as opposed to people who lean forward when they walk who are typically more honest and decent. "Round here, something radiates" is the most interesting bit. We're leaving the universe, journeying in a form of radiation, "C-rays", interfering with the computer but also forming the computer in a paradoxical way. It can be summed up in a riddle: "Ending your shift as the sun beams, you back out and journey in the Crays of January." The answer to the riddle: FLUKES. Do you ever notice them?
  • Ole Folde from Smøla, NorwayI guess, based on all the interpretations people have come with, that this song is so amazing that people have their own meaning on it.
    Mine is, that it's a story about a girl travelling from Nashville. And she suffers from a manic depression, and is greatly misunderstood. And the writer meets here at the airport by accident, and after time he falls in love with her. Then she ends up killing herself.
    You also find a piece of her in "Mrs Potters Lullaby" saying "There's a piece of Maria in every song I sing".
  • Bluedog49 from Baton Rouge, LaThis song speaks volumes to me. It came out during a time when my wife was battling bipolar disorder and had attempted suicide. After she was admitted and stabilized, I remember travelling home to my teenage children and listening to this song. I was just overcome by the lyrics-- She says she's tired of life. She must be tired of something.
  • Jim from Pleasant Hill, CaCompare the background notes to the (later) Greg Laswell song, "That it Moves." Very similar sound.
  • Steve from Gloucester City, NjI always thought this sound would have a great video accompany of 2 people (the singer and Maria) either working at, or patients at an "end-of-life" AIDS clinic. The words worked for me in that way. "The contrast of white on white" and ghosts is what those people are. Angels get a better view of right and wrong, in the religious sense of people that some believe that AIDS patients have someone offended God.

    Maria has no where to go, a run-away, and ended up on the streets, and eventually, at this clinic. She knows something the writer doesn't, that, maybe she also has AIDS, and knows the end result, or, being in love with the writer, and he is not long for the world.

    Round here, they're carving out our names (etching tombstones), we all look the same (AIDS patients withering away) We talk like lions (We convince ourselves we're going to beat this), but we sacrifice like lambs (when they can no longer fight the disease, they submit).

    Mama's little baby get herself out of the lightning: Days when they were children and they didn't have the fear of dying from such a devestating disease. The girl in the parking lot tells the writer that he should take a chance with Maria, as his and/or her time (walls are crumbling) is short, and she's considering taking her own life as opposed to a lengthy and painful slow death from AIDS, or life without the writer.

    We're never sent to bed early (cause their time is too short), and no one makes us wait (for sake of compassion). We stay up very, very late in order to not lose any more time sleeping (which will be coming soon enough)

    And, to the general public: Would you catch me if I was falling (if I showed outward signs of AIDS), To his family: would you kiss me if I was leaving (like people do), To Maria: Would you hold me if I was lonely, cause I'm lonely without you. I'm under the gun (my time is short), and I don't see nothing (purposeful double negative intending to mean that I know, I understand).

    At least, that's how I've always interpreted the song. As much as mainstream bands hated music videos, I wish the artistic creativity was still there (as in the golden days of MTV), and a black and white video of my interpretation was set to the song. It would be sad, and appropriate.
  • Heimdallr from Lakeland, Swedenwow I thought this was about a place filled w/people who were released from the mental hospitals when they closed down
  • Epiphany777 from Edmonton, AbI am amazed at how this song can vividly pursue my mind. An experience that one cannot rationally speak of other than the words to a song.

    Our minds forget over time just how sacred some memories are.
  • Dale from Pasadena, MdAlthough I'd heard it previously, this song really resonated w/me when I was training to become a military officer. It painted a perfect emotional picture of what it was like to be a new officer, with all the attendant expectations of visible confidence, internal insecurities, and wrestling w/public perceptions. In this context, the "she" was the demands placed on young military officers.

    Two best lines IMHO are "Where no one notices the contrast of white on white" (my take: public just sees the uniform and not the subtle, but signicant differences between those that wear it) & ''Round here we talk just like lions, but we sacrifice just like lambs'' (my take: new officers need to act confident/commanding, but really they're usually not).
  • Jan from Antwerp, --It's a bit ironic. This is the very first Counting Crows song I ever heard. I bought 'August And Everything After' based on a very positive review long before they broke through over here in Europe.
    So, I was hooked instantly. This is also the best song they've ever written. So, the first is the best, that doesn't sound like giving these guys much credit, no?
    But I'm an unconditional fan ever since.
    To me, this song is about finding your way through life, which, in 1994 when I was 19 was something that I struggled with.
    This is one of those records that sticks with you through rough times and helps you get through.
  • Mandi from Fort Lauderdale, FlI have always loved this song! Feel like it is the soundtrack to my life!!...Some Good Some Bad...Some really Good...Some really Bad!
  • Donna from Roanoke, Vathis song hits home for me and i love it
  • Francia from Caracas, --One of their best songs
  • Scott from Baton Rouge, LaThis is an incredible song. I enjoy music that evokes imagery, and this song definitely does that.
  • Alice from São Paulo, BrazilAdam says this song is abt all the clichés we hear abt life as a child, and how we believe everything's gonna be perfect when we grow up (''Nobody makes us wait/Round here we stay up very, very, very late'') and how when we grow up we become disapointed (''I can see nothing, nothing, round here'')

    My favorite line is ''Round here we talk just like lions, but we sacrifice just like lambs''
  • Julie from Taylor, TxThis has to be their best song! Truely amazing. I fell in love withh this song when this boy told me about it. Loved it ever since.
  • Tello from Nyc, NyThis song is so real and understandable. great song
  • Natalie from Chiago, IlThe vocals on this song are absolutly beautiful. I wake up singing this song sometimes. It is very real and very raw.
  • Stephen from Boston, MaCheck Limewire for the live version recorded in Paris in 1994. It's amazing.
  • Andrew from New Bethlehem, PaThis a very great song and very well written. It encompasses the emotions in such a great way. "She looks up at the building, says she's thinking of jumping. She says she's tired of life. She must be tired of something"...
  • Greg from Paris, MiOn the second disc of "Across a Wire: Live in New York City" They play a 10 minute version of this song, combining it with "Have You Seen Me Lately"
  • Rob from Vancouver, CanadaI have a great live, acoustic version of this. Excellent song.
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