Before They Were MP3s, 1998: #7 - Dave Matthews Band - “Before These Crowded Streets”

“Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” - Ecclesiastes 4:6

“Before These Crowded Streets” was my first major exposure to everyone’s favorite college band. Prior to that, I had heard “Ants Marching” and “Crash Into Me” on the radio, the latter sticking in my head mostly on the basis of one radio-friendly but entirely salacious lyric. I don’t recall how I came to be in possession of this album, so I suspect my brother was the one who acquired it. Regardless, before long we were both listening to it regularly.

As a young man any theme that did not deal with romance probably flew right by me unnoticed, which may account for my failing to catch a theme that runs through several of the songs here. I think it is reflected well by the verse above from Ecclesiastes, though it is likely the band did not have this explictly in mind. That said, Biblical imagery features in several Dave Matthews Band songs, including one which references “Eat, drink, and be merry,” also from Ecclesiastes, so who knows for sure.

One other note about the album before we get into it: although I liked it immensely after the first listen or two, I was continually flummoxed by the little musical tags at the end of several of the songs. They don’t really seem to serve a purpose. I once heard that the album’s music lines up with “The Wizard of Oz,” although a precursory search on google would seem to discredit this. Although it would explain those little musical tags as padding to make it fit better. Your intrepid reporter intended to do research, but he was stymied by an unwillingness to part with $20.

(Preview Songs)

“Pantala Naga Pampa” - This isn’t really a song, more like a warm up. It does provide some cool drumming by Carter Beauford, though that’s true for pretty well every song. This song seems more like an invitation to sit down and enjoy the rest of the album.
“Rapunzel” - Guess what the imagery is in this song? Anyway, I remember really enjoying this song, and imagining playing along with Carter, only every time he got to a part where the snare wasn’t on 2 and 4, it threw me off, leaving me to make an imaginary hit that didn’t materialize in the actual music, wince in embarassment, and continue on. The little violin lick strikes me as a touch repetitive as I listen to it now, but I still enjoy it. DMB’s early albums always provide a lot of variety and energetic instrument parts, so it’s hard to find a song flat out unlikeable. Don’t like the violin? How about the sax? Or the drums? Hint: I always like the drums. As this song builds, and Carter spends more time on the cymbals, it really adds drive and intensity. Also he does this thing where he layers on hi hat hits that are in a different time signature than the song itself. That is just plain cool to me.
“The Last Stop” - Here we come to the theme I spoke of earlier. This song sounds vaguely Middle-eastern, and the lyrics seem to emote violence and killing in the name of God, an idea he roundly rejects. “Is war the only way to peace? Well I don’t fall for that.” He seems to particularly be going after the misguided idea of killing for God making you holier: “Gracious even God, bloodied on the cross - your sins are washed enough.” This song is mighty intense for DMB, and I appreciate the ideas in it, and there is a chorus like part with banjo or some pluck-oriented string instrument that sounds really cool, but overall it doesn’t quite mesh as well as it could. It would be hard to put a pin on it, but I think there is a fundamental dissonance to the song. That said, it is probably intentional. The ending as it fades away is pretty cool, though, I have to say.
“Don’t Drink the Water” - This song seems to be about the European / American colonization of North America and their rather callous destruction of Indian civilization. Especially when you consider the notion of “Manifest Destiny,” it is very much of a piece with “The Last Stop” which I would guess is about the Crusades. “Upon these poor souls I’ll build heaven and call it home.” Chilling, especially since that’s basically what we tried to do. The song evokes a sentiment very similar to “The Last Resort” by the Eagles. Again, this song is very intense. The banjo (or whatever) works better for me on this song, and Dave’s gravelly voice on the verses gives the song a sinister edge (see also: “Raven,” which not coincidentally also deals with figures of power and authority corrupting the world and everything innocent and pure in it). The way he delivers lines like “Here’s the hitch; your horse is leaving” lays bare the cold indifference of the powerful to those they send into exile. Later on in the song he adds some distorted guitar that helps add to the unsettling feeling, it is as if the rhythmical drive in the music adds to the metaphorical drive pushing away the people he is addressing. In general the song builds very well, leading to a thundering close: “I live with my justice / I live with my greedy need / I live with no mercy / I live with my frenzied feeding / I live with my hatred / I live with my jealousy / I live with the notion / That I don't need anyone but me.” Then the title of the song: “Don’t drink the water - there’s blood in the water.” For whatever reason, this song really hits me with the inherited guilt for all the misdeeds of our ancestors. Even when I was younger and more prepared to blindly accept America’s actions as in the right, the way we treated the Native Americans always struck me as particularly awful, particularly against the values we claim to uphold.
“Stay (Wasting Time)” - I’d say this is the flip side of the coin. We’ve just heard about the awful things done to gain power and glory (include attempting to gain glory for God), and this song is about letting go of all that ambition and just enjoying life (“wasting time”). I think this one was released as a single, and I’m pretty sure I saw the music video. Don’t remember anything about the video, other than I think it had people just chilling and partying, and maybe there was a splashy effect around the corners. I like the guitar work in this song, it evokes a playfulness on the verses. Carter adds to this by using woodblocks or something similar, to make that fun popping sound kind of like you can make by flicking your finger out of the side of your mouth. And if that doesn’t help convey “wasting time” in a fun way, I don’t know what will. That and describing kissing as “splashing in the tongue taste.” “Tongue taste” is just a fun little phrase to say. Anyway, it’s impossible for me not to enjoy a song that is this much fun, and I like the way it builds at the end, adding a seemingly impossible amount of percussion for one man. Probably there was more than one person playing, but with Carter Beauford, it is hard for me to be sure. Like all great jazz musicians, his arms move at a million miles an hour, and his face says, “I’m barely trying.” This is pretty much the polar opposite of the way hard rock drummers operate.
“Halloween” - I have a strange fascination with Halloween. Not because of the modern transformation of the holiday into a drunken custom party for adults, but because from an early age (I think fifth or sixth grade) I generally spend the week or two before Halloween coming up with a vaguely Halloween-themed story or daydream. When I was younger, I was nearly perpetually imagining adventures for me and my friends to go on, fueled by movies and cartoon shows. Even in elementary school I had developed a fairly coherent universe for most of my stories, which took place in the not-so-clever-but-quite-astutely named “Fantasy Land.” One year I was thinking up a Halloween story, and it was right after the year when Doonesbury had the character Mike’s annual summer fantasy become real (essentially an apology to the character after having his wife leave him). Well, for some reason the idea of an annual fantasy appealed to me, and I landed on Halloween. So for most of the years since, all the way up to the present, I generally try to come up with some sort of Halloween-themed story idea around that time. That was a long bit of exposition to explain that this tradition was thoroughly ensconced when I first heard this song, so I don’t remember much about it other than that I think I tried to work it and/or the themes in the song into my Halloween fantasy that year. If I did, I probably centered around one line, “Well tell us: are you satisfied with f***ing?” Now, I was not f***ing anyone back then, but the fundamental tension there is between sexual and emotional connections with people, so I would have identified with it insofar as there were women in my life I was physically attracted to but found unattractive (or just plain mean) in their personalities. The line “Why this lonely love?” could also be seen in that light. Love would be lonely if it was just about sex. As a visceral yell of pain to a “lover” in a tormented relationship, I think the song still works pretty well. Dave really gets his throat into it, bellowing in a yell that sounds like it comes from the undead. I still really like it, though I must say that the song seems a little silly for all its intensity, something of a pet theme for a lot of the music I liked as a teenager. I’m not sure the poppy, clicky percussion really serves the intensity they are going for - as loathe as I am to criticize Carter. Then the strings take over, leading us into...
“The Stone” - If I recall right, this ended up being mine and my brother’s favorite song on the record. It’s in six/eight, and it builds throughout the minute-long intro into a very haunting mood, with the violin string playing like twelve notes a measure for the whole of the verses. It has a tremendous amount of drive, and then it almost spills out into the more open chorus. It is a sudden transition, yet it feels completely natural. Carter’s exceptionally precise hi hat work in the verses also adds tension, and then of course he opens it up with the ride on the chorus. I also like how he times the transition back into the intense part to line up with the lyrics, essentially he presents a situation “A, or if not B” and right at B - the less happy option - the intensity comes right back. The line “I have done wrong / but what I did I thought needed be done” always stuck with me. I think we’ve all experienced that, where we did something unpleasant out of neessity. And yet “it weighs on me; as heavy as stone and a bone-chilling cold.” This song ends with a little, vaguely countrified tag. No idea why. It just seems kind of silly.
“Crush” - I think I saw a video for this song before the album came out. Inexplicably, I remember not liking the song. Granted, this isn’t the greatest song DMB ever did (“#41”, in case you are wondering), but it is pretty dang good. It is deliberately jazzy in feel, though if it is swung, it would be swung on the sixteenth notes and not the eight notes. Lyrically, there’s not much here besides a man unabashedly confessing his crush, but lines like “I wonder - could tomorrow be so wondrous / as you there sleeping?” are so sweet and full of awe, I think they would get the job done. (But then what do I know?) Also, “Lovely lady, let me drink you please - won’t spill a drop, no, I promise you.” The idea of lovemaking as drinking is hardly new (see Song of Songs, for example), but I have to laugh (in a good way) at the idea of not spilling a drop.
“The Dreaming Tree” - Now we are back to the theme, exploring the harmful effects of what is commonly called “progress.” This song also provides the album title: “Long before these crowded streets, here stood my dreaming tree.” Lines like “now progress takes away what forever took to find” definitely drive the point home, perhaps a touch more than necessary, but not so much that they diminish my enjoyment of the song. This is another song like “Rapunzel” that I want to play along with, but it is near impossible for me to guess when the next snare hit is going to come. The drums seem to be more about atmosphere than providing a steady beat. In general this song strikes me as well-constructed and very much a piece of music instead of a series of chords. I admire the musicianship of DMB, even when I’m not blown away by the results. That said, what is here works for me in general. I don’t think it builds quite as well as “Proudest Monkey,” but then what does? I definitely enjoy the guitar parts in this song - they fill in the space nicely, providing the undercurrent to the wave of sadness and nostalgia in the song. There’s also a great flute solo at the end. And then another random tag. Really it just seems like them jamming out for a few seconds.
“Pig” - This is probably the other contender for favorite song on the album. It’s definitely a song with a message to convey, and I would say that much more than other DMB songs, it is about the lyrics first and the music second. Like “Stay,” the emphasis seems to be about enjoying the present, and not striving for some future that means abandoning the good things we have here and now. It’s hard to take issue with lines like “Love / Love / What more is there? / Cause we need the light of love in here.” I remember being vaguely unsettled by these lines: “This blessed sip of life - is it not enough? Oh then complain and pray for more from above, you greedy little pig.” I saw this as either denying the afterlife or its importance. However, I have since become convinced at how arbitrary the line is between the life to come and the life offered now, if we will just open ourselves up to it. And that’s the way I look at this song. Enjoy this fleeting life, and live in love, which will open the door to something that is already present and will never fade. So there’s my dimestore philosophy, anyway.
“Spoon” - Alanis Morisette shows up for a verse on this song, and I think maybe she did backing vocals in “Don’t Drink the Water.” I suppose that makes sense, as this was shortly after “Jagged Little Pill” became a huge success. There are definitely some God-oriented themes here, and I wonder if this isn’t an interesting subject to Alanis as well (who wrote songs for “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” as well as “Dogma,” and actually played the Deity Him/Herself in “Dogma”). “Spoon” strikes me as being all about sitting around with a cup of coffee, thinking through the big questions. Although some of these are a bit strange: “Could Dad be God?” Looking online, it is suggested the song chronicles the thoughts of Christ on the cross. I’m not sure, but putting these together I can see a person sitting in a coffee shop, wondering just how it felt to be nailed up on that tree, in physical and spiritual agony, in abandonment. I think Carter’s loose but march-like drumming on the snare actually evokes the image of stirring coffee, but that may be because so often you swirl the brush on the snare in that sort of music. The song builds beautifully at the end, as each successive instrument swings into focus, and then passes attention on to the next one. It’s not one of my favorite DMB songs, but I think it works really well for building a tense but contemplative atmosphere. After this song finishes there is a hidden track. It simply invites us to “come in from the noise for a time...everything will be all right.” It sounds like a beginning and not an end, although that works pretty well for a repeat listen. It reminds me of Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida” in that regard.

“Before These Crowded Streets” didn’t end up being my favorite album - that honor belongs to “Crash” - but I have a thing for albums with themes. Something about it just really feels like finely-honed musicianship. As this is the last DMB album before the foray into more pop-friendly territory, I’m glad to listen to it and remember it fondly as they end of one era of the band. I should definitely have listened to it more often over the years, rather than largely forgetting it after “Crash.”

Up next: quite possibly the only album I received as a used gift, Soul Asylum’s “Grave Dancer’s Union.” I really haven’t listened to this one in years, so I’m quite curious how it will strike me at thirty. I think it might hold up pretty well. At least it isn’t the album with “Misery” on it. I can still feel the whiny-ness of that song, reverberating through the years.