Return to Holiday In Spain (review)

Artist: Counting Crows
Album: Hard Candy
Track: 13 - Holiday in Spain
Length: 3:49
Released: July 9, 2002

"Holiday in Spain" is the final official track on the Counting Crows' fourth studio album Hard Candy. I say official track because there were several different versions of the CD created, and many of them contain hidden bonus tracks including their remake of Big Yellow Taxi which became a hit single. Holiday in Spain is a slow, sad, piano ballad. The accompaniment to this lyrical poetry is very soft - almost hidden until the later half of the song. While the CD was released in July 9, 2002, the song didn't make its live debut until September 25 of the same year during their Hard Candy promotional tour.

The song is not about holidays and vacation. Rather it's about escaping from life - running away, hiding, and trying to forget. More specifically, it is about the disarray of life and the desire for something new and different. Sure, we're rich and famous now, but as The Beatles have told us, money can't buy me love. In one verse, it is seen that the TV is on, all that's left to eat in the house are some stupid bananas and some alcohol, and the the poor guy can't even find his shoes. Sometimes it is simple things like this that just drive you insane - you just need to get away from it all. After you've drowned your sorrows with a few drinks, you've still got to deal with life somehow - or do you? He later suggests that he could probably fix all these problems given the time, but the fact is, sometimes you just don't feel like doing that so it becomes easier just to pack up and leave for a while. And sometimes that's okay.

If you just can't bear the thought of having today turning out anything like yesterday, then you can probably relate to this song. At a concert in Pittsburgh, PA, Adam Duritz, lead singer and songwriter for the Counting Crows, had this to say about the lyrics:

"When I started writing this song it was this incredibly stupid song about getting drunk. It was this big rock song about getting drunk, and I finally threw it out because it didn't work. But I was sitting around one morning playing this music, and I was flipping through the lyric book and I found this page of shitty lyrics, and I kind of rearranged everything. And then all of a sudden, what had been this really stupid song about getting drunk was this really great song about waking up in the morning with a hangover."

"It's kind of a... it's kind of for all those mornings where you wake and whatever you did the day before is just too much to deal with... So if you ever had that kind of day, this is the song for you."

Got no place to go
But there's a girl waiting for me down in Mexico
She's got a bottle of tequila
A bottle of gin
And if I bring a little music I can fit right in

We've got airplane rides
We got California drowning out the window side
We got big black cars
And we've got stories how we slept with all the movie stars

(Chorus)
I may take a holiday in Spain
Leave my wings behind me
Drink my worries down the drain
And fly away to somewhere new

Hop on my choo choo
I'll be your engine driver in a bunny suit
If you dress me up in pink and white
We may be just a little fuzzy 'bout it later tonight

She's my angel
She's a little better than the one that used to be with me
Cause she liked to scream at me
Man, it's a miracle that she's not living up in a tree

-Chorus-

Everybody's gone
They left the television screaming that the radio's on
Someone stole my shoes
But there's a couple of bananas and a bottle of booze

Oh, well happy new year's baby!
We could probably fix it if we clean it up all day
Or we could simply pack our bags
And catch a plane to Barcelona 'cause this city's a drag

-Chorus (x2)-

Holiday in Spain - Words and Music by Adam F. Duritz of the Counting Crows

I transcribed the quotation above from a recording of a concert that took place 10/13/2002.

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