Counting Crows and the Deal they Made With the Devil

Ah the 90s, a time when the country was not in debt and we had a sax playing president We also have on a much more secretive level the same initiation that we see with artists nowadays. Today we're going to look at Counting Crows Mr. Jones. This is a video about selling your soul for fame. For people who know their music history this is a pretty classic tale that is found in the majority of music ever produced. Take for example the long standing myth about having to meet Satan at the crossroads to learn how to play a guitar.

At the start of the video we find ourselves in an ally way with the guitar playing and we pan to the lead singer leaning up against the wall. The thing that stands out about this opening is that the camera gives off a feeling of floating through this ally way. Also if we look closely at the edges we see them blacked so it almost looks like we are seeing all of this through a giant eye. We than pan into a club filled with exotic beauties dancing. The lyrics talk about the lead singer hanging out with this character Mr. Jones who is flirting with one of the dancers. It goes on saying that we all want something beautiful, man I wish I was beautiful. Remember in order to make a deal with the devil you have to start the deal out of your own free will which is basically what the singer is saying.

After we have this mini intro to the video we go than move into the apparent where the band is playing. Again the camera gives us a fell like it is floating and the eye outline is showing more now. This carries on for a little bit with random shots of the girls dancing. These girls are the temptation that is luring the group in. Again this is reinforced with the lyrics; man I want to be someone who believes. It's more or less showing that he is hungry for the fame the music life style can bring him.

This continues on for a little bit than we get to an interesting part. We have a man in a suite staring at a TV screen. The color scheme changes as well to a green hue. The lyrics are Mr. Jones and me look into the future, we than pan into the TV screen and get a quick flash of what almost looks like a pyramid. We than go back to the normal routine that we saw throughout the video. Now with this part we can assume the man in the suit is Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones is the man he needs to make the deal with and when we see the pyramid flash we know that the group is going to join in this order of things.

Now we get to the breakdown. It starts with a blue hue and the shadow of Mr. Jones that shifts from large to normal size in time with the song. Showing that there is something unique about this man. We flash to the band than back to the shadow but this time with bars in front of him for telling that the band is about to lose their freedom for the deal. We than have a small montage that begins with a girl with a face hidden in shadows, showing that something dark is going to be taking over. Than we go to a girl using two mirrors and looking very unhappy. This could be a nod to Monarch Programming which many in the music industry become subject to. The duel mirrors represent a split personality. Maybe this is saying the group is not sure what they are really getting themselves into.

The song than goes back to it's normal upbeat tempo but with a change in the visual aspect this time. We see the woman at the bar look at the camera with an unhappy look, we also go back to the shadow of Mr. Jones. This time however while the bars remain the shadow begins dancing meaning the deal is done and some more souls are added to the list. The video continues on like it did at the start and we see yet another group fall into the trap.

After the singing says I feel so symbolic we get a flash of the picture below. This is a very classic motif that you find with videos that have an occult undertone to them. When you comes across they can fall into the grouping of either being so obvious its just a gimmick (Kei$hsa Die Young) or get extremely subtly like this video.

Since the Counting Crows are older than the current trend that we are seeing now a days, the do give us a glimpse into how many different groups, from different genres fall back on this. While some sights, that are mostly fundamentalist Christian, have pointed out that this has been increasing, they tend to have an extremely bias interpretation of what it is they are seeing. This can lead to some far fetched theories that while fun can be off of the mark.

The position of the hand is similar to what you can find with the Sabtic Goat. This image while have some association with Satanism is actually a symbol that was first used in the Rochroscain order, but was later adopted by LeVay. This is also one of the pieces of evidence that is used to try to link the Knights Templar to devil worship. To fully see how similar the two hand gestures are you have to look at the hand that is pointing down in the picture below. Could this be a throw back to Baphomet the demon many believe are in charge of the music business It almost looks like the fake hand is making the as above so below sign.

The other thing that caught my eye is that every time he talks about hanging out with Mr. Jones he mentions how all the woman are smiling at him. However when we look at the video none of the woman look happy and the one at the bar almost looks like she is giving a warning. The use of color in this reinforces this idea. Blue is believed to help you think better so when the lady in the blue room turns and looks at him it's almost like shes warning them of what they are doing. It also makes me think about the old tales about lost souls who find themselves stuck in taverns. Everyone one of them waiting for their own version of some kind of final judgment.

There is one cliché that always shows up when you start to notice these kind of things, and that is the fact that someone always seems to cover one eye. Theorists believe that this is a reference to their Illuminati overloads. Now if some of it is intended to make a reference to that group, or the said ideals of the group, is a debatable topic. In this music video there was a sequence that happened that did play into that cliché. It was very brief and right at the end. Kind of felt like someone was like, damn it I forgot to put that gimmick in it shit!