sheryl crow, "leaving las vegas"

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she's had a strange career. when she started out she was being pushed as one of those "quality" l.a. coffeehouse-songwriter types, and for a while she was a post-alanis hard-partying rocker chick (but she was writing songs with stevie nicks so she still had her npr cred), and then she just BECAME that bubbly "have some fun" song, proving to the world that one can be openly nihilistic without retaining ANY "EDGINESS" WHATSOEVER (this is basically true about america). recording awful country ballads with kid rock? dating an athlete? singing about how her brain hurts and how her intellectual friend is a bummer cuz he doesn't wanna soak up the sun? okay, i never really followed sheryl's career that closely, but wtf? was she always like this and no one noticed?

but her good song from way back when was "leaving las vegas." i like it cuz it sounds like whatever she's on her way to doing has been a longgggg time coming, or, similarly, that she's about to off herself and couldn't be happier about it. the famous nihilism wants to give way to something bigger and better. i don't think she ever really mentions what she's going to DO once she leaves las vegas, but her leaving is both a hearty "screw you" and a wisecracking "i sure am gonna miss this hellhole that i somehow ended up in even though i'm smart enough to know better, even though come to think of it i guess i'm not!" vegas: come for the irony, stay for the decade.

she has a great sense of humor about her shitty experience. i love the way she says "LEE-DOE day GURLZ," laughing at the depths of her own cheesiness (the clunky drum-machine backing SOUNDS like low-rent vegas stripper music!), and when she gets nostalgic about driving to barstow for the night, her invitation to the trucker to "demonstrate his might" is like she's saying "haha casanova, quit the flirting and let's see how tiny your penis REALLY is." it takes a tough man to dance with a lido des girl! she could be lying though. i mean, who goes to barstow?? (alt.country singer-songwriters, that's who.)

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 06:33 (twenty years ago)

share some of that with me!

― President Busch (dr g), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 06:36 (twenty years ago)

whoops, this was supposed to be on ilm.

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 06:42 (twenty years ago)

Okay, since it's on ILE, WHY THE FUCK HASNT SHE CONVINCED LANCEY BOY TO QUIT THE TOUR. He's apparently doing it again next year. It's not 100 percent sure, but he claims he probably will. Grrrrrr. :-)

― nathalie's pocket revolution (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 06:54 (twenty years ago)

I've decided that Sheryl Crow is the female Tom Petty. Which is to say that everyone--including you who are too cool to admit it(and you know who you are)--likes at least one of her songs, the bulk of her following is really the Adult Contemporary music crowd, even her recent material gets played on 'Classic Rock Radio,' she covers a fair bit of musical ground while staying in the category of 'rocker' (at least insofar as the likes of Entertainment Weekly is concerned; e.g. "aging rocker Tom Petty"), and while I don't own any of her records--and probably never will--I rarely change the station when one of her songs comes on.
Though I kinda liked the one with Kid Rock, so my opinion on the matter is already suspect.

― willpie (willpie), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 12:48 (twenty years ago)

She's a very bright person and a good songwriter, but she's also ridiculously normal.

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:34 (twenty years ago)

all she wanted to do was to have some fun

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:41 (twenty years ago)

i've got a feeling that she's not the only one

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:41 (twenty years ago)

Isn't Tom Petty pretty much "aged rocker" by now?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:43 (twenty years ago)

Willpie OTM. "LLV" is the first Sheryl Crow song I heard, and probably the last one I liked. I was disappointed when then Nic Cage drinkin' movie turned out not to be the story of this song. At least they could have used it.

― brianiac (briania), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

Were you also disappointed when What A Girl Wants was not the story of that song? Or when La Bamba was?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:54 (twenty years ago)

I liked Music Club, but this is one of the songs that grated me, tho it's probably one of the better songs. (I'm partial to the shit one that namechecks Alduous Huxley and shoves about 192 words where maybe 3 could fit.)

From what I recall, SC BECAME that "have some fun" song right out the gate (unless, RB, you're talking about the hoohah that preceded the release of Music Club), with the "have some fun" song being her happy-time "Luka" or "What I Am" or "Fast Car" that allowed her REAL "Luka" / "Fast Car" ("Strong Enough") to take hold and escort her into rootsy AAA-ville. ("All I Wanna Do" wasn't her first single, tho, was it? Wasn't "LLV" the first?)

FWIW: "Soak Up The Sun" was co-written w/ Liz Phair, and SC dated Eric Clapton for a not-so-short while.

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:55 (twenty years ago)

"Strong Enough" was kinda great.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 14:03 (twenty years ago)

I remember seeing a stripper dance to "Strong Enough" in Montreal in the summer of '98. It was hot.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 14:04 (twenty years ago)

No love for "Favorite Mistake"? I love that song. I can admit that.

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 14:04 (twenty years ago)

FWIW: "Soak Up The Sun" was co-written w/ Liz Phair

liz phair is kind of a "have some fun" trashy soccer mom now, isn't she?

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 14:13 (twenty years ago)

I like Favourite Mistake. As well as that debut. Bought it at the time and played it 54578 times too many so I never bother to play it anymore.

― nathalie's pocket revolution (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 14:13 (twenty years ago)

and yeah, "favorite mistake" is the jam.

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 14:14 (twenty years ago)

Has anyone noticed that both Sheryl Crow and Liz Phair have that thing where their upper lip is so high and their top row of teeth so large that their lips don't actually touch when they pronounce certain words? Like "wanna" her lip just juts out, it doesn't round to make the /w/ sound.

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 14:16 (twenty years ago)

i liked the whole of her self titled album

Everyday is a winding road makes me want to feel 18 again everytime i hear it.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 14:18 (twenty years ago)

and the sex noises at the start of "oh marie"

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 14:19 (twenty years ago)

If I was a guy I would also like the hole of the CD. For pervy reasons of course.

― nathalie's pocket revolution (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 14:20 (twenty years ago)

liz phair is kind of a "have some fun" trashy soccer mom now, isn't she?

What do you think "have some fun" Oberlin girls become when they grow up?

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:28 (twenty years ago)

Aw snap! What about ANTIOCH girls? They make Oberlin girls look like children.

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

No love for "Favorite Mistake"? I love that song. I can admit that.

yeah I love that song and hate just about everything else she's done. but that "Did you see me walking by, did it ever make you cry?" bit is exceptional

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:44 (twenty years ago)

I lost my purchased-the-day-it-came-out copy of Tuesday Night Music Club, so I bought her greatest hits when it came out. Love it. Love every last song on it, I think.

Tom Petty comparisons are apt and fair.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 16:03 (twenty years ago)

The one(vaguely) interesting Sheryl Crow fact I know is that "Every Day Is A Winding Road" was written about Crowded House's Paul Hester(RIP).

― Philip Alderman (Phil A), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

Huh, I saw her open for Crowded house in 92 or 93, plus she sings on Neil Finn's One Nil, I think. I guess she was pretty tight w them.

I think the Petty analogy is about perfect. Sorta amusing to me is that more than once I've heard something and think-- "this sounds like a Sheryl Crow song that she never wrote." (Pernice Bros "Never let that show" or A Girl Called Eddy's "Under the warm sun," for example. SHe's like the default MOR poprock sound in my head.

― Hunter (Hunter), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 18:01 (twenty years ago)

I'm sitting here trying to figure out which Tom Petty song I like, since I spent a few minutes arguing the merits of Sheryl Crow the other day. For some reason when I hear Tom Petty I think "ugh, MOR" as opposed to the "huh, MOR... *hums melody*" that I get from Sheryl Crow. Maybe it's a gender thing.

― mike h. (mike h.), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

"you got lucky" is my favorite tom petty song.

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 19:01 (twenty years ago)

The one(vaguely) interesting Sheryl Crow fact I know is that "Every Day Is A Winding Road" was written about Crowded House's Paul Hester(RIP).

Phil, you are repressing the fact that they did not spell it "every day," but "everyday," a fact that inspired all of my comments on my Pazz & Jop 1997 ballot to be about Sheryl.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

my favorite Tom Petty song is "Time To Move On"

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 19:26 (twenty years ago)

jody you need to write (like WRITE) about music more!

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

they did not spell it "every day," but "everyday," a fact that inspired all of my comments on my Pazz & Jop 1997 ballot to be about Sheryl.

re: everyday as anything but adjective

this song marks the point where I went from oh, haha, silly error wry amusement to abject OMG this is going to become acceptable American usage isn't it? terror. Ecraser l'infame.

I saw "every day" used correctly on a billboard yesterday, and I was actually grateful.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)

She's a very bright person and a good songwriter, but she's also ridiculously normal.

Teeny, not that this necessarily makes Sheryl abnormal, but on The Globe Sessions, an album I love from beginning almost to end, she's being the hard-partying rocker chick in TOTALLY FUCKED-UP AND NOTHING BUT FUCKED-UP CODEPENDENT RELATIONSHIPS, every single one, a predilection she's either pretending to glory in or pretending not to glory in. Again, this doesn't mean she's not the sort of chick you meet every day - i.e., normal, except for her talent - but it's intense while still rolling you easy along the highway/hardway. And it's catchy. (Or maybe catching, hence it's become the norm.) And Kyle's right about that "Did you see me walking by, did it ever make you cry?" bit: It's a brilliant piece of songwriting, not just the words, but the way it comes up almost extemporaneously (which I'd like to imagine it did, in the studio, songwriting on the fly) in neither verse nor chorus but in a vamp at the end, melody rising and falling unexpectedly.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 20:02 (twenty years ago)

jody you need to write (like WRITE) about music more!

Is she not allowed to type about music?

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 20:03 (twenty years ago)

Oh yes, that too. I meant in a non-ILX context. But Frank, your forthcoming book mentions ILX as a place where you've written, so perhaps your estimation of writing-on-ILX is higher than mine.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 20:16 (twenty years ago)

typing >>>> writing

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 20:16 (twenty years ago)

And Kyle's right about that "Did you see me walking by, did it ever make you cry?" bit: It's a brilliant piece of songwriting, not just the words, but the way it comes up almost extemporaneously (which I'd like to imagine it did, in the studio, songwriting on the fly) in neither verse nor chorus but in a vamp at the end, melody rising and falling unexpectedly.

i love when songs have codas where the music doesn't change but the singer goes into his/her own little spiel that's different from what was happening before.

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 20:19 (twenty years ago)

Tom Petty comparisons are apt and fair.

All too accurate. (I will spare you my seething hatred of both.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 20:21 (twenty years ago)

i'd like to hear her cover "mary jane's last dance"

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 20:23 (twenty years ago)

Well - ahem - I have published Jody Beth Rosen, albeit to an audience much smaller than ILX.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 20:23 (twenty years ago)

Oh Ned. Next you're gonna tell us that you don't like Bob Dylan, either.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 20:24 (twenty years ago)

Zing!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

wow. that tom petty analogy is totally otm. funny, cuz the only albums i have by either are their respective greatest hits. (xposts)

i never really liked "leaving las vegas" til i heard it in the context of said greatest hits. it ain't so bad. i think the video really annoyed me when it was realeased. plus i was totally anti at the time so i never wanted to give it a chance anyway. i really really really really like "if it makes you happy". like, a lot. "everyday is a winding road", too.

― my name is john. i reside in chicago. (frankE), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 20:29 (twenty years ago)

thanks for the flattery dudes, but i don't have the compulsion to write, the way some of you do. my best ideas come when i'm not trying to come up with good ideas.

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 20:30 (twenty years ago)

I don't get the comparison to Petty, but probably because I like most Petty songs and dislike most Crow songs.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Thursday, 8 September 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

i'd like to hear her cover "mary jane's last dance"

Uh-Huh

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 8 September 2005 01:54 (twenty years ago)

jody you need to write (like WRITE) about music more!

i caught this as i was skipping to the bottom of the thread to basically say the same thing!!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 8 September 2005 02:21 (twenty years ago)

(except for the part with the capitals which i don't really understand)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 8 September 2005 02:21 (twenty years ago)

It's weird now, but when I first heard of Sheryl Crow with "Leaving Las Vegas", I kinda had her lumped in with Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang, and Bonnie Raitt.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 8 September 2005 02:39 (twenty years ago)

wow, no mention of the "change will do you good" one, that's a great song. agreed that "strong enough" is grand as well.

agreed about "you got lucky" as well, that's tom petty's greatest moment i think, and a totally great video too. i tried to learn how to play it once in college, and someone asked me why was playing the theme music from the young and the restless...

― geoff (gcannon), Thursday, 8 September 2005 03:02 (twenty years ago)

"you got lucky" is mostly great for the 1984-era van halen synths.

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 8 September 2005 03:43 (twenty years ago)

God, after the litany of songs y'all have brought up, I'd totally go for a best-of SC that had that fucking "First Cut" shite taking a schvitz in the Dead Sea.

Also, JBR OTM re: doing one's best work when not trying. Writing about music = going to the dentist to get a toothache checked out. (Shit analogy, but it's about 85% accurate in my house.)

I would eat a Whopper to get my hands on an old-school Smith-Corona.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 8 September 2005 04:17 (twenty years ago)

I would also eat a Klondike bar.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 8 September 2005 04:17 (twenty years ago)

oh and i had my one and only pop music argument with my mom about "strong enough." she thought the "lie to me" hook was misogyinist, and i think i argued, no, that's just what people say in songs, it really doesn't mean anything.

― geoff (gcannon), Thursday, 8 September 2005 04:33 (twenty years ago)

WTF? She WANTS her man to be her rock, and is willing to believe it so even if it ain't. How the eff is that misogynistic?

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 8 September 2005 13:06 (twenty years ago)

Mrs. Hunter can't stand that song because she thinks the woman is a pathetic, self-loathing fool. My argument that "well, see, people are funny like that, it's quite realistic, that character is just unusually honest about it," was not persuasive.

Somehow, I think if Sheryl found out Armstrong had lied to her, she'd knock his teeth out and leave skid marks on his Trek.

― Hunter (Hunter), Thursday, 8 September 2005 13:42 (twenty years ago)

While this song got badly overexposed, it will forever retain a place in my heart for one reason.

And that reason, ladies and gentlemen, is that it is unabashed in its endorsement of drinking in the morning.

Drinking in the morning--indeed, before late afternoon--is one of those taboos that makes basically no sense, and which almost everyone feels the societal force of to some extent.

But really, if your drinking habits are unhealthy, they'll still be unhealthy at five o'clock. If your drinking habits are healthy, what difference does it make whether it's a brunchtime mimosa or an after-work bourbon & ginger?

Bottom line: why not get fucked up when you feel like getting fucked up? Drinking purely for drunkenness' sake is already frowned upon by polite society--why do so many people who are otherwise immune to social opprobrium observe this one taboo?

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Thursday, 8 September 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

But really, if your drinking habits are unhealthy, they'll still be unhealthy at five o'clock

OTM

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 8 September 2005 20:49 (twenty years ago)

although i think you're talking about "have some fun" and not "leaving las vegas"

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 8 September 2005 20:49 (twenty years ago)

I like to fall asleep after I get drunk.

― Will Porter (willpie), Thursday, 8 September 2005 21:30 (twenty years ago)

Because this was on ILE, for some reason I was led to believe this thread was about Sheryl Crow doing a movie based on the lyrics to this song. Tom Petty's "Into the Great Wide Open" would be the trailer in the theatres.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Friday, 9 September 2005 00:16 (twenty years ago)

i was gonna put it over on ilm, but then i couldn't be bothered.

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 9 September 2005 00:23 (twenty years ago)

Kinda like KTGG in Michigan starting with a "K" even though it's east of the Mississippi.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 9 September 2005 03:02 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

this whole album

― janice (surm), Wednesday, 1 September 2010 19:00 (fifteen years ago)

i'm sorry

― janice (surm), Wednesday, 1 September 2010 19:00 (fifteen years ago)

it's just really good

― janice (surm), Wednesday, 1 September 2010 19:01 (fifteen years ago)

five months pass...

If It Makes You Happy -- a great melody in the verses, chorus really goes for it, I STILL GET STONED... good song. Was gonna do a singles poll but can't find a definitive list.

― Ayo Scott (rip van wanko), Monday, 14 February 2011 15:57 (fourteen years ago)

seven years pass...

Leaving Las Vegas was on tv tonight. Damn that’s a potent story of how shit alcoholism makes people. The abuse scene was so sad and damn the music was solid throughout.

― Ross, Saturday, 19 May 2018 09:29 (seven years ago)

Leaving Las Vegas was on tv tonight. Damn that’s a potent story of how shit alcoholism makes people. The abuse scene was so sad and damn the music was solid throughout.

― Ross, Saturday, 19 May 2018 09:29 (seven years ago)

Sorry for double post

― Ross, Saturday, 19 May 2018 09:29 (seven years ago)

this should be on ILM

she wrote some great songs

― niels, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 09:21 (seven years ago)

"thanks for the flattery dudes, but i don't have the compulsion to write, the way some of you do. my best ideas come when i'm not trying to come up with good ideas.
― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), "

haha

― akm, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 12:08 (seven years ago)

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