Happy Birthday Dave - Part Four

After a week hiatus to talk IU basketball and the (likely) end of the Tom Crean era, I'm back to my DMB top fifty. This list continues to be spurred by Dave Matthews having turned 50 this year, as well as the band taking its first full year off since they formed. As a reminder:

No covers - no matter how much I love the various cover songs that DMB plays at shows, for this list to be authentic in my opinion the songs have to belong to the band.

Unreleased tracks count - so Blue Water can make it in. 

Studio versions are important, but the live version is more important. This is a band that has flourished because of their 25 plus years of playing live. What matters is how the song plays live. 

The rareness of a song, and my search to hear it live, factors in. I'm just not really sure how. 

This list is how the songs hit me now, in January/February of 2017. I've made lists before, and this will vary from those. 

Without further delay, here are songs 30-24 (because I can randomly pick numbers to end it at!):

#30 - Drunken Soldier - from the "Away From The World" album, the ultimate track on the album starts with the band jamming a bit, Dave talking in the background, and some scat riffs. It then suddenly turns darker, bolder, and gives the listener dramatic parts of guitar, sax, and drum building up in surges. Intense and meaningful lyrics follow, and the song eventually dissipates into an ending that integrates aspects of Pink Floyd, giving the imagery of a drunken soldier reflecting on life. The first time I heard this song was in 2012 in Charlottesville, and I've heard it three times since. It quickly became my most listened to song from the album, and certainly, in my opinion, the most dynamic song on the album and best to hear live. For sentimental reasons it doesn't finish as the highest rated song from the album, but it does crack the top thirty. Given its relative youth compared with the songs that follow, that's impressive in and of itself. Lyric to consider: "Keep your head up, and try to listen to your heart. Be kind always, no matter. We all grow up; someday we'll say goodbye. So shine your light while you've got one."

#29 - Busted Stuff - the lead track off the album of the same name, this is the second song on this list that I have never heard live. Indeed, the song has only been played a total of 36 times in concert, with the last being in 2010 at the Gorge. Prior to the six 2010 plays it hadn't been played since 2003. Part of the reason I love the band is chasing after songs like this, and realizing when (if) they start to play it that it is such a rarity. Lyric to consider: "A rolling stone gathers no moss, but leaves a trail of busted stuff."

#28 - Stay - From the "Before These Crowded Streets" album, stay is an exceptional song to end a show, whether in the traditional final song before the encore spot, or the final encore slot. I heard Stay in 2006 at Tinley Park, and have heard it seven times since, including live at Wrigley Field:


Ultimately, the song invites you to stay in the moment just a bit longer, to reflect on the good times, and to cherish life. Lyric to consider: "Wasting time. Let the hours roll by for the fun. Little taste of the good life, whether right or wrong, makes us want to stay, stay, stay for awhile."

#27 - Blue Water - An unreleased song that has not been played in its' entirety since 2009 according to DMB almanac. That said, the song hasn't been played with regularity since 1993, and is sort of like the holy grail of DMB songs for me at this point. I've heard partial versions of the song three times: 2011 (Dave and Tim), and 2012 twice with the full band (Alpine Valley and Charlottesville). Here is the tease from 2011:


On the whole, the full song, which includes incredible guitar and violin solos, is dark and contemplative. Each time I hear a tease I hope it will the be time I hear the full thing. Maybe the next time. Lyric to consider: "The river taste me, I'm so much more than I have ever been."

#26 - Grey Street - One of my wife's favorite songs, this song originally had a different construction as a part of the unreleased work that ended up being "The Lillywhite Sessions." When remastered and officially released on "Busted Stuff," the song was much cleaner and contained three verses. Then, after playing the song live for awhile, the third verse was dropped, cleaning the song up further to the existing structure of two verses. The song has a ton of energy on the album, but even more when played live. Part of a three song "tribute" to a scorned lover, this is the final of those three songs. I've seen Grey Street live 17 times in total, making it one of the most played songs across the shows I've been to. Lyric to consider: "She feels like kicking out all the windows, and setting fire to this life. She could change everything about her using colors bold and bright. But all the colors mix together, to grey. And it breaks her heart."

#25 - You and Me - the ultimate song off of "Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King," this song, in my opinion, sets up the following album, "Away From The World." It does so in as much as it lyrically involves reflecting on raising a family, growing older, and what all that will bring. It is unquestionably optimistic in tone, a tone which will be challenged in the ensuing album. I've seen You and Me 15 times since it made its' debut in 2009, making it a frequent song at shows. Lyric to consider: "Oh and when the kids are old enough we're gonna teach them to fly."

#24 - Dancing Nancies - From the first studio release, "Under The Table And Dreaming," Nancies is a classic, and a great song live. I first heard it in a Dave and Tim show in 2008 at Assembly Hall, and have heard it another twelve times since. I don't have much more to say, other than that the song is great on the album, but better live, and is a great song to dance to. Lyric to consider: "Sing and dance I'll play for you tonight, the thrill of it all. Dark clouds may hang on me sometimes, but I'll work it out."

Giving Your Team A Chance - Why IU Should Fire Tom Crean

I lived through both the Mike Davis and Kelvin Sampson eras at IU, and so I can say this with a bit of authority: Tom Crean is the best coach IU has had, on balance, since they fired Bobby Knight. Davis was a far worse in game tactician than Crean is (even if that is saying something; Crean's in game adjustments leave a lot to be desired). Sampson, while a better in game coach, was corrupt and couldn't play by the rules, so his achievements in recruiting talent and on the court are tainted. Crean sits somewhere in the middle: a better coach than Davis and able to run a program without relying on cheating like Sampson.

Unfortunately, that's likely not enough. Indiana Basketball hasn't won a national title in 29 years, and based on the way this year has gone it seems impossibly unlikely that they will even have a chance to stop that streak from moving to 30. Put another way, barring a shocking turnaround which leads to the team running the table through the Big Ten Tournament to secure an automatic bid, Indiana basketball will miss the NCAA tournament for the fifth time in nine years. This article, which lays out the argument that Crean's sin is lack of consistency in getting to the tournament, is kinder than I am, giving Crean a pass for his first three years. Certainly, the first three years have an asterisk due to the state of the program when Crean took over, but nonetheless he is poised to fail to make the tournament the majority of his first nine years in Bloomington.

For a program that grades itself by how many banners it has hanging in Assembly Hall, the first goal has to be to make the tournament with consistency. As the article lays out, in table form, that is what allows programs like Duke, UNC and Kansas to have a chance to win titles. They simply make the tournament with consistency. IU hasn't done that since the 1990s; that is a large part of why their title drought is about to roll over 30 years.

This concept is not specific to NCAA basketball either. Consider Alabama football. The program, which judges itself based on national titles, hadn't won a title since 1992. Then they entered Nick Saban, and the program's finish since his first full year has been, in order, sixth, first, tenth, first, first, seventh, fourth, first and second. That is nine consecutive top ten finishes, with four national titles. Simply put, Saban's team is always in the running, ready to take advantage of the breaks of the game. Last year they narrowly missed their fifth national title in nine years. The smart money has them finishing in the top ten next year; already, they are the projected to be a top team by most publications.

This is the same theory that Theo Epstein had coming to Chicago, and before that in Boston. You can't focus on trying to make any one year the year. Instead, you have to focus on making the playoffs year after year, and then wait for your pitching to get hot ... or a ball to fall just right ... or to take the right bounce. In hockey we know this to be true as well: get yourself in position, get the hot goalie or the hot scorer, and anything can happen. The Blackhawks had made the playoffs just once in ten years prior to their recent string of success. Since then they have made the playoffs eight straight years, resulting in three Stanley Cup Championships, and are currently poised to make the playoffs for a ninth consecutive year. And just recently I wrote about this same concept regarding the New England Patriots, just before they added a fifth Super Bowl title in an unprecedented age of parity.

This, ultimately, is why Crean must go. Indiana Basketball is not poised to recruit like Duke, UNC, Kansas or Kentucky is, at least not at this time. But to get there, and to improve their chances of hanging banner number six, the team has to get consistently to the NCAA tournament. Crean has failed to do that, and in doing so he's made his team even more susceptible to being on the wrong end of the breaks of the game. Who knows who will replace Crean; it's unlikely they will get someone with even the same amount of name recognition that Crean had coming in. But a good coach who can maximize the talent on the roster will be a start. Getting to the tournament yearly, ideally with a top four seed, has to be the goal. It's time for IU to move on and try to find someone who can build a program capable of that.