So why don’t you climb down off that movie screen, Duritz.

Update 2016/08/09 Adam Duritz Admits Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby is about Monica Potter, but it’s not what you think

So, apparently all these years laters, Adam Duritz has finally admitted to how he wrote the song Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby. According to an interview he did for browardpalmbeach.com, he admitted he wrote the song about a person who falls in love with an idealized version of someone and not who they actually are. In this particular case, the character falls in love with an actress on a screen, Monica Potter.

The twist: Duritz hadn’t yet met Monica Potter.

Apparently Ms. Potter got wind that Duritz wrote a song about her and through their agents requested a dinner meeting to ask him about it. He was in the middle of recording the song yet agreed. After dinner she came out to the studio that night to hear it, and then some dating happened, and then her insight led to the way the studio cut of the song is the one you hear on This Desert Life.

Then life imitated art because they stopped dating. I left out some details because you should go to the article and read the full story. It’s pretty cool.

---

Here’s how this one spills out

1. My gibberish back when I was more “journaling”
2. The lyrics to Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby
3. The video on YouTube
4. The Album This Desert Life on Spotify

---

The inspired-ish journal entry

I wanted to wake up before mid-afternoon ’cause that’s when it’ll hurt the most (- Duritz-ish).

And I blame Facebook.

It started early in the week when my buddy, Tat, posted a few lines to an old(er) song as his update:

I dream I never know anyone at the party and I’m always the host.

The line flipped around between my ears like fragments from a dream, then turned into a film about my ghost (-Duritz-ish).

Knowing I couldn’t escape, I moved south down the coast of thoughts til the rest of the film played in my head (- Duritz-ish).

A long 7 seconds, indeed. But at the end, I remembered the title: “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby,” by Counting Crows. From the 2000 album This Desert Life.

I never claimed to like Counting Crows.

Still don’t. Spending college and everything after addicted to blues and jam bands, I had trouble appreciating the Crows’ craftsmanship. ‘Always thought they could do infinitely more with 34 guitarists standing on stage and one guy who thought he didn’t have to sing his lyrics because Dylan didn’t. Bob, not Thomas.

But eventually, I accepted them as folk and they crept into my consciousness. Especially when I realized my dreams of bumming out in Spain (coast side) and fantasizing about Picasso’s old guitarist were shared with lead singer / songwriter Adam Duritz. And he’s probably done it now. Many, many times. I wonder if Mr. Jones snuck into my thoughts without me ever realizing it. God knows any friend I ever played guitar wanted to play that jam. Except Gag – I thank you for the break.

He’s just an idiot walking a tightrope between fortune and fame (Duritz). The lazy fat f*ck. Duritz, no Gag.

Pot. Kettle. Black.

About 17 seconds in I wrote back to Tat the line line about the dreams being like movies and before you knew it I’m off on Grooveshark playing the song again, and again, and again. And I posted the song on Facebook.

That’s when an colleague commented her fervor to not only learn to play guitar but to play “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby.” A quick search on Ultimate Guitar revealed all 4 chords involved and a little ditty involving the “A” chord. And a Capo. I hate Capos. Now I remember why I didn’t learn this song a decade ago.

But with all 4 chords and little “A” ditty, I already knew the song. It’s the lyrics that rival “American Pie,” in length that she’ll…we’ll have to remember.

Though I was a little pensive in saying “yes,” to teaching her this song. Extremely pensive.

When Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby came out, I felt a kinship to it. Like how the haunted is connected to their ghost. All the crazy late nights at the casino boat along the lake, the random road trips and the many concerts, waiting for Mrs. Potter to talk to me while trying to outrun her essence in case it all fell apart.

The price of a memory is the memory of the sorrow it brings – Duritz

“But can one change destiny?”

I really think the legendary TV show, “Dr. Who,” has it right about life when the Doctor discusses time. He says that some moments in time are fixed and never can be changed whereas other moments are flexible and can be rewritten. I felt, when trying to get my Mrs. Potter’s attention, that that moment in time was flexible. I could change that. Whereas when I stopped playing guitar, time called me back.

Like last week my buddy from Atlanta scheduled time so we could play. And my finger strength is coming back around – like it was sleeping, resting, waiting. And now that Tat informed said colleague that I’m “really good” or something, the tingle that runs up and down my spine every time I see a guitar is back.

It helps keep me going.

As I write this, the colleague chatted at me, saying she’s listening to the song. And I’m sure Tat is too as he addresses the painful leak in his newly-remodeled kitchen. The pains of domestication.

I’m listening to Mrs. Potters’ Lullaby right now, too.

[2016/08/09 update] Recalling the days of yores and realizing how freakishly life can imitated art and vice versa. And that, if you continue how true you stay to yourself, that no matter how far off the the path you feel your Odyssey, if you hold on, you’ll get steered home.

It’s about time to pull Mrs. Potter down of that movie screen and get the Book of Blues prequel written.

[2016/08/09 Update] Even if it’s 8 years later.

---

And, an apology to all the Mrs. Potter’s out there hoping the song was written for them and not Monica

Feature Image photo credit: Wikimedia.org

Last updated by Finn at August 10, 2020.