Emotions always have an opposite. Without an opposite, the emotion simply could not be understood. The existence of sadness allows us to appreciate the feeling of happiness. “A Long December” focuses on one pair of emotions: demoralization and hopefulness. The connotation in the metaphor that “its all a lot of oysters, but no pearls”(1:18) encapsulates that moment of adversity where you just want to lie down and give up. But then of course “…you look across a crowded room to see the way that light attaches to a girl.”(1:28) You find that glimmer of hope; there is always something that will keep you going. Life is full of obstacles and adversity, but “maybe this year will be better than the last.”(0:19) All you need is a glimmer of hope to overcome the challenges and roadblocks you will face throughout your life.
As I grow up and progress through high school, I keep running into that feeling of demoralization. Why should I spend so much time on my education when it doesn’t guarantee success? Why can’t I just lie down and just let life happen? There will be a lot of times in life where it will just seem easier to give up and move on with your life. We all know that isn’t a fun way to live life, and Counting Crows acknowledges this in “A Long December”. Life will hit you sometimes, but what makes a person strong is not how many times they are hit, but how many times they get back up. Resilience in the face of adversity is the underlying tone of this song and it’s something that everyone struggles with, even though everyone must master this ability in life in order to be successful.
Counting Crows uses alliteration and a rhyme scheme of ABCB to create a euphoric chorus even though the mood of the song is sad. Something I find so interesting about this song is that the rhythm of the song is slow and gives the impression of sadness, but the topic of the song is generally happy. “A Long December” is about looking forward to better times, even if the past was filled with regret and failure. The song ends with “It’s been so long since I’ve seen the ocean, I guess I should.”(3:38) The artist is saying that maybe he hasn’t done what he wanted to in the past, but maybe things will change. With the ocean being a metaphor for going out, trying new things, or even just doing things in general, the coming of the new year brings that hope that this year will be better than the last.