My Gen X Playlist: Counting Blue Cars – Dishwalla

Last night I spent time with my niece. She is a high school senior and will be going off to college next year. You wouldn’t know it if you met her today, but she used to be shy. Even she describes her younger self as painfully shy. Back then, she only had one word answers. Now, when you ask her a question, her answers are engaging and always with wonderful energy. It’s a pure delight. And when I think about all eight of my nieces and nephews, they’re no different. Youthful energy. So to answer the question, I like any topic they want to talk about. I can listen to them all day.

Dishwalla released Counting Blue Cars in 1995. This song was inspired by a conversation with a young person.

In a Songfacts interview with Dishwalla frontman JR Richards, he explained: “It was a conversation between myself and the child within myself, but it was sparked by having a conversation with someone who was really young and around that time thought about God and those kinds of things, and just being really curious about it but hadn’t been taught to think a specific way. I just loved the innocence and honesty of having that conversation with someone who didn’t care either way how you would describe this or that – they were just curious.”

“I’d really like to meet her,” the child in this song asks, referring to God. “From that younger perspective, I think we take things in a much more honest way because we are not being biased by how we’re supposed to all think the same,” JR Richards told Songfacts. “So this idea of God, being an omnipotent being, could be a male or female. We always refer to God as a male, so why not make it a female?”

– Songfacts

Conversations with younger people can be uplifting. Although my nieces and nephews are older than the child in the song, I can connect similar dots to their youthful viewpoints and how they see the world. Their generation seems more open and accepting of people and ideas. It may just be the sign of the times, but I find it refreshing. There are many things about our youth that I shake my head about. This isn’t one of them.

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

Must have been mid afternoon
I could tell by how far the child's shadow stretched out
And he walked with a purpose in his sneakers, down the street
He had many questions like children often do

He said, "Tell me all your thoughts on God
And tell me am I very far?"

Must have been late afternoon
On our way the sun broke free of the clouds
We count only blue cars, skip the cracks in the street
And ask many questions like children often do

We said, "Tell me all your thoughts on God
'Cause I would really like to meet her
And ask her why we're who we are
Tell me all your thoughts on God
'Cause I am on my way to see her
So tell me am I very far, am I very far now?"

It's getting cold picked up the pace
How our shoes make hard noises in this place
Our clothes are stained
We pass many cross-eyed people
And ask many questions
Like children often do

Tell me all your thoughts on God
'Cause I would really like to meet her
And ask her why we're who we are
Tell me all your thoughts on God
'Cause I am on my way to see her
So tell me am I very far, am I very far now?
(Tell me all your thoughts on God)
Am I very far now?
Am I very far now?
(Tell me all your thoughts on God)
(Tell me all your thoughts on God)