Despite his facade of indifference to fame and accolades as a composer, Ives often thought he might be on the brink of success or at least recognition in his art. In print, he often railed about the audiences and critics who wanted easy, familiar, and nice music—"nice" being a word he employed as one of his most bitter epithets.

"On the Counter," to his own text, was written in 1920, after he had returned to work in his insurance agency. The text is extremely brief, nearly epigraphic. They describe the sound of most of the song and comment upon Ives' creative situation: "Tunes we heard in '92, soft and sweet,...The same old chords, the same old sentimental sound..." It is in a solid G major, though with the typical cloying chromatic harmonies of what became known as the barbershop style, including a devastating accompaniment in parallel thirds. Suddenly the bottom drops out of the harmonic structure. Ives makes a brief reference to new songs, but the sappy sentimental tune returns high in the treble as rolled chords return to earth, to G Major.

Ives added a footnote to the score: "Though there it little danger of it, it is hoped that this song will not be taken seriously, or sung, at least, in public." Since Ives paid money to include the song in his self-published collection of 114 Songs, this caveat must be taken as ironic and can justifiably be ignored. The song stands as a pithy little satire on what Ives saw as the battle between strong new music and flabby, effete old favorites.



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