Hailing from York, Pennsylvania, the group is comprised of Ed Kowalczyk (lead vocals & guitar), Chad Taylor (lead guitar), Patrick Dahlheimer (bass) and Chad Gracey (drums). Since approximately 1999, Live has toured with Ed’s younger brother, Adam Kowalczyk as a rhythm guitarist, and, previously, British keyboardist Michael “Railo” Railton.
Kowalczyk, Taylor, Dahlheimer, and Gracey first came together for a middle-school talent show in the Pennsylvania blue-collar town of York. The group remained together throughout high school, going through a handful of band names and new-wave covers before settling on the moniker Public Affection and recording a self-released cassette of originals, The Death of a Dictionary, in 1989. Frequent trips into New York to play at CBGB helped net the band a deal with Radioactive Records in 1991. With the new name Live, the band entered the studio with former Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison that year and began recording the EP Four Songs. The single “Operation spirit (the tyranny of tradition)” went to #9 on the Modern Rock chart, and paved the way for the band’s Harrison-produced, full-length debut, 1991’s Mental Jewelry (#73). The album lyrics, penned by Kowalczyk, were heavily inspired by Indian guru Jiddu Krishnamurti.
Fueled by heavy touring (including billing at Woodstock ‘94 and Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD tour) and a string of hit singles (“I Alone”, “All Over You” and the #1 Modern Rock hits “Selling the drama” and “Lightning crashes”), their next album, Throwing Copper, went to #1 in 1994. It is their best-selling, and often most highly regarded by fans and critics, album to date. The band was even asked to perform on Saturday Night Live where they performed their hits “I Alone” and “Selling the Drama” and to this day, they are the only band to receive a standing ovation at the party after the broadcast.[citation needed]
The momentum continued long enough to help 1997’s Secret Samadhi (coproduced by the band and Jay Healey) debut at #1. Deriving its name from a state of Hindu meditation, the album spawned four Modern Rock hit singles, but failed to match its predecessor’s success, with sales topping off at 2 million. The band performed “lakini’s juice” and “Heropsychodreamer” from this album on NBC’s Saturday Night Live.
Harrison came back on board as coproducer for 1999’s The Distance to Here, which debuted at #4 and featured the minor US hit single “The Dolphin’s Cry.”
In September 2001, the more experimental V (originally scheduled to be titled “Ecstatic Fanatic”) was issued to mixed reviews, preceded by “Simple creed” as the first single. However, with the events of 9/11—which occurred a week before V ‘s release—the melancholic “Overcome” began receiving significant airplay, superseding “Simple Creed” and becoming V’s selling point. Unfortunately, Live’s commercial stock—compounded by their petering radio airplay—had fallen further since The Distance to Here, with V merely reaching #22 at home, failing to reach gold status.
Birds of Pray appeared in May 2003, bolstered by the unexpected success of “Heaven”, Live’s first US Hot 100-placing since “The Dolphin’s Cry.” Reaching #28, Birds of Pray ultimately outsold V, although it too received mixed reviews and failed to reach gold status.
In November 2004, Live released Awake: The Best of Live, a career-spanning compilation that included “We deal in dreams”, a previously unreleased song from the Throwing Copper sessions, and a cover of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk The Line”, as well as Birds of Pray’s “Run Away”, re-imagined with Shelby Lynne on co-lead vocals.
In 2005, Live signed with Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s Epic label, and released a new album entitled Songs From Black Mountain in June 2006, preceded by “The river” as lead single. Thus far, while the album has achieved international success, it has proven Live’s lowest-seller yet domestically, only reaching #52 in the US before quickly disappearing from the charts.
While Live remain only moderately popular in terms of record sales in the United States, much of their current sales come from places in Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Ed Kowalczyk has said that “Holland is the center of the Live universe” [citation needed].
The group made news in January 2006 as three band members (Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer and touring rhythm guitar Adam Kowalczyk) and two members of the band’s road crew were on a United Airlines flight when smoke filled the cabin, requiring the pilot to make an emergency landing.
On season 5 of American Idol, finalist Chris Daughtry was accused of performing Live’s rendition of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line” and calling it his own. This angered some Live fans, but one week later Daughtry acknowledged it was not his own rendition, even saying Live was one of his favorite bands. In May 2006, Live appeared on The Howard Stern Show and addressed this issue.
On May 24, 2006, the band and Chris Daughtry performed “Mystery” on the season finale of American Idol, and on June 7, a new version of “Mystery” was released on the Friends of Live website featuring Chris Daughtry on guest vocals.
The members of Live announced in June 2009 that the band would be taking a two-year hiatus as they work on other projects. On November 30, 2009, guitarist Chad Taylor confirmed that the hiatus of the band was most likely a permanent rift. See the Wikipedia page for more. During the first European tour of the new band of Taylor, Gracey and Dahlheimer (The Gracious Few), Taylor commented both on stage and in post-show discussions that he believes Live may still come back together, though he also stated that the chances of Kowalczyk joining them in this effort may be very small. In an exclusive blogpost[1] on website The Comet, Taylor confirmed that the remaining members of the band would be working on new material for Live in Nashville early July 2011.
The band returned from their nearly three-year hiatus on March 12, 2012, with Chris Shinn, formerly of Unified Theory, as their new lead singer. The new line-up performed before an invited audience at the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center in York. The band performed as a six-piece with The Gracious Few's Sean Hennesy on guitar and Alexander Lefever on keyboards
[1]: http://thecomet.com/posts/exclusive_blog_chad_taylor_talks_the_gracious_few_and_live
There's another band with the same name:
2. Live was a 70s-era Progressive Rock group from Germany. Formed in 1971, the outfit appeared to be a strangely named band indeed.
In October 1972 their guitarist Martin Knaden went to Curly Curve. Throughout their history only one member has remained, the multi-talented keyboards and flute player Norbert Aufmhof. Although in existence for a decade Live never got to record a proper studio album, or gain a contract, which surely they should have. Maybe the band name was a bit of a jinx?!
Their earlier history was originally just documented by a single. Only more recently did an LP surface collecting 1974 recordings. Quite obviously a collection of rehearsal session tapes, the LP reveals a band with promise albeit rather grottily recorded with often barely understandable muffled lyrics in English. Musically, there are nods to early Satin Whale and Jane, but with lots of classical touches, notably Grieg and Bach, and a penchant to meander rather nicely during the instrumentals.
Based on the ROCK OFFERS track "Sea Fever", they had blossomed and changed focus somewhat, as a much more sophisticated symphonic progressive of the Pancake and Jane type, typical of the mid/late-1970's.
In all, during their history, three different versions of Live existed, but eventually the band split in 1976. A full history of the band is included in the GEVELSBERG CD, which documents other oddments, sessions, and a live recording!
The River
Live Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
To escape from the world
I used to know
Starving and struggling
Unhinged and unloved
We live through these devices
That entice us to numb
Choke on your breath
Look at the sky
Swallow your pride
Work 'til you die
System: Failure
Dystopian living
The machines are killing
Any semblance of being
No perfect persons
In an imperfect world
The users, the whores
Who programs these horrors?
In between the bricks
Watching, waiting, eyes are glued
Interrogate the city gates
The line's right in front of you
Escaping and erasing
Any sense of living loved
What we're chasing is fading
I refuse to give up
Choke on your breath
Look at the sky
Swallow your pride
Work 'til you die
System: Failure
Dystopian living
The machines are killing
Any semblance of being
No perfect persons
In an imperfect world
The users, the whores
Who programs these horrors?
Decipher the beauty
While the neon lights fade
The world has been dying
Hidden from our gaze
Black clouds of pollution
Leave you choking and dazed
There's no sense in hiding
Been digging our own grave
Tear down the smokestacks
And monuments made
The world keeps turning
But everything is burning
Tear down smokestacks
And monuments
Everything is burning
The lyrics of Live's song The River paint a picture of an individual grappling with deep grief and loss. The opening lines "I'm going down to the river / To collect my thoughts / Go lie on the rocks / So I can feel lost" suggest that the character is looking for a place of solace and calm in the wake of a tragedy. As the song progresses, we learn that the individual has lost someone they loved deeply and are struggling to come to terms with that loss.
The lines "Everything has changed since you left / Now I'm trying to be the same / But it's hard when the person you love / suddenly is facing death" convey the sense of disorientation and confusion that often accompanies a significant loss. The character feels adrift and uncertain of how to proceed with life in the absence of their loved one. The song also touches on themes of regret and confusion, as the character questions whether there was anything they could have done to prevent the loss they've experienced.
The repetition of the lines "Is this a bad dream / Or is it really this messed up / You're making me wanna scream" suggest a sense of disbelief and anger at the unfairness of the situation. The final lines of the song, "Running fast from my thoughts / It'll all catch up to me if I stop / But I'll inevitably trip and get caught / Where I'll meet my final resting spot" convey a sense of hopelessness and despair, as the character feels they cannot escape the pain of their loss no matter how hard they try.
Overall, Live's The River is a powerful song that captures the raw emotion and turmoil of grief in a poetic and evocative way.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm going down to the river
I'm headed to the river to clear my mind
To collect my thoughts
I need to gather my thoughts and emotions
Go lie on the rocks
I want to lay down on the rocks and relax
So I can feel lost
I want to get lost in my own thoughts
Everything has changed since you left
My life is different now that you’re gone
Now I'm trying to be the same
I'm trying to maintain a sense of normalcy
But it's hard when the person you love
It's difficult when the one you love
suddenly is facing death
Is now facing the possibility of death
Everyone is wearing black and crying
Everyone is dressed in black and mourning
As we overlook your dead rotting body
Looking at your decomposing body
I wanna go home and forget that
I want to escape from reality and forget
You were once able-bodied
You used to be able to do anything you wanted
Your gone but the pain stays
You’re gone but the pain still remains
Old photographs are all that remain
The only thing left are old photographs
And the memories of the old days
And memories of the past
When you said we'd meet again some day
When you promised we'd see each other again
Is this a bad dream
I can't believe this is happening
Or is it really this messed up
Is this really happening?
You're making me wanna scream
I'm feeling frustrated and angry
Running fast from my thoughts
I'm running away from my thoughts and emotions
It'll all catch up to me if I stop
I can't keep running away or it will catch up to me
But I'll inevitably trip and get caught
I know I can't run forever
Where I'll meet my final resting spot
Where I'll face my own end
I'm stuck in a haze
I'm feeling lost and confused
Thinking about you
Constantly thinking about you
Why'd you have to leave
Why did you have to go?
So soon
It was too soon
Did you really think what you did was smart
Did you really think what you did was a wise decision
Did you really think it'd be a good start
Did you really think this was the right way to start something
Did you really have to do this to me
Did you really have to do this to me?
Because now you got me
I'm falling apart because of this
Falling apart
Breaking down and losing control
You got me falling apart
I’m losing it because of you
Is there anything I could do
Is there anything I can do to fix this
Is there anything I could do to help you
Is there anything I can do to support you
Is there anything I could do to make things different
Is there any way to change what happened
Because thinking about it now
I'm thinking about it constantly
Is pretty fucked up isn't it
It's a messed-up situation
Lyrics © DistroKid
Written by: Ben Alfich, Billy Miller, Randy Thomas, Ryan Peterson, Travis Shockman
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind