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!
Flow
Live Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Coming with that old school jenge pantium
I might go platinum
I might just sell out a couple shows and have your girl screaming, "Beng'cela ipanty yam
HE? Nobody
Number one hustler in the city, I'm so godly
I didn't say no to your girl, I'm so sorry
But she look like an ID pic, No body
My punchlines, they knock knock like kot' koti
That trash tape that you dropped dropped is dot' doti
I'm my slahla chick she drop top tot' toti
(Weeeeeow) Pastor Mbhobho Flow
And your shit is watered down like a scottlolo
But I don't want to sign to [__] or [__]
They eat of my thoughts like I'm a skoppo doe
(We want the whole thang) and a gold chain
Burning a missile of propane, nigga! (OH MAN!)
Half of these bitches Like 0 sane
My old dames, I use to like drop top topless
That's a "no brain" (ahhhh)
Boy I'm becoming amazing and soon, flop niggas I'll murder in cold plain
It might be 5 -7 for me
It's funny they're hating 'cause this hot nigga will Bobby Shumurda your whole gang Back on my malumkoolkat, khiph' ishandies for these new school cats (Ntwana yam) "That the problem with these blue clues kats"
I'm schooling all these niggas with these new school raps (Ntwana yam) They didn't know I could do boom boom pap
I'm just blessing all this niggas with a doom doom can (Ntwana yam) All these rappers sound like doo-doo crap
I just made a malum' beat sound like a kool kat (Ntwana yam)
(Woah)
He? He? He? Woah!
He? He? He? Woah!
He? He? He? Woah!
He? He? He? Woah!
Shout out to my boy, Skamza!
He take your girl and hit her with a lamza (with a lamza) Now he's gonna go and canza
Maybe jika ma jika will find the answer
He? He? He? Woah!
He? He? He? Woah!
He? He? He? Woah!
He? He? He? Woah!
The lyrics to Live's song Flow are a mixture of English and Zulu, with a focus on boasting about the artist's abilities and success. The song starts with the line "Nkosi sikelela umswenk' wam", which roughly translates to "God bless my swag". The following lines talk about the artist's potential for success, with a reference to "going platinum" and having the audience screaming for his underwear. He further goes on to claim that he's the "number one hustler in the city" and a "godly" figure.
The artist then turns his attention to other rappers, calling out the inferiority of their work with lines like "That trash tape that you dropped dropped is dot' doti". He brings in a reference to Pastor Mbhobho Flow, a popular South African musician and producer, to further assert his dominance over the rap game. The song ends with a shoutout to Skamza, another South African artist, and a repetition of the "He? He? He? Woah!" chorus.
Overall, the lyrics to Flow are a typical example of boastful rap lyrics. The song is a display of the artist's confidence in his abilities and his status in the rap game.
Line by Line Meaning
Nkosi sikelela umswenk' wam
God bless my lifestyle
Coming with that old school jenge pantium
Bringing it old school
I might go platinum
I might become very successful
I might just sell out a couple shows and have your girl screaming, "Beng'cela ipanty yam
I might perform well enough to make your girlfriend ecstatic
HE? Nobody
Nobody can compare to me
Number one hustler in the city, I'm so godly
I am the best hustler in the city, almost like a god
I didn't say no to your girl, I'm so sorry
I apologize for not rejecting your girlfriend's advances
But she look like an ID pic, No body
But she looks unappealing
I'm an immediate threat to the god bodies
I am a significant detriment to the elite
My punchlines, they knock knock like kot' koti
My punchlines ring with impact
That trash tape that you dropped dropped is dot' doti
Your new release was garbage
I'm my slahla chick she drop top tot' toti
My girl drives a convertible
(Weeeeeow) Pastor Mbhobho Flow
Introducing the Pastor Mbhobho Flow
And your shit is watered down like a scottlolo
You are not cutting it
But I don't want to sign to [__] or [__]
But I don't want to sign to certain record labels
They eat of my thoughts like I'm a skoppo doe
Those record labels take advantage of me
(We want the whole thang) and a gold chain
I want all the success and a gold chain
Burning a missile of propane, nigga! (OH MAN!)
I am burning with energy
Half of these bitches Like 0 sane
Many women are irrational
My old dames, I use to like drop top topless
I used to date women who drove convertibles
That's a "no brain" (ahhhh)
It's an obvious choice
Boy I'm becoming amazing and soon, flop niggas I'll murder in cold plain
I am becoming great and will surpass all competitors
It might be 5 -7 for me
I will become successful after a few more releases
It's funny they're hating 'cause this hot nigga will Bobby Shumurda your whole gang
Others are jealous because I am becoming successful
Back on my malumkoolkat, khiph' ishandies for these new school cats (Ntwana yam)
Back to old ways of selling music, catering to new school kids
"That the problem with these blue clues kats"
Those new school kids do not appreciate real music
I'm schooling all these niggas with these new school raps (Ntwana yam)
I am showing these new school rappers how it's done
They didn't know I could do boom boom pap
They did not expect me to be talentful
I'm just blessing all this niggas with a doom doom can (Ntwana yam)
I am impressing everyone with my unique music
All these rappers sound like doo-doo crap
Other rapper's music is inferior
I just made a malum' beat sound like a kool kat (Ntwana yam)
I have added my own style to this beat
(Woah)
Wow
Shout out to my boy, Skamza!
A shout out to my friend, Skamza
He take your girl and hit her with a lamza (with a lamza)
My friend Skamza gets many girls
Now he's gonna go and canza
Now he is going to go and dance
Maybe jika ma jika will find the answer
Maybe dancing will prove to be the solution
He? He? He? Woah!
Wow
Lyrics © O/B/O DistroKid
Written by: Thabo Fassie
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind