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!
Gas Hed Goes West
Live Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Subsistin' on that same old bread
It's the memory that hides
The whole wide world
It's the gas he'd's love of america
It's the memory that hides
Take your photographs back
Our gas he'd marches on
Our gas he'd marches on
He's a bonified man
A star amongst his clan
And the only one that let me ride
It's the memory that dies
Our gas he'd was right
When they lanced his skull
There was puss and light
It's the memory that dies
So take your photographs back
For the love of all gods
Our gas he'd marches on
Our gas he'd marches
It's the memory that dies
And make your photographs black
For the love of all gods
Our gas he'd marches on
Our gas he'd marches on
Gas he'd is on the radio, radio, radio
The lyrics to Live's song Gas Hed Goes West are quite abstract and open to interpretation, but they seem to be touching on themes of memory, Americana, and mortality. The first verse paints a picture of someone who has died and is now subsisting on the "same old bread" of memory. The second verse introduces the concept of the "gas he'd", which seems to be a reference to a person or group of people who love America and represent a certain nostalgia for the past. The third verse brings up the idea of photographs, which could be seen as a metaphor for memories, and implies that they should be returned or made black (perhaps to forget the painful memories they represent).
The chorus repeats the phrase "our gas he'd marches on", which could be interpreted as a way of saying that this nostalgic, idealized version of America continues to live on, even though the reality may be more painful. The final line, "gas he'd is on the radio, radio, radio", seems to imply that this idealized version of America, represented by the gas he'd, is being broadcast far and wide, perpetuating the myth.
Overall, the song seems to be exploring the tension between memory and reality, and the way that we mythologize the past to cope with the pain of the present. The gas he'd represents a certain longing for a simpler, better time, but ultimately the song suggests that this nostalgia is just a form of escapism, and that we need to face the harsh realities of the present if we want to move forward.
Line by Line Meaning
Then you were dead
The person being referred to has died.
Subsistin' on that same old bread
The person was barely surviving, living a monotonous life.
It's the memory that hides
Their memories are hidden and not visible to others.
The whole wide world
The world at large that is around them.
It's the gas he'd's love of america
Gas he'd holds a strong love towards America.
Take your photographs back
The singer is asking someone to take back their photographs.
For the love of all gods
Urging someone strongly to take their photographs back.
Our gas he'd marches on
Reference to Gas he'd's legacy which is still alive.
He's a bonified man
Gas he'd is viewed as a legitimate individual.
A star amongst his clan
Gas he'd's supporters view him as a star, a leader among them.
And the only one that let me ride
Gas he'd was the only one who allowed the singer to ride with him.
It's the memory that dies
Their memories are fading away.
Our gas he'd was right
Gas he'd's opinions were correct.
When they lanced his skull
When he was dead, after the autopsy was performed.
There was puss and light
During the autopsy fluids and gases came out of his skull.
So take your photographs back
Urging someone to take back their photographs.
And make your photographs black
Make your photographs less vivid, darken them.
Our gas he'd marches
Gas he'd's legacy still exists and continues.
Gas he'd is on the radio, radio, radio
Gas he'd's message is being broadcasted on the radio, reaching many people.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: CHAD ALAN GRACEY, CHAD DAVID TAYLOR, EDWARD JOEL KOWALCZYK, PATRICK DAHLHEIMER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind