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!
Tired Of Me
Live Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I say "Let them go tonight"
My brain waves
Confused between what is and ain't
She cries "Groundless and free"
.
Tired of the water
Tired of the wine
Tired of time
Tired of the madness
Tired of the steel
Tired of the violence
Tired of me
.
Used steel
Used steel am I
What was pliable in love
Is now hard and crystallized
The intellect is fine
For counting money
And recalling times
That she cried,
"Groundless and free"
.
Hope is a letter that never arrives
Delivered by the postman of my fear
The lyrics to Live's song Tired of Me encapsulate a sense of exhaustion and disillusionment with life. The opening lines between two voices illustrate a struggle between holding onto control and surrendering to the unknown. This internal turmoil is represented in the singer's mind waves being confused between what is and what is not. The line "she cries 'groundless and free'" seems to be a cry of desperation, almost like the singer is begging to be untethered from their own existence.
The chorus is a list of things the singer is tired of - the water, wine, future, time, and violence - and finishes with the striking phrase "tired of me". This shows a deep-seated sense of dissatisfaction with one's self, potentially caused by the inability to let go of control or the fear of losing oneself to the unknown.
The bridge suggests a change in the singer's self-perception; they feel as though they are now hardened and crystallized instead of pliable and open to love. The intellect remains intact for counting money and recalling times, but there is a sense of loss of the softer, vulnerable parts of oneself. The final line "groundless and free" is repeated, suggesting that despite the lack of control or certainty, there is a yearning for relief from the confines of one's own mind.
Line by Line Meaning
You say "Hold on to the reigns"
"Don't give up control" is what you tell me
I say "Let them go tonight"
I'm tired of holding on, I want to let go
My brain waves
My thoughts and emotions
Confused between what is and ain't
I'm not sure what's real and what's not
She cries "Groundless and free"
She feels lost and free at the same time
Tired of the water
I'm tired of feeling nothing
Tired of the wine
I'm tired of feeling everything
Tired of the future
I'm tired of worrying about what's to come
Tired of time
I'm tired of the passing of time
Tired of the madness
I'm tired of the chaos of life
Tired of the steel
I'm tired of the coldness of the world
Tired of the violence
I'm tired of the aggression and negativity in the world
Tired of me
I'm tired of myself and my own struggles
Used steel
I'm like a piece of steel that has been used and worn down
Used steel am I
I am worn down and hardened by previous experiences
What was pliable in love
What used to be flexible and open in love
Is now hard and crystallized
Is now rigid and unyielding
The intellect is fine
My mind is sharp and analytical
For counting money
But it's only useful for practical matters like finances
And recalling times
And remembering memories
That she cried,
When she felt lost and free
"Groundless and free"
Feeling lost and free at the same time
Hope is a letter that never arrives
I am losing hope that things will ever get better
Delivered by the postman of my fear
My fears and anxieties prevent me from feeling hope
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JANET VOGEL, JOSEPH VERSCHAREN, JOHN TAYLOR, JOSEPH ROCK, WALTER LESTER, JAMES BEAUMONT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind