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!
We Deal In Dreams
Live Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
In the feelings of the rain
And the violence of the sun
I must confess that I feel graciously
Bigger than the rain
And hotter than the sun
When the blood spilled is of your loved one
And the Kremlins of the world fall around you
We deal in dreams, yeah
We deal in dreams
We deal in structures
That grow cold in our hearts
Oh fearful crying people
The fool is by the river
Watching, but not swimming
It takes energy not to get used to it
And fall into this place
Where everything runs together and dies
This quiet kingdom she is now
Forever will she be
In silent celebration
We deal in dreams, yeah
We deal in dreams
We deal in structures
That grow cold in our hearts, yeah
We deal in dreams
We deal in dreams
We deal in structures
That grow cold in our hearts, yeah
But we deal in dreams
Dreams, dreams
Structures that grow cold in our hearts, yeah
We deal in dreams
We deal in dreams
Structures that grow cold
Structures that grow cold
Structures that grow cold in our hearts, yeah
Don't you feel so very pointless
In the feelings of the rain
And the violence of the sun
The lyrics to Live's song We Deal in Dreams convey themes of disillusionment, mortality, and existential crises. The opening stanza explores the feeling of insignificance that can occur during moments of natural phenomena, like the rain or sun, that emphasize our vulnerability to the natural world. The singer then confesses to feeling "graciously bigger" and "hotter" than the rain and sun, perhaps reflecting the sense of power that can come with surviving such moments of vulnerability.
The second verse, however, delves into a deeper sense of dread: when faced with violence and loss, what can we do or say? The mention of "Kremlins of the world" falling around the singer implies political upheaval and destruction, and the line "What did you do, what do you say / When the blood spilled is of your loved one" emphasizes the personal stakes involved. In the chorus, "We deal in dreams" might be interpreted as a reference to the coping mechanisms we use to create meaning out of chaos, or the ways we construct our own sense of reality through stories or philosophical belief systems. The final stanza offers some possible answers or perspectives to these questions, as the singer describes a "quiet kingdom" that remains in "silent celebration." This could be interpreted as a metaphor for acceptance of death, or for finding peace in the midst of chaos.
Line by Line Meaning
Don't you feel so very pointless
Do you not feel a sense of futility?
In the feelings of the rain
When the rain falls, does it not amplify this feeling?
And the violence of the sun
As does the sun's aggressive heat?
What did you do, what do you say
When you are faced with the unimaginable grief of losing someone close, what actions or words can provide solace?
When the blood spilled is of your loved one
Especially when the loss was so violent and personal
And the Kremlins of the world fall around you
Even as the world crumbles before your eyes
We deal in dreams, yeah
We deal in dreams
We deal in structures
That grow cold in our hearts
We create aspirations, constructs and plans that we cling to, only for the harsh reality of life's fleeting nature to rob them of their warmth and promise
Oh fearful crying people
To all those scared and hurting
The fool is by the river
The carefree, naive person is oblivious to the harshness of the world
Watching, but not swimming
Taking in the scene without being fully present or affected by it
It takes energy not to get used to it
One must expend effort to resist the numbness and defeat that can easily consume us
And fall into this place
The place of despair and decay
Where everything runs together and dies
Where everything seems hopeless and endures a slow decay
This quiet kingdom she is now
A tribute to someone who has found peace or passed away
Forever will she be
The person will always be remembered, perhaps as an idealized memory or as a symbol of one's lost aspirations
In silent celebration
A bittersweet occasion where the memory is honored with reverence but also sadness
But we deal in dreams
Dreams, dreams
Structures that grow cold in our hearts, yeah
Again reinforcing the point that our visions and goals inevitably fade in reality
Structures that grow cold
Structures that grow cold
Structures that grow cold in our hearts, yeah
The repetition of this line drives home the fact that our aspirations often bring us cold comfort, and how they can become hollow within us
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: CHAD ALAN GRACEY, CHAD DAVID TAYLOR, EDWARD JOEL KOWALCZYK, PATRICK DAHLHEIMER, PATRICK MICHAEL DAHLHEIMER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind