cool story bro. Funny he doesn't mention The Turn anywhere in that quote...

I wouldn't call anything on The Distance To Here generic, but it certainly is a different style and tone, and a departure from earlier work in those regards as well as the song writing process. I wouldn't call that album generic, but I don't like the style nearly as much as previous work.

TDTH is a great CD: I find Siren's Call comparable (only afgter 2 listens) to Sparke, Sun, and Dance with You (too slow)..the other songs on TDTH are much better, those who are saying otherwise are just getting over excited because Live has actually made a true ROCK song for the first time in a long long time..we will see how people feel in 15 years

WOW you are so bright!! of course it is......no shit......whats the problem? I heard some of it in someone else's lyrics recently.....so wtf is the problem???
your like a little BBB icth girl who has noting better to do than waste your time bad mouthing LIVE because your head is up yer ass as usual, let it go Nick let it go

He isn't badmouthing anyone ya fuckin spazz.
The disscussion was getting good until you come in acting like a pyscho.

You idiots bashed the shit out of ED for years here and still do so don't even go there little man.

Maybe I am out of touch.... I always thought TC was their masterpiece (as most others do), but after that, I'd go TDTH, MJ, then SS. SS has some good individual tracks but it was a poor follow up to TC. Don't get me wrong, LJ, Freaks, Ghost, Gas Hed, Heropsychodreamer are great tunes....but some of the others were a bit weak. The only weak song on TDTH is Face and Ghost.

I actually enjoy some of V....BOP has a few decent tunes....SFBM, the first half is listenable, but the second half (with the exception of Night of Nights) is a crap fest the likes of which I hope to never have to listen to again.

like which lyrics?

This post has been edited by Bremang: Sep 24 2014, 7:22 pm

why do you think it's definitely a break-up song

I have been listening to SFBM and BOP recently, and I think I actually prefer SFBM as a whole. The album has a better flow, and it has a more laid back tempo. Both albums contain very good tracks though.

I think the issue with the way some critique the songs is to compare them to something else Live has done. Why does this song need to sound exactly like the songs on TC? or SS? or MJ?
The thing that I always loved about Live 1991-1999 was that every album was different, and different in a good way. MJ did NOT sound like TC. TC did NOT sound like SS. SS did NOT sound like TDTH. And in point of fact, there were some fans that fell off the Live fan base at each of those albums because they weren't in love with the "direction" the band was going in at each phase. I think most of the core fans that have stuck around somehow understood that while the albums were different, they all had an 'essence' that was Live...a certain style at the heart of it, but with flashes of creativeness and variety.

I really do try to respect other's opinions regarding which albums they prefer -- but anyone who tells me that think Live post-TDTH was better than Live pre-TDTH is, in my honest opinion, crazy. Simply put, with the exception of only a few tracks, Live post-TDTH was not nearly as good. We all know the many reasons for this, but I think the major 2 were that Ed's vision for his music was going in a very poppy/more overtly Christian direction, and the other 3 guys (for various reasons) were not as creatively involved.

The reason why I am excited about Siren's Call is because it harkens back to that spirit of Live 1991-1999. It harkens back to the darkness of a song like TDAOC, LJ, Graze, etc. What always made Live special to me was how they could go from a dark, brooding song like TDAOC into a motivating, uplifting song like STD, and back again in one album. I'm NOT comparing the new songs to the previous albums at all, and I am happy not to do that. What excites me about the new album is that I've started to hear that same range of song tempos and similar 'style' that we used to hear 1991-1999.

Please don’t tell me why i feel how i feel. SC has nothing to do with TDTH, it is better than most song off that album, hands down. To think that SC is comparable with Sun and Dance with You, well i have no words.

I am with you in questioning that. In my post I want to give a possible explanation and close it with my own view of the song.

I think the breakup situation is the easiest thing you could think of when you read the lyrics, but it's not the only interpretation of them.
Of course the Sirens are something tempting, you have to withstand, because it would be your downfall. You have to take measures like tying on a mast of the ship, because you would be too weak to resist on your own.
It's obvious to say that this is about someone you love and you had to break up and it's just so so hard to not call. Because with that interpretation it's so so easy to downclass the lyrics. Now they sound much more like the usual Chart Pop Music where there is actually someone singing about breaking up and it's being so so hard. In fact this interpretation is built by listening mainly to those kind of songs? Maybe ...
But to just deny that you can interpret SC in many ways, just because the essential content of the lyrics is very simple is a bold statement. The suspicion, that the person offering those views is doing this intentionally to downgrade the song is actually not less appropriate than his statement itself. And if so, it's a dead discussion right from the start. A discussion like this is left for dead when there is no honesty in the argumentation and everyone just wants his point to be made, regardless of what the other side has to offer.

I like Siren's Call because the lyrics build a setting shown in the story of the greek mythology. In Taylor's guitar riff I hear the staggering waves beating the ship, the dynamics of the song reflects the inner struggle the person has to fight against the temptation the beautiful song of the Siren's offer him. The euphoric state he is in, when he is giving in and he can hear the Siren's Calling. But in reality he's still tied to the mast and his outer world is going mad.
Topic and setting is, of course subjectively, perfectly captured in a consistent atmosphere. When I listen to SC, I am on this ship fighting against the waves and almost giving in to the easy way out, dying to silence it all.
This is what a song should do. And to compare this to a charts song in which the character is sad about a breaking up so we write a song in minor is a very vulnerable attitude.
If you want to discuss the sonical quality of the production of the song, that is a different story ...

Anyway Live's lyrics around TDTH were not that different. On surface they were about "her" when in fact it could be about anything in the universal "love" spirit, just in different tints and shades.

This post has been edited by PhoenixDecay: Sep 25 2014, 5:11 am

I have been fascinated by the lyrics on TDTH for years. To me this was the album where Ed started turning from the Eastern religions to more western Christian beliefs.

Look at a song like Sparkle



The first part of the song to me is a strong reference to the story of Jesus Christ. Jesus was a man who hung out with all these types of sinners. Love was his message, he wanted to see if love could overcome their sins. The grapes to wine reference as well is very obviously Christian.



In this verse I feel like Ed is writing from the view of the sinners. Just the line with "someone" in quotes makes me feel like he was starting to question his personal spirituality. The wind in the last part of the verse gives me an interpretation of God speaking to him.


and Where Fishes Go



to me, there is no way around the interpretation that Ed was having a spiritual battle while writing this song. God had let him down so many times before that he would take refuge by hiding. Then when he found what was in his mind the beauty of God he realized that he could come out of that hiding and as he exclaims, just BREATHE!


There are other lyrics on the album that seem to convey a spiritual battle that he was going through at the time. I love it, because I think a lot of people can relate to it.

A great songwriter will rarely ever give their own interpretation of the song, because they want to give the power to each person listening to have their own interpretations.

Just my 2 cents.

This post has been edited by WaiterAtCliftons: Sep 25 2014, 9:25 am

Another thing about TDTH.

We Walk in the Dream

Ed says it right at the beginning of the song.



And then in the middle of the song:



And finally at the end:



Complete faith turn?

This post has been edited by WaiterAtCliftons: Sep 25 2014, 9:24 am

From your quotes and your explanations it seems so. I'll have to look at the lyrics more in detail, as it has been some time I listened to the album.
I have to admit, I have generalized that it's all about love, but I haven't meant it in a relationship way anyway.



Exactly, that's why I don't understand, why someone here gets away with saying SC is about a break-up, although the concept of letting go could be interpreted in many more ways. But it's not given in the song, it's just a topic packed into a fitting mythical theme and brought into musical life and everyone who understands the concept can go through these motions and feel it.