Anyone know what Live said about "Selling the Drama?" Options

[Godiva]

I am looking for some commentary by Ed on Selling the Drama... but I prefer stuff he said back in the day when the song was popular and before that album was released.

Thanks!

[tswart1]

That will be tough to find interviews pre-94. Since it was their first single it will be even tougher. If you can find a quote from 1993 or so I will bow down to you.

[dangum]

There's an interview CD out there called 'In Conversation'. It's basically a 30 minute interview with Ed and Chad around the time of the release of Selling the Drama. It's been a while since I've listened to it but I'm pretty sure you'd find a few quotes about a number of tracks from the album.

[Godiva]

Thanks. I haven't found anything yet... I just have a friend who says that Selling the Drama sounds like a Christian song, and he wants proof, from Ed's mouth, that it isn't.

[LiveattheOasis]

Let me tell you, it is not a Christian song, and Ed is not a Christian, he has said this on numerous occasions.

[FishOutaWater]

Thanks. I haven't found anything yet... I just have a friend who says that Selling the Drama sounds like a Christian song, and he wants proof, from Ed's mouth, that it isn't.

If you look at the cover of Throwing Copper and the title Throwing Copper and the title of the song "Selling the Drama", which was the first single, I really believe that Ed is making a commentary on the hypocracy of the tele-evangalists and so-called spiritual leaders that train followers to blindly believe without thinking for themselves, and to "throw copper" (i.e. money) into the offering basket. The cover of the album is a despicable looking preacher, all dressed up and thumping a bible, essentially leading followers off a cliff. The church in the background is sitting on a cliff. The title "Selling the Drama" isn't very flattering. It strikes me that it fits in with the cover art and the title "Throwing Copper". These self-interested so-called spritual leaders are "selling the drama" of hell and fire and loving a god in order to enrich themselves. I've always thought that the point of the song is that we shouldn't blindly follow beliefs shoved into our heads by leaders. "the greatest of teachers won't hesitate, to leave you there by yourself, chained to fate." We should free our minds and find the truth by finding the path through our own search.


By the way, as I was writing this, I just remembered a great interview with Ed that describs Selling the Drama exactly as I just did. In the interview about I Alone, Ed said that he was really into Jiddu Krishnamurti at the time. That's definitely not Christianity. Listen to those interviews and all will be clear...

It's here:

http://www.listenin.org/main.php?page=podcast

[WaiterAtCliftons]

ummm they got "Throwing Copper" because they were throwing bb's around a sporting good store

[ladylakini17]

ummm they got "Throwing Copper" because they were throwing bb's around a sporting good store

i thought it was pennies?? oh well same difference..

[FishOutaWater]

ummm they got "Throwing Copper" because they were throwing bb's around a sporting good store

I did originally address that issue, but unfortunately, I removed my discussion of that issue from my post in the interest of conserving space. I am aware that someone has stated that there is some interview somewhere that mentions the BB gun thing, although I have never seen or heard that interview myself. But as I said, what I described as the meaning of Throwing Copper is just what I think it is.

As for the BB gun explanation, I think that sometimes Ed gives a milktoast answer in promotional interviews because it isn't the right place to give a deep explanation. I've heard at least 3 different explanations of The River. Sometimes he says "it's about sex". Sometimes he goes into the whole flowing consciousness and sacred feminine explanation. But as for Throwing Copper, maybe that interview wasn't the place for Ed to say "yeah, I think most Christian leaders are self-interested hypocrits out to make money and accrue power." Throwing Copper is in large part a deep, sardonic social commentary that questions conventional authority and belief systems, and, I may be wrong, but I personally find it hard to believe that after the band put together such a creative masterpeace that stands as one of the top 20 albums of all time, they said "hey lets name it in honor of shooting BB guns at each other." I don't believe that any more than I believe that they named The Distance To Here because they were playing with rulers one day.

[slainte]

on the mtv show, "past, present, future"~Patrick addresses the title of TC. He said it was from the BB gun incident. I like and think the religious commentary is interesting and seems to follow ed's way of thinking.

EITHER way.....imho, TC is the quintiesstial~sp? LiVE album and my all time fave.

[dangum]

I am aware that someone has stated that there is some interview somewhere that mentions the BB gun thing, although I have never seen or heard that interview myself.

Ed (as well as other members of the band) elaborated on the BB gun story in the 1995 MTV program "Live: Past, Present, and Future". Ed mentioned that they were on a strict deadline to come up with a name for the album and they had left it to the very last minute.

[FishOutaWater]

Ed (as well as other members of the band) elaborated on the BB gun story in the 1995 MTV program "Live: Past, Present, and Future". Ed mentioned that they were on a strict deadline to come up with a name for the album and they had left it to the very last minute.

Hmmm. Did it seem like they could have been jesting? I'm just still wondering if that was the real origin of the name or something they said as a goof. Maybe I give them too much credit but to go from Mental Jewlery ----> something about shooting each other in the ass with a BB gun ---> Secret Samadhi -----> The Distance To Here. It just seems to lack the thought and creativity that they put into everything during that whole period. It is now my mission to somehow get confirmation of that story from the band.

[WaiterAtCliftons]

Hmmm. Did it seem like they could have been jesting? I'm just still wondering if that was the real origin of the name or something they said as a goof. Maybe I give them too much credit

Yes I think you are giving them too much credit on this topic. The were in their early 20's and rockstars and coming up with a name doing something as dumb as that happens a lot more then you'd probably think. Ed is still a deep thinker but I'm almost 100% sure they weren't joshing about where the name came from. They've stuck with that story since the beggining.

[Godiva]

Thanks, everyone... I know it's NOT a Christian song. But my friend still is not convinced... he sees some weird interpretation and insists that it's a Christian song. He babbles about artists and how they hide messages in their music, and how it's all up for interpretation anyway. I see his point, but he was high when he thought this theory up, and it's just really obvious to me that it is, at the least, a non-Christian song, cryptic as it may be.

[sellingthdrama]

I don't believe that any more than I believe that they named The Distance To Here because they were playing with rulers one day.

Excellent line, there. I'd like to think Throwing Copper has some deeper meaning, but I've heard the BB gun story a lot.

As I've been moving along my own path and reading on various spiritual topics, it hit me one day what "The Distance To Here" actually means (at least, what I think it means). I've never quite understood it or thought about it - but then it just hit me. I think it is about the Now, and how we are all so close yet so far from the Now, or the Here. The "distance" to here, is not a physical distance but a spiritual one. And after this long journey, where do you end up? You end up here. So what is the distance to here? ...

This may have been obvious to some of you, but I was pretty psyched when it all clicked in my head. My apologies for going off topic.