Mental Jewelry - Re-Recording Options

[Frasbul]

According to this: http://www.pennlive.com/entertainment/inde...s_turns_20.html

Apparently Live is working on re-recording the album for its 25th anniversary next year.
I tolerate this version of Live. I even bought The Turn and quite enjoy it, but this takes it too far. Ed wrote the songs ffs.

This post has been edited by Frasbul: Nov 26 2015, 10:44 pm

[Bremang]

very strange if they re record mj

Very strange that the article featured Ed and chad g by combining their interviews

[dangum]

Chad posted this following message on Twitter last week.

Chad Taylor
‏@thechadtaylor

Perth was our last show of the year...I'll be back in the studio to finish the @DanaAlexandra album & start on some new material

#newmusic

https://twitter.com/thechadtaylor/status/668220414678536192


Here is a copy of the article that Frasbul posted:

'Lightning Crashes' turns 20: Live's Ed Kowalczyk, Chad Gracey share memories of York band's hit

By Jewel Wicker | jwicker@pennlive.com
on November 20, 2015 at 11:25 AM, updated November 20, 2015 at 11:44 AM

Twenty years ago, the York-bred band Live released "Lightning Crashes," a melancholy five and a half minute track from its sophomore album "Throwing Copper."

Record label executives said it would never be a hit.

They were wrong.

"Lightning Crashes" became Live's signature song, and became an anthem in the wake of a national tragedy.

Although Live had released an album ahead of 1994's "Throwing Copper" it was the success of the album's "Lightning Crashes" (along with another smash, "I Alone") that helped it to gain widespread attention.

The single spent 26 weeks on Billboard's Pop Songs chart, peaking at No. 6. It topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock Songs chart. Most impressively, it helped catapult the album "Throwing Copper" to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart exactly one year after its release. "Throwing Copper" went on to sell over 8 million copies in the United States.

Twenty years later, Live's former lead singer, Ed Kowalczyk, and drummer, Chad Gracey, reflected with PennLive on "Lightning Crashes" and the most crucial year of their careers.

The single that record executives hated

Live's drummer Chad Gracey said when then band first presented "Lightning Crashes" to record executives they were told it would become a single "over their dead bodies."

"The record company told me that it would never be a single because it was too long" - about 5 1/2 minutes - "and it was just a very different type of song," Kowalczyk said. "Of course it became probably the biggest hit from Live and so it was ironic that I was told that but yet the people chose that to be the biggest song."

"By the time we put out 'Lightning Crashes,' the record had already gone double platinum and I think [after] a couple of weeks of the single being out record sales just dramatically increased," he said. "It really caught fire."

The song that saw America through a tragedy

A few months after "Lightning Crashes" was released, a tragic domestic terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building sent a sense of sadness rippling through America.

A remix of Live's single, created by an Oklahoma City DJ, soon was tied to tributes surrounding the event.

According to A.V. Club, this version "incorporated sound bites from Bill Clinton and Tom Brokaw, as well as fire-engine and ambulance sirens."

"It sort of became the de facto song [for the bombing]," Gracey said. "It was definitely very bittersweet and surreal and strange to see this impactful event in our country and then have a song that we wrote be associated with it."

The song that resonated with fans

Despite naysayers, Live fully believed "Lightning Crashes" was a great single choice, Gracey said. Still, even they didn't anticipate it resonating with so many people.

"We didn't anticipate that it would have [the] dramatic impact [that] it did," he said.

He said he believes the way the song slowly "builds from starting very quiet to the crescendo that comes at the end" is one of the things that made it stand out.

Kowalczyk said he thinks the lyrics are also a big part of the song's success.

"I think it had a lot to do with the [lyrics] and how I kind of kept it open to interpretation, but it has a lot of meaning to a lot of people," he said.

The song's legacy

Both Live and Kowalczyk are still making music and touring, but that 1995 single remains the one for which they are most known

Kowalczyk split from Live in 2009 and embarked on a solo career. He's been celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of "Throwing Copper" since last year.

In October, he brought a two-man acoustic-style show to the Whitaker Center. He performed the entire album, including singles "I Alone," "Selling the Drama" and, of course, "Lightning Crashes."

Kowalczyk does not keep in touch with his former band members. In fact, he and his former bandmates were involved in a legal battle in 2010 over the singer branding himself as "Ed Kowalczyk of Live" during a solo tour, according to York Daily Record. The case was eventually settled.

Still, Kowalczyk had many great moment as a part of Live. One of his fondest memories took place in 1995, the same year "Lightning Crashes" was released. About 25,000 people, Live's biggest crowd at that time, saw the band at Hersheypark Stadium.

Gracey said he and the rest of Live are working on a re-recording of their album "Mental Jewelry," which turns 25 in 2016. They are also preparing to tour with Def Leppard in Australia later this month.

[Hoodstock]

Guess they can do what they want but I have zero interest in this happening unless it's done with Ed.

[Voodoo Lady]

If they re-record with Shinn covering all Mental Jewelry songs, if Ed does not sue them, I will!

[Bremang]

I wonder if by "new material," they plan on recording brand new songs as well.

[maccaz69]

Guess they can do what they want but I have zero interest in this happening unless it's done with Ed.

Me too! I also personally hope Live don't perform in Australia again unless they reunite with Ed....the performance on today show here when Chris forgot the words was not good enough and I still think a reunion tour here would be a big success.

[aLIVEinNORWAY]

[mfitz804]

Worst fucking idea ever.

[mfan0410]

After reading this, I really can't understand or comprehend why the guys would really want to re-record Mental Jewelry at this point....the album clearly means a lot to the band and fans (rightfully so for many reasons)...but it doesn't need to be changed!!

I can see marking the anniversary with perhaps a re-issue with extras/live tracks/b-sides/etc. but to re-RECORD?!?! Why?!

There's only ONE voice I want to hear with that album...my case in point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKD2D7ErJcc...4THZB96&index=1

[Bremang]

why start there? re-record Death of a dictionary first

[Bremang]

After reading this, I really can't understand or comprehend why the guys would really want to re-record Mental Jewelry at this point....the album clearly means a lot to the band and fans (rightfully so for many reasons)...but it doesn't need to be changed!!

I can see marking the anniversary with perhaps a re-issue with extras/live tracks/b-sides/etc. but to re-RECORD?!?! Why?!

There's only ONE voice I want to hear with that album...my case in point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKD2D7ErJcc...4THZB96&index=1

more like this -




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z8QPRh5E3I?t=1m6s

[mfan0410]

more like this -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z8QPRh5E3I?t=1m6s

That's a great one too...that whole Brazil show was awesome!

[aLIVEinNORWAY]

That's a great one too...that whole Brazil show was awesome!