Question to people who consider "The Turn" a Live album Options

[dangum]

Here is a question for those who consider "The Turn" a Live album:

Should Ed release a studio album containing new tracks, reworked Goose Blackstone songs, with his new group of musicians and then sticks the "Live" logo on it - would you also consider it an official Live album?

[Bob]

Here is a question for those who consider "The Turn" a Live album:

Should Ed release a studio album containing new tracks, reworked Goose Blackstone songs, with his new group of musicians and then sticks the "Live" logo on it - would you also consider it an official Live album?

I consider "The Turn" a Live album because 3/4 of the members of the band were from the original lineup. You can absolutely hear Live in those songs. I also really liked what Chris Shinn did for the songs on it. I wasn't as much of a fan of his takes on the older material though, so I'm very torn. That said, ANY singer would have been compared to Ed, so that's a tough spot for anyone in that role to be in.

This new incarnation of Live is Ed with a backing band. I still don't count Zak Loy as a real member of Live, even though he's been there for almost a decade at this point. He's no CT (no one is), and I'm not a fan of his musical creations. The rest of the band is phoning it in like a Live cover band. There's no passion. There's no fire. They're not hungry for it. They're simply playing the same 12 songs every night and calling it good. Ed seems to be happy with things, but if I was the lead singer and other musicians were playing my songs, you bet your ass we'd work on them until they were up to my standards, and this is not that.

To answer your exact question though, I would consider a new Ed album as an official Live album, and just like Local 717 and Goose Blackstone, I'd play it once just to say I heard it and then move on.

To me, it's simple: Ed is using Live for the name and marketing pull. Live died when Ed fired CCP in 2022, but Ed won't pull an audience as Ed Kowalczyk like he can with Live, so here we are.