The reasons for Live's album disparity? Options

[AgentK7]

Instead of providing opinions for why Live's last couple of albums haven't met with the best success, I'm going to give you a breakdown of the album credits (verbatim from the cd booklet when practical):

Mental Jewelry (1991)

• Produced by Jerry Harrison for Construct Music, Inc.
• All Songs written by Edward Kowalczyk, Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey

Throwing Copper (1994)

• Produced by Jerry Harrison
• Lyrics: Kowalczyk Music: Live

Secret Samadhi (1997)

• Produced by Jay Healy and Live
• Written and Performed by Live (Lyrics by Ed Kowalczyk)

The Distance To Here (1999)

• Produced by Jerry Harrison and Live
• Lyrics by Ed Kowalczyk. Music by Ed Kowalczyk (except "Run To The Water" Kowalczyk, Dahlheimer "Voodoo Lady" Kowalczyk, Taylor "Where Fishes Go" Kowalczyk, Taylor and "They Stood Up For Love" Kowalczyk, Taylor,Dahlheimer)

V (2001)

• Produced by Live, Railo and Alain Johannes*
• Lyrics and Music by Ed Kowalczyk*
• *Forever May Not be long enough has writing and production credits to Ed Kowalczyk AND Glen Ballard

Birds Of Pray (2003)

• Produced by Jim Wirt
• Lyrics by Ed Kowalczyk. Music by Ed Kowalczyk (except "Like I Do" Ed Kowalczyk, Patrick Dahlheimer, Chad Taylor and "Lighthouse" Ed Kowalczyk, Chad Taylor)

Songs From Black Mountain (2006)

• Produced by Jim Wirt
• Songs by Ed Kowalczyk

I know my interpretation of this information, I'm curious what others think....

This post has been edited by AgentK7: Sep 13 2007, 3:48 pm

[Costakoui]

Instead of providing opinions for why Live's last couple of albums haven't met with the best success, I'm going to give you a breakdown of the album credits (verbatim from the cd booklet when practical):

Mental Jewelry (1991)

• Produced by Jerry Harrison for Construct Music, Inc.
• All Songs written by Edward Kowalczyk, Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey

Throwing Copper (1994)

• Produced by Jerry Harrison
• Lyrics: Kowalczyk Music: Live

Secret Samadhi (1997)

• Produced by Jay Healy and Live
• Written and Performed by Live (Lyrics by Ed Kowalczyk)

The Distance To Here (1999)

• Produced by Jerry Harrison and Live
• Lyrics by Ed Kowalczyk. Music by Ed Kowalczyk (except "Run To The Water" Kowalczyk, Dahlheimer "Voodoo Lady" Kowalczyk, Taylor "Where Fishes Go" Kowalczyk, Taylor and "They Stood Up For Love" Kowalczyk, Taylor,Dahlheimer)

V (2001)

• Produced by Live, Railo and Alain Johannes*
• Lyrics and Music by Ed Kowalczyk*
• *Forever May Not be long enough has writing and production credits to Ed Kowalczyk AND Glen Ballard

Birds Of Pray (2003)

• Produced by Jim Wirt
• Lyrics by Ed Kowalczyk. Music by Ed Kowalczyk (except "Like I Do" Ed Kowalczyk, Patrick Dahlheimer, Chad Taylor and "Lighthouse" Ed Kowalczyk, Chad Taylor)

Songs From Black Mountain (2006)

• Produced by Jim Wirt
• Songs by Ed Kowalczyk

I know my interpretation of this information, I'm curious what others think....

I guess you say that Live’s misfortune is attributed to that fact that overtime Ed wrote more while the rest guys wrote less? Ok, but hold on a minute. This man wrote the best songs on TC, (I do not know what he wrote alone on SS) and TDTH, and he wrote Overcome and Like I Do (two of the best ever made by Live).

The misfortune, to me, should be attributed to the genre that has shifted from loud guitars to soft rock sound, started with TDTH, but largely to mistakes made in terms of the albums and singles released. The biggest mistake in my opinion was the release of the chosen singles from SS right after the massive success of TC. People wanted something more catchy and melodic such as Selling the Drama or Lightning Crashes. Lift Me Up would be huge if it was put on the album that followed TC. Since this did not happen, Live should choose more catchy songs to release from SS. SS was great, Lakini’s Jiuce, Freaks and Turn My Head were fantastic but should not be the first singles. Songs like Insomnia, Gad Hed Goes West, Hero… and Ghost would escalate sales and maintain Live’s reputation. SS went up to #1 in billboard charts but even if V was released that time it would have the same luck.

TDTH was great too. The Dolphin’s Cry was catchy and succeeded but the singles that followed did not grasp people’s attention. From this album Where Fishes Go and FTQRR would possibly have a better luck. But again if Lift Me Up was on that album and was released after TDC, the album would be huge. TDTH in general did not have the very catchy songs as did TC that would keep people’s interest alive.

V killed Live’s reputation, while BOP and SFBM were mis-promoted although they had the potential to succeed, especially BOP. An order of singles released such as Like I Do, Lighthouse and She would onset a different course of the album in the market.

In summary, the reasons for Live’s misfortune mainly lie in the promotion of the wrong singles and the decision not to release some of the best songs ever made in the history of music.