No More Ed Bashing For Me, Time for the healing...time to move on Options

[Liveoneut]

Hi everyone,

I came to a realization today, that there will be no more Ed bashing for me. Over the past two weeks, there have been 3 different events that have led me to my awakening.

1) I was EXTREMELY early for a flight out of Houston the other day, so I decided to listen to Secret Samadhi, from start to finish (including Mall Rat and Photograph hehe). It just blew me away. I can't remember in what year I last did this. It left me in a state that I can't even begin to describe. Enlightened? Satisfied? I guess those are close.

2) I was having a semi-crappy day the other morning. Getting ready for work, nothing going right. Out of everything..running late, etc. I get in the car, fire her up, pull out, I catch the last few seconds of the previous song on the radio, and then BAM....All Over You starts to play, and I'm INSTANTLY in such a great mood, I can't stand it. I can't begin to wipe the grin off of my face.

3) I was sitting at work yesterday, normal day....listening to my iPod as usual, and decide to go to my +Live+ Favs playlist. A few songs in, I Alone starts to play, and I'm really digging the song, listening to every note, and at 1:10 in the song, I get this RUSH that passes over my entire body. Chills and goosebumps like never before. The really special part about this one, is that I've heard this song hundreds or even THOUSANDS of times before, and it's never hit me like THAT before!

What I'm getting at, is NONE of this would have been possible had it not been for Ed Kowalczyk. NONE of it. So, as of today, I've seen the err of my ways in the not-so-nice things I've said or posted about Ed. Please mark this day, as the day that the bashing stops.

And just think, these are things that have happened to me in just the last couple of weeks! Just think about all of the good times that I've enjoyed and shared with others because of this man. A person that I know only thru his musical and lyrical genius. I hope others read this post and get the same kind of feeling I'm trying to describe. Please, let's post things we LIKE about The Gracious Few or Ed on their pages or topics, but not the negative things. Well, at least not the really mean stuff (I think we all know what I'm talking about).

Thank you Ed, for giving me times in my life that I will never EVER forget.

Take care everyone,

Mark

[Pokey]

Nice post .. I don't think I can be quite so diplomatic just yet

As you've said, a lot wouldn't have been possible without Ed ... those first 4 albums will forever be some of my favorites, and I can't deny the incredible energy, passion and talent that Ed showed on them.

I have trouble still with Ed pissing on this though, bastardising his amazing past work with such piss poor renditions of amazing songs with a terrible band. I guess I've already accepted his slide from amazing to lame awhile ago ... from 2001 onwards to me he's gotten steadily worse in almost every way ... after The River I don't think he can release anything else that would shock me with how far he's fallen.
I find it more of an absolute shame than anything ... you could argue that without the other 3 writing and playing with him that he's just average ... but I don't total buy that ... it was him alone that had THAT voice years back .. that passion and intensity, he had the amazing lyrics, he had the stage presence etc..
It saddens me to know that all of that must still be in there somewhere, but he pushes it aside rather than continuing to explore his creativity.

So to me, the old albums will never leave me ... I'll always cherish them, and the old bootlegs too. But Ed to me is lost ... he's so easy to take pot shots at now, and why not, it's a bit of fun. His personality just begs for it, his crazy turn into wanting to sell you things ... again as someone who has provided me with such highs, the fact that it's fallen to this makes it worse.

I really like Zion, I like it's workman like song style, it's a little bit bluesy, it has a bit of substance, I really, really want to keep liking Ed's stuff but it's just not working. If this was an Ed-only board now you'd probably see a heck of a lot less of me (theres one way to get rid of me Nick )