Thank God for TGF Options

[FishOutaWater]

I was listening to the radio in the car over the weekend and I heard Lightening Crashes. Suddenly I realized how fortunate we are to have The Gracious Few. My wife keeps telling me that I must be really devastated about Live breaking up. And I keep thinking to myself that it isn't so bad. I should have been devastated. It wasn't the crushing blow I always thought it would be. Why? That's easy. Thank God for The Gracious Few. Can you imagine what the end of LIve would have been like if the there was nothing but Ed's solo album? If Chad had just moved on to focus on Aurora and everybody went their own way?!?!

The TGF album, the concerts, the whole experience has been better than anything Live hs done for 15 years. Kevin and Sean have become a part of the family. Chad, Chad and Pat have stepped out from behind the curtain - and they are happy and free and creative!

I can't imagine how hard the end of Live would have been if The Gracious Few wasn't there to sweep me off my feet. Thank God for The Gracious Few! Long live The Gracious Few!

[Pokey]

Well said ... It sucks that Live ended the way they did, it would have been nice to see mate's part ways over creative differences which no one can help rather than what happend. But I'd have been much more devestated if they finished up after TDTH because then I'd have felt like we'd be missing out on so much more amazing music. Of course now in hindsight I kind of wish they did split then! But the fact that I have enjoyed the ever loving fuck out of TGF's album more so than the last couple of Live releases, Ed's album and hell dare I say it maybe even more than MJ and TDTH, just goes to show what a quality band they are. And yes, Thank God for TGF!

[SecretInsomnia]

But I'd have been much more devestated if they finished up after TDTH because then I'd have felt like we'd be missing out on so much more amazing music.

Well, I still feel we "missed out on so much more amazing music", because of the fact Ed and CC didnt work together much after 1999.

But I certainly agree Fish, thank God they didnt stop making music after Live!

[Pokey]

Well, I still feel we "missed out on so much more amazing music", because of the fact Ed and CC didnt work together much after 1999.

We certainly did, but we wouldn't have known this. To us after TDTH was released we'd be forgiven for thinking the next album was going to be written like that an amazing. Hence the overwhelming resentmentof V. So I think if Live ended at that point it would have been much more crushing to everyone. Some people still held out hope after V and after BOP that they could turn it around but I think by SFBM it had just killed everyone's optimisim until there were only the people like Nick left who really prefered that style.

TGF to me could have easily gone the wrong way. I wasn't totally sold on KM's vocals from the candlebox stuff I heard and there was no way I was going to just like them for the sake of holding on and just liking them. For example Johnny Marr was a God to me in The Smiths and since then he's just done nothing, some awfully dull music, not a fan at all. So I think I'd almost prepared myself to walk away from everything connected to Live but the old albums if TGF didn't blow me away because Ed sure as hell wasn't. Thankfully I don't even have to "try to like it", I just love it. I think they've just found a great groove together. I really hope there is some more swamp blues style stuff up their sleeve in the future though.