Who is your preferred singer for +Live+? Options

[Shared Belief]

How could people here prefer Chris over Ed? The comparison is not between Chris and Ed from the 2000s but between Chris and Ed who made TC and SS. I don’t think that Ed is coming back to sign similar songs as V, SFBM, Alive etc

the comparison is not from tc/ss ed.

that ed hasnt been around for 20 years.

the comparison is from solo ed and the turn chris because that is what we most recently have.

for me it is chris but id like nothing more than ed to show up with a vengeance. not gonna get my hopes up tho. cautiously optimistic

[mattyeagles]

the comparison is not from tc/ss ed.

that ed hasnt been around for 20 years.

the comparison is from solo ed and the turn chris because that is what we most recently have.

for me it is chris but id like nothing more than ed to show up with a vengeance. not gonna get my hopes up tho. cautiously optimistic

the SFBM and Alive Ed is different than the flood and the mercy ed. Still not nearly as good as pre-TDTH ed but def room for optimism

[Unsheathed]

How could people here prefer Chris over Ed? The comparison is not between Chris and Ed from the 2000s but between Chris and Ed who made TC and SS. I don’t think that Ed is coming back to sing similar songs as V, SFBM, Alive etc

That is a bold assumption. I hope you are right.

[odoyle]

just no more water themed songs, please

[Costakoui]

the comparison is not from tc/ss ed.

that ed hasnt been around for 20 years.

the comparison is from solo ed and the turn chris because that is what we most recently have.

for me it is chris but id like nothing more than ed to show up with a vengeance. not gonna get my hopes up tho. cautiously optimistic

Really? And who decided that this is the comparison we are making here? Ed solo is NOT Live. Now Live is back with its original lineup and you choose to compare Ed solo with Chris? It makes no sense to me. Ed still has it and you can hear it when he performs live, perhaps not 100% but it is almost there. Studio recordings can fix many problems.

[Costakoui]

That is a bold assumption. I hope you are right.

It is indeed an assumption. But arguing that Ed is going to perform Ed-solo-like songs or BoP songs is an assumption too. The most reasonable assumption at the moment, after all that happened between Ed and CCP and The Turn (which included some heavy songs), is that Ed is coming back to the Live form.

[vivapokey]

Really? And who decided that this is the comparison we are making here? Ed solo is NOT Live. Now Live is back with its original lineup and you choose to compare Ed solo with Chris? It makes no sense to me. Ed still has it and you can hear it when he performs live, perhaps not 100% but it is almost there. Studio recordings can fix many problems.

Why would we be making comparisons of someone from the past vs someone from the current? There's a reason you'd say "TC/SS era Ed", and that's because it is from an era. It isn't present day Ed, you can't wave a magic wand and have that Ed enter the frame now. Ed hasn't been like that in 20 years. I don't think he is capable of being like that. He sort of tried around the time of BOP when there was all that backlash about V and it was touted as the closest thing to TC done since and, well..it was BOP.

If somehow, someway Ed could be like he was in those days, I'd have voted for Ed to over Chris. But Ed hasn't done anything in any way shape or form to make me think he can go back to that, even if he wanted to. His voice, his psyche when it comes to writing etc ... its just changed. But Live back in its original lineup doesn't automatically make Live good/better/like the 90s. We had 10yrs of bad Live in the original lineup.

[Shared Belief]

Really? And who decided that this is the comparison we are making here? Ed solo is NOT Live. Now Live is back with its original lineup and you choose to compare Ed solo with Chris? It makes no sense to me. Ed still has it and you can hear it when he performs live, perhaps not 100% but it is almost there. Studio recordings can fix many problems.

i thought the person who made the poll said ed vs chris as in right now. if it is current chris then it needs to be current ed.

plus ed back with original lineup is not tc/ss ed. it is sfbm ed since that wa sthe most recent ed w/ ccp. tc/ss/tdth ed hasnt existed in a looooooong time.

ed solo tc shows left a lot to be desired imo. i thought live w/ chris sounded much more aggressive/loud/angst driven with the old live material than ed did when he performed it.

i dont know if ed can turn the clock back 20 years overnight.

but like i said i hope they can pull it off. cautiously optimistic. but if you nail me down right now i am going to choose chris.

[vivapokey]

I will give it to Ed that he has cut down his falsetto a bit. That's probably the one step in the right direction he's taken over the past 15 years for me. But other than that, yes its an assumption that he will still be balls, but to me he just hasn't done enough over recent history to make me think he'll somehow be good again. It's more of an assumption to me that he will somehow be good again.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is about Ed's voice that is like nails down a chalk board to me now. But it's something along the lines of him being overly dramatic/engaged in a "performance" rather than just being natural, humble and part of the band. A visual metaphor that I can put it closest to is an actor in a play fainting. Ed right now is the guy who puts his hand to his forehead and lets out a almost comical groan and flails to the floor. When, if it was more realistic to someone fainting, they'd just fall flat.
I was flicking through youtube videos and the way he pronounces words while singing, I saw POD the other day and it was "past, perfect teeeeense". Everything has to be dramatised and its almost like showing off and you look back at how he was in his prime and he just went out there and sang the fucking song. Chris did the same. Ed in the 90s and Chris now weren't solo artists playing with a backing band, they were simply part of the band. You can sort of forgive Ed that in his solo stuff, its his show, his name on the bill, people come to see him do that. But as part of Live its cringe worthy and nails down a chalk board. That's how he was when he was last with Live, he carried on like that when singing Live songs solo, so I find it hard to imagine he'd be much different coming back. But I'd welcome being wrong.

[Shared Belief]

live doesnt have a time machine to bring back tc/ss ed.

if they did they would have used it long ago and we would have hold me up and susquehanna on tc

[Shared Belief]

Ed still has it and you can hear it when he performs live, perhaps not 100% but it is almost there. Studio recordings can fix many problems.

i am fine with the studio fixing problmes as long as the ones who rag on shinn for it do the same for ed. somehow i doubt that tho

[odoyle]

so there is this veil of what's good for the goose is good for the gander about this thread?

[ThrowgnCpr]

Really? And who decided that this is the comparison we are making here? Ed solo is NOT Live. Now Live is back with its original lineup and you choose to compare Ed solo with Chris? It makes no sense to me. Ed still has it and you can hear it when he performs live, perhaps not 100% but it is almost there. Studio recordings can fix many problems.

I know I'm going to regret jumping into this shitshow, but here goes...

How can anyone think that Ed would contribute now in a way that he did 20 years ago? vivapokey was comparing Ed solo to Chris because that is a realistic comparison. Ed has gone in a completely different direction than the content and delivery that was on TC/SS. Not only do I not think he has the ability to project his voice in that same manner as he did on early Live albums, but his lyrical content has been completely different since Secret Samadhi. It is just realistic to think that Ed's contributions to the band would be much more akin to any of the last 7 albums/EPs he released (Live TDTH on, plus his solo material) than the first 5 of his career (Death of A Dictionary - Secret Samadhi).

Whether they get along now or not. Ed is not the same person he was 20 years ago, so to expect that his art would be similar to that period is foolish. And for that matter, neither are CCP. It's completely unrealistic to expect another Secret Samadhi. I enjoyed The Turn to an extent, but I didn't love it. I think that's as good as it's going to get as far as new Live material is concerned.

I've nothing against Ed, but I have no interest in new Live material with him. I saw Live several times during the 1990s. I'm good with that.

This post has been edited by ThrowgnCpr: Nov 2 2016, 11:29 am

[Costakoui]

I know I'm going to regret jumping into this shitshow, but here goes...

How can anyone think that Ed would contribute now in a way that he did 20 years ago? vivapokey was comparing Ed solo to Chris because that is a realistic comparison. Ed has gone in a completely different direction than the content and delivery that was on TC/SS. Not only do I not think he has the ability to project his voice in that same manner as he did on early Live albums, but his lyrical content has been completely different since Secret Samadhi. It is just realistic to think that Ed's contributions to the band would be much more akin to any of the last 7 albums/EPs he released (Live TDTH on, plus his solo material) than the first 5 of his career (Death of A Dictionary - Secret Samadhi).

Whether they get along now or not. Ed is not the same person he was 20 years ago, so to expect that his art would be similar to that period is foolish. And for that matter, neither are CCP. It's completely unrealistic to expect another Secret Samadhi. I enjoyed The Turn to an extent, but I didn't love it. I think that's as good as it's going to get as far as new Live material is concerned.

I've nothing against Ed, but I have no interest in new Live material with him. I saw Live several times during the 1990s. I'm good with that.

No it is not a realistic comparison because it is like saying that Live’s new material will definitely sound like Ed-solo. If this is the case there is no point of having a reunion after all. The realistic comparison is between Ed-Live and Chris-Live. Ed-Live is the 1990s. Chris-Live is not even close to it, though The Turn was a good album overall. With the exception of Siren’s Call, The Turn has no other song which compares with the magic and energy of songs like Iris, Gas Hed, Hold me up and many others. Ed cannot sing the way he did in the 1990s but i do not think that the way he sang Irish live acoustically in 2015 is very far from that. What is certain is that the way Chris performed Iris does not even come close to either current Ed or 1990s Ed. I am using Iris as an example because, to me, it is Live’s gold standard.

[ThrowgnCpr]

No it is not a realistic comparison because it is like saying that Live’s new material will definitely sound like Ed-solo. If this is the case there is no point of having a reunion after all. The realistic comparison is between Ed-Live and Chris-Live. Ed-Live is the 1990s.

Your argument makes no sense. Do you not realize that half of the band's output WITH Ed Kowalczyk came in the 00s, NOT the 90s?

I think it is completely unrealistic to think that Ed will sound like or write anything similar to music he wrote 20 years ago.

If you want to modify the poll to include the following choices:

Ed 90s
Actual Ed
Chris

Then of course I would vote for Ed 90s. But there is a next to zero chance of that happening.