Ed Kowalczyk interview on WMMR, January 3, 2017 Options

[SJN1279]

So SFBM should be obliterated then.

I like SFBM a lot.

To each their own.

[SinfulEyes]

I like SFBM a lot.

To each their own.

The general consensus among die-hard Live fans and casuals is that it is absolute garbage.

[Bremang]

What's he supposed to say - "my fans hate my music and i know i'm not relevant or fresh...oh and btw, i suck!". How dare he speak positively about his music! GTFOH!,

It is probably the best business move for him to keep repeating the canned responses and hoping he can convince a few casuals into seeing the show, this just isn't humble or effusive like Fish was suggesting.

This post has been edited by Bremang: Jan 5 2017, 11:50 pm

[Pingfah]

The general consensus among die-hard Live fans and casuals is that it is absolute garbage.

I wouldn't go that far personally, I think it had lots of great melodies and particularly middle eights, that's something Live have always excelled at. But it was horribly executed.

Had the band been given full rein to do the music how they wanted, I think it would have been a musically good album with decent vocals but shitty cringe inducing lyrics, like V and BoP.

[LiveForNow]

I wouldn't go that far personally, I think it had lots of great melodies and particularly middle eights, that's something Live have always excelled at. But it was horribly executed.

Had the band been given full rein to do the music how they wanted, I think it would have been a musically good album with decent vocals but shitty cringe inducing lyrics, like V and BoP.

A lot of SFBM songs are considerably better when played live. I particularly dig Wings at the Paradiso - the guitars in particular sound a lot more like Live than they do on the recording.

[Pingfah]

Yes, I also have a different mix of The River called Guitars Up Mix, which is a significant improvement. Still a decidedly lacklustre song though.

[Merica]

Yes, I also have a different mix of The River called Guitars Up Mix, which is a significant improvement. Still a decidedly lacklustre song though.

If I ever played my Live music alphabetically then Secret Samadhi was always followed by Songs from Black Mountain. Which obviously meant you went from Gas Hed to The River. I mean hell fucking fire.

[mattyeagles]

If I ever played my Live music alphabetically then Secret Samadhi was always followed by Songs from Black Mountain. Which obviously meant you went from Gas Hed to The River. I mean hell fucking fire.

SFBM is painful.

[Possum Kingdom]

SFBM is painful.

CCP also agreed with this statement.

[SinfulEyes]

CCP also agreed with this statement.

The Turn is more of a Live album than SFBM.

[World Dreamer]

I like SFBM a lot.

To each their own.

LOL

[Badman]

Honest Man and a Live song called "Believe" that was performed a couple of times in 2009 fits right into the legend and lore of what happened toward the end of Live 1.0 in 2009. As the story goes, CCP brought the music for a new song to Ed at a time when Ed was running the creative show. This was like a last ditch effort to have some input. Ed put God lyrics to the song and called it Believe. During the "hiatus" there was some criticism leveled about how Ed was too obsessed with overt God lyrics. I think that CCP may have even expressed some dissatisfaction with what Ed did with their rocking music. The lyrics were about believing in God. "It's time to believe again. I'm pointing to you my friend." It basically sounded like lyrics from Ed's solo career written over music from the Gracious Few. It obviously later became Honest Man. Honest Man became a song that paid homage to Chad Gracey's dad, a working man and salt of the earth. I for one totally prefer Honest Man, hands down. They performed Believe a few times in concert. Around this time, there was other evidence of an internal struggle for creative input. They performed an old blues song called God Don't Never Change by Blind Willie Johnson a few times in concert. Ed announced in concert that he was grateful to Chad Taylor for turning him on to some if this old cool blues music. They performed a rocking version of that a few times in concerts I attended.

In essence, these tails from the past are precise evidence of what has been argued on this board for a decade, and what has been debated about Live with Ed 2.0. Will it be SFBM? Will it be Believe? Or will it Turn the corner (no pun intended) and become post-TGF post-Shinn Live with Ed, using everything that has been learned from the past?

Here is a YouTube link to Believe.

https://youtu.be/7ZqT0stibWs

My head is spinning with all the new Chad Taylor revelations and the allegations that CT was taking way more credit for songwriting than he deserved. What if Ed had a lot more input on this song and CT basically stole it and made it their TGF single?

This post has been edited by Badman: Jun 7 2022, 1:29 am

[Bremang]

The music for believe/honest man sounds like something Chad would write, and something Ed would not come up with. Ed's process seems to begin with an acoustic guitar or piano, and Chad seems to write from the electric guitar.

[Pingfah]

My head is spinning with all the new Chad Taylor revelations and the allegations that CT was taking way more credit for songwriting than he deserved. What if Ed had a lot more input on this song and CT basically stole it and made it their TGF single?

Clearly there is a lot of stuff we have been mislead or didn't know about, but what raises my eyebrow about this particular accusation is that at least to my ears, TGF and The Turn sound WAY more like top-level Live (everything up to TDTH) than V, BOP or SFBM, or any of Ed's solo stuff and I put a lot of that down to the guitars.

I find it a little hard to swallow that CT did not have a major hand in the writing on those earlier successful albums.

[mattyeagles]

Clearly there is a lot of stuff we have been mislead or didn't know about, but what raises my eyebrow about this particular accusation is that at least to my ears, TGF and The Turn sound WAY more like top-level Live (everything up to TDTH) than V, BOP or SFBM, or any of Ed's solo stuff and I put a lot of that down to the guitars.

I find it a little hard to swallow that CT did not have a major hand in the writing on those earlier successful albums.

Is anyone challenging CT’s writing the guitar parts or riffs? Seems like Ed wrote the lyrics and Melodies and that perhaps CT was exaggerating his contributions to those.