Ed Takes A Beat Down, Alive - "It's Depressing" Options

[Merica]

I'd like to know who thinks that, in general, Ed's lyrics are better now than they were in Live's better years. I really would.

[Pokey]

The fact that the thing that gets discussed the most in these lyrics come from misunderstanding of the grammar witten vs sung is kind of sad. It's just sloppy writing. I knew from the start that it wasn't the black bird against the night sky which was sweet like his soul's song .. but that's only because I used my brain to figure it out. otherwise the way it's sung can just sound sloppy and like it doesn't make sense.
The lyrics to Alive don't have too much too them really, they're pretty straight forward compared to songs he's written like Gas Hed, Insomnia, Where Fishes Go etc..
Again, I'm trying to look at it from a neutural zone .. I am a former Christian, the lyrics do not speak to me in any way whatsoever. However that's not how I'm judging them because judging them based on the subject wouldn't be fair. However that being said even the subject has just become so single vision focused. He's writing whole albums now with song after song really not differing much in their subject matter unlike earlier in his career.
I think his writing has gotten lazier, he uses way too many metaphores for my liking.

[Aitkens]

I dont see the blackbird as the entire metaphor. I see the 'blackbird This is Ed's artistic creation of 2010. Let it stand on its own.

Ok fine. Knowing damn well what Ed is/was capable of, Alive is a complete abortion. Not just musically, but lyrically as well. It isn't thought provoking, it isn't ground breaking. It's boring and dumbed down for the masses.

[FishOutaWater]

I think if you look closely at the material Ed has produced (with or without LIVE) over the last 5-7 years, you will notice that it has steadily wavered away from the stuff that we have grown accustomed to and loved about him. I still found what Ed had to say interesting right up until around 2004/5, till before SFBM came out.

I'm not sure whether the material on that album swayed my belief that he was a man who was calculated and knew exactly what he was talking about, to someone who contradicted himself and just started sounding lame.

If you read the stuff he had up on Ken Wilber's jounal 'Integral Naked' at the time 2003-2005 or so, Ed came across as a very intelligent, careful and thoughtful kind of guy. He seemed very interesting, and genuinely passionate and interested in what he was doing artistically and musically, and you couldn't help be in awe if not inspired by the man and what he was about.

His lyrics and his general persona were consistent with the man we saw on stage, and when you listened to the material and read the interviews and the journals etc, he seemed so in tune (if you pardon the pun).

However, ever since SFBM and the way Ed has put himself about is really sad, as someone here has already stated. I feel that the fans 'collective yawn' CT spoke about was not exaggerated by any means - indeed many called a LIVE split 4 - 5 years ago. Many of us put it down to a few bad years, after so many great years, and that LIVE would be back sooner rather than later.

Somehow though, when CT revealed his findings in that email, and once we all digested what he had to say, we somehow knew it was coming, and that it was more believable than not, that Ed was just as big a reason for the 'decline' (I know Nick will go mental about me calling it that) as anyone. It seemed the man who was once so interesting and so out there in terms of dynamic lyrics and always had the right words didn't have it anymore.

Alive is just a continuation of that change in behavior. I am just as guilty of dissing that album as anyone else. Yes, I do prefer the pure rock sound of TGF over Ed's new pop sound. I also don't have a problem with people who prefer Ed's sound over TGF's - but what I do have a problem with, is when people talk about Alive like it is the best work that Ed has done and these mediocre musicians he has surrounded himself with are the best that he can do. Alive is far off the standard off any LIVE album - the good ones AND the poor ones. The rest of us know what he is capable of.

I can't understand how a fanofLIVE can't see that.

Wow. Excellent post.

[mattyeagles]

Interesting to see the writer of the article mention the question about "why is a child driving?".

Wasn't it Pokey or someone else who asked that exact same question when talking about the lyrics?

why does little swami have his bowl to eat? ed's lyrics have always been wierd at times, lets not try to make sense of every single line now and criticize if we dont understand it

[Pokey]

why does little swami have his bowl to eat? ed's lyrics have always been wierd at times, lets not try to make sense of every single line now and criticize if we dont understand it

Little Swami having a bowl to eat (rather than the contents of the bowl) is different to the child driving lyric. With the child driving, as it was explained earlier, the "like a child" part seems to be belonging to the previous line and then "falling asleep at the wheel of my life" is seperate and infact has nothing to do with the child driving.
However, Swami having a bowl to eat is easily seen as just a turn of phrase. This lyric in Drive is just a mess, written one way, sung the other. When he sings it definitely sounds like he's saying he's like a child falling asleep at the wheel, which like I mentioned is just silly. He also I guess could have meant he was like a child falling asleep .. being at the wheel is just what he happend to be doing at the time. Either way, it's just a mess. I don't think you can classify it as weird or even have to make sense of it, I don't think it was written with the intention to be interesting or confuse, just sloppy.

I know you say it's just a single line and not criticise etc.. but sometimes when something bugs you it's hard to ignore it. It's the chorus of this song, if I actually liked the song and listend to it (which i don't now) then it'd be like that bad itch you can't scratch.

Oh and before anyone says "if you don't listen to it why does it matter???" cos it's still Ed K and he's still one of the people I idolised in the music industry in high regard who has taken an almighty fall in every way possible. So it's still a point of interest.

[jclive]

Ok fine. Knowing damn well what Ed is/was capable of, Alive is a complete abortion. Not just musically, but lyrically as well. It isn't thought provoking, it isn't ground breaking. It's boring and dumbed down for the masses.

I disagree. We're both right.

[mattyeagles]

I disagree. We're both right.

i agree with you guys as well...there are some songs i like on the album (drive, grace, zion, soul whispers, eat your love) and they all pretty good but nothing thought inspiring or great. even the best songs pare in comparison to all of the older stuff. they arent even close on any measure of quality.

[ItchyTriggerFinger]

Then get on the Van Halen bus. theyre back, see other music

Not that I was ever really a big VH fan, but I'd be wary of getting back into another band where the key member seems to be increasingly flaky. Maybe it's just an outsider's view of EVH, and I admit I could be very wrong about it.

Ditto with GnR.

[jclive]

Not that I was ever really a big VH fan, but I'd be wary of getting back into another band where the key member seems to be increasingly flaky. Maybe it's just an outsider's view of EVH, and I admit I could be very wrong about it.

Ditto with GnR.

Worth it for the nostalgia factor alone!

[ItchyTriggerFinger]

why does little swami have his bowl to eat? ed's lyrics have always been wierd at times, lets not try to make sense of every single line now and criticize if we dont understand it

We criticize, not because we don't understand, but because we expect better. What part of that don't you understand?

[ItchyTriggerFinger]

Worth it for the nostalgia factor alone!

If nostalgia means not being sure of what you'll actually end up getting from the time you bought the ticket to the time the show actually happens, I'll pass on nostalgia.

[jclive]

We criticize, not because we don't understand, but because we expect better. What part of that don't you understand?

Ed didnt write Alive to satisfy OUR expectations. At least I would suspect not. He's an Artist, I would hope that Alive meets HIS expectations. If it appeals to our tastes, then so be it. If you expected something different, then that's just personal.

[jclive]

i agree with you guys as well...there are some songs i like on the album (drive, grace, zion, soul whispers, eat your love) and they all pretty good but nothing thought inspiring or great. even the best songs pare in comparison to all of the older stuff. they arent even close on any measure of quality.

The last couple of listens have really drawn me to Soul Whispers and Fire on the Mountain.

[ItchyTriggerFinger]

Ed didnt write Alive to satisfy OUR expectations. At least I would suspect not. He's an Artist, I would hope that Alive meets HIS expectations. If it appeals to our tastes, then so be it. If you expected something different, then that's just personal.

The second he, or any other artist for that matter, starts asking for my money to purchase their music, they can be damn certain that I'm going to have expectations as to the quality of the lyrics and music.

If he's perfectly happy making absolutely no money at all from writing music, then your point is 100 percent completely valid. Otherwise, his musical work is a perfectly legitimate target for criticism.

And yes, he is also being judged on what he has done before. If this had been his first effort, I'd have written him off as some middle of the road talent, nothing to get too excited over in either direction. But the thing is we know better.