V DEMO, 1999 (Los Angeles, CA) age, 28yrs.
MEDIA FORMAT: PRO TOOLS, DAT
Second only to the Shadow Hill recordings, there are a ton of unreleased tracks from this mid-tour session. We documented nearly two albums worth of material in two short weeks. The goal was to prepare songs for the next studio session. MCA got a hold of the material and pushed us to call it an album but it took over two years to finally release side-A of the demos originally titled “Ecstatic Fanatic.” MCA’s delays totally changed the feel of the once spontaneous demo into an album that had to really count for Live. It was released September 18, only seven days after the world trade center terrorist attach that would change the world. An independently produced video for Overcome made the cut to play in the short rotation of only 5 songs on MTV for more than 3 days. Everything about the “album” was wrong. The label, which was having great success with No Doubt wanted to re-image the band and spent a ton of money on a photo shoot for the album cover only to add grainy graphics so that the band was undicernable. It was fucking nuts. Live fans really take the piss out of this album but it was NEVER intended to be an album. It was always a spontaneous outpouring of material Ed had been developing on the road. Patrick wasn’t even in town for half of it. From my point of view, some of Ed’s finest songwriting occurs on the songs that were never included on the album (this was because it was supposed to be a give-away for the fans). We even tried to rush a release of Overcome to record stores all across the country to benefit the victims of 9/11 but the label wouldn’t donate their portion of the funds to the proceeds (seriously).
It just occurred to me that I really detailed a ton of this stuff in the first draft of “The Search for Public Affection; the story of LIVE.” This section was written awhile back but does hit the nail on the head. I will include it hear as a “thank you” to the fans that really have come along for this ride:
Chapter 13 “The Turn”
It was about six years ago when I openly declared to my close friends and family that the new media age had revolutionized our industry over night. I predicted that music sales would cause a selloff of minor labels to majors and later majors to majors. This would be an outright war for market share and I feared my own band would be lost in the shuffle.
We were on tour for The Distance To Here and on a short break began to work on the songs that would later find themselves on V. Ed was on fire. We could barely keep up with the frantic pace with which he was turning out new ideas. Patrick was at home with his family celebrating the birth of his daughter and the process was disjointed from a “band” standpoint. We were recording at good friends house with the drums on the patio and guitar amps in the living room. We spent little to no time perfecting the parts as we were only trying to capture the creative energy of the moment. It was fun but outside of the typical rehearsal writing sessions of the past. I thought, this will be how records are made in the future, cheap, fast and full of “in the moment” creative spirit.
By the time Patrick made LA, we nearly had two albums worth of material recorded. It was creative and recording overload but we wanted to surprise our fans with an album in the middle of a touring cycle. Fresh material with a loose feel, something we had never done. We didn’t want to over think anything, just immediately release a batch of new songs. They were experimental in many ways, lacking the traditional band arrangements that our fans had come to love but as a two-week long session of demos it was perfect.
We submitted the material to MCA/Universal, as RadioActive no longer existed. There was great debate at the label over a single. We suggested not releasing one as we wanted it to be “for the fans”, impromptu, live esc. – In the moment. It took MCA/Universal over a year to release the album. The project went from being titled “Ecstatic Fanatic” with a quasi-orgy painting by Peter Howson to “V”. The label insisted that bands needed to be on “the cover” and hired an insanely expensive photographer to revolutionize the bands image. We laughed, as we know our image was the anti-image. The photographer had arranged a series of “huge” fires that would be burning in the background. They turned out to be little barrels with barely a flame shooting out; total “Spinal Tap”. Gracey nearly killed the stylist for messing with his clothing or hair. This had nothing to do with the Live that came from the street of York, PA. This was all about market share. The funny thing is the photo shoot went so poorly that they added charcoal graphics to the picture and totally distorted what they were going for in the first place.
In our defense, we begged MCA to release the album the way we wanted but they had no interest. To our luck director Rob Cohen was a LIVE fan and placed “Deep Enough” in the opening scene of “The Fast and Furious.” To our disbelief, MCA turned down an offer from the production company to shoot a video on set by Rob himself. They had a partnership with MTV that would guarantee heavy rotation out of the box. You can’t make this shit up. They passed on “Deep Enough” insisting that “Simple Creed” was better suited for radio. This is on an album where we didn’t even want a single! Our management was going fucking nuts as you can imagine. I knew it was a sure fire sign that the close nit family that worked so hard to build Live was no longer in the drivers seat. Corporate shareholders were now the new priority in the “music” business.
Another huge moment can only a few weeks later. The producers for the “Mummy Return’s” called and asked if we would be willing to provide a song for the closing credits of the film. Ed wrote with Glen Ballard and they turned out “Forever May Not Be Long Enough.” I knew it wasn’t a typical Live song but then again, nothing about this album was making much sense. Ballard had the audacity to sit there and tell Patrick Dahlheimer, one of the most explosive rock bass players of his era to play one single note throughout the entire song. I walked out of the room laughing. This was fucked. Thankfully, the track worked well in the film but this wasn’t what I signed up for. Once again, the label did not want to work the song as a single but our management was able to convince them to at least let us shoot a video.
Hindsight is 20/20 but these were the number 1 and 2 top grossing films of the year with featured placement and absolutely no love from the label. I was sick to my stomach.
The label finally decided by committee that “Simple Creed” would be the single and a video was ordered. I had lost 35 pounds working out everyday to “look great” in the new media model of tits and ass. Shirtless with only a vest on I took on my new role as an actor in someone’s bad play. This shit had nothing to do with the dream Chad, Patrick and I started in Gracey’s bedroom in York. It had nothing to do with Ed’s lyrics on “Lightning Crashes.” This was all about the looming downturn in corporate revenue MCA was facing. We were fucked and stuck in an unbreakable contract.
All of the delays added up and nearly a year and a half after we finished a few “off the wall” demo’s MCA set a release date, September 18, 2001. Seven days after the terror attacks of 9/11. Things had gone from bad to grim. The happy go lucky spirit of this music would never see the light of day. The world had changed before our eyes.
Mary Kowalczyk, Ed’s mother, called me right after the second plane hit. She wanted to know where Eddie was as he had been on the road to do press and promotion for the album. I assured her he was fine but hung up the phone and began to make frantic phone calls to management and Matt Gracey who was on the road with Ed. Thankfully, they were okay in Chicago.
To my surprise a friend called me to tell me to turn on VH1. Someone had set footage from ground zero to the music of “Overcome.” I stood and cried as it played. This was so much bigger than my band, our music or me. I knew Live would never be the same from that moment forward. A deep depression of sorts set in. The wave that surged throughout the 90’s had crested and now crashed on the flatlands of three toppled buildings and thousands of dead.
I began calling every radio station in the country requesting Overcome as a song offered by the band for healing. I called our management to tell the label to get a single release ready to sell in stores to benefit the victim’s families. To my dismay MCA refused to offer any funds or support despite the fact that nearly every radio format including country, R&B, top 40, jazz and blues stations were playing the song. I was so sad. Sad for those families. Sad for my own too. I wondered if anyone could understand the emotional toll 9/11 had taken on us as people. How could we perform? How would we get through?
Our management encouraged us to get back to doing what we did best, playing live shows. Our childhood hero’s Jane’s Addiction were mounting a comeback tour and we agreed to take the opening slot. Something we hadn’t done since Mental Jewelry. They gave us less than 10’ of the stage and only 6 par cans for lights. Big time, “rock star” bullshit. We played the first night with electric guitars blazing but the magic wasn’t there. We poured our hearts into the show but for the first time in my life, I didn’t want to be on stage. I didn’t want to play music. It just felt wrong.
(continued below)
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Originally Posted by JKL2000
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