As grunge acts dominated the 1994 music landscape, record companies rushed to cash in on the wave. Enter Live, whose grunge-adjacent sound rocketed them to the top the charts with "Selling The Drama."
We’re entering such a great time in my life musically and I’m looking forward to what this year will bring. In 1994 I got sober and really began getting back into music and buying new music again and so many of these songs take me right back to that important period of my life.
That Live album was great and Lightning Crashes and I Alone were mainstays on my playlists that year. I loved that Frente cover back then; I was really into them.
Like I say in my Green Day post today, if you were musically conscious and between the ages of 10 and 30 in 1994-95, pretty much everything I write going forward is going to resonate with you. It wasn't just alternative rock at this time period: all of these songs were alternative AND mainstream. They were inescapable, and arguably the best time period for alternative rock in terms of its visibility.
"Selling the Drama" was a great appetizer for what Live was about to bring to the music table. "I Alone" is such a banger that to this day every time it comes on I make everybody shut up and I rub my hands all over my head like Ed does in the video. Even when I'm driving. Thanks for the trip back to memory lane.
"I Alone" is the best song on that album, IMO, and probably my all-time favorite Live song. The refrain still gives me chills to this day, when the background singers break into the refrain between Ed's main lines.
Also thought I hadn't heard this song before, but just watched the video for 'I Alone' and wow that's like a portal to 1995 and I'm listening to my 'Rocks Off' compilation cassette which must have been my introduction to Live.
"I Alone" is my all-time favorite song from Live, and sadly it did not hit #1 on the Modern Rock charts. Love all the singles off "Throwing Copper," but that's definitely my favorite, and a terrific time capsule of 1995.
There were four singles from "Throwing Copper" that got a lot of airplay, and I'd argue "Selling The Drama" was probably the weakest of the four. The one I loved the most, "I Alone," did not hit #1, and that's a damn shame. But they all definitely have "a sound" that makes them stand out, hard to define but obvious when you hear it!
We’re entering such a great time in my life musically and I’m looking forward to what this year will bring. In 1994 I got sober and really began getting back into music and buying new music again and so many of these songs take me right back to that important period of my life.
That Live album was great and Lightning Crashes and I Alone were mainstays on my playlists that year. I loved that Frente cover back then; I was really into them.
Like I say in my Green Day post today, if you were musically conscious and between the ages of 10 and 30 in 1994-95, pretty much everything I write going forward is going to resonate with you. It wasn't just alternative rock at this time period: all of these songs were alternative AND mainstream. They were inescapable, and arguably the best time period for alternative rock in terms of its visibility.
"Selling the Drama" was a great appetizer for what Live was about to bring to the music table. "I Alone" is such a banger that to this day every time it comes on I make everybody shut up and I rub my hands all over my head like Ed does in the video. Even when I'm driving. Thanks for the trip back to memory lane.
"I Alone" is the best song on that album, IMO, and probably my all-time favorite Live song. The refrain still gives me chills to this day, when the background singers break into the refrain between Ed's main lines.
Uh, wow.
I've always liked that Erasure song. But I've never seen the video until now.
And, uh.
Wow.
Fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com
Also thought I hadn't heard this song before, but just watched the video for 'I Alone' and wow that's like a portal to 1995 and I'm listening to my 'Rocks Off' compilation cassette which must have been my introduction to Live.
"I Alone" is my all-time favorite song from Live, and sadly it did not hit #1 on the Modern Rock charts. Love all the singles off "Throwing Copper," but that's definitely my favorite, and a terrific time capsule of 1995.
I know the other single from _Throwing Copper_. I don't know that I'd heard that song before, but the sound of the band is instantly familiar.
It's funny, given your comment about lyrical brashness, I just found out about this song, which has way more profanity than I would have expected from 1980 -- https://altrockchick.com/2022/08/07/song-series-the-rodeo-song-garry-lee-and-the-showdown-gaye-delorme/
There were four singles from "Throwing Copper" that got a lot of airplay, and I'd argue "Selling The Drama" was probably the weakest of the four. The one I loved the most, "I Alone," did not hit #1, and that's a damn shame. But they all definitely have "a sound" that makes them stand out, hard to define but obvious when you hear it!
Fair enough. The single that I heard a bunch (because I had a friend who talked it up) was “Lightning Crashes”