Lightning Crashes

"Lightning Crashes"
Single by Live
from the album Throwing Copper
Released September 24, 1994
Format Cassette, CD
Recorded 1993
Genre Alternative rock
Length 5:27
Label Radioactive
Songwriter(s) Live
Producer(s) Jerry Harrison, Live
Live singles chronology
"I Alone"
(1994)		 "Lightning Crashes"
(1994)		 "All Over You"
(1994)

"I Alone"
(1994)		 "Lightning Crashes"
(1994)		 "All Over You"
(1994)
Audio sample
  • file
  • help

"Lightning Crashes" is a song by American rock band Live. It was released in September 1994 as the third single from their album, Throwing Copper.

Although the track was not released as a single in the US, it received enough radio airplay to peak at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart in 1995. The song also topped the Billboard Album Rock Tracks (10 weeks) and Hot Modern Rock Tracks (9 weeks) charts. The song was also a top 40 hit in the UK, where the single was released in several formats.

Composition

According to the sheet music published at MusicNotes.com, the song is written in the key of C major (recorded a half step lower in B major)[1]

Song meaning

Lead singer Ed Kowalczyk said, "I wrote 'Lightning Crashes' on an acoustic guitar in my brother's bedroom shortly before I had moved out of my parents' house and gotten my first place of my own." Kowalczyk says that the video for "Lightning Crashes" has caused misinterpretations of the song's intent.

While the clip is shot in a home environment, I envisioned it taking place in a hospital, where all these simultaneous deaths and births are going on, one family mourning the loss of a woman while a screaming baby emerges from a young mother in another room. Nobody's dying in the act of childbirth, as some viewers think. What you're seeing is actually a happy ending based on a kind of transference of life.[2]

New York magazine described the band as "deeply mystical" and claimed that the song was, "The story of a...connection between an old lady dying and a new mother at the moment of giving birth."[3]

Formats and track listings

All songs written by Live.

European single

  1. "Lightning Crashes" [Edit] – 4:29
  2. "Lightning Crashes" (Glastonbury '95) [Live] – 5:15
  3. "The Beauty of Gray" (Bootleg Version) [Live] – 4:45

German single

  1. "Lightning Crashes" [Edit] – 4:25
  2. "Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)" – 3:18
  3. "Good Pain" – 5:39
  4. "Heaven Wore a Shirt" – 3:38
  5. "Negation" – 3:38

U.K. CD single 1 (RAXTD 23)

  1. "Lightning Crashes" – 5:26
  2. "The Beauty of Gray" (Bootleg Version) [Live] – 4:45
  3. "T.B.D." (Acoustic Version) – 3:49

U.K. CD single 2 (RAXXD 23)

  1. "Lightning Crashes" – 5:26
  2. "Lightning Crashes" (Glastonbury '95) [Live] – 5:16
  3. "White, Discussion" (Glastonbury '95) [Live] – 5:22

U.K. cassette single

  1. "Lightning Crashes" – 5:26
  2. "Lightning Crashes" (Glastonbury '95) [Live] – 5:16

Charts

References

  1. ↑ Live "Lightning Crashes" Sheet Music musicnotes.com
  2. ↑ Scarisbrick,John. "Lightning Strikes." Spin Magazine, June 1995, p. 52.
  3. ↑ Michael Hirschorn (September 1995), [music], New York Magazine, p. 35
  4. ↑ "Australian-charts.com – Live – Lightning Crashes". ARIA Top 50 Singles.
  5. ↑ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 9008." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  6. ↑ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  7. ↑ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  8. ↑ "Live Chart History (Alternative Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  9. ↑ "Live Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  10. ↑ "Live Chart History (Pop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  11. ↑ "Live Chart History (Radio Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  12. ↑ "The ARIA Australian Top 100 Singles 1995". Imgur.com (original document published by ARIA). Retrieved 2016-08-13.
  13. ↑ "RPM 100 Hit Tracks of 1995". RPM. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.