Tag: Shine

‘Give Me A Word: The Collective Soul Story’ – Documentary Review

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Recently, Collective Soul released on Blu-Ray, their very own documentary entitled ‘Give Me A Word: The Collective Soul Story’ and I finally had a chance to sit down and watch it. And I am so glad I did. One of my all time favorite bands, I feel Collective Soul is one of the most underrated bands out there. They have a unique sound and tone that is all their own. You hear one of the many cool-ass riffs they’ve written and you know in an instant that is Collective Soul. You hear the vocals of lead singer, Ed Roland, and you know it is Collective Soul.

The band hails from Stockbridge, Georgie which is just south of Atlanta and because of that, I consider them a local band for me as I lived just outside of Atlanta myself. Thanks to the college radio station at Georgia State University (where my wife went to college around that time), the world was introduced to the song ‘Shine’ thanks to radio DJ Southside Steve…man, I so remember that station and DJ. Brings back so many fond radio memories. It was because of that little college radio station playing ‘Shine’ that the band drew interest and were signed to Atlantic Records. They released their debut album, ‘Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid’ which was really only a collection of demos. They felt, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

The documentary kicks off with the band recording an album at Elvis Presley’s Palm Springs house and shows the band recording as well as talking to them about the history of the band. While they were there recording, Lisa Marie Presley passed away which is a little surreal for them.

We go back to the debut and they walk through their time with Atlantic and then how things fell apart once their contract was up with the label. Ross Childress, lead guitarist, slept with Ed Roland’s wife so he was out of the band. The original drummer, Shane Evans, got in to drugs and was in a really bad place and he left the band. That left Ed, his brother Dean and bass player Will Turpin to carry on, which they did.

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Bon Jovi – ‘2020’ (2020) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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We are now on the 15th Studio album for Bon Jovi. It has been 4 years since their last one due to lack of inspiration or him needing a break. In 2019, the band started working on the new album in Nashville. Jon had recorded all the tracks on his phone and brought them to the studio where the band recorded 23 demo songs in just 11 days. They picked the best 10 and went to work on recording the final product. All was done. Until Covid-19 hit. Everything stopped.

During that time, a lot happened. Inspiration hit Jon and he wrote two more songs for the album. That meant a couple songs had to be cut. They were still used as bonus tracks on the deluxe edition. But those new songs and most of the songs on the album we Jon speaking his mind about world events, political events. The album feels like a Protest album. Jon is laying bear his thoughts and voicing an opinion. I will admit, I admire him for that, however, Bon Jovi is not a Protest band so the songs don’t feel like protest songs. They don’t have the power musically to get the point across. He isn’t Bruce Springsteen or Will Hoge (who writes a lot of protest songs and does them well). This is a band that wrote love songs and sexual songs. Yeah, he had Tommy and Gina, but those were stories. These stories fall flat coming from a band of such privilege.

And another problem is Jon’s vocals. You can tell something is wrong. He isn’t really singing anything. He is speaking more than anything. Now, we know of the problems he was facing. His throat was messed up and he needed surgery. At this point, I don’t think he was ready to admit he had a problem. I feel for him. It is his livelihood. It had to be difficult knowing you can’t do what you used to be able to do. This was the first album that I think I noticed something was wrong and/or different. And from the Bon Jovi documentary, we get to see the anguish and pain he was facing. You hate to see your heroes fall a little, if you know what I mean.

After some delays thanks to Covid, the album was released on October 2, 2020. They picked the name of the album, 2020, for two reasons. Jon was seeing clearly on what was going on in the world. And 2020 was the year of the Pandemic, George Floyd killing and a world of other problems. I think it is a fitting name for the album. The cover embodies that feeling as well. Looking at the cover, Jon looks like he is about to speak his mind as he is giving heavy thought. And look at this glasses as there is an American Flag reflected in the lenses.

The band is the same with Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan and Tico Torres as well as Phil X and Hugh McDonald. Unfortunately, John Shanks is still the producer with Jon and it shows. Please replace Shanks as producer…PLEASE!!! The album would hit #19 on the Billboard charts and spawn five promotional singles. It wasn’t that successful overall. I bought it. My copy was released on December 4, 2020 and is the Double LP Gold Edition with 2 bonus tracks (the two songs left off the album and replaced by new ones). I love the effect on the vinyl, it looks like it bubbling up and wrinkling. Cool effect.

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My Sunday Song – “Shine” by Collective Soul

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For My Sunday Song #171, we are now going to spend the next 10 weeks talking about songs from another favorite band of mine, Collective Soul.  And why not kick it off with the song that jump started the band to stardom…”Shine”.  The song was the debut single of the band and their debut album ‘Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid’.  The song came out in 1993 and was such a big hit for them as it went #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as winning a Billboard Award for Top Rock Track in 1994.

The song also caused problems for the band that were unexpected.  First was the fact the song mentioned the word Heaven in the song and the chorus does come across as very church-like and almost sounding like a prayer.  This caused people to think the band was a so called “Christian” band and let me tell you they are not.  They are a genuine article rock band who happened to sing a song with heaven in the title. As Ed Roland likes to point out, Led Zeppelin had “heaven” in one of their songs and no one called them a Christian band.  It did pigeoned-holed the band a little to be lumped in to Christian music.

The second problem was due to the song sounding like a Grunge song with its distorted guitar sounds and dark feel of the song.  This was slab dab in the middle of that era and I can see why people thought they were a Grunge band as I even labeled them as that when I heard it.  But when you really listen to the band, it is not all dark, sad, depressing music like Grunge (you know its true – Grunge is pretty damn depressing, not fun at all music).  It is a solid rock album.

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