Dear Kings of Leon:
As I watched the 2010 Grammy Awards a few weeks ago, I realized something: you have gone from being an indie rock band with a southern flavor to a straight up pop-rock band. And of course, that isn’t a bad thing. If anything, it’s encouraging during an age of R&B and Hip-Hop to see an American Rock band that writes true Rock songs demonstrating crossover appeal. But you are treading dangerous waters, where one wrong turn could sink your career for good. Just ask Live.
In the mid-1990’s, Live seemed poised to accomplish something that no other American Rock band had ever achieved: they were set to become The Biggest Band in the World. Their music was inescapable. It was all over MTV and all over the radio. Their sophomore effort, Throwing Copper was one of the biggest sellers of the decade, and the follow-up, Secret Samadhi was one of the most highly-anticipated albums of the Nineties. In terms of stature, Live was right up there with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Oasis and The Smashing Pumpkins. And Live had something that those bands tended to lack. Yep, crossover appeal. It seemed that they were the one band that everyone could agree on. You may have hated the sound of Eddie Vedder’s voice, or felt that The Smashing Pumpkins’ songs were over-blown, but chances are, you still thought Live was a good band. And talk about a great “live” (no pun intended) show. Those guys were utterly amazing! I saw them for the first time on the Secret Samadhi Tour on October 3, 1997 and that is still the best concert I’ve ever witnessed in person (after all, you see that I still remember the date). At the time, I was in my own struggling band, and as I left the show, I thought, “That’s how you do it and that’s how we’re going to do it.” Live had figured out the formula, borrowing REM’s College Rock cool and U2’s earnest, heart-on-their-sleeve honesty, and then they cranked the volume ever so slightly, allowing their music to appeal to fans of harder fare while at the same time not losing the high brow, “indier-than-thou” crowd. It was magic. Live was on the verge of becoming a global phenomenon. You could envision it: sold-out stadiums around the planet, record sales in the tens of millions every time they released an album, and surely a spot in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, their first year of eligibility. There had never been an American band that had this potential. Yes, there had been Heavy Metal and Hard Rock bands like Metallica, Aerosmith and Guns ‘n’ Roses, who became pretty big throughout the globe, but their music was too esoteric to say that they were the Biggest Band in the World. And none of them seemed like something that Europe would embrace. But here was Live, a band that had modeled themselves after bands who had experienced success in Europe, and they were going to do it. Then something went horribly wrong.
In a nutshell, Live’s lead singer, Ed Kowalczyk took it upon himself to become the band’s (essentially) sole songwriter, turning what had been a democratic process in to a dictatorship. And he lacked the chops to do it as evidenced by the first product of this new arrangement, The Distance to Here. It’s not necessarily a bad album; it’s just very pedestrian and average and pales in comparison to their first three records, all of which contained the byline “Written and Performed by Live” (that’s the way their heroes, REM and U2 did it, by the way). And it proves that although Kowalczyk’s ego may have allowed him to think he could handle it on his own, the truth was he was no Lennon or McCartney. Kowalczyk had driven his band in to the ground, and the rest of the members of Live are not without blame, because they let him get away with it. A band that at one time seemed like they could appeal to billions suddenly sounded like a local band that the best thing you could say about is “Yeah, they’re kinda allright. Maybe they’ll make it some day.”
But the most disturbing thing about Live is not the fact that they blew it with Distance to Here, but the fact that, over ten years down the road, their music sounds like it came out over ten years ago, so maybe they never had “it” to blow in the first place. Their music has not proven to be timeless. And that is the most important thing. All those bands that I brought up earlier as being peers of Live in the nineties have albums on Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time List. Live doesn’t. Why?
Well, first of all, like I said before, their music is way too much “of its time”. There’s nothing wrong with sounding like what’s going on around you while you are an active band. But the key is taking that influence and turning it in to something that sounds like it would be a hit no matter when it was released. The Beatles’ records, especially their early ones, sound like the Sixties, as do those of The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, etc., but their music still sells today, nearly fifty years later. Live can’t make that claim.
The other big issue with Live is the fact that in many ways, they seem to be responsible for the glut of testicle-free rock bands (e.g. Daughtry) that are so prevalent these days. Want to be edgy? Get a black shirt and a cowboy hat, and Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson will surely call you a “rocker”. Who started this trend? Yes, it was Live. Now I’m not saying that bands should be held responsible for cheap imitators. Take Led Zeppelin. They are easily one of the greatest rock bands ever. Their music is nothing short of amazing, and so many people have such tremendous respect for them, and are in complete awe. Yet they inspired some of the worst music ever made, pale imitations that were an insult to Zeppelin’s legacy. The difference is this: it doesn’t take much to listen to Led Zeppelin and realize that they are vastly superior to say, Whitesnake. But you can’t say that for Live. Yes, they are better than their imitators, but not by much.
So by now you’re probably asking yourself, “Why all this talk about Live? Isn’t this supposed to be about us, Kings of Leon?” The answer is this: I wanted to provide you with this cautionary tale about Live, because your career paths have been eerily similar. Both of your debut albums were solid efforts that received little airplay and were only known in indie and industry circles. Your sophomore albums were filled with great tunes and seemed at the time of their release to be endlessly listenable. The analogy does break down a little at this point, though; while Throwing Copper was a massive seller, Aha Shake Heartbreak experienced sales closer to those of your first record. Anyway, I digress. Both of you took a left turn for your third album, and created records that still possessed the appeal of your first two albums, but built upon them, and proved to be more experimental. And then there’s the fourth album, where you both tried a more Pop approach. This is the part that is concerning.
Now, I would never compare Only by the Night to Distance to Here in terms of accomplishment. Your fourth album is far, far better than theirs was. Only by the Night will stand the test of time; it’s a record that people will still listen to years from now. It’s not difficult to imagine “Use Somebody” being featured in movie soundtracks from now on and making itself a fixture on the radio. Distance to Here couldn’t stand up a week after it came out. But you have to admit, you’ve chosen the same direction that they did in terms of style and approach.
Of course, your careers haven’t been completely the same. You get critical acclaim and Grammy Awards, two things that Live were sorely lacking. And you have wisely chosen to keep writing all of your songs as a band, with no one’s ego getting in the way. I would imagine that’s not likely to change, since you are a family as well. And both of these factors (acclaim and a team approach) would seem to indicate that everything is going to be just fine for Kings of Leon. Surely your music will prove to be influential for coming generations.
So just consider this a warning. You are about to make the transition to the World Stage. You’re huge here in the States, and they totally get you in Great Britain (in fact, they got you before we did). But the transition from an edgy, indie rock band with a southern flavor (your combination of The Allman Brothers and Tom Petty with The Strokes was sheer genius, and honestly, one of the most unique sounds to come around in a while) to a Pop Rock band on the verge of becoming monumentally huge is a treacherous one. You could achieve a level of success that very few (and arguably, no) American bands have achieved. Please be careful and don’t blow it like Live did.
Sincerely,
Michael
{ 1 comment }
Here’s hoping they ‘keep it real’..
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