Sunday, 1 February 2015

That's Entertainment : Collective Soul


Back in 1994 when I should have been studying for the HSC trials, I was reading Timothy Zahn's Star Wars : Heir To The Empire and listening to lots of Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden and Alice Cooper.  I was also playing the hell out of Collective Soul's song Shine.  It was just one of those songs I Iatched on to and had to tape repeatedly on both sides of a BASF C90 cassette tape so I didn't have to worry about programming the discman or rewinding the tape deck. 

For me, Shine is one of those all time classics.  I just don't know what it is.  The guitar is cool, the vocal Peter Gabriel-eqsue and one of those alt-grunge pop-rock tracks that seems to get played on FM at least once a day.  I even have the album [bought out of loyalty when I bought all the other CDs] but have never listened to it.  

After that, Collective Soul seemed to hit a rich vein of musical and chart success.  Their second album, titled Collective Soul [TRIVIA : the story is the first album was supposed to be their 'demo' tape but got pushed up as a proper release.  The 2nd album the band considers their real 'first' album, hence it being self-titled --- yeah, whatever!] has no less than FIVE bona fide hits - The World I Know, Smashing Young Man, December, Where The River Flows, and Gel as well as containing one of my faves - Collection of Goods.  It's grunge lite, melodic 70's rock for the 90's.  At this time, they had major record label backing too and in 1995, the world was Collective Soul's oyster.

1997 saw them release Disciplined Breakdown with the firm hits Precious Declaration and Listen.  It was a rawer, dirtier sound.  They toured Oz and I missed it for stoopid uni exams - drats!!!   The album also contains other little gems like Link, In Between and Crowded Head.  This was a CD that got taped for the car and in 1997/98 when I delivered pizzas for a summer job in my beat up royal blue Toyota Corona 1978.  

Come 2000, labels demanded gloss and they polished most 'rock' bands.  There's a look and a sound distinctive to much of 1999-2001 outside of the Nu-rock genre.  Collective Soul released Blender and the record label most def polished the bands sound and image in an effort to sell records and appeal to the girls.  It's an album I bought on cassette for $5 at the reject shop and accidentally left on the dashboard and had warped in the sun.  It's got a lot of muscle and I like it a lot.  At about this time, I got derided by a Borders co-worker for liking them and his attempts to humiliate me in front of others by telling everyone they were 'Christian Rock' did little to deter their appeal.  But within 12 months, they'd been dropped from their label and completed their deal with the obligatory Greatest Hits album.

I moved on with life and other things and Collective Soul went on hiatus.  They got on some minor labels and released a couple of albums, but JB always had them too pricey and I no longer paid more than $20 for an album (LOL at that !!!)  It wasn't until 2007 when I was on the band's website and they were releasing their new record Afterwards that I fell in love with the new single Hollywood.   It's just the perfect summer song.  And fortuitously, the couple of albums I'd missed, JB were flogging off for $5 down from the lofty import price of $35.

So exploring a few albums at once, I found How Do You Love on one of the missed albums, and it just fit perfectly for ideas I was having for a great 'death scene' in Alistair Raven.  Funnily enough, that scene is no longer in book 1, book 2 or book 3, but the penultimate scene of book 4.   But it's still perfect.  If and when it's a film, that will be the close out song and the girls on Team Alistair will be choking back the tears and it will be the ending of all endings not seen since...well, The Wrath of Khan.  Which is cool, because Collective Soul were on the Twilight soundtrack, so why not mine, eh?

Ultimately, it's Shine that still gets a good airing by FM radio.  For me, instead of mixed tapes or burnt CDs - where I always had to do the math and leave some song off here and there - I now have all the fave Collective Soul tracks loaded up on my I-pod.  

I've picked a choice few here for your listening pleasure.  I hope you enjoy!






Tremble For My Beloved   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKxK5uiHIvA








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