When the Planes Stood Still

At The Riviera Theater in Chicago - 1994

Some songs are instant hits on the radio, some take time to develop before they gain mass appeal and others seem to pop up out of nowhere.  These left field hits also fall into different categories.  Afroman had "I Want to get High" but it was labeled as a novelty track.  Cee-Lo Green released "Fuck You" - which I understand was never even slated to be released as a single to radio but was quickly edited and became the radio-friendly smash "Forget You."  But every once in a while through events that happen nationally or internationally, a song attaches itself organically that helps bring definition to what has happened.  It is as though the song was written for the event itself even though it was written under a completely different context. 

On Monday, September 10th, I was heading to Midway Airport in Chicago to pick up Ed Kowalcyzk from the band LIVE and Darren Eggleston, my VP of Modern Rock Promotion at MCA Records.  LIVE's new album V was being released the next day and Ed and Darren had been out on the road visiting radio stations as part of a promotional tour for the album's release.  "Simple Creed" was the first single released at Modern and Active Rock radio but it had been struggling to gain traction.  LIVE had charted 6 songs on the Modern Rock charts from its previous two releases including "Lakini's Juice" and "Turn My Head" from their 1997 release Secret Samadhi and "Dolphin's Cry" and "Run to the Water" from their 1999 release, The Distance to Here.   LIVE had a lot of friends at radio, so in anticipation of this release, MCA thought it was important to get up close and personal with radio again with the help of Ed - who was the band's lead singer and the band's most recognized personality.  This radio tour would hopefully keep the momentum moving forward on "Simple Creed" while also promoting the release of V.

Ed, Darren and I packed their luggage and Ed's guitar in the back of my Mini-Van and headed over to Q101 in Chicago.  The station had requested that Ed be on the air with Mancow but because of the travel itinerary, we were not able to get Ed to the station until mid-day.  Q101 was playing "Simple Creed" but they weren't really that excited about the track.  Ed settled in to record acoustic versions of a few songs from the album that would be re-played on Mancow the next morning.  He did a version of "Simple Creed" (which made sense since it was the current single) and a slower ballad called "Overcome."  Response at Q101 to both recordings was great and after Ed spent some time with the programming team, Darren, Ed and I headed out to grab lunch before taking them back to the airport for a flight to Minneapolis.  It was a quick trip in and out of Chicago, but one that seemed to be well-worth the time and effort. 

The next morning, after dropping off my daughter Kara off at day care, I stopped at 7-11 to fill up the car.  In order to listen to the playback of Ed's acoustic performance on Mancow, I left the car door open while I filled the tank.  I wasn't really paying much attention to what they were doing prior to Ed's performance, but I remember hearing Mancow say "Ed Kowalczyk from LIVE is here to play in studio but sorry Ed - we have a situation here in-studio.  Oh My God!  Oh My God!!  A plane has crashed into one of the towers at the World Trade Center in New York City."  Mancow could be very over-the-top and certainly pushes the envelope with his guests and morning show "bits," but this was different.  I could hear it in his voice and in the reaction of his team on the morning show.  I finished filling my car and headed back to the house instead of going into work.  When I walked in the back door, my wife was in the family room staring at the TV with our five week old daughter Carly in her arms.  "Have you seen this?!" she gasped.  She held Carly tightly as I gave them both a big hug.  We spent the next hour and a half following the events as they unfolded in front of us on TV.  We, collectively, were all there in some manner.  We remember where we were, what we did, who we called, how we felt and the incredible uncertainty of what would be next.

I finally left for the office around 11 a.m.  It wasn't long before I realized that I had no reason to be there.  A major portion of my job was to call on radio stations on behalf of my artists.  But radio was playing a different role today.  They were focused on updates, simulcasting their a.m. news stations and focusing on the local reaction of these events.  Was I really going to call them and ask about a song or talk about an upcoming release?  Not a chance.  As I drove home past O'Hare airport I noticed that nothing was taking off or landing.  This is an airport that averages a take-off or landing every four seconds and, at the time, was the busiest airport in the United States.  We live just north and east of O'Hare, so we are used to seeing planes take off or land every 90 seconds to 3 minutes.  It was almost too quiet in our neighborhood.  The skies were empty and it would be another four days before the majority of commercial airlines were approved to fly.

A good friend of mine, Jeff Murphy, was on the road in Stevens Point, WI the morning "the world changed."  He is a consultant for rock radio stations around the country and was in the middle of his fall Midwest trip.  I called him later in the afternoon to see what how he planned to get home.  "I haven't figured out yet how I am going to get back home to Texas" he told me.  Obviously there won't be any flights for the foreseeable future and there isn't a rental car in sight."  One of my radio clients, and a future client of his, was a group of stations in Appleton, WI - anchored by heritage rock station - WAPL.  Joe Calgaro was the Program Director and he had become a pretty good friend over the previous few years, as had his Music Director, Roxanne Steele and the Program Director of their Top 40 station, Dayton Kane.  "Murph, let me talk to Nancy and see how she is doing.  If it is OK with her, and you can get to Appleton, I can meet you up there tomorrow night, we can have dinner with Joe, Rox and Dayton and then head back to the house on Wednesday.  You can stay with us until this all gets figured out."  And that is exactly what we did. 

I quickly realized how different my job was from Jeff's as we were making our way back to Chicago.  "Nope - I would take Drowning Pool "Bodies" of the air" I heard him say.  "Yup - "Shoot to Thrill" too."  It had not occurred to me yet that there were a lot of songs that needed to come OFF the air too.  During one of his calls with a classic rock station, as they were discussing "Jet Airliner" by The Steve Miller Band, I got a call from Darren - who was driving back to LA with Ed and was somewhere in Colorado.  V had been mailed out to radio to arrive on Tuesday, September 11 but we weren't sure who had taken time to even open up the full CD to check it out.  As it turns out, a number of radio stations had.  "Paul - I've had a few stations call me about "Overcome."  It's track 10 I think.  It is the song Ed played at Q when we were there on Monday.  Ed mentioned it to me in the car and how much the lyrics fit for what is going on right now.  I don't want to come across like we're promoting it, but I want you to reach out to your guys and just let them know that stations are starting to address this song." 

As I hung up with Darren, Jeff got a call from his boss, Alex Demers.  "What do you know about this track from the new LIVE album - Overcome?" he asked.  Jeff relayed the question to me.  "Why?"  I could feel my adrenaline pick up.  "Alex has had two or three stations call him about it.  What is going on with it?  Is it something you guys started?"  Jeff replied.  "It's not us" I said defensively.  "Radio is pulling this track from the album.  My VP has had a bunch of calls this morning too and it seems that as radio is being sensitive to what they are playing on the air, they have also found some songs that speak to the gravity of how people feel.  

It all seemed to be happening so fast.  As we drove through Milwaukee, Jeff started punching through different radio stations to see what was on the air.  One station was playing "Free Fallin'" by  Tom Petty.  We looked at each other a bit dumbfounded.  "How can they be playing that?"  Clear Channel had started a list of songs that they wanted their stations - in all formats - to pull from on air rotation.  The list was 165 deep and included rock tracks like "Jump," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," Aeroplane," "Learn to Fly" and even "Stairway to Heaven."  As Jeff punched through the different stations, he landed on Rock 102.1.  There it was - "Overcome."  I quickly realized that as emotional as it was to hear Ed sing it at Q101 on September 10th, I was not prepared for hearing it again under these circumstances.  Jeff and I were silent.  He stared out the window as I blankly watched the road driving south on I94.  Tears started streaming down my face as I listened to the lyrics.  Even though the song had been written years earlier - it was like it had been written that day. 

Jeff ended up staying a few nights with us before he could get his hands on a rental car.  He left mid-day on Friday and got home to his wife and his eight and two year old boys late Saturday night.  Darren and Ed got to LA sometime on that Friday as I recall - having left Minneapolis as soon as they realized there were no other options.

In checking on a few details for this entry, I ran across a story about the video for "Overcome" and thought it was fitting to include it in this piece.  Steve Rosenbaum, the CEO of Camera Planet had been filming the emergency response at Ground Zero.  During the days following the attacks, he heard "Overcome" on the radio and told his crew that he had to use it as the "Soundtrack to the footage."  In a later interview, he would say “I guess it's true about any piece of art that you can find a story that fits your needs if you look hard enough. I have trouble imagining what else that song was put on the earth to do, except to be put on the radio so I could hear it.” 

With the airplay and spotlight on "Overcome," Ed was invited to appear and perform on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.  The single never charted higher than #30 at Modern Rock radio but it really was never intended to be even there.  The focus on this song took the air out of any momentum we had on "Simple Creed."  So after an incomplete mission on that first track and with "Overcome" being the focus track from V, the album never did produce another hit at radio and eventually fell apart.  As much as the country seemed to associate with "Overcome," there also came a point when people just didn't want to hear it anymore.  It was time to move on.  And with it, Live ended up as a musical casualty in the fall of 2001.  I had not listened to the song in over 10 years but took it back out as I started to write this entry.  Maybe it still hurts too much and maybe it's still too much of a reminder of that period in time.  Time does heal wounds, but music has a way of bringing the emotions right back to the surface. 

"Overcome" was an extraordinary example where a song came from nowhere - found by radio - and became more than anyone ever intended.  It won't be the last of its kind but it certainly was very close to home for me and still leaves a pit in my stomach.