Lightning Crashes is a song by the rock band Live. It was released in September 24,1994 as the third single from their second studio album, Throwing Copper. Although the track was not released as a single in the United States, 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 chart for 10 weeks and the Modern Rock Tracks chart for nine weeks. Internationally, the song reached No. 3 in Canada, No. 8 in Iceland, and No. 13 in Australia.
The band dedicated the song to a high-school friend, Barbara Lewis, who was killed by a drunk driver in 1993. 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”.
Tracklist:
- Lightning Crashes (edit)
- Lightning Crashes (live at Glastonbury ’95)
- The Beauty of Gray (bootleg, live on tour in late 1994)
Live
Ed Kowalczyk: lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Chad Taylor: lead guitar, backing vocals
Patrick Dahlheimer: bass
Chad Gracey: drums, backing vocals
Technical personnel
Jerry Harrison: production
Lou Giordano: engineering, recording
Ted Jensen: mastering
Gary Kurfirst: executive production
Tom Lord Alge: mixing
