"Lightning Crashes" is a song by American rock band Live. It was released in September 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 BillboardHot 100 Airplay chart in 1995. The song also topped the BillboardAlbum 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.
In 2021, Billboard ranked "Lightning Crashes" as the 70th-biggest hit in the history of the Mainstream Rock chart;[4][5] the same publication ranked the song as the 22nd-biggest hit in the history of Alternative Airplay two years later.[6][7]
The band dedicated the song to a high-school friend, Barbara Lewis, who was killed by a drunk driver in 1993.[8] 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.[9]
New York magazine described the band as "deeply mystical" and claimed that the song was, "The story of a...connection between an old lady dying and a new mother at the moment of giving birth."[10][11]
Just a few years before, Kowalczyk discovered the writings of Indian spiritualist Jiddu Krishnamurti, whose philosophy of living life from a place of selflessness and humility influenced the singer's songwriting process, as well as the band's creative philosophy.[12]
^Scarisbrick,John. "Lightning Strikes." Spin Magazine, June 1995, p. 52.
^"Archived copy". live.cerf.net. Archived from the original on April 25, 1998. Retrieved February 27, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^Michael Hirschorn (September 1995), "[music]", New York, p. 35
^Lightning Crashes (European CD single liner notes). Live. Radioactive Records. 1995. rad 33574.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Lightning Crashes (European maxi-CD single liner notes). Live. Radioactive Records. 1995. rad 33573.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Lightning Crashes (UK CD1 liner notes). Live. Radioactive Records. 1995. RAXTD 23.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Lightning Crashes (UK CD2 liner notes). Live. Radioactive Records. 1995. RAXXD 23.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Lightning Crashes (UK cassette single sleeve). Live. Radioactive Records. 1995. RAXC 23.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
