Overcome (Live song)
"Overcome" | ||||
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Single by Live | ||||
from the album V | ||||
Released | December 11, 2001 | |||
Format | CD | |||
Genre | Alternative rock | |||
Length | 4:16 | |||
Label | Radioactive Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Ed Kowalczyk | |||
Live singles chronology | ||||
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"Overcome" is a song by alternative rock group Live, which was released as the second single from their 2001 album, V.
Background
The song became associated with the September 11 attacks on the United States. Proceeds from the sales of the single were donated to charities to benefit the victims of the attack.
Chart positions
The song was a major hit in Belgium (#2) and The Netherlands (#3).[1] It was not released as a single in the US, but reached #30 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.[2]
Track listings
Australian and German CD singles
- "Overcome" – 4:16
- "Overcome" (Acoustic Version) – 3:01
- "Simple Creed" (Acoustic Version) – 3:22
- "Overcome" (Video)
European CD single
- "Overcome" – 4:16
- "Overcome" (Acoustic Version) – 3:00
Music videos
The song spawned three music videos.
The first version was created by Steven Rosenbaum, founder and CEO of production company CameraPlanet, and consists of footage Rosenbaum's seven camera crews had shot around Ground Zero on 9/11. During that day, Rosenbaum had heard "Overcome" on the radio—the song had been picked up by several stations in the wake of the attacks—and in the evening he started editing the footage to the song. On September 13, after a total of seven hours of editing, he showed the finished video to a friend at VH1 which put it into rotation within an hour. It was subsequently also picked up by VH1's sister station MTV and both channels played it, along with only a handful of other videos, for close to a week.[3][4]
After having seen the video, of whose existence they had no prior knowledge, on TV, the band decided to create their own version. They enlisted director Mary Lambert (who worked pro bono) to film singer Ed Kowalczyk performing the song under falling water in a Los Angeles studio on September 18. This material was then intercut with footage of world leaders and children from all over the world as well as clips of the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and other world events along with famous quotations such as "Imagine World Peace" and "The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself".[5][6]
Being informed, on September 19, by the band's manager, Chris Harden, of the studio shoot, Rosenbaum objected: "[I]f you're gonna make a video, it has to feel honest, and putting something from the studio over those pictures is just wrong." Kowalczyk agreed, flew to New York the same day, and that evening Rosenbaum and his wife filmed him visiting Ground Zero, a fire station and various memorials. Clips of that footage were then interspersed into Rosenbaum's original video.[5][7][8] Only this video was released on the Awake: The Best of Live DVD.
Use in film and TV
- "Overcome" featured in season 2 of the FX TV show The Shield, in episode 13 "Dominoes Falling."[9]
References
- ↑ "LIVE - OVERCOME (NUMMER)" Ultratop
- ↑ "V > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles" Allmusic
- ↑ Russ, Stephen (September 2011). "Steven Rosenbaum and Live: How a Music Video Helped America Overcome the Pain of 9/11". Beliefnet. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
- ↑ "Overcome Music Video Tribute to 9/11 by the CameraPlanet...". YouTube/CameraPlanet. September 10, 2007. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
- 1 2 Wiederhorn, Jon; Modabber, Jill (September 21, 2001). "Overcome by Terrorist Wreckage, Live Plan Emotional Video". MTV.com. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
- ↑ "Live - Overcome (with Ground Zero Footage)". YouTube/Vevo. December 24, 2009. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
- ↑ Russ, Stephen (September 2011). "More on 9/11 and Live’s “Overcome”". Beliefnet. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
- ↑ "Live - Overcome (with Ground Zero Footage)". YouTube/Vevo. June 16, 2009. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
- ↑ "Soundtrack details for Dominoes Falling" IMDb
External links
- Official band website
- Official music video - Lambert version via Live's Vevo channel on YouTube
- Official music video - Rosenbaum/Kowalczyk version via Live's Vevo channel on YouTube
- Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics