Lightning Crashes
"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 "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 . Composition. The song is written in the key of C major but recorded a half step lower in B major. Song meaning. 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. "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." 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. Formats and track listings. All songs written by Live. European single German single UK CD single 1 UK CD single 2 UK cassette single In popular culture. "Lightning Crashes" was used at the end of episode 3 of "Strange Luck", "Last Chance" "Lightning Crashes" was used in Part II of "The OA". "Lightning Crashes  was used at the beginning of the season 4 finale of One Tree Hill". "Lightning Crashes" was used prominently in the plot line, and consequently, the soundtrack, for the Netflix original film, "Kodachrome", starring Jason Sudeikis and Elizabeth Olsen.