So Alive – Love And Rockets | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning

Chart Performance: Pop (#3), Modern Rock (#1) and Hot Dance/Disco – Club Play (#20); 1989

Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne

Before Love And Rockets there was Bauhaus, a Bowie-influenced band that released four albums before breaking up in 1983. After a failed reunion attempt in 1984, three of the Bauhaus four formed Love And Rockets: named after the underground comic. Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven arrived in 1985, along with a revamp of the TemptationsPsychedelic Shack that made some noise in the clubs. The next two albums – Express and Earth, Sun, Moon – both cracked the US Top 100, and Sun spun off the college/Mainstream Rock hit, No New Tale To Tell. L&R’s self-titled fourth album dropped in 1989, and radio immediately seized upon So Alive as the standout track. Recorded from start-to-finish in just one day, So Alive was the trio’s nod to Lou Reed. Rock lovers took Love And Rockets to heart, boosting So Alive to #1 on the Modern Rock list for five weeks in June and July.

This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2023 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.

Produced by:

  • Love and Rockets
  • John Fryer

Lyrics Written by:

  • Daniel Ash
  • David Haskins
  • Kevin Haskins