Live From Mars (Remaster) Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals

Album info

Album-Release:
2001

HRA-Release:
07.04.2016

Label: Capitol

Genre: Rock

Subgenre: Adult Alternative

Artist: Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals

Composer: Ben Harper, Jean Pierre Plunier, Richard Ashcroft, David Ritz, Robert Plant, John Baldwin, John Bonham, James Patrick Page, John Paul Jones, Odell Elliott Brown, Jr. Wendell Tilley, Marvin Gaye

Album including Album cover

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  • 1Glory & Consequence (Live)06:03
  • 2Excuse Me Mr. (Live)04:55
  • 3Alone (Live)05:01
  • 4Sexual Healing (Live)05:14
  • 5Woman In You (Live)08:01
  • 6Ground On Down (Live)05:40
  • 7Steal My Kisses (Live At Washington State/2001)05:15
  • 8Burn One Down (Live)04:53
  • 9Mama's Got A Girlfriend Now (Live)02:54
  • 10Welcome To The Cruel World (Live)05:51
  • 11Forgiven (Live)09:28
  • 12Medley: Faded/Whole Lotta Love (Live)10:45
  • 13Waiting On An Angel (Live)04:32
  • 14Roses From My Friends (Live)05:36
  • 15Power Of The Gospel (Live)06:50
  • 16Pleasure And Pain (Live)04:28
  • 17Please Bleed (Live)04:57
  • 18The Drugs Don't Work (Live)04:37
  • 19In The Lord's Arms (Live)03:15
  • 20Not Fire, Not Ice (Live)03:45
  • 21Beloved One (Live)03:48
  • 22Number Three (Live)02:32
  • 23Walk Away (Live)04:35
  • 24Another Lonely Day (Live)04:48
  • 25Medley: Like A King/I'll Rise (Live)10:03
  • Total Runtime02:17:46

Info for Live From Mars (Remaster)

Seeing Ben live is an amazing experience, which for the first time has been captured in this double album set. This collection includes all of Ben's greatest songs, along with his versions of such classics as Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love," Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing," plus many more.

Throughout the '90s, Ben Harper's blend of blues, funk, soul and folk quietly earned him a hardcore following of diehard fans over the span of four studio albums. For Live From Mars, Harper and his tight three-piece band the Innocent Criminals cull performances from a variety of concerts, featuring interesting arrangements and odd nuances applied to his best-known songs, along with an eclectic array of covers.

„Ben Harper is a road dog. He and his band, the Innocent Criminals, travel around the world playing nearly 200 shows a year; therefore, it was only a matter of time before this guitar virtuoso made a live album. Live From Mars, an enigmatic two-disc set of 25 songs, celebrates the rise of Harper, his incredible live presence between 1998 and 2000, and the appreciation between him and his audience. His fragile acoustics have been thrown into a massive guitar storm on disc one, a thunderous combination of his signature folky blues-funk rock & roll. He's soulful and approachable on "Excuse Me Mr." and "Burn One Down," but he reaches for something tangible on Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing." The vibe is calm and cool while Harper's vocals scale between a sweet falsetto and a rugged twang. "Faded" exudes Harper's electric twitching, and its perfection swaggers into a riveting cover of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" for a near ten-minute car crash of pure rollicking. He switches from his electric to an acoustic for disc two, making his informality even more enticing. "Waiting on an Angel" is delicate, similar to the likes of Jeff Buckley, but it's the beauty of the Verve's "The Drugs Don't Work" that truly captures the standard of excellence that Harper depicts as a performer. Acoustically, he's honored and such praise is deserved. He's practically flawless. He's a modest artist, and such humility is found among his songs. He's achieved respectability with his fans that only so many artists are able to attain. Live From Mars is a proper release and certainly an inviting look into Harper and the showmanship he projects while spending time on the road.“ (MacKenzie Wilson, AMG)

Digitally remastered


Ben Harper
Combining funky, groove-laden soul with handcrafted acoustic folk-rock, Ben Harper enjoyed cult status during the course of the '90s before gaining wider attention toward the decade's end. As a young artist, he drew his influences from classic singer/songwriters, blues revivalists, guitar slingers, and jam bands like Blues Traveler and Phish, which meant he was embraced by critics and college kids alike. Despite finding commercial success with the radio single "Steal My Kisses" in 2000, Harper continued to explore different (and often challenging) musical textures during the 21st century, enjoying a solid fan base at home and a considerable amount of fame in Europe, where was named 2003's Artist of the Year by the French branch of Rolling Stone.

A native of California, Harper grew up listening to blues, folk, soul, R&B, and reggae. He started playing guitar as a child and began to perform regularly as a preteen. During his adolescence, he focused heavily on the acoustic slide guitar, which eventually became his signature instrument. Harper scored a deal with Virgin Records in 1992 after maintaining steady schedule of shows in the L.A. area; two years later, he released his debut album, Welcome to the Cruel World, to positive reviews.

Released in 1995, the politically heavy Fight for Your Mind made for a strong sophomore effort, an obvious growth in musical experimentation and individual declamation. It was also the songwriter's first record to later reach gold status. Harper's third album, 1997's The Will to Live, pushed his blues-oriented alternative folk into the middle mainstream, becoming a mainstay at college radio and making inroads at adult alternative radio. Recorded over two years of touring in support of Fight for Your Mind, The Will to Live also introduced the Innocent Criminals, Harper's longstanding backup band. The Innocent Criminals — bassist Juan Nelson, drummer Dean Butterworth, and percussionist David Leach — helped solidify Harper's musical rhythms and emotional diversity over the years to come.

Harper's career gained momentum during 1998 and 1999. One of his most successful albums to date, 1999's Burn to Shine, blended his fondness of '20s jazz compositions with urban beatboxing, resulting in a clever and passionate collection of songs. "Steal My Kisses" and "Suzie Blue" were radio favorites, landing him two headlining world tours and an opening spot on the Dave Matthews Band's annual summer trek in 2000. The following spring, Harper issued Live from Mars, a double disc of live electric and acoustic material spanning the previous year's tour and including covers of material by Led Zeppelin, the Verve, and Marvin Gaye.

Harper dove into worldbeat on his fifth studio effort, Diamonds on the Inside, which appeared in March 2003. He toured through Europe the following year with the Blind Boys of Alabama, and the two acts entered Capitol Records' basement studios after the tour's commencement to lay down ten tracks together. The resulting collaborative album (issued under the names of both Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama), There Will Be a Light, was released in September 2004, followed by the concert CD/DVD package Live at the Apollo in 2005.

Eager to release more material, Harper reconvened with the Innocent Criminals and issued the double album Both Sides of the Gun in March 2006. The album reached number seven on the Billboard album charts and rose to number one in Australia. While touring in support of the record, Harper and company began playing a new slew of songs during their evening soundchecks, eventually decamping to Paris and recording the new material within one week. This resulted in two records — Lifeline and Live at Twist and Shout Records — both of which were issued in 2007. For his 2009 album White Lies for Dark Times, Harper recorded with the band Relentless7, the members of whom had previously worked with Harper on the track "Serve Your Soul" from Both Sides of the Gun. Harper and the Relentless7 recorded Live from the Montreal International Jazz Festival in July 2009 and released the album early the following year. Afterwards, Harper began working on his first solo album in years, using Jackson Browne's basement as a recording studio and collaborating with Ringo Starr on two tracks. The album's first single, "Rock n' Roll Is Free," was released during the early spring of 2011, followed two months later by the full-length Give Till It's Gone and in 2012 by the career retrospective By My Side. Harper moved over to Stax and teamed with blues legend Charlie Musselwhite for 2013's collaboratively released Get Up!

This album contains no booklet.

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