Collective Soul is an American rock band from Stockbridge, Georgia.

Prior to forming Collective Soul, Ed Roland studied songwriting/composing and guitar at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Ed began working at “Real 2 Reel Studios” in Stockbridge during the 1980s and of early 1990s, which was owned by Will Turpin’s father. Ed did production and engineering work for local Atlanta artists. He also recorded his own demos and his independent solo album “Ed-E Roland” in 1991. Ed had been in garage bands and did some performing of his own. He had a pre-Collective Soul band in the late 80′s/early 90′s called “Marching Two-Step” which also included Shane Evans; they were a legitimate band for about 3 years.

Around 1992, Ed started to shift focus and began trying to secure contracts for his songwriting and publishing. However, these early attempts ended in rejection. That would change in 1993 when his song “Shine” from the Rising Storm label release of “Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid” became an underground hit on a College radio station in Orlando. It was around this time that Ed brought along Shane Evans, his brother Dean Roland, Will Turpin and Ross Childress. This would become the official line-up.

Ed Roland was reading Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and come across the phrase “collective soul.” Although author Ayn Rand actually uses the phrase in a negative connotation, using the “collective soul” as a threat to the main character’s sense of individualism, Ed is quick to point out, “…we’re not preaching Ayn Rand, objectivism, egoism, or anything…we just dug the name…” and “it [the band's name] could’ve come out of a Motorcycle Magazine.

Heavy

http://djallyn.org/media/collective-soul_heavy.flv

Complicate this world you wrapped for me
I’m acquainted with your suffering

And all your weight
It falls on me
It brings me down
And all your weight
It falls on me
It falls on me

Hold me up to all whom you’ve deceived
Promises you break you still believe

And all your weight
It falls on me
It brings me down
And all your weight
It brings me down
It brings me down

And all your weight
It falls on me
It brings me down
And all your weight
It falls on me
It falls on me

And all your weight
It falls on me
It brings me down
And all your weight
It falls on me
It falls on me

• Audio from the 1999 album, Dosage:

(70)

Other songs posted for this artist

Shine ~ Collective Soul

December – Collective Soul