Crossing Over

[Walter Payton #34]

Why was "Crossing Over" only on the Balance album in Japan? It just seems strange to me that you would release it to one country -- unless they thought it would boost the sales of the CSLY single by being the B-side.

[Rikk]

Hi Walter.

It's kind of a typical thing for bands to release longer versions of albums in overseas markets so that fans will have to shell out and buy another copy of the album. I DID! I never got the CD-single because the Japanese version of the album seemed easier to find, but it cost me a bitch (from the Inside store).

I really like CROSSING OVER. I think it's better than a lot of the stuff off of BALANCE. I've never been a huge fan of the first three tracks on that album, and feel that the album starts kicking in with AMSTERDAM. I do think that the band could have easily cut off some of BALANCE's real fluff, like STRUNG OUT, DOIN' TIME or BALUCHITHERIUM and put CROSSING OVER in its place. Sammy pushed for it do get on the album, but obviously he didn't seem to have much say anymore. Fairbairn was a great producer, but his opinion that CROSSING OVER is too dark for the rest of the album yet putting three instrumentals was a good idea just boggles my mind. It's enough to see a drum solo at a concert, but on an album? And STRUNG OUT is crap.

Oh well. It's a good song.

They did the same with BEST OF, VOL. 1. HOT FOR TEACHER appears on the Japanese version of that album but not on the American version. It's kind of ridiculous that a song like HOT FOR TEACHER (one of their best known songs) doesn't make the best of album, but something like POUNDCAKE (which is not one of my favorites and not nearly as well known) does.

I thought they were going to do the same with VH3. I thought that THAT'S WHY I LOVE YA would have ended up on the Japanese release, but it didn't.

[Walter Payton #34]

Thanks for the info. I really think Crossing Over fits better on Balance than CSLY and Not Enough. Most of Balance has a darker feel to it and Crossing Over would fit right in. Balance (while still a great album) didn't flow with CSLY and Not Enough. It would be like putting Jump and Dancing in the Streets on Fair Warning.

Thanks again for the information...

[Dan Halen]

I like Crossing Over and wish it would have been on Balance. It could have replaced CSLY and Strung Out. I think Balance would have flowed better with the track list like that.

[ February 02, 2002 at 12:14 PM: Message edited by: Dan Halen ]</p>

[Mario VH]

I purchased the Japanese import of Balance just so I could have Crossing Over on the CD. I just think it makes Balance a more complete album with the track on there.

[VHguy823]

Crossing Over is a really cool track. I am actually playing it now as I write this post because I haven't heard it in a little while. Anyway, in my opinion, Crossing Over was one of the better songs to come out of the Balance sessions. It very easily could have (and should have) replaced Strung Out and Baluchitherium. Those two songs take up about the same amount of time as Crossing Over. Also, I disagree with the writer who thought that Doin' Time should have been scrapped along with the other two instrumentals off of Balance. I actually thought it was really cool to hear Alex do a little solo of his own. I think it fit nicely onto this album and that it was just the right length. I probably wouldn't care for it much though if it was some long tedious jam like he does on Pleasure Dome off of Right Here, Right Now. Anyway, back to Crossing Over. The only semi-bad thing I can say about that song is that I don't really care for its drawn out ending. I always felt that VH could have been touched that up some. Oh well, it still is a quality track in my opinion...

[Raldo]

Great song! Kind of haunting in a way. I love hearing the 2 drums.

[marty]

I love crossing over should have been on Ballance in stead of strung out ,doing time or not enough probably left it off to piss off SAM

[Ian Sane]

"Crossing Over" is a great song. Dark and haunting. Definately should have been on the standard version of BALANCE, then again it was nice to get an extra track when "Can't Stop Lovin' You" came out as a single...

[(DEJA VU)]

I relly like the song,but feel that it dose not fit Balance.I think the reason Sam fought so hard for it because it was about Ed Leffler. [img]graemlins/bounce.gif[/img]

[SToRM]

the intro of crossing over is really cool.
but as far as i know, this song was first composed in the early 80s, as a tribute to a
friend of evh who commited suicide?

that's a real killer-riff, great track to listen to in the car as well, kinda spoiled my ears with that song, among others.

highly underrated song and unknown as well.
to be honest it's a song that DLR couldn't have done. probably didn't even want to. But Hagar's voice really does the job.

is it hagar who is speaking in the background, or someone else?

cheers,
SToRM

[dog]

Originally posted by SToRM:
the intro of crossing over is really cool.
but as far as i know, this song was first composed in the early 80s, as a tribute to a
friend of evh who commited suicide?

that's a real killer-riff, great track to listen to in the car as well, kinda spoiled my ears with that song, among others.

highly underrated song and unknown as well.
to be honest it's a song that DLR couldn't have done. probably didn't even want to. But Hagar's voice really does the job.

is it hagar who is speaking in the background, or someone else?

cheers,
SToRM

I think Storm is partially right. I think the song was composed during the 5150 sessions. I read somewhere that they just used the Eddie parts of the song from 85/86, and Sammy and the rest of the band finished it during the Balance sessions. I like the tune, however I think the reason it was passed over twice, is that it sounds like Love Walks In during the chorus. I really think half of the song is basically Love Walks In. Somebody here probably knows a lot more about than me. I'm interested to here if anybody else feels that way.

[Bigdaddy_14]

Thats ED on the background vocals