| Live Like You Were Dying | 
 enlarge | Artist: Tim Mcgraw
Label: Curb Records
Category: Music
List Price: $9.98
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $9.97 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  163 reviews
Sales Rank: 6732
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 78858
UPC: 715187885820
EAN: 0715187885820
ASIN: B0002IQF7M
Release Date: August 24, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | How Bad Do You Want It | | • | My Old Friend | | • | Can't Tell Me Nothin' | | • | Old Town New | | • | Live Like You Were Dying | | • | Drugs Or Jesus | | • | Back When | | • | Something's Broken | | • | Open Season On My Heart | | • | Everybody Hates Me | | • | Walk Like A Man | | • | Blank Sheet Of Paper | | • | Just Be Your Tear | | • | Do You Want Fries With That | | • | Kill Myself | | • | We Carry On |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
On the back cover of his ninth album Tim McGraw sits atop a horse, which just happens to be standing in the foyer of an elegant home. McGraw sits backwards in the saddle, looking not at where he's going, but where he's been. The image tips off the theme of this solid, 16-song album--for a singer who doesn't write, it's as close to autobiography as it gets. "How Bad Do You Want It," for example references not only bluesman Robert Johnson's crossroads chat with ol' Lucifer, but also the kind of relentless drive that got McGraw to the top of the Nashville heap. The dryly funny "Back When" finds the man who recently bought a $6.4 million Beverly Hills mansion yearning for a simpler time. "Walk Like a Man" talks about the kind of abusive father McGraw himself had before he discovered he was the son of baseball legend Tug McGraw. The late pitcher is surely the subject of three songs here about death, loss, and carrying on, especially the title track, a big, uplifting affirmation of life. If it's also a little sappy, so be it--singing about the most painful thing he's ever endured, he gives it a dignified, understated reading (and only a week or so after his father's passing). It takes an artist to do that, and while McGraw may not be the greatest of warblers, nobody in country can touch him at conveying emotions too deep to express in words. Look for this to be the album of his career. --Alanna Nash
Album Description
Grammy award winning superstar Tim McGraw will release his ninth album on August 24 2004, Live Like You Were Dying. The album is one of the most anticipated releases due this year and will feature his touring band, the Dancehall Doctors, for their second consecutive project. The album's title track, written by Craig Wiseman and Tim Nichols, has become the fastest rising chart single of McGraw's career, breaking into the top 5 in just 4 weeks and # 1 in six weeks.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 158 more reviews...
 One of his best ever August 24, 2004
48 out of 52 found this review helpful
My copy of Tim's new CD, Live Like You Were Dying, arrived this morning and I immediately opened it up and started playing it.
I haven't decided which songs I like best, yet. "Old Town New"; "Something's Broken" and "Open Season on My Heart" have a wonderful sound to them. Of the three, "Open Season On My Heart" is the best. "Do You Want Fries with them" had me laughing; "Drugs or Jesus" is a song with a great message about the choices we make in life. "Live Like You Were Dying" is an amazing song, that will never grow old with me. "Back When" is also funny. Tim shows alot of humor in these songs, along with a serious message.
In "Back When" he talked about how times have changed and it's hard to understand the things people day these days. The Lyrics"
Back when a hoe was a hoe
Coke was a coke
Cracks what you were doing when you were cracking jokes
Back when a screw was a screw
The wind was all that blew
When you said "I'm down with that", it meant you had the flu
Tim once again recorded this album with his longtime band "The DanceHall Doctors" as well as collaborated with some of the best writers in Nashville.
A nice little bonus was the appearance of his lovely, and talented wife, Faith Hill, singing background vocals on "Blank Sheet of Paper".
This CD may disappoint some, but not this girl. I'm very pleased with it, and also commend Amazon.com for shipping it so that it arrived to me on the release date! Can't get better than that!
Great job to Tim!
 New album = Same Formula = Same Tim December 21, 2004
16 out of 60 found this review helpful
Well let's just see how this CD compares to all of his last albums.
1. Didn't write a single word or note? Check.
2. Still whines like a prepubesent boy? Check.
3. Album cover photos that confirm he should really come out of the closet? Check.
4. Singing heartfelt tender songs that have nothing to do with him and he's just a poser trying to reap more millions? Check.
5. A talantless hack who survives the music business thanks to sheep who buy it? Check.
6. Still crooning pop songs but calling it country? Check.
Yep guess that about covers it. Tim is Tim and he'll always be Tim. As long as there are idiots in the world with no taste at all in music, Tim will continue to live a lifestyle that he never deserved. Maybe one day America will wake up and throw away all their country pop albums and return to the days when country was real. So-called 'New Country' is a joke, and Tim McGraw is the lead Jester.
McGraw's deepest and most personal album yet August 24, 2004
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
Tim McGraw is quickly proving himself to be a musical innovator. Along with his band, the superb Dancehall Doctors, he has created his two best albums yet: TIM MCGRAW AND THE DANCEHALL DOCTORS, and this one.
LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING is a ride through progressive, alternative, outlawish country music, with enough radio-friendliness to ensure airplay. McGraw certainly knows how to select songs; all of these are brilliantly written by some of today's best songwriters (Rodney Crowell, Tom Douglas, Bruce Robison, Craig Wiseman, Casey Beathard, the Warren Brothers, Don Schlitz, James Slater, etc).
McGraw deals with depression and hope on "Kill Myself," "We Carry On," and the title track; covers heartbreak in "Old Town New" and "Something's Broken;" eternal love on "My Best Friend" and "Just Be Your Tear;" abuse and recovery on "Walk Like a Man;" and adds in enough sarcastic, sardonic humor in "Everybody Hates Me," "Do You Want Fries With That," and "Back When" to keep this album from getting TOO serious.
One of the most dependable hitmakers, it's easy to pass Tim McGraw off as a one-man act; easy, but not true. His penchant for choosing high-class songs has helped him build a legacy hit after hit after hit. LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING is probably the best--and most personal--album McGraw has recorded yet. In fact, it's quite possible that, decades from now, people will look back on it as a classic example of country music done right.
Tim McGraw is a class act! September 24, 2004
14 out of 19 found this review helpful
I don't care about any controversy as to whether Tim did or did not write the song "Live like you were dying." The important thing to me is how he SINGS the song. Tim nails the emotions in that song, and most of the songs that he sings, better than anyone out there in country music today. Of course, another reason to be a fan of Tim is that he is married to one of the most beautiful and talented women in country music, Faith Hill.
If you like good country music, then buy this cd. If you don't like country music and you are one of the "reviewers" giving this cd one star, then you were not going to buy this cd anyway.
Time for me to reassess McGraw March 31, 2005
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
First I'll run down my bias and perspectives so you know where I'm coming from:
1) I *am* a country fan, though usually I go the traditional or alt-country route. A lot of what comes out of "NashVegas" is too oriented around image rather than music for me to spend a lot of time listening to country radio.
2) I am not a "country only" fan. I appreciate good music across just about ALL genres, from bluegrass to rap. Because of this, I don't spend a whole lot of time debating about whether something is "real" country or not. Instead, I spend the time listening and ascertaining whether the music is good or not, regardless of who made it, how they dress, where they live, etc.
3) I am NOT a Tim McGraw fan. Novelties like "Indian Outlaw" and "I Like It, I Love it" pretty much cemented my disinterest.
So why am I reviewing this? Well, quite simply..the album turned up on a year end "Best of" list and I'm always open to the fact I might have "missed" something so I borrowed it from our library. I was pleasantly surprised.
HIGHLIGHTS:
The title track's 'carpe diem' message, while it has been done before by others, was done well and hit me immediately. Sure, you could argue that it punches emotional buttons, but it does it without being melodramatic and maudlin. It's decidedly a winner. "Can't Tell Me Nothing"'s unapologetic muleheadedness is a good sell, too, as is the smalltown philosophy of "Drugs or Jesus" ('We're all looking for love and meaning in our lives/There's not much space between us/Drugs or Jesus') and the relationship ode of "My Old Friend".
LOWS:
"Back When" is being abused by a lot of reviewers and it deserves the shots it gets. While it's catchy, the nostalgia angle was much more well done by the Statler Brothers ("Do You Remember These?") without the digs at urban culture ('When you said 'I'm down with that', it meant you had the flu'). Another iffy line complains that now there's "pop in my country'..a ponderous complaint from someone often found close to the genre's fence himself. "Do You Want Fries with That?" will no doubt appeal to bitter divorced men, but it has a novelty factor that doesn't wear well with repeat plays. "How Bad Do You Want it?" invokes the blues legend about Robert Johnson selling his soul to the Devil for fame, but the ode to all-consuming passion seems, well, less than all-consuming as Tim sings it. "Everybody Hates Me" is clever writing, but the blue collar anthem rings false from someone as diamond encrusted as Tim is these days. "Kill Myself" uses a punch to the gut metaphor when a gentle tap would've worked better. "Open Season on my Heart" isn't awful, but as a Rodney Crowell fan I see it as lesser writing from him.
BOTTOM LINE: Only time will tell if this becomes a favourite for me, but the overall tone of the album is very reflective and makes for a listen that tends toward better longevity than a disc with dumb 'party' ditties would have. I'll keep my eye on Mr. McGraw.
3 1/2 stars
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