Steve Kravac - Los Angeles, May 2009

Where do you begin to tell one of the most important love stories of your life? The first glance...? The moment when you realize that you are smitten and you get a feeling in the pit of your stomach that swirls around and fills you with the sensation of being giddy and ill all at the same time?

That was what falling in love with X was like for me. A love that I didn't see coming but that was completely blind siding.

Quite simply put there was nothing like them before, and there will never be anything like them again. They are a holy trinity of rock and roll, poetry and art, that continues to inspire and entertain.

Billy, D.J. Exene and John are all supremely gifted individuals but together they have become something that transcends the genre of punk rock. They have always been stronger than the sum of their parts and therein lies their secret.

As they became more popular there were always the twinges of jealousy when a stranger spoke of knowing your love as intimately as you did. But like any great love they are attractive to all admirers and cannot be caged or possessed.

Time has passed, music has changed and changed again, but there has always been a constant... to return to... fall headlong into... and drink in again and again.

These recordings are some of the most relevant of their era, and to bring them back in their original format in all their glory is an incredibly exciting and humbling endeavor.

I fell in love with X many years ago, and that love is true and unwavering today.

Because of them my perception of art, music and life can never be the same, and for that I am eternally grateful.