Living Colour: c or d

I. Am. Speechless. https://t.co/Hi9pB0DFn2

— Vernon Reid (@vurnt22) December 9, 2020

I’ve honestly had that song on repeat in my head for the entirety of the Trump presidency.

LC rules

I just assumed that Joseph and Stalin were Gandhi's first and middle names and went around referring to him as Joseph Stalin Gandhi for quite a while before anyone corrected me. I do not have a PhD.

Time's Up is such a sick album.

{I know this is not on Time's Up}

Love Living Colour, love Vernon Reid, love Time's Up, love the song. Kinda hate who kicked this appreciation off though.

I gave these guys another shot. I didn't like them when I tried their first two LP's around 2008 or 2009 - the vocals didn't feel like a good fit, the lyrics seemed too on-the-nose and the sound may have been too glossy for my tastes.

Didn't think much about them since, but I saw they got some press on the 30th anniversary of Time's Up - they weren't merely nostalgia pieces as they were written and published at the height of the BLM protests. Reading those got me to revisit them. Still imperfect, but this time around the same drawbacks don't bother me that much. Lyrics may be too didactic and self-conscious...but I like a lot of hard rock that's plagued by terrible lyrics, and I just tune them out to focus on something else. In this case, the reach doesn't touch the ambition, but the words go a hell of a lot farther. From that perspective, everything fell into place. Time's Up now feels close to a masterpiece. "Cult of Personality" probably is, up their with the best of Led Zeppelin, but I'm very glad they went in a different and ultimately more interesting direction on Time's Up, it's a better album than their relatively conventional debut.

I really loved Times Up at the time it came out and felt like I was almost alone in my peer group on that one (I was 11). I sort of had a thing for overly earnest "socially conscious" lyrics at that age, fwiw, and I was also very into the "musicianship." I started taking drums around then and wanted to play like Will Calhoun. Living Colour was already kind of atypical for kids my age and that album got way less attention than Vivid, but I think I liked it overall more than Vivid.

I revisited them recently too and all four of their initial batch of records — Vivid, Time's Up, Stain and the Biscuits EP (which was a full-length 15-track CD in Japan btw) — are really strong. Glover's style still doesn't 100% do it for me, but the music is often really, really strong. I think Stain is my favorite of their albums at the moment because it's their most brutal and monolithic release; it's like them trying to do a Helmet record or something.

Type and Information overload on TU smash it

I remember at the time being absolutely shocked by "Time's Up," which may be the most different *sounding* record from the same band and producer on consecutive albums; Ed Stasium made the latter album just sound *huge.* The musicianship of course is nuts, too, particularly Muzz, though Reid is totally getting weird. He has a great rig-rundown episode out there where he nerds out over stuff that imo pretty much no one but he would have a real use for.

But yeah, never particularly liked the vocals or lyrics but it all kind of works.

I remember reading an interview with Doug Wimbish when he joined the group, where he was completely insulting about the previous bass player's contribution and skills. I've only heard Vivid, and found the bass playing adequate at the very least, does anyone think this was a justified attack? I was shocked to read someone being so blunt about a previous member of their new group.

I wasn’t aware of that but I had very strong feelings when Stain came out that they had lost some secret sauce in Muzz, even though it was a good record.

I had the idea there was bad blood with Skillings but Wikipedia says this:

Skillings's departure from the band in 1992 was due to musical differences and a desire to branch off and evolve musically outside of Living Colour. He left under good terms (as indicated in his liner notes printed in the album sleeve of Living Colour's 1995 best-of compilation, Pride) and has returned to the band on occasion to substitute for their current bassist Doug Wimbish.

That makes it even stranger that Wimbish would think it was a good idea to run him down in an interview.

Yeah, really. I know Wimbish is an ace, but I've never been impressed by his playing. Wimbish is like Rob Trujillo in Metallica. I remember them being amazed that he could play certain Cliff lines with one finger, but I was, like, so?

fwiw Muzz is one of the few bassists that reminds me of Geddy Lee.

Time's Up is such a fantastic album, such a diverse spread of music, with such soul and focus and power: pseudo high life loveliness on Solace Of You, a genuine pop hit in Love Rears, the funk-rock gonzo of Elvis Is Dead, the righteous heaviness of Someone Like You, the thrashing eight-tempos-in-a-minute title track.

I didn't like Stain as much, but it seems underrated. "Ausländer" (probably the best track), "Nothingness" and "Bi" (where a guy's girlfriend comes out to him by telling she knows he's been fooling around with her girlfriend) are all great. "Go Away," "Ignorance Is Bliss," "Leave It Alone" and "Postman" sounded pretty good - that's half the album, so not a terrible way to call it a day albeit temporarily.

was just going through some will calhoun drum videos on youtube and he's such an interesting and original drummer imo, no one sounds like him

But I mean all those guys were on their respective instruments, and that's what Doug W lacked to me -- great bassist just didn't bring anything that special to the table.

Ah, Type, New Jack Theme, I Want to Know... I love this band so much. Had a great time listening to Vivid last summer.

Doug also dabbled way too much in effects. To paraphrase Frank Zappa, I think, why would a first rate bass player want to sound like a third rate synth player?

otm

But then I think Muzz also used some crazy effects iirc

Man New Jack Theme is such a jam. Elvis is Dead too.

Biscuits was some good shit too fwiw. P sure I heard their version of Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing before James Brown's, and it's still great.

there's a Live From CBGBs 89 Album on Spotify

Sometimes I feel like my mind will explode

“We are the children of backyards and car pools”

Right man Alive?

ahh…ILM cycles…it seems to me that 5-10 years ago, this band would be roundly dismissed hereabouts…

There's no question that, as an 16 year old VERY CONCERNED about the lack of black rock bands in the mainstream milieu, i was all the fuck in for this band in 1987-1988, and I bought every record they put out through Stain (indeed, the one where they see not necessarily Helmet but Stone Temple Pilots and say "that's what we gotta go for"). And yet, as I got into my 20s, I realized that another band that LC was loudly indebted to called the Bad Brains was all show, whereas Living Colour was for its entire run all tell. To wit: one band went on and on about the legacy they had inherited, despite systemic racism, and played like Rush if Rush were at all informed by harmelodics, P-funk and JB. whereas the other never talked about what they were doing and simply were the greatest hardcore band ever, and —I think, although please let me know I'm wrong— the only american act to ever record reggae/dub nearly contemporaneous to the major jamaican music of the late 70s/early 80s, and never like in a Big Mountain way.

I've probably mentioned this before on ILM, but they were also my first .ive show, so I think I will always have a certain attachment to them.

Going back and listening to them today after some time away, the lyrics are actually sharper and funnier than I remember them being.

Also weird that I missed the Paul Simon dig at the end of Elvis is Dead since my parents played Graceland nonstop for like a year when it came out.

You know, re: Bad Brains and reggae, that is literally nothing I've ever thought about and fascinating to consider.

Living Colour, I always loved their choice of covers. James Brown, Bad Brains, Talking Heads, Al Green, Chuck Berry, Pere Ubu ...

yup

they introduced me to fear of music

living colour to veronica's point, was in a weird position, being the dumbest band smart people liked to the smartest band dumb people liked, for me, essentially a jumped up hayseed farm kid who didn't know who bad brains or ronald shannon jackson were - or even talking heads outside of burning down the house (eternally grateful for LC turning me on to fear of music), they were as you said Rush basically with funk and R&B and jazz influences, kids that were like %27 percent smarter than the other kids who liked motley crue and poison because we liked faith no more, rush, jane's addiction and metallica (but also secretly liked motley crue and poison), but at the time what they were bringing to the table was pretty amazing

To wit: one band went on and on about the legacy they had inherited, despite systemic racism, and played like Rush if Rush were at all informed by harmelodics, P-funk and JB. whereas the other never talked about what they were doing and simply were the greatest hardcore band ever

bad brains is the better band sure, but all that "talk" was shit a lot of kids had never heard or even thought about so it really wasn't corny, even the idea that black people could be a rock band was surprising to us* - and the way they tried to reclaim that was really important actually

*hendrix kind of existed as this one exception, and sort of a semi mystical figure disconnected from history, known from guitar mags we read

Cult of Personality was 1988, right? So thinking back, I was ... 13? Almost 14? By that age I was definitely into Zeppelin, say, and definitely Rush, and even stuff like Public Enemy, but still a few years before Naked City, which is how I learned about Zorn. I'm 99% certain I didn't know the connection between Reid and the downtown NY jazz scene until Zorn. Iirc I was intrigued when I saw Reid's name pop up on The Big Gundown, or that he had made an album with Bill Frisell, and those things definitely lead me to Ronald Shannon Jackson/Decoding Society and stuff like that, like other things on Nonesuch or Axiom (Axiom started the same year as that first Naked City record, iirc), which brought me to everything from Last Exit to Steve Reich, plus other avant jazz. Weirdly, I never listened to or cared about any metal until much, much later, like in my 20s (hard rock, though, for sure), but I was already into punk and did know about Bad Brains, at least the later stuff; Quickness, I think, came out right after the first Living Colour record, and I perhaps thought of it the same way I thought of other acts in the Black Rock Coalition, like 24-7 Spyz or even Fishbone. I definitely recall the stink made over LC opening for the Stones on the 1989 Steel Wheels tour.

Amusingly, I think a big influence for me were the ads in Option and Musician, especially the former, where I'd see a bunch of stuff from one label lopped together.

Oh, another way Living Colour proved a big influence to me was seeing them at the Tower Theatre in Philly in 1990. I don't remember too much about the show (the Veldt opened up), but there was a concert promoter circular handed out that I read at my seat before the show. In the back was an excerpt from Christgau's just or soon to be released '80s guide that showed his top 10 albums of the '80s. I didn't know him or many of the records, but I think I bought that book ASAP and it was off to the races. For the record (I think this was what was published):

1. The Indestructible Beat of Soweto (Shanachie)
2. Ornette Coleman: Of Human Feelings (Antilles)
3. X: Wild Gift (Slash)
4. Sonny Rollins: G-Man (Milestone)
5. Franco & Rochereau: Omona Wapi (Shanachie)
6. Double Dee & Steinski: "The Payoff Mix"/"Lesson Two"/"Lesson 3" (Tommy Boy promotional EP)
7. DeBarge: In a Special Way (Gordy)
8. Public Enemy: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (Def Jam)
9. Bruce Springsteen: Born in the U.S.A. (Columbia)
10. Replacements: Let It Be (Twin/Tone)

What was the problem with the Stones support? Not a problem for Doug Wimbish I guess as he ended up becoming their bassist.

Darryl Jones is the bassist for the Stones, and has been since 1993. When they were auditioning bassists, Keith Richards realized, given the importance of the bass/drums relationship in the Stones, why don't we just leave the decision up to Charlie? So Watts picked Jones.

Cult of Personality was 1988, right?

Vivid was released in May of '88, and "Cult" was released that July. I remember my brother bringing home Vivid in mid-'88, and I loved it...but it was nowhere to be found on radio or MTV for at least 6 months. "Cult" didn't hit its chart peak in the US (#13) until over a year after its release.

What was the problem with the Stones support? Not a problem for Doug Wimbish I guess as he ended up becoming their bassist.

You're thinking of Darryl Jones, another bass ringer.

Iirc they got some of the same shit that Prince got.

I might be misremembering though.

This is pretty cool (just tweeted by Vernon Reid):

I spent a whole day with Charlie Watts, on our day off in Boston. That was one of my favorite days on that whole tour. We ran into Bob Moses, which was a remarkable meeting of mutual respect. Charlie was unfailingly gracious to every shocked & goggle eyed fan we met. Great man. https://t.co/ezSjxZy5ca

— Vernon Reid (@vurnt22) January 10, 2021

Wimbish played with Mick Jagger on his solo records, is what I'm thinking of.

and Jagger produced a couple tracks on Vivid after helping them get a CBS contract. Reid tells a story about Jagger getting behind the drums to show them how to get the sounds they wanted.

And plays harmonica on the album. And Reid of course recorded with Jagger, too, on the "Primitive Cool" album (as you all know). I didn't notice but Jagger pops up again on "Time's Up," too (the album), doing background vocals.

I interviewed Vernon and Corey a few years back for a retrospective feature for Planet Rock. This was them on the Stones tour:

Mick Jagger had first met Living Colour founder Vernon Reid when Reid played guitar on Jagger’s 1987 solo album Primitive Cool. He took the fledgling group under his wing, making mix-tapes of obscure blues singers for frontman Corey Glover, and helping produce the group’s 1988 debut album Vivid, as well as lending backing vocals and harmonica.

“Mick was one of the band’s early adopters, our champion,” remembers Glover. “The Stones were known for choosing support acts on the cusp of doing something interesting – Bob Marley, Prince.” This, then, was a golden opportunity – but also a mighty challenge. “The dressing rooms on the Stones tour were larger than the venues we’d previously been playing. The rooms were cavernous – with so many more people than we’d ever played to. I felt anxiety-ridden.”

“A lot of people just wanted to hear Jumping Jack Flash,” adds Vernon Reid. “But many were receptive. We had moments that were rough – but we had a lot more moments that were sublime.”

In addition to the onstage triumphs, one backstage encounter made a profound impact. Little Richard had toured with the Rolling Stones back in 1963, a support slot that helped revive his career following an unsuccessful detour into gospel. While visiting his old friends on the Steel Wheels tour, he crossed paths with their youthful support act, and met a new generation of black rock stars rising up to continue his mission.

“Little Richard is one of the architects of rock’n’roll, and the greatest vocalist,” says Reid. “In an era of dangerous people, he was perhaps the most dangerous. He really paid attention to who we were – he said we were the fulfilment of something he’d started.”

“He recognised there’d been no-one carrying the mantle of real people-of-colour in rock,” nods Glover. “And it felt like he was passing a torch onto us. Like, woah, we have a very big responsibility. Because he was saying, ‘We built rock’n’roll, so what you do is very important, too. Keep it up – you can’t stop.’”

Saw them for the first time tonight in D.C. Corey Glover is amazing.

oh my god this sucks. those drums! jesus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nTuvfHyR-k