How Much Do You Love Living Color?

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  • holmesholmes 3,532 Posts
    I guess they were ok for a soft rock version of the Bad Brains
    Nice call.

  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    don't forget that Vernon Reid is the dude on Public Enemy's "Yo! Bum Rush The Show"


  • volumenvolumen 2,532 Posts
    don't forget that Vernon Reid is the dude on Public Enemy's "Yo! Bum Rush The Show"


    Sophisticated Bitch is the shit.

    Time's Up is the shit.

    Hemp is the shit.

    All band member are ill.

    Body Glove stage wear is the shit.

    Elvis is Dead is the shit.

    Vernon Reid make Eddie Van Halen look like William Hung!

  • don't forget that Vernon Reid (is that his name?) is the dude on Janet Jackson's "Black Cat."

    Wrong. Its the dude from "Extreme".

  • holmesholmes 3,532 Posts

    Vernon Reid make Eddie Van Halen look like William Hung!


  • holmesholmes 3,532 Posts
    don't forget that Vernon Reid (is that his name?) is the dude on Janet Jackson's "Black Cat."

    Wrong. Its the dude from "Extreme".
    Nuno Bettencourt, dude's beautiful, luxurious locks were all over guitar magazines around the same time as Vernon Reid.

  • faux_rillzfaux_rillz 14,343 Posts
    Where is the one crink? I feel like he would be great in this thread.

  • Where is the one crink? I feel like he would be great in this thread.

    crink has taste in music. tho i bet he might be interested in one of those pinhead tuft hairdo things. his hair is frikin awesome!

  • the [/b] Bad Brains

    I like that.

  • I guess they were ok for a soft rock version of the Bad Brains
    Nice call.

    Always found them too pop metal for my taste, but I have heard/seen live some members of the band play in different settings abd they were amazing. Saw Vernon Reid and Will Calhoun and Muzz Skillings doing a set of seventies style fusion jazz sometime in the nineties and it was kinda .

  • waxjunkywaxjunky 1,850 Posts

    I was flipping through some old concert ticket stubs that I found with some 45s that I had mostly forgotten about for the last 20 years (fugazi, bad brains, etc). There was a Lollapalooza ticket (either I or II) with an autograph I couldn't figure out or remember. I just now realize it was Vernon Reid's sig.

    Despite all that nostalgia, I no longer ride for Living Colour.

  • don't forget that Vernon Reid (is that his name?) is the dude on Janet Jackson's "Black Cat."

    Wrong. Its the dude from "Extreme".

    it appears we may both be right. I guess there are two versions.

    the guitar nerds know...
    http://www.guitars101.com/forums/f77/who-does-the-lead-for-janet-jackson-23480.html




  • damn I had forgotten how suspect they looked. even for that era they were seriously confused on the style tip.

    ...and why were they still dressing that way in 1997?



    I noticed that too. That has to be mistake, or it was registered late or some shit. Their fashion game was often weak, but I thought by then they were all rocking their dreads much longer and more knotty and shit.

    That photo was registered late. Doug Wimbish had replaced one of the members on their last album (1993); by '97, they had long since broken up.

    Surprisingly good: their reunion album of a few years ago, Collideoscope. (Although IIRC, it had a redundant version of "Back In Black" that should have stayed on the cutting room floor.) Way better than Stain, their wanky swan song.

  • I remember seeing some Corey Glover CD all through the deletion bins in the mid or late 90s, never copped.

    You're not missing much. The deletion bins was where it belonged.

    But were they better than 24-7 Spyz??

    Now you talk about a band who was all over the dollar bins! I have a slight preference for Spyz, they were more manic. But Living Colour, for all their "Bad Brains meets Extreme" tendencies, were all right with me.

    Now who's gonna ride for those Black Rock Coalition comps that were all over the place back then? Lord, that funk-metal sound was all over NYC there for a minute...

  • RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,779 Posts
    I rocked the Body Glove suit in 7th Grade.

    Love their debut.. but I liked the sophomore album "Time's Up" wayyy better.

    Saw them live at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh in 1991(?). Urban Dance Squad opened up for them.

    I thought they were incredible..

    The next album after that, bassist Muzz Skillings left and they sucked afterwards.

  • I remember liking this band:


    Follow For Now

    although I don't know what I would think if I heard them again some 15 years later. I always liked the idea of the black rock coalition bands more than I seemed to like the reality of the music they made.

  • asstroasstro 1,754 Posts
    I always liked the idea of the black rock coalition bands more than I seemed to like the reality of the music they made.

    Quoted for truth. I liked Living Colour and 24-7 Spyz, but the BRC bands that came after them like Eye and Eye, Follow For Now and so on all sucked. Seemed like the only reason they got good reviews was because critics were scared to talk bad about such a politically correct scene.

  • LokoOneLokoOne 1,823 Posts


    I like them, 24-7 spyz were cool too, but I prefer the Fishbone sound, more happening, less rock based.

    Didn't Vernon Reid do a solo lp? had a bunch of dudes on it...i never heard it, only heard about it. anyone know more?





    PS. I got a purple 12" of theirs (love rears...) if there are any massive fans on here.... available for trade...:-)

  • asstroasstro 1,754 Posts


    Didn't Vernon Reid do a solo lp? had a bunch of dudes on it...i never heard it, only heard about it. anyone know more?

    I've heard parts, never the whole thing. Wasn't too interesting from what I rememeber, but Prince Paul co-produced it with Teo Macero (who did most of Miles Davis records).

  • DrWuDrWu 4,021 Posts
    Clowning their look based on that photo is clearly disconnected. Dude rocked the body glove(r) on the regular.


  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    I guess they were ok for a soft rock version of the Bad Brains

    This is some real bullshit.

    Bad Brains were from the early 80s DC Punk scene.
    Living Color came out of NYC after BB had made their impact.

    Lumping them together is some real insidious racist/low critique bullshit.


    IT IS NOT A NICE CALL.....FUCK THAT STUPIDITY. AND DONT TRY TO LUMP FISHOBONE INTO THIS SHIT EITHER.

    Your gonna tell me that HR and Corey share artistic simlarities?

    I smell RACE. Whatever. Black Rock circa 87-89 is not the same as 80-83.

    And 24-7 SPYZ incorporated HIp Hop into their shit which was post BB.

  • Dude, they worshipped the bad brains, nothing about race goin on here...just music, that intense crisp drumming both bands had, the Frickin' riff master shredding guitar...there are A LOT of musical, not racial similarities...that is what made me phrase my opinion like that..Living Color just did it on 6 instead of 11...

    and I didnt say anything about those other bands...

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Dude, they worshipped the bad brains, nothing about race goin on here...just music, that intense crisp drumming both bands had, the Frickin' riff master shredding guitar...there are A LOT of musical, not racial similarities...that is what made me phrase my opinion like that..Living Color just did it on 6 instead of 11...

    and I didnt say anything about those other bands...

    Who didnt worship BB?

    Pop Funk Metal in 88, for me was coming from a way different feel/technique that BB circa 1980 IMO. I dont think there even was a "Black Rock Coalition" in 1981.

    U might link the two, but i see them in different realms but connected by looser strands than being loud Black guys within the Rock game.

  • I loved Living Colour back in the day. I remember seeing them on MTV before their first album dropped and just really digging what I heard. I picked up the remaster of their first album a couple years ago and still pull it out every so often. Lots of good songs but the production sounds kind of dated now -- lots of 80's reverb and all that.


    My favorite song of theirs, however, is probably this one from their second album (which is really underrated):


  • snosno 332 Posts
    A much needed Living Colour appreciation thread!
    "Cult of Personality" Totally shreds. No doubt about that.
    Back in the days I though the LC jumped the shark departure of Muzz Skilling, but I listened to Stain again and the songs are just as good...Corey was more angry and cynical, Reid's playing more tight and compact, Doug Wimbush (On-U Sound System) has worthy contribution to the band (just listen to Nothingness), Will Calhoun's drumming as cripsy as ever.

    Just listen to "Bi"...funny lyrics with mean synth guitar shredding...

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    I would agree that LC were doing sort of a Bad Brains-lite
    of the "I Against I" era ... Batmon's right it's a stretch to throw
    them together, but listen to "I Against I" and then "Vivid" and
    tell me there wasn't some biting/smoothing out going on there.

    If we talking about black rock bands of the 80's what up with Homo Picnic?

  • holmesholmes 3,532 Posts
    AND DONT TRY TO LUMP FISHOBONE INTO THIS SHIT EITHER.

    Fishbone "Give A Monkey A Brain" & Bad Brains "Rise" are pretty much the same record with different packaging!

  • I rocked the Body Glove suit in 7th Grade.

    Love their debut.. but I liked the sophomore album "Time's Up" wayyy better.

    Saw them live at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh in 1991(?). Urban Dance Squad opened up for them.

    I thought they were incredible..

    The next album after that, bassist Muzz Skillings left and they sucked afterwards.

    Thought I was going to have to step in and ride for the dudes, but here comes Raj and puts down the truth.

    I might easily be the biggest Living Colour fanboy on the site, but I ain't give a fuck!!

    Saw them @ the Warfield WITH Bad Brains, and they ripped it.

    And, Time's Up remains one of my favorite albums. I know it comes off as a bit cross colors 90's now, but I had that shit memorized back to front, and it still sounds fresh to me now.

  • haven't listened in years but i LOVED the 1st 2 albums at the time...
    i guess probably some of their shit was overwrought but it was well-crafted and -performed
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