Bright Colour

When I heard Living Colour for the first time I knew they had to be super cool.  I was hearing them in the late 80's with my jaw dropped to the floor.  They were awesome in more ways then I could count. I saw them on late night TV. I heard their single Cult of Personality played many times on Rock radio stations.  I even had a chance to see them at the famous CBGB's in New York City.  They, to me, were pretty damn' cool.  

When I went to the record store to get their album I was told that the single is much better then the album.  Not sure if this was some kind of suppressive act or maybe the guy at the counter was trying to be honest.  I bought both, the single and the whole album.  I was so pumped to hear this mix of Rap, Rock, Metal, Funk, and other cool genres all rolled into one.  This was all new to me.  I was still digging the Classic Rock, but this super fun.  

This was fun for many reasons.  I have never heard anything Rock so hard with so much feeling.  This beat all the Heavy Metal bands of the day by miles.  While those Heavy Metal bands talked about drugs and booze, Living Colour was speaking of diversity and having a voice in this world.  It was raw and fresh. They tackled about problems in the inner city with prejudice and homeless.  These were real problems that I wanted to hear about as I was getting to be an older adult and of voting age. I did not care about the drugs and the booze.  Those issues were not real life problems.  They were party issues, not issues that will make me think about the world around me.  

In 1989 at Foxborough I saw them open for the Rolling Stones.  It was a far cry from seeing them in the club the year before.  I liked what I saw, the only issue was this setting was a bit to big for them.  I remember hearing some boos and some hisses, but for the most part the crowd liked what they heard.  The only problem I had was they were given a short set and really kept them in restraint of what I heard at the CBGB's show.  There they played like season veterans who been around for a long time.  Vernon Reid was at least one of them.  He was part of the 80's NYC Jazz, Funk and street scene before starting this band.  

Living Colour is and was a band that was ahead of the curve.  Their influence is extraordinary in an area that a lot of this mix of genres was not that prevalent or for that matter accepted.  I like I heard from them and remember waiting for the followup album that was just as great as their debut.  The music was fresh as the first and added some of their influences to make it fun. The cover of the Talking Heads on the first album was quite a cool cover.  Living Colour is a band that should be played more, talked about more and sighted more as influence more.  They are a band not only huge with the mix of the music I spoke of, but also their activism about social problems.  The first album is full of them.  They lived it everyday in NYC and was hoping for change.  They changed me and still love the music they put out.  Wish that people heard more of this and really took them for granted like I did.  They are a true favorite.