616. Living colour - Vivid (1988)


















Track Listing

1. Cult Of Personality
2. I Want To Know
3. Middle Man
4. Desparate People
5. Open Letter (To A Landlord)
6. Funny Vibe
7. Memories Can't Wait
8. Broken Hearts
9. Glamour Boys
10. What's Your Favorite Color?
11. Which Way To America

Review

This is probably one of the best hard-rock albums we have had on this list. It mixes elements of hard-rock with jazz and even funk. That being said it is still a hard-rock album, a style that has fallen by the wayside for a very good reason.

So it is quite good for its genre but still not overly exciting. Still, there are a couple of good songs, and it is a rare thing as well, an African-American hard-rock band, and they deserve praise for that, in a music business that was becoming progressively more discriminatory.

Actually that is a pretty interesting thing, the way the music business has become segregated, where you have Black music and "other", it is even recognised at awards ceremonies with stuff like the MOBO awards. It is particularly ironic when the non-black music is very much derived from black artists who invented blues and rock, people like Fats Domino, Little Richard or even Jimi Hendrix. But I digress. Living Colour is a good hard-rock band, and this is a good album, but it isn't exceptional.


Track Highlights

1. Glamour Boys
2. Cult Of Personality
3. Open Letter (To A Landlord)
4. Funny Vibe

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The Black Rock Coalition is a U.S.-based artists' collective and non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the creative freedom and works of black musicians.

The BRC was founded in 1985 in New York City by Vernon Reid (guitarist of the heavy metal band Living Colour), Greg Tate (journalist for the Village Voice), and Konda Mason (producer), but today has members from around the world. The BRC's mission is to maximize the development, exposure, and acceptance of black rock musicians, and encourage artists who refuse to cater to "the creative straitjacket the industry has designed."

Among other activities, the BRC actively seeks performance venues, recording opportunities, and equitable distribution opportunities for black artists. They work to archive performance footage of cultural events related to their oeuvre, and to provide or publicize various educational opportunities (e.g. lectures, workshops, seminars, research, library and audio-visual resources, public forums/discussions, etc). BRC also solicits funding for projects and provides networking opportunities.

The BRC is governed by an executive board and an advisory board; board members have included Me'shell Ndegeocello, Bernie Worrell, 24-7 Spyz, the members of Living Colour, Bill Stephney, Craig Street, Sekou Sundiata, Chocolate Genius, Don Byron and Nona Hendryx. Artists who have participated in BRC activities include Doug Pinnick (frontman and bassist of the progressive metal band King's X), Spacey T, Keziah Jones, Tamar-kali, Suffrajett, Graph Nobel, Imani Coppola, David Ryan Harris, Jeffrey Gaines, Sophia Ramos, FunkFace, Pillow Theory, Apollo Heights, Avery Brooks, DK Dyson, Carl Hancock Rux, Caron Wheeler, and DJ Reborn.


Living colour at Programa do Jo (it's funny if you are Portuguese or Brazilian) with Glamour Boys: