Recently I've been listening to a LOT of Living Colour on my iPod... which isn't really that big a deal I guess because they are one of the most important things to ever happen to me in my life. They are the band that made me first go... "Man! This music thing might actually be a good idea."
This thought came to me relatively late in life. I was like 17 at the time. Before that I was purely TV. In my house TV was like the radio. it was always on. I didn't have time or interest in music. Not that there wasn't music in my house or life. Mostly I remember my mom CRANKING up the X-Mas carols and I remember long car rides listening to AM radio... Stevie Wonder and Jim Croce are the two that immediately come to mind for some reason. I also remember late nights where my mom would make me listen to classical music radio in order to fall asleep, because Boston's Kiss FM (Does every city have a Kiss FM at some point?) was only keeping me awake.
Anyway, recently it's been LOTS 'O Living Colour. I think it has something to do with my show. Living Colour seems to summon up the appropriate level of black rage mixed with intellect and scathing criticism that I need to pull off ending racism in about an hour.
So in honor of the valuable inspiration that Living Colour is giving me, I am supplying my ultimate Living Colour concert set list. (Special Note: I've probably seen Living Colour in concert 10 times... Which is alot for most casual music listeners, but only about a week of shows if you spent the 90's following the Grateful Dead on tour.)
The following list is IN ORDER
1.Cult of Personality (The radio hit... Now featured in Guitar Hero III)
2. Time's Up
3. Pride (This is the song that changed the course of my life.)
4. Never Satisfied
5. Desperate People
6. Type
7. Funny Vibe
8. Information Overload (Rarely played live... Clearly one of their BEST SONGS!)
9. Money Talks (I've only heard this live on a bootleg. If I heard it live I'd better have a change of pants.)
10. Sailin' On (Bad Brains Cover)
11. Go Away
12. Should I Stay or Should I Go? (Clash Cover)
Encore
13. Love & Happiness (Al Green Cover)
14. Tomorrow Never Knows (Beatles Cover)
15. Solace of You
16. Fight The Fight
17. Which Way To America
So there you go. I'm embarrassed to tell you how long that took me. This set is long on the first two albums and short on the last two, probably because those two were soooooo much more important to me. All the covers are songs that Living Colour actually has covered. The only song I chose from their new album is The Beatles cover. That list may not mean much to you, but it makes me happy. Use your own band. Make your own list. Post it here if you want.
Now, I'm off to watch The Live Living Colour DVD that I got from Netflix AGAIN.
This is the song that changed my life. This is a fan made video that is cheesy and excellent at the same time. Bonus points if you find the image of my OTHER favorite band.
P.S. All praises due to Rob Nasatir who introduced me to Living Colour one night via a cassette tape in his parents' car in the parking lot of a record store. I jusrt remember being like, "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!"
P.P.S. Vernon Reid is the guitarist from Living Colour. He hugged me after a show one time when I told him that he helped me understand what it is to be black.
P.P.P.S When I was 20 (20!) I went to a Living Colour Concert by myself (Thanks, Jason). It was around the time that Eric Clapton's song Tears in Heaven was all over the radio. I made an EXTREMELY crappy T-shirt with fabric paint that said, "Clapton is Pop. Vernon is GOD!" Vernon signed it after the show even though I didn't ask him to. Sweeeeeeeeeet. I don't knwo where that shirt is. Mom, do you know?
P.P.P.P.S. I FULLY believe that one day I will be the producer of a Living Colour Album.
P.P.P.P.P.S. This is live performance from The Arsenio Hall Show. THAT'S RIGHT I SAID THE ARSENIO HALL SHOW!!! Awesome.
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4 comments:
What confuses me is that I am racking my brain and I don't think I've ever seen Living Colour live. I know part of that is that you saw them several times when you were living in Philadelphia, but it still seems odd. (For me, musically, the most important part of your Philadephia sojourn was you giving me a tape of Digital Underground when I visited. Do you remember your early days in radio?) I saw Fishbone two or three times with you and also 24-7 Spyz, but somehow I've never seen Vernon Reid live.
I can't even imagine how many Dead shows I dragged you to (or Digable Planets shows for that matter). Though when thinking back to High School, you only have Rob to blame for the fact that Todd Rundgren has still got to be on your top ten list of number of times that you've seen a particular band.
By the way, I was flipping around on TV last night and saw a Bad Brains commercial on MTV. Have you seen all the promotion that MTV is doing for them? http://buzzworthy.mtv.com/2008/02/04/
artist-of-the-week-bad-brains/
By the way Part II, I remember the Clapton/Reid shirt you made. I have no idea what happened to it, but I still have all your old cassette tapes (Remember pre-IPod when you switched from tapes to CDs?) including several Living Colour items.
I have the shirt! Did you think that I wouldn't? That Living Colour concert was on the U of Chicago campus, right? I think I remember dropping you off there.
This is a little scary, Jason. Even I have seen Living Colour live, maybe more than once. I remember that Laurence Fishburne was at one concert and he seemed to enjoy the music as much as I did. It was in San Fran while they were filming Matrix II and III.
I want my bonus points because I saw Rage against the Machine in the video
As a diehard Clapton fan, the shirt...she offen' me a lil bit. Tears in Heaven? Not my favorite of his songs. Especially with the constant loop some stations used. There are a couple Clapton songs that changed my life in the ways I imagine Living Color changed your life.
You've seen that Geico commercial with the Pips? The middle Pip is my best friend's brother. That's apropos of nothing, but I have nothing else worthy to contribute here. I did have a chance to see Living Color in High School and I didn't go. See? Nothing else to contribute.
Yes, every city has a KISS FM. But now they're Jack FM.
One of my friends has a band that plays in SF once in a while. He sings and plays guitar and they do a REALLY good, in my opinion, cover of Cult Of Personality. He's not black (maybe half?) but then Ronnie James Dio isn't and KillSwitch Engage is covering that.
I don't think that's really relevant but it's the middle of the night and I wanted to contribute.
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