I heard Vernon had major problems with endorsed ESP brother George Lynch. Which Vernon didnt want to have George using his last name with his newly formed band " Lynch Mob" and alarm bells went off........................ Great band, live,met them on the streets of NYC

It's the same reason Faith No More didn't blow up. Simply well ahead of their time. That and the time they were playing was an epic period for Rock.

turnip sucks it was an epic period, yes but they were as well. I think part of the problem is that they didn’t fit into a marketable niche. Their songs bridged genres. Their look ( which I always contend is 60% of a bands success ( was magnificent. Their talent head and shoulders above also-rans of the some time period ( stone temple pilots et al). Then really why.....I would guess that their fan base while faithful and still In tack( somewhat like the ones for Phish) never extended to the wider mainstream. Another reason is most of the songs are not of a personal nature. Even Bob Dylan has quote able love songs) . That said they do as well. They are wonderful beyond great. Here’s hoping LC is appreciated in a future their music was destined for.

Kat, I'm sure they will be appreciated more as time passes. I for one feel like maybe 1-3 solid songs come out each year if we are lucky these day's. Back in mid to late 80's thru 90's and early 2000 just about everything was epic. The time LC came out was a Nirvana of a time with entire albums capable of carrying radio stations were as we are lucky to purchase an album liking 1-2 songs today. Also feel bad for LC. They formed and came to be at about at the pinnacle time for music. GNR, Metallica, Sound Garden, Alice in Chains, Faith No More, ....(This list could go on so leaving it at that).

No-one knows why. It's one of life's great mysteries. They are one of the greatest bands ever. Happy to see they're still doing it. But yeah. They should have been huge.

Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok

Presidential Elections, Etc.

,METAVERSO ¡

Life.

Yes!

Open Letter to a Landlord doesn't really make sense. If you've done real estate investing, you'd see there are multiple costs involved: the mortgage, property tax, contractor fees, HOA fees, utilities (if landlord paid). By the time all's said and done, the landlord's margin is like 12%, if that. If they want cheap housing, they'll have to ask about Section 8.

@@srujan00do you actually know the lyrics of this song? This is about gentrification, and specifically gentrification brought about by indiscriminate violence and devastation it causes the families.

In their ears.

For what ever reason, they never took off. I liked them from day 1.

Absolutely

Every electric guitarist I've ever talked to knows who he is though. He's legendary among musicians.

Vernon Reid underrated? By whom?

Vernon Reid was named No. 66 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time (from Wikipedia). One bad dude.

The@@creageous By the mysterious "rater" that either overrates or underrates every guitar player on youtube requiring people to comment and correct the injustice

Hell yeah, it does !!!

I love that shit!

I know makes me wanna just beat the living shit out of some junkyard fridge with a sledgehammer

hell yeah

I loved them. Still do. These guys are a force to be reckoned with

+Juan Carlos Sevinones Rage againt the machine. album bombtrack :D

I said current bands, Rage against the machine last album was realeased in 1998 I think, correct me if Im wrong.

RATM released an album in 2000. I think it was called "The Battle Of Los Angeles". :) I mind Tommy Vance playing the video "Sleep Now In The Fire" from that album on VH1's Friday Rock Show that year, I don't know if any albums were released after that or not - probably there were.

MESHUGGAH

They released Renegades in 2000 but i wonder if it was a compilation of songs in the vault

Sorry, REAL BLACK METAL at its finest!

Why does it have to be classified, the song still rocks no matter what!

Joaquim G. Black (People) Metal, isn't a real genre.

Joaquim G. Tbh it's sad that it takes no intelligence to get the joke and everyone doesn't get it and thinks its offensive. What a terrible time to live in indeed.

Bryn BORDELON it's a joke.

Yet perhaps, thee greatest band of them all..... Perhaps!

immediately, after these guys won best, new artist at the Grammys, pop-culture started doing boy bands that were ripping off all R&B shit like *NSYNC, and I can’t even remember the names of the other people, but Justin Timberlake was part of that crew. Bullshit musicians. Heavy guitar rock music didn’t get the pop spotlight until the grunge era which was completely all white.

Underrated?? They were all over MTV and got to tour for decades. That’s quite an achievement

Not underrated at all I dare say. Vernon reid was always revered as an electric guitar virtuoso, especially then.

they came up in the era of rap which over shadowed alot of things

WELL SAID!!!

He surely is. There is a guy named Ty Tabor who is an unearthly guitarist, also sadly overlooked.

@@davidmuir7711 Kings x.. another one of the greatest little known bands.

I absolutely loved this band when I first heard them. Still do this day on my frequent paylists, epic music, great band

Why using the past tense?

He is a master 🔝

saw those 2 bands together in San Antonio 1991

It was a great time for music. The formula hair bands had died away and grunge had not become a formula yet. Many great bands in that window really put out music that transcended labels. Faith No More was another one. Many were bands that had been around but started to get more notice during that time.

Bobby Davro those three part harmonies of Kings are fantastic.

Bobby Davro don't forget Faith No More.

Couldn't agree more!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVERY THING THAT GOOOOOOOOOOOES AROOOOOOUND COOOOOOOOOOOOMES AROUND COMES AROUND!

Definitely.

yes.....

Goosebumps is right!

Absolutely

Vernon Reid is just an amazing man haha

Larry Mitchell was and is the absolute BEST. I was very, very fortunate to meet him between sets at the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark, New Jersey in 1996. I'd heard him a couple of years before on WSOU and was simply transfixed by his guitar playing. It was one of the better moments of my life. Vernon Reid isn't so bad either, LOL! I was just telling my wife how absolutely astounded I was when Living Colour won their Best New Artist Grammy. I still rank "Cult of Personality," "Open Letter to a Landlord," and "Type" among the nastiest riffs ever. God, music has absolutely tanked.

Fascinating to hear a musician's take on Vernon Reid. These guys were huge to me as well. Growing up in an almost entirely White/Jewish/Asian suburb of NYC, White/Jewish rockers introduced me to Living Colour. I just liked their sound as a drummer. As an adult, I've finally gotten into the lyrics, and I now realize how they were setting me up for a full embrace of Black Empowerment. Living Colour, thank you for showing me that you can be "the whitest sounding Negro I know" and be Blacker than the Blackest entertainment figures or athletes with the content of your message and the courage of your art.

JP IHCC Agreed!!!!!

What about Rocky George from Suicidal Tendencies?

Love this comment

i racially profile them as superior fuckin musicians.

--and frankly, NOW.

This was a band that was so ahead of their time. They would be absolute beasts if they came out today. They were conscious before being conscious was trendy, & a lot of the imagery in this video has just started hitting mainstream in recent years.

agreed

Mike McMichaels Yup. All I ever heard was Cult of Personality, which was awesome in itself, then I heard this song and a few others of theirs. They were too INTELLIGENT for society. Plus kickass leads, chords, breaks. Society can't take too much intelligence. I think Hendrix would've admired the lead player in this band.

six of one es.scribd.com/doc/255584684/Creacion-Rebelde#scribd

Had the cassette, back in the day. Best damn song on the album, not only because of the lyrics (Cult of Personality had great, true lyrics as well), but this song thrashes. Hell, it is heavy metal.

Huh? No one can even dispute or debate that? What is this world coming to? This song sucks! Self-induldent sloganistic bullshit!

Is he the most ego-centric frontman in history? Check the video to "love rears up its ugly Bed' Rears. ha ha. SHe likes it there. Come on all you trolls! You uneducated swine! I have a philosophy degree! I love my Father. I am single, 35 and ...patriotically AUSTRALIAN. You got what you wanted with Trump USA! Good luck with that. Se ya wouldn't wanna be ya welcome to the inexorable rise of China and India and Australia h a ha

I, uh.. based on these replies, Sam went wild.

@@male1456 nobody cares about politics pal, we all came here for music. If you look at it from artistic perspective, you’d know how big a deal was this in late 80s

@@evenstevensteven yeh dude just seen I wrote that 6 years ago must've been off my effing head! Peace.

True!

The lyrics were overshadowed by the sonic brilliance of the band and since i totally listened to the lyrics it brings me to tears Pure visionaries!

find A politician that will say that today!

It's a dystopian verse. We live in a world where nothing is real and therefore everything (and anything) is possible. This is the illusion sold to us - those of us who were raised in a highly socialized environment (surrounded by concrete and steel) are told that we can achieve and become anything. And in recent years this is made even more ingrained in us with the power of the computer. Again - it's because of the fact that nothing in our world is real, that anything is possible.

+Screaming Tima so true... everything about them is so amazing.

They still are. As good as anybody, I think.

Corey Glover is fantastic. Go listen to the intro to "Open Letter To A Landlord." He's brilliant.

Corey is a vocal god among men

"Love Rears Its Ugly Head", "Someone Like You", their cover of Al Green's "Love And Happiness". Killers. All of them.

He has amazing solo stuff as well

The albums Vivid and Time's Up are amazing

Bartender, Ill get This humans tab!

Mine too

+Metemi ugot that right my friend

+kwame cofie agyeman I tought I was your friend... :c

Somehow applies even more in 2019. What a shitshow.

Ok neo

​@@weregretohio7728 When ya thought it couldn't get worse in 2019, 2020 happened.

David Murphy Yes please

David Murphy The two singers actually have a lot of the same vocal qualities now that I think about it

Thats the first thought I had

Or Jane's Addiction

That guitarist owns the band, he's fucking sick

He's like a funkier metal Hendrix

uhhhh. Living Colour is fairly exceptional in that regard. Most hard rock bands are boring cash-ins (see the entire cock rock movement of the 70's) it's just that the collective minds tend to forget about them. The only genres I can think of that are specifically aimed at being thoughtful and discussion-starting are punk and grunge, and even then people tend to screw it up (especially with punk, yeesh).

Arachnofiend They're all rock/metal bands.

the alt-rock and alt-metal coming out from mid 80s into the 90s were thought provoking and talked about real life. so many great intelligent bands and artists i.e. 1st wave of grunge(seattle bands), industrial rock and metal like ministry and filter, bands like tool and type o negative and janes addiction and even the 1st couple of nu-metal bands like korn(see their early work) and deftones not including limp bizkit though. there was just a shit load of good intelligent bands and artists at that time id say it was the peak of commerical music or maybe even music in general.

Love ur slick little backhand! A Pepe dude maybe??👌🏼🐸

Arachnofiend Punk is pretentious edgelord wank. don't pretend it's intellectual on any level. and grunge? please. Alice in Chains put out a couple of thought provoking tunes, but Nirvana? Pearl Jam? Shit, even Mother Love Bone, while writing decent lyrics, aren't exactly Neil Peart in terms of lyrical genius. I can only conclude that you don't venture too far from the comfort of grunge and punk if you think they have anything to offer lyrically.

Saw them 3 times and so lucky to have a bunch of cds signed by them at a meet and greet. Cory is in the film Platoon, an Oliver Stone Oscar winning film, he survives by the skin of his teeth, literally.

Jim Stephens Other than the album Evil Empire, Rage comes nowhere close to Living Colour

Two completely different bands. Love RATM, but they are not musically on the level of Living Colour.

Jeffrey Chase He's talking about the political lyrics you idiot. but of course you knew that, and just wanted to be a pedant online. and by the way, Evil Empire is 1/3 of their entire studio output (excluding the cover album)... so they're 1/3 similar? That's a significant fraction. You should rethink your argument.

Living colour is Living colour! Cult of personality

@@jeffreychase692 funny

Yaaaaassss!!!!!

+Eric Genest agreed.

ÅbSoůlute Trůth 🌟☮️🎉

+Ross Cicero And at that time, that was an eye-opener to society

Until I watched the music video for Cult of Personality, I honestly had no idea any of them were black, but honestly I don't care, they kick ass, that's all that matters

Bad Brains came on the scene years before Living Colour.

Funny how black people invented rock yet its shocking seing them play that genre nowadays

+tiagovalen That's America.

ciscomars Bad Brains plaisantait pas.

Rocoustile En effet super groupe.

So true.

Absolutely agree.

Was fortunate enough to see both bands live.

+Give it up for Jackson Heights own, Mr. Randy Watson Ditto ♫

I love your band Sexual Chocolate, Randy!

Saw them last year and they are even better now! Go Fogey rock!

They still tour, so get up offa yo azz and go check 'em out! I've seen them 6-7 times in recent years (plus a few in the "old" days) and as Madge says below, they're even better now.

Your soul glows Randy Jackson

+Scot Morley Living Colour is probably one the most underrated bands in the rock history, these guys know how to make great rock anthems, saw them on stage in 2009, amazing performance.

Agreed. I was a fan of theirs in high school. The second album was the best of what I liked about the band. That said, I really liked their cover of 'These Memories Can't Wait' on the first album too.

I feel the same way "time up was a much better album and more indented than the first one than came the third album which was more constructive.

but, yknow... stain was even better

Time's up, was their best album imo

Their first album was great but their second was a masterpiece. They should’ve been so much more famous.

Me too! And the other one, forgotten what it's called now...

Do you mean "Vivid"?

Yeah, that's the one.

That was a good one too. I had it as well. I used to have a ton of cassettes back in the day. I actually still have some of them put away somewhere.

Exactly me too, that one and Vivid, and then later I got some unplugged versions. It is the first time for me to revisit LC since the 90s, and they still epicly rock!

me too 1991