Black guys playing rock music

I realize that I said a few posts ago that I've been wanting to write a post about my love for The Who, but I dug up some old music of mine recently for my mp3 player, and now I want to write about Living Colour.

This was one of the first bands that I got into on my own.  Oddly enough, it wasn't their biggest hit, "Cult of Personality" that caught my interest, but their follow-up, "Open Letter to a Landlord".  It was so completely different from everything else that was showing on MTV at the time.  (For the youngsters out there, the "M" in MTV stands for "Music" and they once played music videos almost exclusively.  Weird, huh?

Basically, the majority of the videos were either rock bands whose music was watered down for the masses or rappers whose music was watered down for the masses.  Just like with pretty much every era of music, you'd get a few original bands, and then you'd get a wave of imitators followed by a wave of imitators of the imitators.  There wasn't all that much that stood out, but this song definitely did, and I wonder sometimes how the heck it ever got any play at all, aside from the fact that it was good (not that being good is a requirement for something to be popular).



It had quite an impact on me, as it was simultaneously soulful and rocking.  And it wasn't some mamby-pamby, play it for your grandma kind of rocking.  The guitars were LOUD, just the way I like them.

Eventually, I bought their first CD, Vivid and then their second one, Time's Up.  As much as I liked the first, the second was even better, and its what made them one of my favorite bands.  While I've liked some of their other stuff (even though I seem to be a bit behind on what they've been doing lately - something I discovered after a quick Google search) this is the CD that I always dig out every now and then for a listen.


While it's a hard rock album at its core, I was - and still am - impressed by the diversity of the music.  No two songs sounded alike, and there's a good mixture of punk, soul, blues, metal, funk, and pretty much everything else.  And I must reiterate that I love Vernon Reid's guitar playing.  It's the way I'd want to play if I could play - melodic, complex, heavy, and oftentimes chaotic.  It borders on being runaway noise at times, but only at the right times.

One thing that I distinctly remember is the reaction that many people gave me when I told them that they were one of my favorite bands.  It would be something along the lines of:  "You mean those black guys who play hard rock?"  This was said in a tone similar to how one might say:  "You mean those penguins who do brain surgery?"  Some people just couldn't get their heads around the notion of black people playing rock, even though black people playing rock is about as odd as the Chinese building the Great Wall of China.  Besides, hadn't they ever heard of Jimi Hendrix?  (Maybe not.)  It seemed like for so many people, black people either rapped or made soul music (I think that's R&B now - it's hard to keep up with these meaningless distinctions nowadays.)



The only thing that's relevant about the fact that they're black guys to me is that being a white, suburban kid, I got to be exposed to some thoughts and ideas that might not have occurred to me otherwise.  While they sang about all kinds of things, some of their songs dealt with experiences that are no doubt unique to black people living in America.  Their song "Funny Vibe" woke me up to the fact that a lot of black men feel as though white people act like they're scared of them.  Not only that, but it made me empathize with how much that must, sorry for the understatement, suck.

Still, I'd have to say that lyrically speaking, my favorite song of them is "This is the Life".  It really put my feelings about reincarnation into words - and I suppose, my feelings about longing for any kind of afterlife as well.  I think I'll end with that one, along with the lyrics:

In another life
You might have been a genius
In another life
You might have been a star
In another life
Your face might have been perfect
In another life
You’d drive a better car

In another life
All your jokes are funny
In another life
Your heart is free from fear
In another life
You make a lot of money
In this other life
Everything is clear

In another life
You’re always the hero
In another life
You always win the game
In another life
No one ever cheats you
In another life
You never have to change

In another life
Your friends never desert you
In another life
You never have to cry
In another life
No one ever hurts you
In this other life
Your loved-ones never die

But this is the life you have
This is the life you have
This is the life you have
This is the life

In another life
You’re always the victim
In another life
You’re always the thief
In another life
You are always lonely
In this other life
There is no relief

In your real life
Treat it like it’s special
In your real life
Try to be more kind
In your real life
Think of those that love you
In this real life
Try to be less blind