Vivid

Artist: Living Colour
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 074644409925
EAN: 0074644409925
ASIN: B0000026IC

Release Date: 1990-10-25

Related Categories:

General

| Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Alternative Metal

| Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

General

| Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

Album-Oriented Rock (AOR)

| Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Funk Rock

| Rock | Styles | Music

Hard Rock

| Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

CDs $7 - $10

CDs $7 - $10

All Bargain Titles

All Bargain Titles

Listmania:

80's, Some classics... 80 - 89
25 albums I can't live without (in no order)
songs I'd like to hear covered by a certain band
VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, 84 to 60
Alternative and NOT ALTERNATIVE 101
MORE disgraces to alternative
MY top 20 albums of the 1980s!
1988, the year in rock!
The rise, fall, and rebirth of Living Colour
Encyclopedia of Metal list: Top 10 Best Metal Guitarists

Tracks:

Cult Of Personality
I Want To Know
Middle Man
Desperate People
Open Letter (To A Landlord)
Funny Vibe
Memories Can't Wait
Broken Hearts
Glamour Boys
What's Your Favorite Color? (Theme Song)
Which Way To America?

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Time's Up
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Customer Reviews:

Birthing black consciousness through funk and rock.......2005-11-11

Living Colour may very well be the defining band from my youth. Growing up in vanilla suburbia, this was a band that charted songs that made an impact in my school's music scene. "Glamour Boys" was the single that made it to my high school and the bass player from a band I was in covered it. That led me and others to pick up the album. "Vivid" is one of the most successful fusions of rock with political consciousness in history, and may be the best poltically conscious album by a black or post '70s band. All the musicians are virtuosos, the songwriting is strong, and rock fans see a cathartic band at work.

Looking back, there are a few things that strike me as revealing about *how* Living Colour approached making rock music from a politically black consciousness.

Living Colour embraced sampling. "Cult of Personality"'s use of samples is a creative device that hammers home the message of the song. It begins with a sample of Malcolm X and uses soundbites from Kennedy and FDR. The restricted use of samples is something that hurts Living Colour on their recent comeback work, much like De La Soul was hampered creatively after sampling was greatly restricted.

Secondly, Living Colour was not afraid to include to make some bridges to black america in their work. In a lot of ways, they came towards Public Enemy from the opposite direction. "Funny Vibe" includes a brief cameo from Chuck D and Flavor Flav or Public Enemy. Why did Public Enemy collaborate with Anthrax instead of Living Colour? Ego? Artistic differences? Desire to crossover and broaden markets? Don't know why, but I think it's a tragedy for both groups.

Lastly, many people forget how Living Colour could have been a killer funk band if they had wanted to. This is more explicit on tracks like "Elvis is Dead" on the next album, "Time's Up", but it's present on "Vivid" with tracks like "Funny Vibe" and "What's your Favorite Colour?"

Living Colour was an outstanding band that set the table for me to really examine my history and develop a far more culturally grounded agenda as a musician and an intellectual. I owe them big time for the way they went about their music. I hope more people will discover their music through their currently active reunion work.

5+ stars

--SD

Saw them play last night - still amazing.......2005-09-13

I literally wore out this cassette and have nearly worn out the CD. Every musician in this band is phenomenal and their particular mix of soul and hard rock was really a breakthrough when they came out and hasn't been done as well by anyone else. These guys had bottles thrown at them when opening for the Stones in arenas and not because they were playing too loud - who says mainstream music can't be radical?

They shredded El Corazon in Seattle last night - what a great show. So glad they are back :)

Some great songs.......2005-02-27

I fast forward thru this album between 'Cult of Personality' and 'Open Letter (To a Landlord)'. I do not care for most of the songs on this album, sorry, but the superior songs on this album are among the best of the 80's. 'Open Letter' is special, I play it when I play the music I really love, and I don't play music much.

Another classic from the summer of 1988.......2004-02-24

When I heard of Living Colour it was the fall of 1987 when i read an article of the Black Rock Coalition and was looking foward to the release of their first album, in May of 1988 I bought Vivid expect your typical heavy metal album but with a black twist. Nothing ever prepared me for the sonic assault on my musical senses. From corey glover's soulful singing to a rythum section that actually sounded like a one in heavy rock music from Muzz Skillings and Will Calhoun and the Jazzy yet heavy as heck soloing from the best guitar player of the past 20 years Vernon Reid.I told all my friends from metalheads to soulsters to get this album, from the Zep-like riffs to the ornette coleman like soloing from Reid on "Cult of Personality" to the Bad Brains/AC/DC like thrash of "Desprate People" to the country blues hip-hop of "Broken Hearts" and the socca-rock riffage of "Glamour Boys " the lyrics make you think without being preachy and this is the band I thought (and still think)this band as the true heirs to the Led Zeppelin heavy metal mantle diverse music like they played and musicianship that is top-notch. get this album now.

Vernon Cooks.......2002-06-14

A great debut release. Everyone is great. It needs to be remastered to really bring out the dynamics. If they could pump up the audio to say a Jeff Beck - You Had It Coming - intensity, then this baby would boil over!

Music CD:

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

Maid in Bedlam ~ John Renbourn

Zero Comfort Margin ~ Circle of Dead Children

Soft Rock Classics ~ Various Artists

Rock Hit Box ~ Various Artists

Concerti ~ Paolo Conte

Wonderful View ~ Meltone

Sacrifice ~ Gary Numan

Collection ~ Edgar Winter

Love Songs-20 Classic Hits

Shake Ya Body ~ N-Trance