Monday, January 13, 2025

Archive Review: Living Colour’s Pride (1995)

Living Colour's Pride
It took a combination of factors to make Living Colour possible: several years of the Reagan administration’s attack on progress, a volatile indie rock scene that spawned important changes in the music industry, and the growth in success of rap music that brought elements of African-American culture to a receptive white mainstream. Into this atmosphere stepped one of the funkiest, baddest, hardest rocking and most technically adroit rock ‘n’ roll outfits to grace the genre (that just happened to be composed of four talented Black men). Living Colour’s debut, Vivid, was released in 1988 and instantly received almost universal critical acclaim. The album broke down barriers of race, musical style and fashion that had been long-standing in rock.

The band’s members brought varied backgrounds to the creation of Living Colour. Singer Corey Glover was an actor with little or no musical experience, possibly enabling him to develop a unique and individually powerful musical style. Drummer Will Calhoun was a Berklee School of Music grad, his jazz background serving to shore up the band’s complex and diverse stylistic experiments. Guitarist Vernon Reid, an alumni of Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society, came into the public eye as a player in Mick Jagger’s solo band. Together with bassist Muzz Skillings, Living Colour made Vivid an international success, the disc’s masterful blend of hard rock, blues, and jazz riffs winning them a loyal audience that cut across race lines.

Living Colour’s Pride


Living Colour
Successful tours and multi-platinum status was to follow as, over the course of three albums and an EP, Living Colour developed its unique musical voice and identity. The recent release of Pride showcases the incredible talent that is Living Colour. Much more than a mere greatest hits album, Pride serves quite well instead as a musical document of Living Colour’s first six or seven years. The hits are all here, of course, from the raging “Cult of Personality” or the confrontational “Funny Vibe” to the memorable “Open Letter To A Landlord” and the band’s “theme song,” “What’s Your Favorite Color?” Pride culls a lot of material from the band’s ground-breaking debut, with a handful of cuts thrown in from Time’s Up and only a couple from Stain and the Biscuits EP. A number of unreleased songs and a single release round out the disc.    

Of the previously unreleased cuts included on Pride, “Release the Pressure” particularly stands out. A wicked, no-compromise rocker, Corey Glover’s vocals are menacing, primal growls backed by some wonderfully chaotic guitar playing. “Sacred Ground” is a metallic thrasher run amok, echoed vocals laid on top of a frantic beat and Reid”s heaviest playing yet. A jazzy beat and muted guitar open “These Are Happy Times,” the focus on Glover’s soulful reading of the song’s lyrics. Bassist Doug Winbush, who replaced Skillings after Time’s Up, performs some understated but tasteful fretwork to underline the song’s social message. These three cuts show the band’s enormous musical diversity and skill at improvising upon a standard hard rock foundation.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line


A lot has been written of Vernon Reid’s six string prowess, every compliment quite justified by the man’s large talent. As evidenced by Pride, it is Reid’s guitar that lends the band the greatest part of its identity, filling each song with a creative energy and breathing life into an otherwise morose musical genre. After seeing and experiencing Reid perform live more than once, I’d personally place him among the legends of rock guitar, artists like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan who redefined styles and pushed the envelope. It is also shown by Pride, though, that it is a combination of talents, from Glover’s vocals and Calhoun”s rock-steady drumming along with the contributions of two skilled bassists that play along with Reid to make Living Colour great. The band is made up of four very talented men without which the accomplishments of Living Colour would not have been possible. Pride is a wonderful showcase for the band and what they can do musically. (Epic Records, 1995)

Review originally published by R.A.D! music zine

Buy the CD from Amazon: Living Colour’s Pride

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