My friends Bill in England and Chris in Rutherford had been revisiting Living Colour and their fine output of the late 80s. (Though in the case of Bill, it's less a revisit and more of a "never leaving.") While this was going on, I had been toying around with an idea for the next part in a series I had started writing last year called "Songs 'n' The Hoods," all of which can be found below.
http://burnwoodtonite.blogspot.com/2011/10/old-records-die-hard-songs-n-hoods-part.html
I had been reading the first parts over to see what was covered and where I left off. The following is an excerpt from Part 8, a story about my friend Tim Vega, written back in October of 2010:
The moment that really sealed the friendship was the night we first saw Living Colour at Tramps. The band was unsigned at the time, and we really hadn't seen anything of this caliber before. It was Sly & The Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin and the Bad Brains all in one band. Between 1984-1987, Tim & I must have seen these guys 20 times, mostly at CBGBs, where we'd end up sitting on top of a speaker stack to the left of the stage, because that was all the room that was left. Those nights, after gallons of beer and more, found us finishing things up by getting a slice of pizza at St. Mark's Pizza, and sitting in the middle of an empty parking lot on Lafayette Street, eating, and trying to dry up before retiring around 3 A.M.
I guess it's a good time as any to break out this killer show.
Living Colour is not for everybody. But if you were even remotely suckered in by their brilliant hybrid of funk/punk/metal and soul, this early, pre-"Vivid" set from Tramps in NYC is a must.
LIVING COLOUR- TRAMPS, 3/7/87
For Bill, Chris, and Tim
SET
Funny Vibe
Night Life
I Have To Be Myself Tonight
Soldier's Blues
Miles Away
Glamour Boys
I Want To Know
Money Talks
THE ZIP
7 comments:
SO SO SO great! Thanks!
-Chris!!
I saw trhem twice: ripping up Irving plaza, and opening (and almost exceeding) the Stones at Foxborough Stadium. Both shows: tremendous!
Maybe 15 years ago we had this great baby sitter named Joanne. She would arrive wearing knee length Doc Martins, often with a new hair colour -- bright purple or green the most popular when she hadn’t shaved her head -- a few new earrings and sometimes a new tattoo. The kids loved her!
We’d return from an evening out and Joanne would have gone through my whole music collection and the only CDs she would have played were Hole “Live Through This” and Living Colour’s “Time’s Up.” At midnight we’d say goodnight to Joanne and head to bed while Joanne would lace up her Docs, gel up her hair and head out for a night of who knows what.
Today Joanne live in Paris with an international MBA working for a global NGO, has beautiful auburn hair that she wears like Catherine Deneuve, wears charming vintage inspired conservative business suits … and I’m sitting here listening to Living Colour!
Dig the concert -- thanks Sal!
I tried with this band. "Cult of Personality" -- great, great song.
The rest of the material, just didn't work for me as much as I like the concept of the band and Reid's guitar playing.
I considered Corey Glover the black Gary Cherone (or was Gary the white Corey?). He had some really good music to work with but never came up with a melody/vocal that matched it. He had a voice but he didn't have the creativity to come up with a memorable vocal hook which turned me off to them.
Sal, many thanks for sharing this. Earliest show I've heard, and has songs I didn't know - a double bonus!
btw, if you hadn't turn me onto the London Souls, which led me back to LC, I'd probably be listening to Joe Walsh...
Bill
Oh yes - good call. I saw them on that same tour in '87 and that show at a small club in Athens Ga remains one of my all time favorites.
And, just the other day I got a weird look from someone and started humming to myself, "Now why you wanna give me that funny vibe -- funny vibe!..."
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