Vernon Reid of Living Colour on the most imporant band of the 1980s: “From another planet”
The 1980s gave us some of the best guitar riffs of all time. ‘Crazy Train’, ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, ‘Back in Black’, ‘Master of Puppets’, the list goes on and on. Perhaps it’s a controversial choice, but my pick for the very top of that list goes to Living Colour and their deathless hit, ‘Cult of Personality’.
In fact, the only drawback I’d have with naming that iconic opening riff as the best of the decade is that it would enforce that song as their lasting legacy.
The truth is that Living Colour are far more than a one-song band, actually carrying that rare ability to infuse their music with any and all influences. Going back to ‘Cult of Personality’ and its scorching riff, guitarist and songwriter Vernon Reid explained its inspirations in a way that truly shows off their depth.
In an interview with Louder, Reid said, “That cool riff had a Zeppelin-ish vibe, but also a Mahavishnu Orchestra thing going on”. It’s not alone either; their 1990 song ‘Love Rears Its Ugly Head’ rips just as hard as any of their other classics, but is built around a sample of ‘Lush Life’ by Nat King Cole. 1988’s ‘Open Letter (To a Landlord)’ was co-written with Reid’s friend, performance artist and experimental poet Tracie Morris.
That Living Colour have such bountiful creativity in their music while still making some of the most accessible, kick-ass heavy metal of the entire 1980s is something of a miracle. So, one would assume that the band they looked up to most was of a similar ilk, right? Someone who also made music that turned everything up to 11 and then some. Not quite, and while it might sound like a strange combination on the surface, the more you look in, the more sense it makes.
What band inspired Living Colour?
In an interview with Popmatters, Reid was asked about the massive change that pop music underwent over the 1980s, and who he credits with it. His answer is bang on the money, saying, “One of the bands that I credit is Talking Heads. Remain in Light, produced by Brian Eno, really sounded like the future from an imagined point of view. What a breakthrough record Fear of Music was, but Remain in Light was like from another planet.”
While the Talking Heads’ esoteric, melodic post-punk seems worlds apart from Living Colour’s headbanging ferocity, the two bands are really birds of a feather. David Byrne’s band were doing for punk music what Reid’s group were doing for heavy metal, which is taking the format and expanding it with new and daring ideas. The kind of radical creativity is what makes their music timeless and everlasting.
Reid goes on to say, “It was Adrian Belew, Eno’s production, and of course, the adaptation of African rhythms. ‘The Great Curve’, there was nothing around even remotely like it”. it’s something that Remain In Light has in common with Living Colour’s momentous debut album, Vivid, and many more absolute bangers after that.
