The single remix and music video for "Funny Vibe" are helplessly stuck in the 1980s, but its message sadly isn't.
I don't know whose idea it was to give "Funny Vibe" a pop-rap remix, complete with the most embarrassing tagalong rapper this side of the New Power Generation's Tony M., but thankfully it's the original, from Living Colour's still-smashing Vivid, which graces the band's setlists. Exhibit A for Will Calhoun's Drum God status.
As a grade school boy falling in love with heavy metal, this song made me a little uncomfortable when I first pored over Vivid. I didn't think Corey Glover was going to rob, beat or rape anyone--why would he even bring that up? Even Vernon Reid's jangling, complicated leads are discomforting. There weren't any riffs or hooks to latch onto, like "Cult of Personality" or "Glamour Boys." Change the joke and slip the yoke...
Growing up with progressive schools and families, I was taught about acceptance and diversity from an early age, never getting a decent sense of issues with names like Driving While Black, Racial Profiling or Fear of a Black Planet. But Living Colour dropped them on my doorstep (even the last one--"Funny Vibe" includes guest spots from Chuck D and Flavor Flav, three years before they teamed up with Anthrax.) "Funny Vibe" weirded me out. I didn't associate my unease with racism, but by putting those thoughts about rape, robbery and assault in my mind, Living Colour taught me more about the way people saw them than they ever would have by singing "White people think I'm a bad guy." For a kid who believed racism was solved at the end of Eyes on the Prize II, it was quite a shock.
Showing posts with label vernon reid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vernon reid. Show all posts
Friday, December 5, 2014
Monday, April 14, 2014
Five Great Songs from the Say Anything... Soundtrack (that aren't "In Your Eyes" or "Joe Lies")
My sister once declared that Say Anything..., which turns 25 today, was a definitive chick flick that guys will watch (she phrased it more eruditely than that, but you get the idea). She's right--maybe it's Cameron Crowe's screenplay, or the way it captures the aches of the male crush, or its creation of a world where a guy who spends his Saturday nights at a Gas 'n' Sip could date a girl that looked like Ione Skye. There's something about Say Anything... that gets through to the lunkheaded heterosexual male, more than perhaps any other film in Netflix's Rom Com section.
As with every Crowe film, us music nerds get the bonus of a killer soundtrack, doused with everything from Aerosmith's "Back in the Saddle" to Mother Love Bone and Soundgarden two years before the grunge boom (which Crowe went on to capture in his next movie, Singles). Of course Say Anything... is best known for the Peter Gabriel song in its most famous scene, and Lili Taylor's odes to her callous ex are probably a distant second, but its soundtrack has a trove of less-famous gems worth celebrating today.
1. Living Colour, "Cult of Personality"
It's a classic today, though there was no way of knowing that in 1989, when Living Colour were a relatively new band under producer Mick Jagger's wing. They're still a ferocious live band, and Vernon Reid is universally acknowledged as one of the world's greatest guitar players, but this is deservedly their most enduring song.
2. Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Taste the Pain"
Another band on the cusp of megastardom when Crowe picked them for Lloyd Dobler's tape deck, the Chili Peppers were streamlining the disjointed funk rock of their earliest albums on "Taste the Pain," showing hints of the songmanship that was about to peak on Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
3. Depeche Mode, "Stripped"
Like Crowe himself, Depeche Mode were experts at taking the artsy underdog to the mainstream, being lonely enough for Cusack types and sexy enough for the rest of the world. Arguably the male musical equivalent of "a brain trapped in the body of a game-show hostess."
4. Fishbone, "Skankin' to the Beat"
Now that ska has been raided and exhausted beyond repair, "Skankin' to the Beat" should be as dated as Fishbone's cameo in Back to the Beach. Thankfully, its got enough of a new wave touch to earn its spot in the graduation party scene, and justify the Fishbone logo on Lloyd Dobler's shirt.
5. The Replacements, "Within in Your Reach"
Crowe dug this one out from the second half of the Replacements' messiest album, where it hid next to a drunken cover of "The Twist." Performed entirely by Paul Westerberg, "Within Your Reach" is the only song in Say Anything... that sounds like something Lloyd Dobler would actually write, though I'm glad Crowe made him a kickboxing instructor instead.
As with every Crowe film, us music nerds get the bonus of a killer soundtrack, doused with everything from Aerosmith's "Back in the Saddle" to Mother Love Bone and Soundgarden two years before the grunge boom (which Crowe went on to capture in his next movie, Singles). Of course Say Anything... is best known for the Peter Gabriel song in its most famous scene, and Lili Taylor's odes to her callous ex are probably a distant second, but its soundtrack has a trove of less-famous gems worth celebrating today.
1. Living Colour, "Cult of Personality"
It's a classic today, though there was no way of knowing that in 1989, when Living Colour were a relatively new band under producer Mick Jagger's wing. They're still a ferocious live band, and Vernon Reid is universally acknowledged as one of the world's greatest guitar players, but this is deservedly their most enduring song.
2. Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Taste the Pain"
Another band on the cusp of megastardom when Crowe picked them for Lloyd Dobler's tape deck, the Chili Peppers were streamlining the disjointed funk rock of their earliest albums on "Taste the Pain," showing hints of the songmanship that was about to peak on Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
3. Depeche Mode, "Stripped"
Like Crowe himself, Depeche Mode were experts at taking the artsy underdog to the mainstream, being lonely enough for Cusack types and sexy enough for the rest of the world. Arguably the male musical equivalent of "a brain trapped in the body of a game-show hostess."
4. Fishbone, "Skankin' to the Beat"
Now that ska has been raided and exhausted beyond repair, "Skankin' to the Beat" should be as dated as Fishbone's cameo in Back to the Beach. Thankfully, its got enough of a new wave touch to earn its spot in the graduation party scene, and justify the Fishbone logo on Lloyd Dobler's shirt.
5. The Replacements, "Within in Your Reach"
Crowe dug this one out from the second half of the Replacements' messiest album, where it hid next to a drunken cover of "The Twist." Performed entirely by Paul Westerberg, "Within Your Reach" is the only song in Say Anything... that sounds like something Lloyd Dobler would actually write, though I'm glad Crowe made him a kickboxing instructor instead.
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