LIVING COLOUR STRIKES GOLD (original) (raw)

LOVE OF MUSIC is colorblind, says Living Colour, a band whose favorite color is platinum. The band's debut album "Vivid" sold more than 2 million copies worldwide; the sophomore "Time's Up" is heading there. Not bad for a band given the thumbs-down by dozens of record industry execs who thought "black rock" was an oxymoron.

"Yeah, I've got to admit, it's satisfying after all the snubs," says bassist Muzz Skillings. "But we don't have time to get smug about it or anything."

Skillings is calling late Wednesday afternoon from rehearsals for the Grammy Awards, during which Living Colour is scheduled to perform "New Jack Theme" from "Time's Up." The band will appear Sunday at the George Washington University Smith Center.

Playing live on the Grammy telecast is one way for the band to kill time while waiting to hear if they win for Best Hard Rock Performance, an award they took last year for the "Vivid" album.

"It's nice to be recognized by your peers," Skillings says of the band's potential for a second Grammy. "But at this point I think what's more important is that people get to understand who and what we are and what we have to say, before we get any awards. I mean, you can have a platinum record, and people still not know what you are about."

What they're about: The right of blacks -- or anyone -- to rock, and for that rock to be played on the airwaves. Anti-labeling. Anti-censorship. Lyrics about environmental peril, black history and identity, drug culture violence, intimacy and (safe) sex in the age of AIDS.

Such tough, time-sensitive, socio-politico-emotional stuff is outstanding in a musical field filled with songs about cars and babes. But guitarist Vernon Reid built Living Colour on the belief that there was a colorblind hardcore hard rock audience that would pay attention, capable of chiseling the words and meaning from the wall of sound.

And now, after several years of hard work -- and countless annoying interviews about their skin color and choice of music -- Living Colour are mainstream stars, and everyone knows by now that they're black. And so, says Skillings, "we can just get on with what we do."

Which is rock. Used as a verb.

"Some people think we're playing quote-unquote 'white' music, or they'll project, and think we're trying to forget our roots," Skillings says. "Which is kind of funny when you listen to our lyrics, or if you really listen to the drums and the bass and the singing -- it's a heavy African vibe there.

"And then there's the people who come up to us and say, 'I love you guys, you're great, you're the first black rock band, I think it's intense . . .' And I say, 'Well, no, you're not getting it that we're part of a tradition of folks, who were doing what we're doing but we're perhaps the first ones to come into the light in the last 15 years.' "

There are more hues in the Living Colour spectrum than Serious, of course. The band flashes a grin in its current single, "Love Rears Its Ugly Head," Reid's nightmare about the specter of intimacy, and in "Elvis Is Dead," an amusing musing about the so-called King of Rock (featuring a typically histrionic rap cameo by none other than Little Richard and a screaming sax solo by James Brown's longtime saxman Maceo Parker).

"The whole idea of king-making in music is odd and unfair," Skillings says. "You know, Elvis Presley was great, but because of the politics and racial climate of this country, he was able to benefit from mass exposure and be touted as the King. For all we know, Vanilla Ice, eight years from now, might be touted as the King of Rap."

The Wednesday evening Grammy show is being boycotted by Sinead O'Connor and Public Enemy, and Living Colour supports their fellow artists in their choice, Skillings says. "It's important for people to stand up for what they believe in. There are two ways you can do it. You can boycott it and make a statement by your absence, or you can participate and make a statement while you're there."

Which is what Living Colour intends to do by playing "New Jack Theme."

"The lyrics of the song are pretty hard," Skillings says. "They describe the life of a high-powered, wheeling and dealing drug dealer, who asks the musical question: 'Hey, I make more money than a judge or a cop/Give me a reason why I should stop' in a society where we are told that the measure of your manhood is by how many dollars you have in your pocket. So it will be like a slap of much-needed reality during the whole thing."

But before all the messages (and the butterflies about performing before an audience of TV millions), comes a more pressing concern for Living Colour: What to wear.

"Vernon is out right now buying a Sinead O'Connor T-shirt," says Skillings, chuckling. "And the guys have been trying to pay me to play in my underwear. They have this pool -- the pot is up to 1,500 bucks. I can't do that -- my mother's gonna be watching!"