Thirty-five years ago, Living Colour released their second album, Time’s Up. It achieved gold sales status and won the band a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock performance. But beyond these signifiers of its success, it was an artistically important album, expanding on their musical range from their smash-hit first album, Vivid. It inspired a volume of Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series on significant albums.
Recently, Living Colour celebrated the anniversary of the album in a remarkable show at The Birchmere.
Coming along at the end of the ’80s, Living Colour were trailblazing in pushing against the segregation of popular music. They brought a more intelligent, sophisticated approach to hard rock and heavy metal music, writing about issues of racial and sexual politics in their songs. Vernon Reid, who attended the magnet school Brooklyn Tech, named the band for his Lovecraft fandom, specifically “The Colour Out of Space.” Their influence would filter down to bands like Rage Against the Machine and Limp Bizkit, although their fusion of styles was always down more skillfully than the bands that carried the label of nu-metal.
That’s because they are, both individually and collectively, supremely talented musicians. Reid is a virtuoso player who is often mentioned on lists of the best guitarists. Bassist Doug Wimbish is highly proficient in a variety of styles and played in the Sugar Hill house band. Drummer Will Calhoun showed just how good he is during a lengthy drum solo, and Cory Glover is blessed with a voice that’s both beautiful and strong, his vocals clear even at the impressive volumes his bandmates pumped out. He has a magnetic presence, and it’s easy to see why Oliver Stone cast him in his Vietnam War epic Platoon.
While Glover is definitely the frontman in the band’s performances, they operate as more of a collective when it comes to songwriting. Calhoun, for example wrote “Pride,” a direct confrontation with widespread expectations of the kinds of music people are supposed to play. The entire band — which then included original bassist Muzz Skillings — worked together to write the title cut of Time’s Up.
Watch Living Colour perform “Pride” live at the Apollo on YouTube:
Living Colour is best known for “Cult of Personality,” the video for which became a staple in MTV’s rotation and found new life as the walk-out music for professional wrestler CM Punk. (Just a couple of weeks ago, the band played him out live for his match at Wrestlemania.) It’s a great song, but it’s just one of many great songs the band has recorded. “Open Letter (To A Landlord),” during which Glover made his way through the audience, tackles issue in housing that are still relevant today. “Bi” was ahead of its time in addressing sexual orientation. “Love Rears Its Ugly Head” looks at the dark side of relationships and stalking.
Comedian, director/producer, and author W. Kumau Bell introduced the band. “When I was 17,” he said, “they changed my life.” A smattering of covers covered a lot of territory — the Talking Heads (“Memories Can Wait”), James Brown’s “Sex Machine,” and music from Sugar Hill. (On other dates, they’ve covered the Clash, Led Zeppelin, and Prince.) Their own music is just a varied, from the glam-inflected (and thus, appropriately named) “Glamour Boys,” a medley of “White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)” / “Apache” / “The Message” to more low-key songs like “Funny Vibe.”
As Bell said, Living Colour is still relevant, and they’re still making great music and putting on great performances. In terms of genre or style, what they do might be considered out of my typical wheelhouse. But their appeal as a band is less along those lines than it is the appreciation they draw for their musical skill and craft as songwriters. It’s high-octane rock for the discerning fan who knows the good stuff when they hear it.
Here are some photos of Living Colour performing live at The Birchmere on May 12, 2025. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Rashad Polk.
