Speaker 1: And during the few moments that we have left, we
want to talk right down to earth and the language
that everybody here can easily understand.
Speaker 2: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Shirley You Can't
Be Serious podcast. We are here today talking Living Color,
Damon Wayne's.
Speaker 3: And David Allen Green, Jim.
Speaker 2: Carrey, No sorry wrong, Living Color. We are here today
to talk about the album Vivid. We are here with
our good friend, original Patreon subscriber, mister James Buckley. How's
it going, James?
Speaker 4: It is a lovely day in paradise. Anytime I can
talk with you, guys is a good time.
Speaker 1: It's been about about a year or so since you
talked to allis in chains with us, right, I guess
that was last fall.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for a while, but I figure you guys had
hit the bottom of the barrel again. So you called
me a favorite albums of all time.
Speaker 2: So this is part of our Summer of eighty eight series.
This one came out the exact same day as Open
Up and Say Ah by Poison? Did you buy both
albums that day?
Speaker 3: Not that day?
Speaker 1: It took me until nineteen eighty nine to catch on
to Living Color.
Speaker 2: Yeah, James did, you know, living in Color before they
started hitting the radio waves or MTV.
Speaker 4: I remember hearing Cult Personality before we saw the video.
There was a local radio station out of Streetport which
played had a pretty good selection of rock music, and
they were playing Cult Personality. How can you not fall
in love with that song? But it wasn't until I
guess early eighty nine when I finally saw the video
and wanted a pair of body glove clothing, you know,
right away, but still of course, yeah, And I think
that's around the time I got the cassette because I
remember I was a freshman in college and a guy
in my English class he was a bass player, and
he went I would just sit at the back of
the classroom and geek out over the musicianship on that album.
Speaker 2: The originator of this band is a guy named Vernon Reed.
He's the lead guitarist at the band. I can remember
talking to other guitarists at the time because this was
about the time that I started playing guitar, I told
Jason after nineteen eighty eight, and it was because I
had started playing guitar, I got introduced to classic rock
that I had never listened to before, and so I
was listening to Led Zeppelin, Leonard skinnerd The Eagles, all
these seventies bands in nineteen eighty nine. So unless it
was a nuclear bomb song like Welcome to the Jungle
or Cultural Personality, I didn't really know about it.
Speaker 1: I told you I was on a ski trip and
our buddy Patreon, Chris Bauer. You know, it was back
in the days when you were passing off headphones and
that's how you would share music.
Speaker 3: Hey man, here, put my headphones on. Listen to this.
Speaker 1: It's play like dude, that song is awesome, And that's
how I got to know culture Personality.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: The release dates on this is it's tricky because this
album was released on May third of nineteen eighty eight.
It did not catch fire in my neighborhood until nineteen
eighty nine. It was a slow burner for a long time.
Speaker 3: Before it actually caught on.
Speaker 1: Rolling Stone ranks this as the number sixty fourth best
album of the nineteen eighties, and it's two times platinum.
It has hard rock, funk, metal, jazz, pop, arena, rock,
and punk all merged together on one album. And I'm
like evangelistic about this album. I think it's great. I
tell everybody about it. Most people know culture personality, but
they don't know it's packed full of great songs.
Speaker 2: Trying to define this band or fit them into one
particular category is pretty well impossible, they said. People would
come up to us afterwards and go, you know, what
kind of music is this? And they would say, well,
what kind of music do you think it is? Because
everybody had a different perspective on it, and it was
they were taking from so many different musical fields and
just amalgamizing them together. It was it was something that
nobody had done before.
Speaker 4: The late eighties were a weird time in heavy metal.
A lot of the hair stuff was starting to lose
some of it's so lower, even though I still loved
a lot of it. You had in the Northwest. You
had Sound Garden who were starting to come out and
they were combining my traditional black Sabbath tap and metal
with psychedelia and punk rock. You had Faith No More
who were cramming heavy metal in with everything from cabaret
jazz to punk. And then you had a Living Color.
I mean, as you said, it was everything. It was metal,
it was punk, it was funk, free form jazz, all
crammed into one album and I'm still listening to what
thirty five years later.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So Vernon Reed, trained as a jazz musician,
was involved with the guy James that you had talked
to us about, and you said you thought that his
experience with this guy probably was key in sculpting his
musical abilities.
Speaker 4: Yeah. He played with a jazz drummer named Ronald Shannon
Jackson who was a free jazz guy. You know, being
a North Louisiana guy, have obviously have an extensive background
in free jazz appreciation. Of course, I took one for
the team and I went and listened to some of
the decoding Society stuff. He played with Ronald Shannon Jackson.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 4: And it's bizarre. It's like you'll have guys playing in
several keys at the same time, several rhythms. Sometimes it
seems like different times signatures, but they still found a
way to make it resolve.
Speaker 2: There were a couple of different bands that Vernon Reed
had called Living Color for the true Core grouperformed Okay,
and they were more jazz. It was a totally different
sound than what we end up with for Vivid.
Speaker 1: These guys, their influences are led Zeppelin, Leonard Skinner van
Halen Prince. He said Little Red Corvette was like manna
from heaven.
Speaker 4: Vernon also mentioned a band called The Bad Brains who
I happened to love. And it's kind of an interesting
story because the Bad Brains were four guys from New
York who were like jazz musicians, but then they heard
the Ramones and the Dead Boys and other punk bands
and decided they wanted to start a band. And it
was very fast, hardcore punk. I know the Living Colors
covered their songs Sailing on a lot, but their guitarists
was a guy named Doctor no Kunow. His real name
is Gary Miller. I think Bernon also listed him as
being one of his influences. So you can kind of
see them as a follow up with the Bad Brains
started back in the eighties.
Speaker 3: You sent me this morning.
Speaker 1: You sent me their cover version of Should I Stay
or Should I Go?
Speaker 3: By the clash.
Speaker 5: Darling, you got to let men Noah.
Speaker 4: You can hear a lot of the Bad Brains influence
and the way they did that the chorus that really
sped up chorus, that's kind of more of the Bad
Brains approached the song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounded like somebody was messing with the record
player back in the day when you could switch from
thirty three to forty.
Speaker 2: Five, you know, And they hit the double time.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: They did the double time in the original Clash version
as well, but they didn't do it. They didn't do
it until like the end of the song, which is
my ears. That's where you expected is it comes in
on that end, but they kind of they took it
and they really cranked it up right in the middle,
and then they went back to slow again, and then
they cranked it up again at the end as well.
Speaker 3: It's crazy, okay.
Speaker 1: So Vernon Reed and Corey Glover meet at a birthday party.
Speaker 2: It was birthday.
Speaker 1: This is Corey Glover's ex girlfriend's birthday party. So anyway,
for what a reason, Corey Glover's ex girlfriend asks him
to sing Happy.
Speaker 3: Birthday to her. Not everyone, right, Yeah, I want Corey
to sing to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And Corey, in an effort to win her back,
is going to blow the doors off singing Happy Birthday
to her, right. Yeah, He's trying to impress her. So
here comes Happy Birthday. But Vernon Reid catches him later
and says, hey, man, I'm putting together a band, and
you have a very strong singing voice.
Speaker 3: How would you like to make music with me?
Speaker 2: Yeah. When he came to audition for the band, there
was another guy who was there also auditioning for the band, right,
that's true. Yeah, And they said, okay, so we'll think
about this. We'll give you guys a call back. And
he was expecting to hear something, you know, a day
or two later, and nothing for several weeks, and so
like after several weeks, he's like, I didn't get the job.
He was right, he didn't get the job. But then
they had set a gig. Whoever the guy was that
they had hired to be their lead singer bailed on them,
and so they called him up and said, can you
come to the song Phil, we have this gig, and
it was he was ready. He was ready to go.
He had for those first several days he'd been learning
the song and sees he thought, I got this, I
got this. It paid off because ultimately he was able
to slide in there.
Speaker 3: That's good.
Speaker 1: So after that they added Will Calhoun, who was an
award winning Berkeley College.
Speaker 3: Of Music graduate.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Will Calhoun, he's one of those guys up until
when I first heard him in the late eighties. He
really opened my eyes what you could do within a
rock drumming context. Will came from a jazz background as well.
I think he'd won the Buddy Rich Award. Why was
it Burkeley, which I'm pretty sure they don't just hand out.
When he joined Living Color, oh man, it was like
they put John Bonham, gave him a little bit of
musical steroids and threw in some of his jazz fusion influences.
And Will Calhoun is just a monster. He still amazes
me to this day.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Plus he looks cool. I love he's always wearing a
tank top. He's muscled up, and he looks like he's
on the way to the gym like he does.
Speaker 2: He looks fierce.
Speaker 3: He does look fierce. That's right, Hey, I'm on the
way of the gym.
Speaker 1: I guess I can stop and play drums for you
and a culture personnel.
Speaker 4: He does lots of cool little jazz influenced licks, but
he does them in a way it sounds like a
rock player playing. He doesn't sound like a jazz player
trying to play rock.
Speaker 1: After that they added muzz skillings.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a bass player. He was another. All these guys
are from the New York Queens area, even though Vernon
was born in England, which I guess explains why they
have the OU in color.
Speaker 3: And really blame them for putting OU and anything.
Speaker 2: But keep going.
Speaker 4: I apologize. I see, yeah, Muzz was just an on. One
of these guys had a jazz background. He played around
town with some few people, and he played in some
rock bands I think, some jazz, some funk bands, And
I tell you, I was listening to the album closely
this week, and he is a phenomenal player. He really
throws in some really great bass licks.
Speaker 2: So they had a relationship with a bass player named
Doug Wimbush before this, and he didn't he didn't play
with this original setup of the band, but was still
friends with them right ultimately in nineteen ninety two, whenever
Muzz Skilling sleeves, he comes in to become the BA player.
But he is a key ingredient to the reason we
know this band. He's the guy that got Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger to come to CBGB's and listen to these
guys play.
Speaker 1: So I've heard a couple of different versions, but Mick
Jagger was looking for musicians to play on his second
solo album that was called Primitive Cool, and he invited
Vernon Reed to come an audition for that. Corey Glover
wasn't doing anything, so he just tagged along. Up to
that point, Corey Glover was working as a security guard
at Tower Records undercover, and his job was to keep
people from shoplifting. He said, I was terrible at it
because I let people steal records all the time.
Speaker 2: You go ahead and take them bananas. I brought Damon
Waims back into it Color.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But when they got there, Vernon Reed and Corey Glover
standing there and they said, well, I'm here to audition
for your band, but we also have our own band.
Speaker 3: It's called Living Color.
Speaker 1: And Mick Jagger said, I've heard of you guys, and
they said, really, you've heard of us, and he said, dude, yeah,
i've heard you were great. They're like, well, guess what,
we got a gig next weekend. Why don't you come?
And so he says, I'll be there and they were like,
oh my gosh, Mick Jagger is coming to hear his play.
So they actually had to rope off a table for him.
He came to CBGB's to hear him play, and he said, wow,
we need to get you on an album.
Speaker 2: If Mick Jagger comes to Epic and says these guys
are good, They're really really good, Epic is going to say,
all right, well let's get him on the let's get
him on the Parrol.
Speaker 3: Well, here's the thing. It didn't quite go that easy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they actually so Mick Jagger produced two demos for them.
He produced Which Way to America and he produced the
demo for Glamour Boys. When they started shopping those around,
every record company in town said no, this is and
this is with Mick Jagger.
Speaker 3: Hitting them up.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: They even had one A and R guy.
Speaker 1: Their manager went to one AIR and R guy and
he said, Mick Jagger, what's he done lately?
Speaker 3: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 1: So they ended up signing with Epic and Ed Stacium
is the guy who produced this album. He had done
albums with the Ramones, Talking Heads, and he was actually
the producer for Permanent Cool for Mick Jagger, and so
they recorded this album late in nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 4: It's Staceyum. It's an interesting choice because you mentioned the
talking Heads. That'll come up later, but ed it also
in a couple of years he would produce my favorite
Motorhead album, nineteen sixteen. I think the people he recorded
pretty much reflects what you hear in Living Color Sounds.
You got the kind of weird alternative stuff, you got
the pop rock, and you've got heavy metal all thrown in.
So Ed may have been the perfect choice.
Speaker 1: So this article that I read that you sent me
this morning, James, I had no idea Corey Glover was
actually I mean it kind of started off as an actor.
I almost fell out of my chair when I realized
that he was in the movie Platoon.
Speaker 2: Well, and he was also in an army recruitment commercial
where he's sitting in a little diner with some friend.
They're like, well, what are you going to do after school?
I don't know what are you going to any He's like,
do something special, you know, join the army. Oh something special, Vietnam.
I'm gonna do something specially.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm gonna come out with this rock anthem that's
gonna blow people's socks off, called Court of Personality.
Speaker 3: Are you ready to dive in?
Speaker 1: Track by track on this album, This is the Time,
This is the time, Okay, first song out of the
Gate is a song called Cult of Personality.
Speaker 6: You want to talk right down to the language is
everybody here can understand.
Speaker 2: All I gotta say right now is I wish you
guys could see what we can see, because there is
a Louisian, a lawyer in a suit and tie with
drumsticks swinging at the screen. It is absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 4: If that opening, like I was saying, if that opening
doesn't get your blood boiling and your pulster racing, you
may as well just go back to your favorite swift
albums again. And I'll do apologies to the Swifties. I
know there are a lot of you out there.
Speaker 1: But this is the power anthem. This is the best
song on the album. This is one of the best
songs of the eighties. You had it on your list
of eighty eight. I think you had it on your
list of eighty eight.
Speaker 2: You have so many new and different things going on here.
Like we talked about the ability of these musicians to
take different influences and shove them all together. But not
only do you have that, you have a band that
looks completely different than all of the other bands that
we're seeing on MTV at the time. They are not
only a band completely composed of African Americans versus all
of these white guy bands that we're seeing, but instead
of leather and chains, they're in like these bright spandex
body glove style clothing, and it's just it's like, what
the heck is going on? And then they're playing music,
which is I mean, that opening riff is so led
Zeppelin ish, but even more powerful because they're they're throwing
those jazz influences in there and then coming with those
crashing drums I mean, holy Cow. And then they put
in hyper intellectual lyrics to the song, right, I mean,
I didn't know what cult of personality was before I
heard this song. I had to go find this stuff out, right,
So and then once I learned about it, I'm like,
holy Cow, this is an amazing phenomenon. So it comes
from a Nikita kruzh Chef report on Stalin. The name
of the report is on the cult of personality and
its consequences, but Stalin is kind of that key definitive
cult of personality guy, cult of personality being where you
have this greater than life image, right, you know, creating
an icon out of a human being, and that's what
the song is all about. And not only do they
talk about that that side of things, but then they
also throw in, hey, this isn't just the bad guy Kamis.
They're throwing in Kennedy right and Gandhi right. You know,
it's this idea that, hey, we can take these mortal
men and turn them into superheroes or super villains, no
matter who they might be, because they've got some sort
of charisma that, like, in our mind, creates a bigger
and more powerful character.
Speaker 3: So let's do the list.
Speaker 1: You got Mussolini, you got Kennedy, yep, you got Gandhi,
You've got Martin Luther King, you've got Malcolm X, you've
got Jesus Christ alluded to you give them power in
your God's name. But the one that they had to nick,
they actually cut this one out.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was gonna say, you may have to spell
it because you know, the software out there picks up.
We're talking about H I T L E R.
Speaker 3: And they're gonna like, thank you mix something I know
right again.
Speaker 2: Hyper It's it's so I mean. And that's the reason
they took it out is that it was they were
worried that it was going to become too controversial. I
can remember listening to the solo on this song and
saying to myself, there is no rhyme or reason, there's
no logic to what this guy is playing. And it's
still blowing my freaking mind. Like it's all over the place.
It doesn't follow any kind of you know, what you
would expect as a pattern or scale, and it's still
absolutely singable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like somebody.
Speaker 1: Spilled a box of belts, you know. It Just it's
all over the place. It's chaotic and it's awesome.
Speaker 4: It's controlled chaos, and you look at Vernon's musical background
you figure out where someone that came from. But like
you guys said, it doesn't really make any melodic sense,
but it somehow it works from the top of the
guitar songs of all time, I think.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I heard the producer talking about it, said that Vernon
Reed did it one time, hailed it. He said, he
didn't give him any directions. He said, you don't f
with art, right.
Speaker 2: They caught lightning in a bottle for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So here's the interesting thing.
Speaker 1: They discovered this riff when they were trying to practice
another song like they stumbled upon it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it actually came from Corey Glover humming something and
then Vernon Reid hearing something in what he hummed and
trying to recreate that on the guitar. That's where it hits.
And then they're like, okay, well you know what are
the lyrics? And Vernon Red opens up this little notebook
that he has, first page that he comes to says,
look in my eyes, what do you see? They called
the personality?
Speaker 4: Reid said that that riff, he said it had a
Zeppelin vibe, but it also had what he called a
Mahavish New Orchestra vibe. Mahavish New Orchestra one of those
crazy jazz fusion acts from the seventies who would play
in Life one thirty seven eight times, gen for time
signature and stuff like that. So once again there's this
hard rock in his jazz influences getting slammed together and
I'm up with one of the great risks of all time.
Speaker 1: By the way, in the studio, Ed Staceyum rearranged the song.
So they had been playing this for years, right, they'd
played this like thousands of times at CBGB's and stuff
like that. Vernon Reid said, what you guys hear on
the record is not what we had been playing for
those first thousand times.
Speaker 3: He made us put the hook at the beginning of
the song.
Speaker 1: When we look back on it, we're like, how did
we not start with that great hook?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what a good producer will do for you.
Speaker 4: There's just a lot going on in the song. Man,
it's all awesome.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the importance of Michael Jackson's smooth Criminal
on Curlt's personality.
Speaker 2: This is a story I've been waiting to hear. I
deliberately did not go and look this up because you
mentioned it. I'm like, this is a story. I want
to just sit down and sit by the campfire and
hear the story. Give out.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, So here's the deal.
Speaker 1: Here's what we have to understand is that this album
was released in May of nineteen eighty eight. It basically
did nothing in the United States until April of eighty nine. Okay,
so what's going on within that year, Well, they had
released a couple of singles in Britain, but it hadn't broken,
hadn't done anything in the US, and so Epic basically
said to MTV, we will not give you Michael Jackson's
smooth criminal video until you put Cult of Personality in
heavy rotation.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: And at that moment when the King of Pop holds
his video back, MTV is like, okay, deal heavy rotation
for Cult Personality and that causes it to go through
the room. So Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger have a
huge impact on this success of Believing Color Awesome. By
the way, they won the Grammy for Best Hard Rock
Performance for this song. I watched the actual presentation. It
was presented by Cindy Lauper and the B fifty twos.
They also won the MTV Music Award for Best New
Artist and Best Group Video. This was actually presented by
Mick Jagger on stage because they opened. They opened for
the Rolling Stones during the Steel Wills tour in September
of eighty nine. Now listen, on this tour you had
Living Color, Guns N' Roses and the Rolling Stones and
James you just said your wife was.
Speaker 3: She just came out and told us.
Speaker 2: She was, that she was there.
Speaker 4: She saw it down in New Orleans.
Speaker 1: That would have been one amazing concert, especially at that moment,
and actually Living Color kind of got in a war
of words with Axel Rose over the lyrics.
Speaker 3: To one in a million.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Axel, Yeah. He I think he had a daily
list of people to tick off, and Vernon and the
boys just happened to make it that day. The video
blew away a lot of folks and opened up a
lot of ears and eyes. I found that great quote
from Tom Morello for Rage against the Machine.
Speaker 3: Yes, he said that.
Speaker 4: I was absolutely blown away that queerly there were other
African Americans who unapologetically love led Zeppelin and wanted to
shrew it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: De mentioned the body glove that Corey Glover wears in
that video. He said when he was shopping, he was like,
you know, I want something kind of splashy.
Speaker 3: I want to look cool.
Speaker 1: Well, body Glove took notice of that, and they started
sending him stuff to wear for his concert. He said,
everything that sent me looked more and more like superheroes. Okay,
the Billboard Hot one hundred for May sixth, nineteen eighty nine. Okay,
I've got to roll through this real quick. Okay, but
what number did this? Do we know what number? The
shit thirteen is where it topped out.
Speaker 3: That's nuts thirteen Okay.
Speaker 2: So that means that people thought there were twelve songs
better than that.
Speaker 1: Now the twelve songs that are quote unquote better than this.
I told you this is like a list of my
mom's favorite songs from nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, so here you go.
Speaker 1: I want to start at fifteen because we're getting ready
to do rain Man here in a few months. And
so at number fifteen you have ico Ico by the
Bell Stars, popular from the movie rain Many. Number fourteen
rock On by Michael Damien, soap opera star Michael Damien,
I actually.
Speaker 2: Liked that song.
Speaker 3: That's a good song.
Speaker 1: Then you have cult personality. Then you have the song
thinking of You by Sapphire. Okay, gets number eleven Heaven
Helped Me by dion Estes. She drives Me Crazy by
the fine Young Cannibals.
Speaker 2: I would rather have a nail up my foot to
can currect me. Please, don't you have room to move?
Speaker 1: By an emotion which we talked about last week. Right,
you have Soldier of Love by Donnie Osmond. Oh my god,
Donny Osmond beats out cult personality?
Speaker 3: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: Nuts?
Speaker 3: After all?
Speaker 1: By Peter Satara and share second Chance by thirty eight, Special,
Forever Your Girl by Paula Abdul Funky, Cale Medina by
Tone Loke, Real Love by Jodie Wattley, I'll Be There
for You by Bon Jovie, and.
Speaker 3: Like a Prayer by Madonna.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: That's a little bit of a rough list.
Speaker 2: Some of those are decent songs, but most of them
are not, and none of them are better than this song.
I agree with that.
Speaker 1: I agree with that Cult Personality is the best song
on that list for sure.
Speaker 2: Okay, guys, time to move on. I hate to do
it because this is such a nuclear bomb of a song,
but song number two on the album I want to Know.
Speaker 4: I think it's kind of funny that you're discussing this
album in tandem with a Poison album, because honestly, the
riff of this song I could have seen it being
on any a big hair metal hit. It just shows
the variety of the band. This is more of their upbeat,
poppy side. I love it. It's got a great riff, great solo,
Corey Glover singing his tail off as usual. This should
have been a massive hit as well.
Speaker 3: I think you're right. I think it's poppy.
Speaker 7: I know.
Speaker 3: Side melodic, is kind of fun.
Speaker 2: It's toe tapper, Like you said, the music is some
very hair band ish. Honestly, it kind of it predates it,
I know, but it kind of reminds me of the
song from Dumb and Dumber She don't eat meat, but
she sure likes the bone song.
Speaker 4: What's that called? What was by a Louisiana.
Speaker 2: Band, dig new age girl, so similar, so out of that,
And I said, I realized it predates it. The lyrics though,
like it's almost like a new kid's on the block
boy band style on these lyrics. I mean it's and
he I think they've they've doubled his or maybe even
tripled or quadrupled his voice to give that kind of
harmony sound to it. But it is, it's very it's
very boy band on the lyrics side of things.
Speaker 4: On the song, it's got an epic guitar solo at
the end, which you know would not have been out
of place on a darking song or something like that.
Speaker 1: According to vernon Read, this song is about unrequited angst,
and he says there's some lyrics in this song.
Speaker 3: That he would take back today.
Speaker 1: So there's some things even when you talk about like
a male crushing on a female. Some things he wrote
in there, like I'm standing in the shadows baby, he
said with the me Too movement, he's not as comfortable
with those lyrics as he once was, and so he
would probably change those today.
Speaker 3: But I don't care. I think this is a great song.
I love it, or two for two right out of
the gate for me.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean standing in the metaphorical shadows doesn't really
quite have the same do it.
Speaker 2: So there's a Police song from nineteen eighty three that'll
put this on the day, that's true.
Speaker 4: I do not skip a single track on this album,
and I think almost any one of them could have
been a hit. So this is clearly proves my point.
Speaker 3: I totally agree.
Speaker 2: Okay, moving on to song number three on the album,
Middleman all Right, another Jimmy Page influenced click to start
this song out the guitar on this is so freaking awesome.
I love it. He's got a phaser in there giving
it this kind of lanngee wah sound. I dig it.
I like this song a lot.
Speaker 4: Was this one released as a single.
Speaker 3: This was released.
Speaker 1: This was the first single released in May of eighty
eight in the.
Speaker 3: UK, not in the US, though.
Speaker 4: I can't understand this one not being a smash shit
either mean lyrically, it's very deep. The music is it
called fantastic music. Will Calhoun plays some incredible drums on
the s Vernon plays another ethic solo. I mean, all
the Living Color trademarks are here.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: The most amazing thing about this song is how we
got the lyrics to it. This comes from the suicide
note that Corey Glover wrote from when he was a teenager.
Speaker 2: Gosh, you know this story, Oh tell me more.
Speaker 1: So Corey Glover, I guess, had kind of had it
with everybody. He was caught in the middle of everybody's
mess and sort of the tug of life, and he
wrote out a suicide letter, I'm sick of this. I'm
tired of being in the middle. I don't want to
be caught in this anymore, tired to be in the middleman.
So when Vernon Reied writes the music to this, he
pulls out that letter and that becomes song Middleman.
Speaker 2: But wow.
Speaker 1: Actually he was talking about this during an interview and
Vernon reed this is the first song they collaborated on together.
And Vernon Reed's sitting there He's like, what are you
talking about? He had no idea they had written it,
they had recorded it, they put it on the album,
and he had no idea that it.
Speaker 2: Was written form a suicide note.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 3: I thought that was fantastic.
Speaker 1: By the way, whenever they opened for the Rolling Stones,
this was the song they opened with. They took the
stage and they said, hey everyone, We're a living color
and no no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 3: And that's how they started.
Speaker 4: And then I know you liked the cross handed drum
build up.
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 1: I text you say, hey, man, can you can you
do that? You sent me a video about ten seconds later.
Have you cross handed drumming?
Speaker 4: Yeah? It looks it looks cool, but it's not that
hard compared to the rest of the stuff he plays
on this album. Oh my god, guys, an absolute beast.
This song is one of my top three or four
favorite songs on the album.
Speaker 3: Okay, I love it, fantastic. Three for three, All right, yes,
three for three.
Speaker 2: We're on to number four. This song is called Desperate
People Now. On this one, I got all kinds of
Aerosmith going on. This is so strong on the Aerosmith
vibe that.
Speaker 3: Dun Dunda Dunda du du Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2: This is a great, great build for the beginning of
the song, and they keep on building, they keep on building,
and then you get that primal yell by Corey. I
was I was just like, whoa, this is going to
go somewhere. And then when they come in with the lyrics,
he's got that gruff voice going on instead of his
more melodic voice, and it's hitting all those hair metal
feels that I needed to hear back in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 4: I love it. I love how that chaotic opening sequence
just goes straight into that monster riff and Corey's voice
on this one. Man, I'm with d on this. I
like he shows the more aggressive side of a singing
and a couple of those whales he does this make
the non existent hair stand up on the back of
my neck.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you got that interesting that fast rock and start,
and then it slows into this this power rock anthem
You a Paper. I told Dee that I thought this
was one of the best songs on the album. I
love it, and I'm with you, guys, Corey's vocals on
this song, outside of Culture Personality, may be the strongest
on the album.
Speaker 3: I love what he's doing on this song.
Speaker 4: Particularly after the guitar solo that comes in, his voice
even gets a little harsher and gruffer, and I like that.
The intensity of the song just builds all the way
to the end.
Speaker 3: So interesting.
Speaker 1: The lyrics on this song, Vernon Reed talks about how
this song is definitely about addiction, but also about the
people in your life that encourage addiction. He even brings
up the old cliche that misery loves company.
Speaker 4: There was a line where says you get your sun
shine from a tab of paper, which I guess I
assume that meant somebody taking someone llucinogenics or LSD or something.
So yeah, it was definitely its abuse element to this.
Speaker 1: There is a breakdown in the middle of this song
that I just I love.
Speaker 3: I think it's fantastic.
Speaker 4: And that chunky rhythm part, Man, I love that the
rhythm guitar in this burning is a mean. He can
play these incredible epic solos and he can play just
the most bad a rhythm part. You gotta love the
guy again. I mean, we're what four for four now
four for four not bad odds?
Speaker 2: Okay, we are moving on to what I would say
is my second favorite song on the album. This one
is a little slower, a little smoother. This one's called
Open Letter to a landboll.
Speaker 8: Now you can terri banding down, but you canny race.
Speaker 7: Memory. These houses made of all.
Speaker 8: Down, but they have a vain you can't see.
Speaker 2: So again, just amazing change and still beauty. You've got
Vernon playing this muted guitar. It's so subtle you almost
don't hear it, but they're doing a little harmonizing behind,
using the os behind it. Yeah, it's so like a
choir at a church. He comes in singing such a
soulful beginning to this song. It is sweet and beautiful,
and then all of a sudden they come in with
the drums and just start cranking away.
Speaker 4: Jason and I texting about this album, one of the
things we both really appreciated was how they managed to
address social issues without getting overly preachy. And this song
was about the gentrification of some of the poor neighborhoods
in New York at the time, how the buildings for
people to live for generations were being torn down and
replaced by newer buildings that the people who lived there
previously couldn't afford and they make it to a really beautiful,
compelling song, but it doesn't feel like they're preaching at you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say that the verse is are sad
and angry, but the chorus is uplifting. I texted you,
I'm like, this song is so beautiful it needs strings.
I would love to hear this song played by the
London Symphony or something like that.
Speaker 3: I read how Vernon Reid was talking about how.
Speaker 1: The Black Rock Coalition group that he helped form, was
very concerned that some of the buildings had been torn
down to make way for the gap.
Speaker 4: There was a guy named Tracy Morris who was another
member of the Black Rock Coalition. He was more a
poet than a musician, but evidently he worked with Vernon.
He gave Vernon some of the stanzas and lines for
that song, and Vernon incorporated it into the overall song.
This is another great example of what incredible musicians these
guys are. We talked about it. The dynamics, that soft
general opening, really crunchy choruses, and at the end that
big fade out with all the background vocals. It's just masterpiece.
Did they perform this one on Satday Night? Live. Maybe
I know they performed Cult of Personality.
Speaker 1: But it probably was this song that they did on
Saturday Night Live.
Speaker 4: That article I've showed you guys. It was a funny
line in it. There's a singer named was John Witherspoon.
It's for a heavy metal band called seven Dust.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 4: I said, they just mentioned the title of this song
to him, an instantly he sang the first verse. That
was a pretty big influence on him as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, so this is one of the singles off of
the album. Yes had a video with it. Yes video
was directed by Drew Carolyn, who was the same guy
who directed the Cult of Personality video. Uh huh. They
shot a bunch of live footage at a place called
Toad's Place in New Haven in front of a live audience.
Adam Command. But this was right before they left on
the Steel Wheels tour with.
Speaker 4: And I do know that from listening to this cassette
over and over again, back and forth to school, that
this was the last song on side once you know
what that means.
Speaker 1: It's Bud your tap player, kick it out, flip it
over for side to first song is funny Vibe.
Speaker 2: So the beginning of this song, I'm like, ooh, this
is like STP came and stole this stuff from them. Man,
this is so free grunge music. I'm totally digging it.
And then all of a sudden they totally switch gears
and they go into this very jazzy lead going on
lead riff and must skillings is just slapping the crap
out of the base on the song. And then when
the lyrics come in, I'm like, are we channeling run
DMC here? This is like total hip hop from eighty three?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's wrap, it's funk, it's rock.
Speaker 3: I get Prince vibes from this one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that too for sure.
Speaker 4: This is where the band's funk background really began to show.
I mean, the guitar solo sounds like something Eddie Hazel
from Harlam and Funkadela could have played. And of course,
you know, we got sneak appearances by Chuck Dee in
Flavor Flavor from Public Enemy shout out.
Speaker 3: Oh right, how cool is that?
Speaker 4: It sounds like it was based on more personal experiences,
just people seeing in the streets and being threatened by
them saying no, no, I'm just a normal guy trying
to go about my life, not gonna hurt you, You're
not gonna do anything.
Speaker 1: Just well, here's the deal. Yeah, So Vernon Reid was
in a department store. He said he was having the
best day of his life. He was in a great mood,
and he got on an elevator and there was an
older woman in the elevator with him and when he
looked at her, he kind of looked at her smiled,
and she sort of subconsciously clutched her handbag and moved
to the corner. And he said, it just enraged him.
And so the lyrics from this song came out of
that experience. No I'm not gonna rob you, No I'm
not gonna beat you, No I'm not gonna rape you.
I saw a video during COVID and you had the
drummer from Anthrax, Charlie Benante. Then you had the bassis
from Suicidal Tendencies Rodiez, and then the guitarist from Butcher Babies.
His name is Henry Flurry, and they got together over
Zoom and they're gonna play their version of Funny Vibe,
and so they said, well, we need a singer. But
if you're going to cover Living Color, you got to
get somebody who could really sing, so they called Corey Glover,
and Corey Glover got on there with him and they're
doing the four way zoom thing and it is awesome.
Speaker 3: You've got to check that out.
Speaker 4: Unless I'm mistaken, I think that at some point in
the late eighties and or very early nineties, Living Color
and Anthrax may have toured together.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, Okay, that's cool.
Speaker 1: I showed this as the last single from Vivid, although
their schedule of releasing singles is so messy, I can't
tell what's first and what's last. There's also so a
false ending in this song that's really cool. It fades out,
fades out, fades out, you think the song is done,
and then it crashes back in.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 4: I'm swear I think we're six for six now.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to the next song on
the album. This song is called Memories Can't Wait.
Speaker 2: Okay, so this.
Speaker 3: Is a cover?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2: Is a cover of the Talking Head song Memories Can't Wait.
It was off of their nineteen seventy nine album called
Ear of Music. It wasn't a single off of that album.
It wasn't some big hit. I'm not really sure why
they chose this song. I mean, it's kind of interesting
to listen to. Have you guys heard the Talking Heads version?
Speaker 1: No, let's listen to it. Despite evidence to the contrary,
these are the same song.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the drum I can hear the song the same
drum beat. Beyond that seems like a very different kind
of song.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So interestingly, the producer on this album, Ed Stacian, had
produced for the Talking Heads, so there's that connection.
Speaker 4: Vernon Reed probably came up because of his age and
the time he was in New York. I mean, they
were a big part of the late seventies New York
rock scenes, so I'm sure he was familiar with the
band and their material.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, Talking Heads were big at CBGB's and so
he was also a fan of post punk, and so
he said he felt a connection to them, and so
he wanted to cover one of their songs. This one,
to me is a little off Bullseye.
Speaker 4: I enjoy it just because you got those big booming
drums that come in throughout the song. And again, I
think Corey sings really well on It's kind of got
a darker field than some of the other material, so
it wouldn't be one of my top songs off the album,
but I still enjoy it.
Speaker 2: It's kind of interesting to listen to. But this is
not my style of.
Speaker 1: Music, right, Well, let's move on to the next song.
Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together, Broken hearts.
Speaker 4: Joy.
Speaker 2: Okay, So the introduction is a guy named Dennis Diamond
saying doing the carnival barking there. Then we get a
harmonica come in. You know who's playing the harmonica, Big Jagger?
Speaker 1: Oh well cool.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He was also involved with some production on some of
the later songs that we're gonna talk about here in
a second, but he played the harmonica on that. This
song is it's got a very wild horses.
Speaker 3: On the rolling stones alte to it.
Speaker 2: But I think somebody forgot to tell Will Calhoun, like,
you don't have a country honky tonk drum beat going on.
You've got a big old boom boom boom, and I'm
just like it works. I don't know why it works,
but somehow we've got this steel guitar, this honky tonk sound,
the harmonica, the doop de doo and big drums, and
somehow they still make it work.
Speaker 6: Then change.
Speaker 1: Bernar Reid said this was a straight up love song
and their attempt to mix country, blues and hip hop.
Speaker 4: I think this song pretty much belongs to Corey and Muzz.
Corey sings beautifully throughout it, and if you listen, Muzz
has that burbling bass going through the whole thing. He
even plays a bass solo and which you don't really
hear a lot in pop radio. He plays a very
melodic bass solo that leads right into one of Burnin's
most beautiful solos. So, yeah, this song definitely works for me.
Speaker 1: Berni Reid said that this song is just like Old
Town Road just thirty years earlier.
Speaker 2: Well, I like this song better than that song. This
is the one. This is the song on the album
that was like the hidden gym for me. I had
never bought this song, bego, I didn't have this album.
I got to this song and I'm like, wow, I
really really dig the song.
Speaker 3: It's great, great, it's great.
Speaker 1: Once again, Vernar Reed talks about the similarities between country
and hip hop because they're both story based and they're anecdotal.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I love this song.
Speaker 3: I think it's great, it's pretty. It's the power ballad
of the album yep.
Speaker 2: So is this a single? Yep.
Speaker 4: I don't think it was, which was a huge miss
in my estimation.
Speaker 3: Okay, moving on.
Speaker 2: So I mentioned before Mick Jagger involved in the producing
side on some of these songs. This is the first
of those songs. Another big hit off the album song
number nine, Lammer Boys.
Speaker 9: The Drama Boys, Well they are the Drama Boys.
Speaker 2: The grand uncle on song all right, give me a
killer drum beat, yep, give me a funky bass line, yep,
give me a happy little rhythm guitar yep. Now give
me some lyrics with a melody that are an absolute hook.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't know how the song didn't chart better than
it did. This is like a perfect little song.
Speaker 1: It's a great little pop song, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, funny, funky, great playing, funny lyrics, everything you need.
Speaker 3: No, this is so fun. It's it's a pop song.
It's fun, it's catchy, it's radio friendly.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I love my radio friendly hits.
Speaker 9: Yes.
Speaker 3: I texted James this week.
Speaker 1: And I said, ps, I'm not a glamor boy, and
he texted me right back, I'm.
Speaker 2: Fierce right, and they and they kind of they come
in with a little harder guitar right there when they
say I'm fierce, just so that they know that, you know,
they're not just about being radio friendly. They are fierce.
Speaker 3: They are fierce.
Speaker 4: It's funny, it's funky, it's got those clever lyrics. D
what's talking about? I mean this? This could have been
a smash.
Speaker 1: Okay, have you guys seen the video to this song
since nineteen eighty nine?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 1: Probably not Okay, so obviously it's it's putting down the
sort of the party guys who spend all their money
on clothes to get girls, but they have.
Speaker 3: No real substance in the video.
Speaker 1: They have these huge plastic like Kendall masks.
Speaker 3: That they wear around.
Speaker 1: They look ridiculous and it's funny, like there's they're really
showing their sense of humor in this video.
Speaker 4: Does put them in a very dubious position. I love
this song. It wasn't it nominated for a Best Rock
Duo Performance like in ninety or ninety one?
Speaker 1: So I guess nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock
Perfer Performance by a Duo or Group in nineteen ninety
And just so.
Speaker 2: We don't leave it out, the Oklahoma Boys have to
say they also put the Ou and Glamour.
Speaker 3: Yes, good job.
Speaker 4: Maybe Vernon's a secret fan.
Speaker 3: I think he is.
Speaker 1: This song reached number thirty one on the Hot one hundred.
Do you want to hear the thirty No, I'm just kidding, Okay,
I've got to read this to you because my mind
was blown by this.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: The music video was directed by Graham Elliott and John England.
Both these guys went to the Royal College of Art
in London. They were the ones who designed the album
cover for Vivid. Okay, so, and this is after Vernon
Reid saw a postcard that they did and asked for them.
When they started working on it, the album did not
have a name and the band didn't have a logo yet,
so they sketched a placeholder logo and inserted a temporary
positioner where the album title would go with the name
and design house they were working under the name of
the design house they were working under, Vivid. That is
how the album got its name. Vernon Reeds saw the
album cover look said, looks great. That title right there
looks great. We're keeping it living color Vivid.
Speaker 4: That's awesome And this is why I love you guys.
That's a kind of deep dives you do not get
anywhere else. All.
Speaker 3: Right, on to the next song.
Speaker 1: This song is called What's your Favorite Color Baby?
Speaker 4: Living Color?
Speaker 5: Ye, what's your favorite color baby?
Speaker 1: Okay, I told you guys all last night I was
walking around my house.
Speaker 3: At the point of my daughter, I'm like, what's your
favorite color? Baby?
Speaker 1: She didn't know to repeat back to me Living Color?
Speaker 3: But what's your favorite color baby?
Speaker 7: Y color?
Speaker 2: What's Yeah? It was still fun. This song sounds so
much like the intro song for the series that would
come out two years later. You had to have stolen, right.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean it's it's like a TV theme song, right, Well.
Speaker 2: It does. It sounds like that, but because I know
it as a TV theme song, right, I mean, the
guy who is the composer for in Living Color, the
series that we reference at the beginning of the episode, right,
is a guy named Tom Rizzo. They're not giving any
credit to the Living Color. Oh, you guys, it's just
seems very similar.
Speaker 3: Very similar. Let's listen to that theme song real quick.
Sounds awfully familiar.
Speaker 4: Yeah, in terms of copyright law, I don't think Homie,
I don't think Homie likes that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, Homie did not play that one.
Speaker 2: I got a song about it. I'd like to hear
it here go.
Speaker 1: Bernie Ree talks about how this is their theme.
Speaker 3: Song, right yeah, He's like Chic had a theme.
Speaker 1: Song, you know, you know, Bad Company had a song
called bad Company. This is our theme song. What's your
favorite color?
Speaker 3: Color?
Speaker 4: And this song should almost be a joke or a filler,
but somehow it works. As you start off with that crunchy,
metallic real then you get funky with a capital f
u n k y. It's fun. I mean, there's no
great lyrical significance to it. It's just a fun song.
Speaker 3: But it's only two minutes long.
Speaker 2: Just fyi. My favorite color is green, but I'm not mean.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Leading up to this, I was talking to a
friend of mine named Jeff Bowders, who's an amazing drummer
in Los Angeles, and because he was also a big
fan of Will Calhoun's playing on this album, you know,
we spent a few moments of geeking out about that.
So hopefully you'll have a new listener out in Los
Angeles for this is over with awesome.
Speaker 3: What's up Jeff howy doing?
Speaker 2: Buddy? Is he a Skins hitter? As well.
Speaker 4: He is. Yeah, he is to a very advanced degree.
Speaker 2: My drummer. My favorite line from high school was somebody
was introducing my drummer to somebody and they said, this
is Kevin. You can't go five minutes without beating on something.
Speaker 3: Well, Jeff, it's good to have you. I hope you
enjoy what you're hearing.
Speaker 1: Hit us up on Facebook, hit us up on Twitter,
send us an email.
Speaker 3: I love to hear from you.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the family, Jeff.
Speaker 1: All right, So that brings us to the last song
on the album. This song is called Which Way to America?
Speaker 2: Muzzin will knocking it out of the park again. I
mean he comes in with a machine gun style on
the drums on this one, and then with the chorus,
Vernon is playing this very funky, like you would describe
as a Prince style rhythm. But then when they come
in in a chorus, it's like heavy metal, hard rock,
right in your face, crunchy guitar. They again, this is
like every other song on this album, but it really
kind of is the key to finish off the album
of You Can't Put Us in a Box.
Speaker 4: It's got a really heavy, propulsive feel that I love
and we talked to Earlie about their ability to work
social issues into their lyrics without becoming overly preachy, and
this one talking about how one person's view of the
American dream may be a little bit different than the other.
I thought they had some really deep lyrics. I changed
the channel your America is doing fine. I read the
headlines my America is doing fine. After the kind of
whimsical nature of Glamour Boys and what Your Favorite Color?
This is kind of a slightly more down song, but
it's got very intelligent lyrics and the music is just incredible.
Speaker 1: Henri says, this is the difference between the idealized America
home and heart and life on the streets. This is
a little bit off center for me. I'm more of
the Glamour Boys radio friendly hits, but it's impossible not
to tap my toe to this one.
Speaker 4: These guys, even when they're heavy music and heavy issues,
they still make it pretty. It is that funk background. Man,
those guys make it tap your toe even to most
serious songs on the album.
Speaker 2: I would be curious as to what they set the
metronome at on this one. This This tempo is so
freaking fast in this song, I've got to think it's
like one forty or one fifty or something.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's cook it.
Speaker 4: It is definitely a fast one of their faster songs
and share other songs they'll throw in these quick, almost
speed metal parts and they work it in so seamless.
So that's just I guess just how talented these guys are.
They can blend the thrash with the funk and never
miss a step.
Speaker 10: Okay, guys, So that does it for Vivid. We are
now going into final judgment before Jason and James and
I tell you what we think. We got Dale Selby
to give us his opinion on Open Up and say,
Ah versus Vivid.
Speaker 2: Well, what do you think, man?
Speaker 11: Well, we discussed it. Two very different albums. You probably
couldn't put them on farther sides of the spectrum. You've
got the one that's political, that's making a statement, very
different kind of music, you know, You've got the wrap
the rock kind of intertwined. Obviously, different types of guys
who are doing the albums themselves. Right, both of them
incredible albums from the year of nineteen eighty eight. I
think Vivid for me is not as fun, right, it's
not as rock and roll, maybe as as Open Up
and Say Ah was has some great tracks on it.
Cult of Personality was a mega hit when we were
fifteen years old. Great song, great great song for me.
I think in the end, though, when I was fifteen,
I was into having fun and driving with the windows
down and having Open Up and say Ah cranked. I'm
gonna go with Open Up and say Aw.
Speaker 2: Not surprised, fantastic, not surprised.
Speaker 1: James, you're our guest. Please go first between Open Up
and Say Ah by Poison or Vivid by Living Color.
Speaker 4: I had both albums. I love both albums. Open Up
and Say Ah. It was I thought a fairly serious
step forward for the band. There was some great riffs,
the songwriting and improved, great production, and it was pretty
much hop metal perfection. But over the decades, I don't
find myself going back to it as much, and I'll
hear some of the songs in the radio and enjoy it.
But I listened to Vivid a lot still. Every time
i'll listen to it, I'll get something new. It meant
more to me as a musician and just a music
lover than the other album did. I don't think there's
any question that if you called the members of Poison,
if you told them that they were glamour boys, they'd
be okay with that. The Living Color and Vivid, it's
fears and it takes the top spot for me.
Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, there's one vote for Vivid and one vote
for Poison.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, I'm going first.
Speaker 1: So I still contend that on that Poison album, you
have the best party rock song of the eighties. You
have one of the best power ballads of the eighties,
the entire eighties, you have radio friendly hit after radio
friendly hit, and that's my bag baby.
Speaker 3: On Vivid, you've.
Speaker 1: Got one of the best hard rock songs of the eighties,
and then you've got a whole bunch of songs that
are really great. So which one am I grabbing? I
owned both, I love both. I could really go either
way on this. If I'm walking out the door, I'm
probably grabbing both. But if you put a gun to
my head and you said you can only bring one
album with you, I'm grabbing Vivid because there are more
great songs on this album than on Open Up and say, ah,
how about that?
Speaker 2: I think you are one hundred percent correct. I think
you and James are both one hundred percent correct. The
musicianship on Vivid is better, the lyrics are stronger, more intelligent.
The best song on the album is better than any
song on Open Up and Say Out, flat out better
than any other song on the album. My problem is
I did not own this album in the nineteen eighties
or nineteen nineties.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I did, however, by Open Up and Say Ah when
it came out on May third, nineteen eighty eight, and
I played it on heavy rotation. This album, I know
it's better, but it cannot overcome the memories from nineteen
eighty eight and nineteen eighty nine. I think I think
our band covered at least three different songs off Open
Up and Say Ah. And so I have to say,
I got to pick poison, and I'm picking my poison.
And I fully acknowledge Vivid is a better album. But
Walking Out the Door, just because of all the fields
that it gives me, I'm picking up for it.
Speaker 1: Don't be ashamed, man, Spike the football dude, awesome.
Speaker 3: Well that's fantastic. Well, we want to hear from you.
Speaker 1: These are two gigantic albums from the eighties.
Speaker 3: If you are a listener. We definitely want to hear
from you on this.
Speaker 1: If you're walking out the door, do you grab the
feel good, fun, glitz and glamour of poison or do
you grab the more serious, pounding rock of living.
Speaker 3: Let us hear from you. D what we got on
the books next week.
Speaker 2: So we were talking about the villain in both Rumblefish
and the store clerk in The Outsiders, and I was like,
I didn't remember who this guy was, but he looked familiar.
And I'm like, and it goes back to the old
Clint Eastwood movie and you were like, oh, I love
that movie. And we started talking. We didn't realize that
we both loved these kind of movies that people don't
really talk about anymore. Yeah, but we don't mind talking
about him. We're going to be covering Clint Eastwood's Every
Which Way but Loose and the second one, which is
called any Which Way You Can, and we're going to
be comparing those two movies for his birth month May.
He'll be turning ninety three this year. Caw, holy cow,
and talk about an icon. I mean, the guy was
megastar decade after decade after decade, and we get to
talk about a couple of his lesser known but really
great movies that we remember from our youth.
Speaker 1: You say lesser known, but these are two of his
bigger hits.
Speaker 2: Isn't that a crazy thing? Like most profitable movies in
his catalog? Yes?
Speaker 3: Wow, how about that?
Speaker 2: You guys have to join us as we discuss those movies. James,
you every which way, but loose any which way you can.
Speaker 4: Fan. I remember going to see the second one when
I was a boy my cousin in Junction City, Arkansas,
and for years afterwards, all we would say was right,
turn Clyde.
Speaker 1: Right turn Clyde. James, thanks for being here with us, man.
We love talking with you. We love kicking around these
albums with you. We appreciate your patronage and friendship over
the years. I hope you had a great time today
talking about an album that you left.
Speaker 4: Talking about one of my favorite albums with my favorite podcast. Man,
you can't beat It's a great way to spend a
Friday afternoon.
Speaker 2: I think for the next album, we're gonna have to
get your wife on though, because she that accent, that
Louisiana accent that she's got, that's gonna that's gonna to
melt some arts.
Speaker 4: Strong, but when she speaks Spanish, she sounds like she
just stepped across the border from Tijuana.
Speaker 3: All right, everybody, that's it for us.
Speaker 1: Come back next week where we do the Clint Eastwood
and Clyde The Orangutang Double Feature Way turned Clyde, what's
your baby colored, Baby Living Color,