#Listening to the 2023 remaster of Cult of Personality by Living Color;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mssfWohiig
Originally released on Vivid in 1998, I can't think of a song more apt for the times;
"I sell the things you need to be
I'm the smiling face on your TV
Oh, I'm the cult of personality
I exploit you, still you love me
I tell you one and one makes three
Oh, I'm the cult of personality
Like Joseph Stalin and Gandhi
Oh, I'm the cult of personality"
As the track fades out, there's a sample of FDR saying;
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
I can't think of a better quote to sum up the social psychology of the situation we find ourselves in.
Living Color's Vivid is such a mixed bag as an album. Ranging from blistering political commentary like Desperate People, Open Letter, Funny Vibe and Which Way to America? - pretty clearly aimed at Reagan Republicans - to pure pop fluff like I Want To Know and Broken Hearts. Then there's the Talking Heads cover Memories Can't Wait, whose opening riffs anticipate the eerie guitar tone presages their darker 1993 album Stain.
(1/2)
As a child and teenager Glamour Boys was one of my favourite songs and videos; "I ain't no Glamor Boy, I'm fierce!". Yeah!
When I got a copy of Vivid in my late teens the slower, more emotive songs bored me silly. I appreciate them more now, but they still sounds like by-the-numbers 80s songs compared to everything else on the album. With the exception of Open Letter (To a Landlord), which resonates with me after decades of renting cheap rooms in run down houses.
(2/2)
@strypey
I saw them play at Welly town hall in the mid 90s, best concert I have ever been to
