Up for auction

"Cult of Personality" Living Colour Group Signed 10X8 B&W Photo.

ES-1705B

Living Colour is an American rock band

from New York City, formed in 1984. Stylistically, the band's music is a

creative fusion influenced by heavy metal, funk, jazz, hip

hop, punk, and alternative rock. Their lyrics range from the personal

to the political, in some of the latter cases

attacking Eurocentrism and racism in America. Living Colour rose to

fame with their debut album Vivid in 1988. Although the band

scored a number of hits, they are best remembered for their signature

anthem "Cult of Personality", which won a Grammy

Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1990. They were also

named Best New Artist at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards and won

their second Grammy Award for their follow-up album Time's Up.

After disbanding in 1995, Living Colour reunited in late 2000.

English-born guitarist Vernon Reid had formed a number of bands, and

after a few years, he formed Living Colour in New York in 1984, using

the British spelling of "colour". Reid assembled a

number of bands under the name Vernon Reid's Living Colour from 1984 to

1986. Reid was well known on the downtown New York jazz scenes because of

his tenure in Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society. Early band

members included bassists Alex Mosely, Jerome Harris and Carl James,

drummers Greg Carter, Pheeroan akLaff and J.T. Lewis,

keyboardist Geri Allen, and vocalists D.K. Dyson and Mark Ledford,

with Reid occasionally singing lead vocals himself. The band's sound was vastly

different from the songs that showed up later on their major label recordings.

Material from this period included instrumental jazz/funk workouts, politically

pointed punk rock burners, experimental excursions via Reid's guitar

synth, and an early version of the song "Funny Vibe", which was

reworked for their debut album Vivid.