(BETTER QUALITY!) Living Colour performing "Cult Of Personality" on Arsenio 

I dig your story. Maybe a kid(s) watches this video and reads your post then picks up a guitar . Play on Dairenn.👍🎸

Vernon Reid is one of the most underrated guitarists ever!

@@justinmitchell3097 agree. 👍

I remember watching when this came on that night as well . This has been my favorite song since the first time I heard it . Vernon burns it up right here! He is one of the best ever ... the whole band is on another level

@@jasonz1771 I'll check them out. Thanks.👍✌

Amazing, isn't it?

update! he made billboards best rock vocalists of all time list!!!

Completely agree!

He got the same hair except white

This song aint really that hard to sing, the distortion is a bitchy if you've never trained it thats sure, but other than that there's not a significant high note in this song (at least for a tenor like me). I give him props for doing it while moving tho

@@madden7732 Lol whatever

@@madden7732 I dont understand what youre saying. If it were so easy, why aren't you as successful or anybody else?

Omg i'm not hating Corey jesus christ why are you guys triggered bout what I said? I even gave him props, being the most objective I can. Seems like you seriously can't stand an objective comment about something or someone you do like, I do like this song and the band, I think they are completely talented, but this song isnt hard to get right as far as high notes mean, the distortion would be the hardest part if you've never trained it, Corey has an amazing tone.

@@blewyd probably cause some of us don't really want fame to come to our lives and cause nowadays talent isnt always the one that gets the most attention out of the people, sadly.

Right... That was crazy

I suppose that they were not ready to that, but his kids will be

Overwhelmed with tone and riff!!

I dont understand how none of them stood up

The Letterman audience was priceless. 😁

Jimi Hendrix - “Hold my Stratocaster”

@@kaydgaming thank you lol

Lil Has X is a joke

Wtf is a lil nas x .. sounds like a failed name for a fast and the furious character

Can't even come up with an original name. Nas is a million times better than someone that goes by the name of "Lil" and "X", nevermind the clear name stealing just for easy recognition

Agree! Just today on another platform I saw an old Lollapalooza sign. I asked whatever happened to Living Colour.

they broke up in 95 and it just wasn't the same when they came back together in 2000.

There were people out there who didn't want you to hear this. These guys were decades ahead of their time.

They aren’t white enough for the big labels to push them to the mainstream. Fuck this system

I don't think they had enough GREAT singles , I love em but they only had this and maybe Love Rears it's ugly head as Radio songs , not sure if that's the fault of the band or the record company.

another "back in my days" comment, go ahead and check out modern deathcore then come back to me about that

@@ChristopherGray00 who????

Awesome, so true.

Life imitating art without knowing, the purest form of serendipity. They for sure weren't ready for this

You sir won the internet award of the year with this comment. Being an 80’s kid and a huge fucking fan of this song I can’t agree more!!!

Absolutely true.

This song was ahead of its time. It wasn’t that 80s pop and to hear this in the early 90s was a shock. This was hair band shit. So it was expected that the audience wouldn’t have fit this demo So good tho

Wow. Sorry to jump on the wow band wagon but...

They were my first concert as well. Don't remember who opened, but the concert was in the SUNY New Paltz gym. It was amazing!!!!!

I briefly played drums in a band that opened for them a year or so before they opened for the Rolling Stones one night in a small club in NC that isn't there anymore. They were monsters even in that small venue! the only band that competed with their energy that I saw in that club was Fishbone, and they were killers too! Nice enough guys though, but they were serious about their business and delivered a good show. I am glad we went on before them, because I would have hated to go on after them!

Primus sucks

Not my first concert, but I saw Living Colour headline the sold out Aragon Ballroom (about 5K capacity) in Chicago when I was a junior in high school. Urban Dance Squad opened. It was awesome.

Yeah that seemed like one of them fake audiences.. where they must be there for crowd noise only. Clapping and laughing.

They did SNL too

Arsenio loved it. So awesome

Why? This was nothing innovative for its time.

@@blackysalamanka Yeah, great band. Absolutely fantastic live, but there is nothing groundbreaking or new about their sound. Not for the late 80s at least.

@Grant Lee Like there were no black musicians in the 80s xD

Ahead of their time? Have you heard the bs music nowadays? They were in the right time back when the world, music, movies and tv made sense

These guys groove their own sound, very ahead of breaking time signatures in a heavy way note for note, they are sharing their light, great musicianship heavy heavy groove then tempo changes too, it is one of a kind live to me they sound almost like Zeppelin ; Bad Brains ; Soundgarden the singer has one of those strong voices that becomes an instrument within itself, like breaking the sound barrier like Sabbath, Janis Joplin or Zeppelin vocally they're lining up with the band itself to create this kind of organic elemental combative noise! This band can be compared to others yet let's face it, they're their own genius creation

No shit. I don't understand how they could just sit there when these guys were tearing it up onstage.... I would have jumped out of my seat and started jumping around and headbanging.

Look at the age of them, and what they are wearing. I think they misunderstood, and thought Barbra Streisand was appearing live. I would've been headbanging like a MOFO!

Just dry old white bread, that's all. When I saw them at the Xcess club in Houston in '91 Corey stagedived(dove?) into the crowd and I, being under the influence of a particular hallucinogen, kept thinking he was being drug around against his will. LOL!! Kids, let this be a lesson. Something I will not be sharing with my children.

Not gonna lie, I'd react like Arsenio.

He wouldn't be able to go through the crowd if it was any more than this, don't you think?

Princes solo for while my guitar gentlyy weeps

This IS awesome but ima hafta go with Metal Day at the US Festival '83. 🤘😎👍

James Brown on letterman was a legendary tv performance as well

Only one I seen that was better was Neil Young and Pearl Jam doing Rockin the Free World

I dont wanna prove you wrong in any way dude, this was fantastic, but I would just like to add to this…Prince on Jay Leno back in early 2001-02 absolutely blew me away! Wish I could just remember when and how to watch it again.

Stuart Nelson, mine too! @65 it's still one of my top 5 favorite songs.

LC - Stain - Never Satisfied 🎸🏆

Agreed on riff.. but the soloing is pretty awful

dudidududu dudidududu

@Hermano Antonio It may fit, but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck.

Yep....Talk show audiences never get emotional for musical acts

@@bilbobaggins4710 of course not. they represent the mainstream which by and large considers itself too cool and cultured to get down to a sick ass jam

@@thaterasound I'm not "projecting" anything. I'm speaking the truth. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dTRKCXC0JFg.html

Best point made in this comment section. The audience is there for Arsenio who probably peaked in popularity in 1989, this also was when this song was brand new and isn't the classic it is today

@Thomas Jeffries They ARE still playing

They were Horrible dead as hell

I give a damm f... on grammy or music awards . They won my ears and heart.

Yea cuz the crowd didn't. I love how he's going in the audience fucking with them. You will not ignore this experience!

Shit I wouldve been up there humping around with him.....whats wrong with people?!

Jumping that is not humping haha

I think Arsenio plays bass; he would've been digging on Muzz Skillings here. And the energy.

@@jubankta1627 Humping around like Bobby Brown!! :D

Yeah.. totally agree . Onfortunately the leader of the band started doing his own jazzy experimental stuff once he got famous. And nobody liked that.

Cult was such a great song, should of been an even bigger hit as it had one of the best riffs ever in Rock music but they never came close to writing as good a song again. Vernon Reid the guitarist has always been legit, amazing player.

They had a whole career lol

For SURE. It's a shame society wasn't ready for them.

Uh what, they're still around, they toured down my way at the beginning of the year. Might not be playing stadiums but they're still playing.

Agree 1000%, if Mick hadn’t walked into CBGB who knows.

Goddamn right!

Funny part is that I'm not really a Stones fan, but I will always be grateful to Sir Mick for strolling into CBGB's and checking these guys out and helping to get them signed --- that's classy as hell

thanks for the info

Have you heard the other songs on this album? They weren't very good. But, this one song was amazing. I wish they had stuck with this writing quotient.

Scrolled through looking for this comment 👍 ex bmxer when these guys were popular

@Thomas Jeffries It's a joke. Black metal is a musical genre.

@@jirikrajnak9047 there's always one that doesn't get the joke and turns it into a racial thing

Try some Bad brains soul craft

You genius

@Thomas Jeffries You're a god damn moron

Thats because he slings his guitar high and tight to the body. Thats your natural workspace and thats where people more concerned about control, than looking cool hold their instrument. People always made fun of me being a metalhead and having my guitar way high up to my breadbasket like a banjo.

The only other guitar player I’ve seen play that way is Marty Friedman (Megadeth). Crazy hand position but I absolutely love them both. Such amazing musicians.

It's like the audience is thinking "why aren't they playing basketball." 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Mmmm I don't know if this audience is a reference to estimate something like that, I only see old people, no one is young or even less than 40

@Nick Milligan I'm sure you're intimately familiar with leftists, since you speak with such authority.

people see Jimmy hendrix photo n video often.... and see these band ass a weird thing?? they play metal music realy good .. i am from asia jakarta

Nick Milligan Go be dumb somewhere else.

exactly.. 👍🏽

Absolutely.

looked like he was checkng out the crowd and how uninto they seemed and hes cringing at the singer running through the crowd when even he can tell during a full shredding solo that they arent lol.

alex c damn I didn’t think of that, yeah fuck that crowd

HAHAHAHA!

All fucking day long lol

Sounds like on the CD but better

I was about to say, Yeah, but what about the bass? and then I heard that incredible bass line break through the mix. Absolutely agree, what a fantastic sound.

I remember when I went to upload this video years ago, the audio on my VHS tape from the original, televised broadcast sounded extremely thin. Once I converted the video to digital, I extracted the audio and did a bass boost on it using my audio editor. I reinserted the audio back into the video and it was perfect. :)

@@heylad Wow, it really came out crisp and punchy!

@@vergedrums Thanks! Glad you liked it!

NO ONE consider his solos to be good. NO ONE. They sound like shit.

💯% agree with all you said & totally badass. Rock & soul supercharged!

That riff is awesome. Call it easy is if you want. It's what makes the song so good.

lol you've never seen marty friedman or shawn lane? You must be a drummer

@@johnford6725 he's ok

MrMisterMan I just watched Stevie T’s weirdest guitar licking styles and I think he agrees. Nah I’m a guitar guy through and through. I guess we all just have our different styles

I agree he is picking really high on the lower neck. very strange

@@billwren5033 Frank Zappa did the same thing. The pick bottoms out on the fretboard and actually makes it easier to play faster because you can't dig in too far.

Vernon was the black Eddie Van Halen !

I was just learning to play when these guys came out and immediately recognized Vernon as one of the best out there

Agreed, but unfortunately, they were black. Especially living in the late 80's.

This is pretty Fucken solid for a tv performance....

@Dartgame 340 one hit wonder..lmfao. moron.

Glad I'm not alone on that haha

Muzz Skillings is amazing.

I know, I can't hear it either.

The mix on this is perfect

Definitely one of the best live bass tones I've ever heard

Will Calhoun.

Dude they were on guitar hero

They won a Grammy for this song

@@GLORTHAAK 😂😂

Not really underrated if you ask The recording academy

And still slaying it.

For real it sounded better live than the recording... truly amazing

He still has 👍👌🤘

You're right in the fact that his voice was impeccable. But, i bet it still took a ton of takes. That is just how the industry usually does it.

this is old but... Vernon Reid once said that the song was written during ONE practice session.

@@davidmiller9485 written and recorded are two separate things, my dude.

Dan Addesa, Haha! You're very welcome. 😃

Uhhh jazz fusion is not this at all

TommyWD40 A bit is yes.

This is alot closer to rhcp or faith no more funk metal.

Listen to funkadelic

A splash, very accurate yes.

The AXO gear is crisp

They were pretty big in their prime

They always were... and they're back in a big way. It just takes support from all of us during this horrible time and age and era which may be an EON to actually spread all their hard work to others, and the upcoming generation... it WILL COME BACK..

Based on 1 song??? Have you heard the other songs on this album? Not the best stuff. But...Cult of Personality was great. If they could have tapped into that same genius with all of the other songs on the album, then you would have been correct. But, they didn't. The other songs were average at best.

@@MichaelGrubbEvolvedMinistry I can play and sing every single note on every single instrument on every single song on every single album Living Colour have ever released since I was 15yrs old until now. And believe me, it is difficult. If I didn't have the musical training from such a young age, it would have taken much longer. Not bragging or whatever, just stating fact. Also when you say "THE album"? you must be aware of all the other albums they have, including the newest one? Time's Up is a fantastic album too. 1989.

They should’ve but they did inspire bands in the grunge movement and pretty much the movement kind of destroyed them along with James addiction. Them and Janes Addicton came out way too late in the 80s.

The Madrummer pretty ridiculous.. guys awesome

The drummer was singing on a headset Mike too. Freaking awesome band.

Muzz Skillings, the bass player is a MONSTER. The band wasn’t the same after he left.

Clint F Not to sure I can agree with you on that. Yes Muzz was awesome and very talented. But the man who replaced him, Doug Wimbish was already an accomplished player before joining .

Polter Geist, I wasn’t talking from a technique standpoint. Muzz was a key part of the songwriting process. His input kept songs structured and fundamentally sound. After he left, the band got much more experimental and lost a good bit of their fans.

he holds his pick weird, it clearly doesn't matter tho damn, his playing is sweet

I could only imagine what would happen to you if you heard David Gilmour or Stevie Ray Vaughan solo😂🤣

@@auntjenifer7774 They'd be like, "they're playing 2 notes per minute" lol

Yup!

not ready for the revolution

FUCKING AWESOME SONG!!!!!

Notnannette I agree it is more relevant today than ever

Yes!!💛

Open Letter To A Landlord the second best song by Living Colour.. Listen and learn.. It's a fantastic song..

They're still around. I'm seeing them tomorrow night (2.8.24)

DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTH you just dropped knowledge on me!! I didn't realize that was him in Platoon!!! thanks for that gem!

Another bit of trivia: Vernon Reid played on one track on Public Enemy’s debut album.

Yup, except Vernon was doing it all with his hands - no need for a Whammy pedal.

faunaflage Vernon could have launched a rocket with the rig he used then.

Deffinintly sounds like Rage spawned from this

Reid makes Tom Morello look like a school girl on the guitar

Word

Its an early evening entertainment show and LC blew their minds!

I dont wanna say its because theyre all white and old but....its because theyre white and old. Thats why theyre so lame

It was a TV crowd strolling in for free tickets, not people specifically looking for a certain content. You're looking too far into it.

To say they were 30 years ahead of their time is an understatement. These guys are kick ass!

@@detroitlionspistonstigersr6735 bs, you wanted to agitate. lots of blacks in the crowd

The guitarist is british if im not wrong

@@giuseppecatha he is British born

It’s spelled ‘colour’ in Canada too. Maybe because they’re from NY state they took inspiration from that?

Vernon started the band, and he was born in Britain, hence the British spelling.

The only reason they did it was to separate themselves from the TV show "In Living Color" which was HUGE at the time. In their video promotion of "Vivid" they said "Hi, we're Living Colour, THE BAND! Lastly, if Vernon Reid was British born he never mentioned it in interviews and it certainly had no bearing on the spelling choice. The reason given by the band was for distinction from the TV show as I said.

bruh u joined youtube in 2012 wth u mean 2009: Nope

@@golddust1337 lul

lmao , wtffffffffffffffff

You just get here? I've been chilling the whole time

Noob

Yeah.. He has dimebag energy!

I wish he would of stuck to the recorded guitar solo version that was on the record he kind of shredded a little to much confusing melody.

Heck yeah! "Nothingness" is a great song!

STAIN is their best album, but "Nothingness" is definitely a quality tune. LC then had the balls to go on hiatus, THEN come back and kick ass like they never left.

3:36 Corey: "Hey Muzz, we just burnt this stage down, let's do some 'Sly & The Family Stone' dances." Muzz: "Done."

Agree! Absolutely killing it!

vernon reid is the shit. look up "lightning in a bottle" it's awesome generally, but my dude vernon gets to rock on stage with buddy guy, on a hendrix tune, it's epic af. the whole show is epic. radio city music hall, produced by scorsese, all the living American blues legends in one show...a tour of the blues... (circa 2004 I think)

Sorta his picking technique is trash lol

Tim Zuch I Totally agree with you I just hope those shorts never come back in style.

kiki the gerbil they sounded like sevendust before sevendust.

kiki the gerbil well if you don’t know by now then you’re missing out buddy.

Amen

@kiki the gerbil Everyone's got fans somewhere, I really don't like em though.

Marty Friends sends his regards.

definitely for real I agree 100% 😃😃👍👍👏👌💝

Yeah. They were def in beast mode.

Idk. Corey is a much more solid singer nowadays than back then... but the energy of youth is unreplaceable...