VERNON REID: The versatile guitarist on how an artist's worldview defines their music
#blackmusicmonth reflections on music as a door to perception
Vernon Reid began his musical career in the jazz space, playing guitar with Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society, but has gone on to perform with a wide range of progressive ensembles as both an instrumentalist and conducter. Though he’s best known for his searing solos with the rock band Living Colour, Vernon has done great work with Masque, the Yohimbe Brothers and the collective Burnt Sugar. He is also a fine essayist who’s work has appeared in the Village Voice. This interview is an outtake from FINDING THE FUNK, a documentary I directed that can be rented or purchased via Amazon.com.
Listening to these records will enhance the reading experience: the JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE ‘Axis: Bold as Love,’ NWA ‘Straigh Out of Compton,’ PARLIAMENT ‘Chocolate City,’ JOHN COLTRANE ‘A Love Supreme,’ FUNKADELIC “Cosmic Slop,” JAMES BROWN “King Heroin,” CURTIS MAYFIELD “Freddie’s Dead.”
MUSICAL DOORS OF PERCEPTION
That’s a certain strain, like NWA, which is a ghettocentric world view. It’s a very oppressive and very much a hip hop noir world view. And then on the other side there’s love, peace and freedom. Jimi Hendrix represented this idea in a big way. Then look at George Clinton. He was talking about on different view of the nation and that’s the idea of “chocolate city.” The idea of cities that were either majority of black and fit the idea their being a nation within a nation.
I mean with all of those framing devices the music itself could transform what reality is. Its is kind of Aldous Huxley who talked about in his book “The Doors of Perception.” That there’s another reality if we can just figure out the code or the thing that leaves the veil or opens the door way. What Coltrane believed was that through the power of transformative art that you’re gonna be changed through the experience. That’s what the Hendrix’s experience was about. This whole idea of transformation was a big part certainly of the 60s and a bit in the 70s. Some of that was impacted by transcendental meditation and some by pot and LSD.
SALVATION AND THE FALL
That music could change your life was very much a part of what went into Living Colour. Music takes you to the place you already wanna be, right? So a lot of this idea is also from the church and from religion. There’s a whole idea about what church is and the idea of salvation. Doing something in the name of particular set of ideas anoints it and sanctifies it, makes it holy. Amongst African-American performers this is a very big thing. There are very few out of the closet atheist in funk and R&B. It’s a dangerous place for anybody to be. No one would come out because very much the black church dominates. It’s one of the institutions that were essential in being the grounding for the vocalist, for the instrumentalist.
Well yeah, that’s the part of the conflict. I mean it’s about the fall right? That’s “Cosmic Slop,” which is all about a woman who’s gonna do dirty things to feed her family and she prays every night. She says “Don’t judge me too strong.” But the thing about the chorus is the Devil says “Would you like to dance with me? We’re doing the cosmic slop?” That whole idea of redemption that’s just out of reach. It’s a very powerful idea like “King Heroin.” Literally it is one of James Brown’s most brilliant pieces of music. He literally embodies what heroin is. If you think about “Freddie’s Dead” by Curtis Mayfield, it’s a chronicle of a person who fell off in a big way. “There was love in this man.” He was talented and he was cool. “Freddies on the corner now/ If you wanna be a junkie, wow” The whole idea of cautionary tales. But the cautionary tales, that’s an old device. It’s an old griotic storytelling device.
——————————
For more of my writing on the legacy of black music in America check out: Where Did Our Love Go: The rise and fall of the Motown Sound (1986), The Death of Rhythm & Blues (1988), Hip Hop America (1998), The Hippest Trip in America: the story of Soul Train (2014) or The Nelson George Mixtape, available only via www.pacificpacific.pub.