Living Colour - "Funny Vibe" (guitar cover) video free download

This is my cover of my favorite Living Colour song that just blew me away the first time I heard it in 1988, "Funny Vibe." It is a song with an important anti-racist message that expresses the perspective that many young black men seem to feel: a sense that they are automatically treated like criminals. Near the end of the bridge, Chuck D (of Public Enemy) suggests a reason: "I'm tired of them dissin' brothers in the media out there. We've got to do something about this. You know what I'm saying?" They take the opposite approach than NWA: where NWA acts out the stereotypes to jam them back in everyone's faces, Living Colour assures us that they are not scary people. I just tried to sound like a pissed off martian going, "What the fuck, yo?"

I played it on my Fender Violet Deliriums ESM Signature Model Blacktop HH Jaguar (ESM = Explosive Space Modulator) which has Seymour Duncan SH-1 pickups, a killswitch, and some neato stickers on the pickguard. I ran it through my 1970s Silverface Twin Reverb with various effects. I used a Boss ME-6 for the basic sound clean and distorted sounds, with my MXR Custom Comp compressor on for the whole song (all controls set 12 o'clock except Sensitivity at 2 o'clock). I add the Line 6 DL4's "Analog w/Mod" effect when the distortion is on. For the four chords just before the breakdown I click on an Electro-Harmonix Stereo Mistress (Rate 1 o'clock, Flanger 10 o'clock, Chorus cranked). During the solo I click the MXR Phase 90 on (set for "stun" at 9 o'clock, my normal setting) and toward the end I stomp on the Boss TR-2 tremolo (all controls cranked, haha!) for a second to confuse you by making the room spin.

Pedalboard Dance:

At Start -- MXR Custom Comp (always on) + Boss ME-6 (my preset 4/2) + Line 6 DL4

0:51 -- Line 6 DL4 off

0:53 -- Boss ME-6 (my preset 4/1)

2:09 -- E-H Stereo Electric Mistress on

2:13 -- E-H Stereo Electric Mistress off, Phase 90 on

2:15 -- Line 6 DL4 on

2:16 -- Boss ME-6 (my preset 4/2)

3:04 -- Boss TR-2 on

3:06 -- Boss TR-2 off

3:26 -- Phase 90 off

No, I'm not gonna rob you.

No, I'm not gonna beat you.

No, I'm not gonna rape you.

So why you want to give me that funny vibe?

No, I'm not gonna hurt you.

No, I'm not gonna harm you.

And I try not to hate you.

So why you want to give me that funny vibe?

BRIDGE (voices of Public Enemy):

Flavor Flav: Hey Chuck, we got some non-believers out there.

Chuck D: Yeah, Flav. I'm tired of them dissin' brothers in the media out there. We've got to do something about this. You know what I'm saying?

(The banter sets up the solo as "what we're gonna do about this" problem of the media's negative characterization of young black males. By incorporating glam-metal style popular in the 1980s -- with their clothes, riffs, and guitar shredding -- Living Colour reaches out to white fans by speaking in a musical language they can understand and relate to.)