In the 1980s, a popular commercial tagline for a well-known stock brokerage firm went as follows, “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.” There’s a similar axiom in the music game: when rock royalty anoints, the biz pays attention.

Living Colour formed in New York City in the mid-80s under the direction of British-born guitarist Vernon Reid (hence the Anglicized spelling of the band’s name). Reid had spent the earlier part of the decade playing with a serious jazz fusion/funk band and his own group initially owed a debt to those influences. Eventually, however, they adopted a more rock-oriented sound and began playing at clubs such as punk mecca CBGBs.

In 1986, Reid auditioned to play on Mick Jagger’s second solo record, Primitive Cool. Not only did he get the job but Mick liked his playing enough to come and catch Living Colour play a couple of gigs. Even better, Jagger liked those gigs enough to go into the studio and produce two demo recordings for the band, and NOW record labels began to show interest after years of indifference.

Epic signed the group and into the studio they went to record their debut album, Vivid. During a jam, lead singer Corey Glover hummed an improvised melodic line and Reid picked up on its potential and tried to replicate it on his guitar. That attempt turned into the Zeppelinesque riff for “Cult Of Personality,” a phrase Reid had written down in his notebook based on the title of a report written by former Soviet premier Nikita Kruschev in the 1950s. You know, standard lyric inspiration.

Released in the summer of 1988, “Cult Of Personality” became the biggest hit the band would ever have, just missing the Top 10 in the US and going into heavy rotation on MTV. Would they have succeeded without Jagger’s support? Maybe. Sometimes talent rises up and sometimes it remains buried. You can’t always count on talent alone — but in this case, you can count on a Rolling Stone.

So listen to a language that everybody here can easily understand… with Living Colour.