Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour & Chuck D & Flavor Flav
Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour
Vernon Reid, the guitarist of Living Colour, explained in an interview with GuitarMania that he was inspired to write Desperate People after hearing about Jean-Michel Basquiat’s death due to heroine overdose. The song commonly references the drug scene at the time in New York.
[Intro]
Yeah-eah
Oh, oh, oh, hoah
[Verse 1]
I see you cryin' in the sunshine
I hear you laughin' in the rain
You say you can't tell any difference
Between the pleasure and the pain
[Verse 2]
You say you never ever dream at nighttime
You say you only dream when you're awake
And say that T.V. looks like your life
And the life you lead is fake
[Chorus]
Desperate people
Desperate people
[Verse 3]
You get your sunshine from a tab of paper
Then you're sittin' in a spinning room
The clock is tocking, it's laughing at you
Your life's a mystery without a clue
[Verse 4]
The crowd you're in thinks you're so amusin'
They're oh so flattering and so sincere
They stand and laugh as they watch you crumble
And when you cry for help they don't hear, no
[Chorus]
Desperate people
Desperate people
[Bridge]
You feel the earth revolving, you see the sun dissolving
You hear the night calling out to you
You have no direction and you have no protection
What you gonna do when your trip turns blue?
When you come crashing down and there's no help around
You need friends, you need help
But first you have to help yourself
[Verse 5]
The music stops and the party's over
Yeah, the money's gone and your crowd is too
Can't break the chains that have kept you under
Oh, has the monkey got the best of you?
[Verse 6]
And I see you cryin' in the sunshine
And I hear you laughin' in the rain
You say you can't tell any difference
Between the pleasure and the pain
[Outro]
Desperate
Desperate
Desperate
Desperate people
Desperate People was written by Muzz Skillings & Corey Glover & Vernon Reid & Will Calhoun.
Desperate People was produced by Mick Jagger & Ed Stasium.
Living Colour released Desperate People on Sun May 08 1988.