The Stylistics and the Wonders of VHS
Arguably one of the finest love songs ever made, an offering to you and yours on this Valentine’s Day 2007.
So I hooked up the old VCR tonight and threw in a random tape circa 1986. What I found was a surprisingly good quality tape of old BET shows Video Vibrations and Video Soul (Donnie Simpson!), and an old Night Flight too. Right now it’s Whodini’s “Growing Up” (with Laurence Fishburne as a drug dealer: “How much can you stand little brother, how much can you stand?”). Followed by Boogie Boys’ “Dealing with Life”, EU’s “Do Your Thing”, and best of all, “The Wiggle” by Rapper’s Convention! Somebody email me with a tutorial on how to YouTube this stuff. Do I need to buy a $120 video card? Say no.
Jeeps, why did I tape a Geraldo Rivera special? Time to switch tapes…
Attack Me With Your Love
Put a little Cameo into your Valentine’s Day….
Chocolate, Gonzo, and NYCD
chocolategeniusA few nudges in various directions tonight…
1. Tonight, I was flipping the channels and thankfully came across the latest ‘American Experience’ on PBS, focusing in on New Orleans. One of the folks offering their insight during the program was Kalamu ya Salaam. It took me only a few seconds to make the connection. Kalamu is one of the contributors on a great music blog called Breath of Life. He’s a writer, a fimmaker, a poet, and he calls a great city home: New Orleans.
So checking my latest RSS feeds after American Experience, I checked out the latest on Breath of Life, and found a great post on Marc Anthony Thompson, AKA Chocolate Genius. You Bruce fans know Marc from the recent Springsteen Seeger Sessions tour. Marc’s great voice was featured on “When the Saints…” and “Eyes on the Prize” throughout the tour (see this earlier post to watch Marc and Bruce sing a great version of Saints).
BOL’s post features a Chocolate Genius song from the movie American Splendor. It’s a slowed down, beautiful version of Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t That Peculiar”, and you should definitely find time to read the post and listen to this great song.
Chocolate Genius – Ain’t That Peculiar
2. My fellow Prince geek and internet bud Zack has started up his own music blog called Gonzo’s Music-o-Rama. See a cool music blog grow from the ground up. He has some insightful and entertaining commentary, and some great posts thus far, like this one on the Raveonettes, and this one on the Police reunion. Go off and show him some blog-love (or blove, as Jefito calls it).
3. And last but not least, check out NYCD Online. Sal has been a music retailer in NYC for the lst 15 years, and shares some good tidbits about the music industry, including his take on last night’s Grammy Awards (we share several opinions).
Blogging the Grammys, Ickmusic Style
I thought I would add my comments (be them positive or snide) during tonight’s Grammy Awards broadcast. In encouraging news, The Boss has already won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album, but of course this is during the pre-TV phase when they’re dishing them out to the categories with any real meaning or substance. But I digress. Prince is up for a couple tonight as well, so let’s see how it goes, shall we? I’ll try to spare my wife from my smart-ass commentary that accompanies any awards show we watch, and I’ll share them with you instead!
- Good to see that Bruce won a Grammy for his ‘Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run‘. The category was Best Long Form Music Video. This was also presented in the pre-TV part of the ceremony. As for Prince, he’s nominated in 5 different caregories tonight.
- The Police just played together for the first time in what, 20+ years? Excellent performance of “Roxanne”. Though I did hear Sting’s voice in the backing vocals as well. S’ok though. A great performance followed up by Jamie Foxx completely erasing the energy with some dumb “police opening up the Grammys.. Snoop Dogg running away joke.”
- Tony Bennett giving a shout out to Target as the best sponsor he’s ever worked for in his life! Go Tony!
- Dixie Chicks “Not Ready to Make Nice”. Better than I expected. Guitarist dressed like she’s straight out of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” video.
- “One word… Beyonce.” So just sayeth Prince. I hope that’s not the only P. moment of the night. The man is riding a high, there’s gotta be more on tap. Beyonce? Looking good. Those hips! Short little ballad. Nice.
- Black Eyed Peas giving a nice little short history lesson on Booker T. & the MG’s. They’re a lifetime achievement honoree. And now they’re giving out best R&B album…. HUGE SURPRISE! Mary J. Blige! (*sarcasm – not the last time). With Prince graciously standing behind her clapping. I’ve mentioned before, no MJB fan am I. But to be fair, I haven’t really listened to her. BUT, let the MJB night begin. We’re gonna be listening to her blubberin’ all evening I think. And her mile long list of Thank Yous….
- Justin Timberlake performance. Not bad. But my 9 month old daughter was making funny faces, and that was a lot more captivating to me.
- Pink and
Lupe Fiasco(I think?) (Update: nope, it was T.I.) give away best R&B vocal performance to . . you guessed it… Mary J. Blige. Praise to Lord Jesus. - Corinne Bailey Rae performance. Never heard / seen her. Love her voice. John Mayer joins on guitar. John Legend on piano. Legend… this guy is everywhere. Talented guy though. Enjoyable performance. So far, no cringe-inducing moments. But it’s early. I’ll be seeking me out some Corinne Bailey Rae.
- John Mayer sings “Gravity” with Corinne on harmony. Nice tune. Mayer ripping into a great solo on his beat up Strat. Impressive. My God, real music!!
- And Mayer follows it up by winning best pop / rock song or someting of the like. No shout out to his loving, intelligent girlfriend Jessica Simpson!
- Ahhh, like a gushing oasis in the desert, SHAKIRA. She speaks the truth, her hips do not lie. Wowee. She takes top spot for hottie of the evening.
- Song of the year, presented by Burt Bacharach (who’s wearing those trendy shades) and Seal. Get ready for another Mary J….. Yep. Wait, NOPE! Dixie Chicks steal one from her Bligeness!
- Gnarls Barkley performs “Crazy” in airline pilot uniforms. “Crazy” never really connected with me. I know it was the summer song of 06. Some of you regulars dig Gnarls, and I’d probably like the album, but at this moment in time, not blown away by ol’ Gnarls.
- Mary J. Blige performance. Eh. She’s got pipes alright, but man, easy on the melodrama.
- A Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys tribute by Carrie Underwood. “Rose of San Antone”. It wuld be easy to jump all over an American Idol-er, but this girl does have talent. Great voice, and a very lovely girl. Jeeps, I’m being way too nice here.
- Followed by Rascal Flatts doing a very boring version of “Hotel California”. Lead singer plays air guitar. Ok. Next.
- Underwear – er -Underwood sings “Desperado.” Cripes, I’m feeling like a dirty old man here, but she takes #2 hottie of the night after Shakira.
- Smokey Robinson sings “Tracks of My Tears”. He looks 40, and he can’t close his eyes. Ah, botox…
- There’s my boy Lionel singing “Hello”. All that’s missing is the blind chick sculpting Lionel’s head with clay. You know…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73l9oJ3pZlA
- Damnit. Just saw a huge image of James Brown, and thought Prince would finally be granting my wish, but nope. It’s Christina Aguilera singing “It’s a Man’s World.” Shoulda been Prince my friends, shoulda been Prince.
- Ludakris, Earth Wind & Fire, and Mary J. Blige perform. A song about runaways, drugs, etc. Best part: Earth Wind & Fire’s bass player with a shit eating grin behind Mary and Luda as they sing and rap so seriously. Magic.
- Prince ran a spot to thank everyone for watching his Super Bowl performance. Interesting.
- Jennifer Hudson comes up to the stage with her right breast hanging far below her left one. This will be worthy of a photo when available. Update: see?
- Timberlake hits the stage again. Two performances each tonight from JT and Mary J. Blige. Nothing touches Justin’s Dick in a Box with Andy Samberg though.
- Rock & Roll! Al Gore and Queen Latifah presenting Best Rock Album! Hope Tom Petty wins this one, though we all know he won’t. Methinks the Chilis will get it. *drum roll * Yep. Chili Peppers. Drummer Chad Smith is the spitting image of Will Ferrell.
- Saving the best for last: Scarlett Johanssen. Oh Scarlett, sweet Scarlett… she presented album of the year with Don Henley.
- So, Dixie Chicks win Album of the Year, and the most awards of the evening. My eyes hurt.
Summing it all up. I was most impressed with Corinne Bailey Rae tonight. I was disappointed that Prince had nothing to do while Blige and Timberlake got all the quality face time. But as you all know, I’m heavily biased.
Well, I’m off to do the dishes and re-establish contact with my wife.
Pleasant Dreams
I guess it’s because ‘Pleasant Dreams’ had just been released about the time I discovered them, that it still ranks up there as one of my favorite Ramones albums. I was all of 11 years old when I heard my older brother listening to the Ramones, and soon enough, there I was in front of my mirror with a tennis racket singing “The KKK Took My Baby Away”.
‘Pleasant Dreams’ was produced by Graham Gouldman, a former member of 10cc. It was the Ramones’ 6th album, and probably the most pop oriented up to that point. I’m not sure how it’s judged by the early Ramones purists, but being a fan of good melodic pop / rock, this one remains one of my faves, and I always return to it more frequently than other records.
The Ramones: Don’t Go (mp3) – from Pleasant Dreams
And little did I know that Joey Ramone shared the same tastes in female TV personalities.I used to have a job where CNBC played throughout the day. Maria Bartiromo was a highlight of the workday. Brains & beauty, gotta love her!
I read that in the late 90’s when the dot com startup boom was on, Joey got into day trading. Joey, you had good taste…. RIP.
Joey Ramone: Maria Bartiromo (mp3) – from Don’t Worry About Me
Whatever Happened to Andre Cymone?
February 2014 Update: The Stone – The Return of Andre Cymone
Andre Cymone, to you non-Prince freaks, was Prince’s childhood buddy and the first bassist in Prince’s touring band (before they were known as the Revolution). He left in 1981 to pursue a solo career, which didn’t pan out the way he probably wanted. He released three solo albums: Livin’ in the New Wave (1982), Survivin’ in the 80’s (1983), and AC (1985). AC contained his biggest hit, “The Dance Electric”, written and produced by Prince.
Andre found later success by producing hit albums for Pebbles, Adam Ant, and Jody Watley (whom he was married to). Over the years, I’ve wondered whatever happened to the guy. I did a YouTube search tonight, and found a treasure trove of live Andre Cymone footage posted by his drummer (John “Bam Bam” Morgan) from his 1984 tour. In one of the comments, he mentions about Andre: “Last I heard, Andre was living in N.Y. trying his hand at some kind of tv or movie scripts.”
All three of his albums are out of print, but I’m sure they’re out there somewhere. I have my three vinyl albums nestled safely in their plastic covers, along with any Prince-related records of that era. Vanity’s ‘Wild Animal’? Got it. So come on people, help me track Andre Cymone down. Enough is enough. The Andre Cymone ‘Ickmusic Interview’ needs to happen!
Sept. 20, 2011 Update:
Andre performed at a North Minneapolis Family Day event on August 27th. Here he is on bass with a band that includes former Revolution drummer Bobby Z.
Other clips:
Prince Half Time Thoughts
“During ‘Purple Rain’ a thin, white balloon emerged near the stage, and it appeared as if Prince was performing inside a condom.” – Dave Hoekstra, Chicago Sun-Times (in this article)
Huh?
I guess the human brain will interpret things in many different ways, but did any of you think the white silhouette sheet flapping in front of Prince resembled a condom? Me neither. But that didn’t mean the silhouette episode wasn’t without it’s naughty moments. During that 30 seconds of sheet flappage, we were treated to the signature gee-tar strokin’ we haven’t seen since the closing moments of Purple Rain (the movie), where at the end of “Baby, I’m a Star” he jumped up on one of his giant speakers, grabbed his Telecaster, and stroked away until the crowd was showered in purple funk. Okay, that was disgusting. Sorry. But you remember that, right? Nasty Prince was back on display last night, if only for a brief moment.
Overall, I really enjoyed the performance. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but given all of the factors working against him, he overcame them all and delivered a top notch performance. A great showman like Prince can overcome these things.
- Obviously, the weather played a factor. Performing live in a stadium setting in the driving rain can’t be the easiest gig in the world. Did the rain and moisture do something to the guitar tunings? Maybe. A few of the solos seemed like they were just an inch away from what Prince intended, and that may have something to do with the rain, who knows.
- The overall mix wasn’t very impressive. There were some moments when the guitar was a little overpowering in the mix. It would have been cool to hear the Florida A&M marching band featured more prominently. It sounded really cool from what I could barely hear. All that time and effort put into rehearsals and the end result is you could barely hear them. But a really cool part that I could hear was the 1999 intro before “Baby, I’m a Star”, as the marching band approached the stage from either side. And again, what I could hear of them during “Purple Rain” sounded great.
- The intro into “Let’s Go Crazy” was a little disjointed, but as soon as the band picked it up with “If you don’t like, the world you’re living in”, it whipped right into shape.
- The do-rag was interesting. I wonder if that was a last minute decision because of the rain? It wasn’t working for him, and he took it off during “Purple Rain.” The do-rag always reminds me of a scene from Under the Cherry Moon (wasn’t he vacuuming or something?).
- As for wardrobe, it didn’t hit me until someone at work mentioned it today, that his color scheme, teal and orange, are the colors of the Miami Dolphins, and there he was in Dolphin Stadium. Coincidence??
- This would have been the perfect opportunity for a short James Brown tribute. It certainly could have replaced “Proud Mary”. Can you imagine if Prince hit us with “Sex Machine” or even “I Feel Good”? That would have brought the performance to a whole ‘nother level. I mean, who else on God’s green earth is more qualified and gets the automatic stamp of approval to pay tribute to James Brown?? Nobody. Prince missed a golden opportunity there.
- And let’s talk for a second about seizing another golden opportunity. It doesn’t take a marketing genius to figure out that his “Best of You” cover was going to create some serious buzz and overwhelming demand. I have had hundreds upon hundreds of Googlers hitting my site over the last 24 hours searching for “prince best of you”. Why oh why didn’t Prince make the song available for download immediately after the Super Bowl? You gotta strike while the iron is hot, man. Come on Prince! Seize this Golden Opportunity my man!!
Those are my only semi-gripes. But at the end of the day, it was an amazing performance on the world’s biggest stage. Well done, purple – er – teal one!
Buy Prince’s new single, “Guitar”, on his official site:
http://www.3121.comGrisman does Puccini
Another selection from David Johansen’s Mansion of Fun (his weekly show on Sirius)… I’ve been familiar with mandolist David Grisman through his close relationship with Jerry Garcia. But this one was a surprise (and a welcome one at that) when I heard it last week.
On 2001’s Traversata, Grisman is joined by guitarist Beppe Gambetta and fellow mandolin player Carlo Aonzo. They run through 15 different Italian-American tunes from the early 20th century. Now, I just downloaded the whole thing off of eMusic, and I haven’t heard the whole thing yet, but what I did hear was their take on Puccini’s “Oh, Mio Babbino Caro” (it translates to “Oh, My Dear Papa”). Puccini wrote it for an opera entitled Gianni Schicchi, which debuted at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1918 (see more about the opera in this Wikipedia entry). Really a beautiful piece of music.
David Grisman, Carlo Aonzo, Beppe Gambetta:
Oh, Mio Babbino Caro(mp3)Buy Traversata straight from Grisman’s own independent label, Acoustic Disc, or on eMusic.
Prince’s Super Bowl Set List (Final)
So the spoiler set list was right…
We Will Rock You intro
Let’s Go Crazy
1999 (short interlude)
Baby I’m a Star >
Proud Mary >
Baby I’m a Star
All Along the Watchtower (brief) >
Best Of You
Purple RainRIP: here lies where the YouTube and Google videos of the performance were once embedded.
Prince’s Super Bowl Set List (Maybe)
UPDATE: See this post for video of the performance.
The set list was:
We Will Rock You intro
Let’s Go Crazy
1999 (short interlude)
Baby I’m a Star >
Proud Mary >
Baby I’m a Star
All Along the Watchtower (brief) >
Best Of You
Purple Rain==================
Potential Spoiler Alert on the Super Bowl set list (don’t read any further if you don’t want to know what Prince will be playing @ the Super Bowl)…..
I saw a possible set list thrown into a comment on this post (which includes the full Sign o the Times rehearsal shows). No idea if this is true or not, but here’s what it said:
Let’s Go Crazy’
‘Baby I’m a Star’
‘Proud Mary’ (brief)
‘Best Of You’
‘Purple Rain’ complete with releasing of doves. The whole set is actually pretty cool, for being Prince.Also, a TV station blog heard the rehearsal yesterday, and had this to say about it…
The sound was clean, and I can give you a preview of what you will hear on Super Bowl Sunday. “Let’s Go Crazy” is on the play list. And, of course, the big finale will be Prince’s signature song “Purple Rain”. But, wait, it gets even better. As the final song builds, the stadium will shoot off fireworks. Purple fireworks, that will look like they are “raining” down over the sides of the stadium bowl (get it?). For Prince fans, it wil be a great show. Then, there are guys like me who are not really all that taken with the “formerly-named-after-an-unpronouncable-symbol” singer. But, even for me, it sounded pretty good.
So it looks like the set list could be legit. Also, with “Best of You” (cover of Foo Fighters) being supplied to Howard Stern’s show last week (you’ll find the audio from the show in this post), it’s very possible that this could be it. Somewhere in there the Florida A&M marching band is gonna do their thing. Hmm, well, we’ll see soon enough.
Yeah, it’s possible that I’m obsessing on Prince’s Super Bowl moment. But it’s pretty exciting for those of us who have followed the man for 20 plus years. I’ve been hooked since my first viewing of Purple Rain in September 1984. Since then, I’ve ridden along on the sometimes bumpy journey that is being a Prince fan. He’s had his ups & downs, and has made some interesting career decisions along the way, but you can always count on being surprised, and most of the time, rewarded with some of the freshest, funkiest, most unique music around.
So go get ’em Prince. Rock the millions upon millions of people who will be watching. Show ’em what ya got.
Lots of blogs are chiming in on the man’s performance tomorrow. Here’s a few:
Anil Dash: A pre-Super Bowl Prince PrimerWog’s Blog: Excited About the Super Bowl
Don’t Need Anything: His Purple Badness – Rockin’ the Super Bowl
With Prince being the devout Jehovah’s Witness that he has become, we can pretty much guarantee no wardrobe malfunctions tomorrow. The days of this Prince are apparently through …