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.com- 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.
Ist
This is IST from the UK. They mass-mailed the music blogging community with their latest single, and I’m biting. The reasoning is this: if someone sends me a song called “I am Jesus (and You’re Not)”, well, I’m going to post it.
Ist: I am Jesus (and You’re Not) [mp3]
Listen Here:
[audio:ist.mp3]
Harlem Shufflin
I’ve always loved the Stones version of “Harlem Shuffle” (and the video above, particularly the fine female dancing with Mick – rarrrr – feel like I’m 16 again). Silly thing is, I don’t think I had heard another version of it until recently (courtesy again of Sirius). It turned out to be the original version too, performed by Bob & Earl. The twosome, Bob Relf and Earl Nelson, wrote and recorded the song in 1963. It was later performed by the Righteous Brothers, Johnny & Edgar Winter, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, and of course the Stones on 1986’s Dirty Work.
So check out the original version. It’s interesting to note the similarities between the original and the Stones versions. You’ll notice Mick Jagger borrowed a lot of the same tones, groans, and moans from the Bob & Earl version.
I’ve still a looong way to go with my Booker T. & the M.G.’s education. As one of the tightest rhythm sections you could shake stick at, they were the Stax label’s house band for many years back in the 60’s. This 2003 release took a look at some of their unreleased sessions between 1965 and 1968. One of them is their own take on “Harlem Shuffle”.
Download the album on eMusic or buy the disc on Amazon.
Flip, Pinto, and the Dead
Time to promote!
Here are a few goodies sent my way, completely and utterly unrelated to eachother.
Lil Flip’s New Video: Yes, this man looks like he would very much like to eat your children. But that’s just Lil’ Flip. I won’t pretend to know a thing about Lil Flip. I only know him as one the many “Lil”s in the hip-hop world. And after reading about him on Wikipedia, I now know that he’s had running feuds with Paul Wall, Hump, T.I., and Slim Thug. He’s Houston bred and he was discovered by DJ Screw. You got that? ‘Cause there’s gonna be a quiz.
Lyf Jennings joins Lil’ Flip here for this new video from Flip’s forthcoming album. Oh cool, I can say this now… it drops in March. See? I still got it. Anyway, I still like to catch up with what’s going on in hip-hop these days. Of course I’m one of those mid to late thirty somethings that spent their formative years listening to the pioneers: Run DMC, Eric B. & Rakim, Whodini, Public Enemy, etc. etc., and no hip-hop will ever top that stuff for me. But yeah, it’s good to check in every now and then. And this isn’t bad. I like the message and the flow.
But I do like Paul Wall better. Sorry Flip (I’ll check more of your stuff out, I can’t judge you on one song).
Lil Flip Feat. Lyf Jennings: Ghetto Mindstate (YouTube)
PINTO! Andreas is the man. He’s in a Swedish band called Pinto, and he emails me from time to time with his latest stuff. In fact, I’m motivated to post their latest tune simply based on the subject line of his latest email: “Oh Lord Jesus Christ it is that guy from Pinto again!” And to describe Pinto’s latest, he puts it this way….
Let me put this simple. We has either made an awesome hit song or a really annoying two minute track that reminds you of Hooters (and sadly I’m talking about the band). Hopefully it is the first. I really hate Hooters (the band that is).
Awesome.
Pinto: Talk to Me Now (mp3)
Listen:
[audio:talk_to_me_now.mp3]
You can download a thousand Swedish meatballs worth of tunes over at their web site. Go Pinto go!
Grateful Dead’s Live at The Cow Palace, New Year’s Eve, 1976 On January 23rd, Rhino will be releasing a classic Dead show from New Year’s Eve 1976. I’ve got a copy on the way for a sweet upcoming giveaway, so stay tuned.
While we’re waiting for the 23rd, check out this cool e-Card to listen to some tunes. You can follow links there to order the CD.
Clickit.
The Rumble Strips
Thanks to old buddy and Anglophile Mark for mentioning this song by the Rumble Strips, a UK band. Currently, they’re in L.A. making a debut album with Tony Hoffer, known for his work with Beck, The Kooks, and Air.
The Rumble Strips: Motorcycle
Listen:
[audio:motorcycle.mp3]Check out their releases so far (a couple singles and an EP).
Their Official Site | MySpace – check out “Alarm Clock” on their MySpace page too. Good stuff!
Pandora offers up Destroyer
Have any of you checked out Pandora? I first read about it in Time Magazine several months back. It’s a site based on a project called the “Music Genome Project”. You basically start by typing in an artist you want to hear. It plays a tune by that artist, then goes off on its own and finds music it thinks you will like. You give the tunes a thumbs up or thumbs down as you go, and Pandora keeps offering up selections based on what you like. It’s pretty cool to play around with. I punched in The Boss, and it eventually played this Destroyer tune for me.
Destroyer was created as a solo project by Vancouver’s Dan Bejar in the mid-90’s. His releases have garnered many comparisons to early 70’s Bowie. This tune comes from a 2001 release. A nice tune with very interesting lyrics… “No man has ever hung from the rafters of a second home.” And the song is named after a book publisher. U-nique.
Destroyer:
Farrar, Straus & Giroux (Sea of Tears)[mp3] – from Streethawk – A SeductionDestroyer’s Web Site.
Check out Pandora.
Here’s what the interface looks like (from when I was rockin’ the Cameo Radio)…
Boss for the Holidays: Coliseum Night
Happy Holidays Bruce fans….
Bruce Springsteen & the E. Street Band
Coliseum Night
December 29, 1980
Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New YorkWell what we have here is a live Bruce classic. A few of the tunes made it on to the Live 75-85 box set (“Darkness”, “You Can Look..”). It’s the only River tour version of “Incident on 57th Street”, and the very last time it segued into “Rosalita” (like the originals on The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle). It’s holiday time, so we get “Merry Christmas Baby” and “Santa Claus..” And we get a Boss-flavored “This Land is Your Land”, a cover of CCR’s “Who’ll Stop the Rain”, and tons more. From the moment “Night” kicks in to the last notes of Mitch Ryder’s “Devil With a Blue Dress On”, the energy level is unbelievably high.
Part 1
1.
Night
2.Out in the Street
3.Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
4.Who’ll Stop the Rain
5.Darkness on the Edge of Town
6.Factory
7.Intro
8.Independence Day
9.Two Hearts
10.Prove it All Night
11.The Promised Land
12.This Land is Your Land
13.The River
14.BadlandsPart 2
1.
Thunder Road
2.Cadillac Ranch
3.Sherry Darling
4.Hungry Heart
5.Merry Christmas Baby
6.Fire
7.Candy’s Room
8.Because the Night
9.4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
10.For You
11.Stolen Car
12.Wreck on the HighwayPart 3
1.
Point Blank
2.The Ties that Bind
3.Ramrod
4.You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
5.Incident on 57th Street
6.Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
7.Santa Claus is Coming to Town
8.Jungleland
9.Born to Run
10.Devil with a Blue Dress On
11.Good Golly Miss Molly
12.CC Rider
13.Jenny Take a Ride / Boogie
14.I Hear A Train / Devil with a Blue Dress OnLove is the Silencer
I mentioned in an earlier Matthew Ryan post that I’d remind you to pick up his new album, From a Late Night High Rise, when it was available. Well, it’s been out for 12 days, and let me tell you, it’s fantastic. The standout tracks for me personally are “Everybody Always Leaves” and the tune below.
I read an album review on Blog Critics.org. The reviewer wrote: “”Love Is the Silencer” will leave you wishing for some silence.” Different strokes for different folks I guess. I love it. The song is alive, it pulsates, it’s urgent, it’s retro, it’s futuristic. And “Love is the Silencer” is a damn cool song title too.
What do you all think. Whose side are you on?
Matthew Ryan: Love is the Silencer (mp3)
Buy From a Late Night High Rise on 00:02:59 (the label) or on iTunes.
Selections from Baby Ickmusic
My seven month old daughter has mastered the art of the “walker”, as we call it. You know, the little wheeled seats you can plop your infant in so they can scramble around the house with wild abandon. My daughter’s getting pretty good: 360’s, circling the kitchen island at lightning speeds, and now selecting music for you, the Ickmusic reader.
Her latest thing is to stop by my CD racks in the morning, select one CD, and place it on her little table on the walker. Obviously, I see it as a sign that she is itching to contribute to her pop’s music blog. So tonight, her first two selections…
The first CD she picked was Cloudcuckooland, by the Lightning Seeds. This 1990 album’s biggest hit was “Pure”. If you don’t think you know it, I bet it’ll sound familiar to a lot of you. Great song, nice catchy electronic pop. The Lightning Seeds were originally a one man outfit. It was the brainchild of Ian Broudie (born in Liverpool, England).
The Lightning Seeds:
Pure(mp3) – from CloudcuckoolandI once read that the name ‘Lightning Seeds’ comes from Prince’s “Raspberry Beret”: “the thunder drowns out what the lightning sees”. Ian liked the sounds of that, morphed it into ‘Lightning Seeds’, and the rest is history.
My daughter’s second pick was a Stone Roses CD single for “Fool’s Gold”. They broke big out of Manchester, England in the late 80’s. The founding members were vocalist Ian Brown and guitarist John Squire.
So it’s clear to me that my 7 month old daughter was focusing on late 80’s / early 90’s British music, containing founding members with the name Ian. Brilliant!
Speaking of brilliant, I have always believed this song to be just that: a brilliant 10 minutes of trippy Manchester funkitude.
The Stone Roses:
Fool”s Gold(mp3) – buy The Very Best of the Stone Roses.Ok, one little picture of my little one. Can’t resist…
How to Unravel a Good Thing: Gary Glitter and Kramer
I was listening to Joan Jett’s radio show on Sirius’ Underground Garage (the brainchild of E Street’s Little Steven). She kicked off the show by spinning an old Gary Glitter tune. This tune comes from 1973’s Touch Me, Glitter’s second release. The album’s biggest hit was “Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)”, which reached number two on the UK charts in January of ’73, and was later covered by Miss Jett in the early 80’s. Another hit on the album was the song I heard this past weekend, “Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again”.
As many or most of you know, Mr. Glitter hasn’t fared too well over the last couple of decades. He was busted for child porn in the UK in the late 90’s, and is now rockin’ and rollin’ away the days in a Vietnamese prison, after being convicted early this year of “obscene acts” with two Vietnamese girls.
So it’s unfortunate that listening to Glitter’s music now immediately makes you think of his misdeeds later in life. It’s a shame that he’s permanently scarred the accomplishments of a successful music career.
And now, of course, thanks to Michael Richards’ idiotic and hate-filled rant at a recent stand-up gig, he’s helped mar every future episode of Seinfeld I’ll ever watch. The “Seinfeld Curse” has even managed to reach back in time and foul up all of those brilliantly funny episodes. Oh, they’ll still be as hilarious as they’ve always been, but I’ll always see Kramer and think “Ah! Racist idiot!”
Well played, Gary Glitter and “Kramer”, well played!
Gary Glitter:
Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again(mp3) – from Touch Me, available on The Ultimate Gary Glitter | eMusic has it too.I defy you to watch Gary Glitter sing “Another Rock ‘n’ Roll Christmas”, and not think of Gary as a “slimy, sinister git”, as one of the YouTube commenters puts it. But who knows, maybe Gary will be “rockin” your “stockin!”
