prince

I was wrong! And I am seeing Prince! In TEN DAYS!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA-bQFsRqJI&feature=related

Oh my freakin' god, y'all.

Love it when his stuff makes a fleeting appearance on youtube.

Hey I recognize that interviewer.

His management's pre-interview list of guidelines insisted, "Please do not discuss his views on the internet," but perhaps Prince hasn't read them. "I personally can't stand digital music," he says. "You're getting sound in bits. It affects a different place in your brain. When you play it back, you can't feel anything. We're analogue people, not digital." He's warming to his theme. "Ringtones!" he exclaims. "Have you ever been in a room where there's 17 ringtones going off at once?"

Does he have a ringtone?

"No," he says, looking as offended as if I'd asked him if he drove a clown car. "I don't have a phone."

He's equally put out by covers of his songs, Glee's version of Kiss being the latest offender. "There's no other artform where you can do that. You can't go and do your own version of Harry Potter. Do you want to hear somebody else sing Kiss?"

Prince will happily talk about how much he adores Adele ("When she just comes on and sings with a piano player, no gimmicks, it's great") or Janelle Monáe, but he won't criticise other artists. "The new pushes the old out of the way and retains what it wants to. Don't ask me about popular acts. Ask Janelle. Doesn't matter what I say. We ain't raining on anyone's parade. I ain't mad at anybody. I don't have any enemies."

this dude is just bad-ass

He keeps playing down his own stardom and doffing his cap to his band or God or Sly and the Family Stone, but does he ever think, perhaps midway through playing When Doves Cry to 30,000 people: "I'm really very good at this"?

"Well I don't think it," he smirks, raising an eyebrow. "I know it."

BAD-ASS

waht

Sometimes he seems a little too fond of boundaries. "It's fun being in Islamic countries, to know there's only one religion. There's order. You wear a burqa. There's no choice. People are happy with that." But what about women who are unhappy about having to wearing burqas? "There are people who are unhappy with everything," he says shruggingly. "There's a dark side to everything."

Agreed with all three previous reactions.

and re: previous covers discussion on truthbomb thread

He's equally put out by covers of his songs, Glee's version of Kiss being the latest offender. "There's no other artform where you can do that. You can't go and do your own version of Harry Potter. Do you want to hear somebody else sing Kiss?"

Except he covers stuff all the time. (Including, apparently Beyonce's Suga Mama, which was on youtube at one point but which I have never heard. :(

you might be missing the raging egomaniac part of the equation

Wasn't space to include the rest of that quote, which might have seemed pedantic to general non-music-mag readers anyway. He says that (a) he plays them live rather than releasing them and (b) he calls up the songwriters to ask if they're cool with it.

yeah, like meshell ndegeocello is doing a full length prince cover tour that i imagine prince is cool with
he seems more snotty about the recorded versions.

me being the snot that I am, I would have asked about the covers on Emancipation

tbf, i now hear only his version of betcha by golly wow as the "real" one.

DJP, you interviewing Prince would be all kinds of hilarious/great because it would eventually be half an hour of shit-talking about mentally incompetent Minnesotans you've encountered.

"I went in intending to ask a musical genius questions about his art and his future. I ended up attempting to horrify him with stories about home town."

tempted to go with "mentally incompetent Minnesotans i have encountered" as a dn, but

Welcome 2 Hastings

xp The problem is his conversation jumps all over the place and you can't record it so you're just sat there scribbling down what he says and by the time you've got it together to quibble with a point like that he's on to something else. Except the Islam one where I had time to pull a "Bloody hell, really?" face.

then there was that time when Prince was the unpronounceable symbol, and his managers gave the specific font to use to journalists when writing about him in print, and then he tried to sue them when they tried to use it as directed...

Live review of Friday's show, courtesy of me, but since I have *no* idea how to do live reviews, it's pretty much a partial setlist plus commentary:

http://roverarts.com/2011/06/purple-reign/

The fourth encore began with Prince spot-lit at centre stage, performing an ethereal version of Joni Mitchell’s A Case of You

OMG

ddddaaammn

WOW Alex that gig sounds incredible!

holy hell

not saying it wasnt good but doesnt he play that kind of show pretty regularly these days? his aftershows/jams arent rare like they used to be.

No, Alex, you did very well indeed.

Entirely possible. He hasn't come to Montreal in a decade and in comparison the Saturday show was pretty much nothing but hits. They have a setlist for that over at prince.org and I was kind of jealous at first because we got maybe 8 recognizable prince hits and most of those were partial/medleys. But...there was a looseness to the set on Friday. Kind of felt like anything could happen.

Plus, I've never seen Prince live before so I don't have a point of comparison. I do know that my friends in the states have indicated that the Welcome 2 America tour was pretty much just the hits, so this felt like somewhat of a departure.

http://www.canalplus.fr/c-divertissement/pid3303-c-le-live-du-grand-journal.html?vid=483431

http://player.vimeo.com/video/18951826
Prince doing A Love Bizarre live with Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings and Maceo Parker
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wish this would load already so i could watch it

Outstanding. Note the teleprompter!!

I recently discovered the Electrifying Mojo's interview with Prince just after his 1986 (?) birthday gig in Detroit. Amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJZCoxZ5COY

i don't think i've heard his voice outside of his movies--so cool

1983 rehearsal tape:

http://thediscography.tumblr.com/post/7071635816/haruenishikawa-d-m-s-r-rehearsal-including

that Mojo interview's great.

this is crazy under-rated innit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heJ-FxhU0h0

saw prince last night for the first time. one of my top 5 shows of all time easy. and it was in a field at a crap festival. and it was godlike. amazing setlist plus Sly & Family Stone medley with Larry Graham. fuuuuuck.

Let's Go Crazy/Delirious, 1999, Little Red Corvette, Nothing Compares 2 U, Take Me With U, Raspberry Beret, Cream, Cool, Don't Stop Til You Get Enough, Let's Work, U Got The Look, Purple Rain, Kiss, Controversy/Housequake, Play That Funky Music, Dance To The Music/I Want To Take You Higher/Everyday People/Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), Come Together, Dance (Disco Heat), If I Was Your Girlfriend, Baby I'm A Star

^^^THAT is sort of the set list I wish I had seen? Much as I loved all the insane stuff he did. Baby I'm a Star and U Got the Look and If I Was Your Girlfriend = pure gold.

I was really worried he would do a cack new stuff set, but it was literally hit after hit and unbelievable

that's what he usually does

It's does seem an awful shame that because he hasn't released a decent record in over 20 years, I have an awfully hard time trying to convince people of his genius...fair enough they may never of liked him in the first place but you mention his name and it's either a blank stare or 'yeah, Sexy MF was good'...er no...

What world do you live in? Pretty much everyone I know loves this guy!

sonnyboy, find new friends

xxxxxpost SO many underrated james on "Graffiti Bridge:" Joy In Repetition, Elephants, We Can Funk, Thieves in the Temple, Tick Tick Bang... if that record was just the Prince songs it would be in my top 5 for sure.

"Joy in Repetition" is so swirly and weird.

i can sing every word of joy in repetition and occasionally do when i'm waiting for trains
Graffiti Bridge is badly underrated yes. It james out.

sonnyboy, find new friends

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

xpost: was gonna say "sonnyboy if you don't think chaos and disorder, 3121, the gold experience or emancipation are *decent* then i dunno about your prince fandom"...
is that harsh?

Gold Experience and Emancipation no doubt
3121 eh
Chaos and Disorder has like two james and that's it.

Here I go pushing 20Ten again...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHWoK6P9XoM