I've never been much of a Prince fan but recently I've seen two cool Prince videos that give a good idea of the guy's showmanship and craft on stage.
Casey had the first one up on solidstate last month. The link to it on his site is dead now but you can still see it over on Daily Motion. It's a clip from a 1983 James Brown concert in LA. Brown calls Michael Jackson up on stage who then calls Prince up there too. Prince then arrives at the stage riding on the back of some big burly biker dude before doing some moves and freakouts on the guitar. Great concert moment. The quality of the video and audio on the clip is crappy but it's still well-worth watching.
The other video is from Prince's recent performance on SNL that cj tipped me off to. He's performing a tune off his new album, 3121 (due March 21st), called "Black Sweat". It's a good tune but what makes the video worthwhile is his guitar playing. The guy is all over the place which combined with the back-up singers makes for a pretty entertaining clip to watch.
Lastly, one more for good measure...Dave Chappelle's take Prince.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Prince Videos
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7 comments:
I've got to go buy Season 2 of Chappelle Show on DVD.
I just don't understand it. Sure the SNL clip is good, he's working the guitar, etc, but it's just the same thing he's been doing since Purple Rain. Don't get me wrong, I like Prince, but I like him in context. He fits perfectly next to David Lee Roth era Van Halen and everything else that was going on in 1984. This was the stuff I was raised on, but I just don't see how it fits with what's happening 22 years later. Sure some older trends from that time period are back, but I don't see Prince's drama show (which includes rediculous dancing by three big haired woman in black tights) as being part of the now. I'd love to be proven wrong.
Dave Chappelle + Prince = Classic. Game Blouses!
JDS-
Go see him live if he comes around your way. He'll prove you wrong.
jds,
I agree that Prince is in step with what is going on right now but he's still fun to watch. I think part of it is a bit of "retro" or nostaglia for our younger years but, as we've discussed, there is a gapping absence of showmanship in today's music scene. Prince fills that void a bit. It's a bit hokey but at least its entertaining to watch and listen to even if you aren't in love with his music.
My first sentence should have said "is not" rather than "is in step".
Just to clear up, the clip from Saturday Night Live isn't called Black Sweat.
It's either "Fury", or "Woman Scorned". Nobody's sure yet because the track listing from the new album isn't known yet. Cheers :)
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