Prince wins fans back with soul http://www.nola.com/news/...067120.xml
Prince wins fans back with soul
Monday, July 05, 2004
Lolis Eric Elie
As I made it to my Essence Festival seat Friday, Prince was singing, "I Would Die 4 U," and the crowd was already enthusiastic.
Still, I was not moved.
I remember that song and all the others from the "Purple Rain" album. It had come out just in time. I had just about worn the grooves off the "1999" LP and my favorite song from it, "Something in the Water." ("Must be something in the water they drink. It's been the same with every girl I've had.")
But not long after "Purple Rain," my interest in Prince waned. I'm not sure how to explain it. Suddenly his music seemed silly and adolescent to me, though it had suffered no discernible decline in quality or change in message.
From the old school
But in the middle of his set, Prince called to the stage Maceo Parker, the alto saxophone player who came to the fore when he played with James Brown and then with George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic conglomeration.
Maceo's solo on "Freeze (Sizzaleenmean)," from the Funkadelic album "Gloryhallastoopid," is the reigning masterpiece of the alto saxophone funk solo. His presence sparked a Prince re-evaluation for me.
One of the things that had turned me off Prince was his self-indulgence. I remember seeing him on some talk show basically saying his fans had a duty to buy a lot of his records. I wondered whether he, in turn, had a duty to pay their rent.
But the Prince who invited Maceo on stage and gave him space to play is not the same Prince who seemed concerned only with himself.
The procession of guest stars continued. Chaka Khan sang a couple of her hits. The '80s-era rapper Doug E. Fresh did his thing, and Prince's keyboard player stepped from behind his instrument and shouted out the old Sam and Dave classic, "Soul Man."
By then, I was clapping and smiling and starting to see Prince's performance in a broader context.
"I come from the old school," he said Friday night, meaning he came up in the days when a rhythm-and-blues performer was supposed to sing, dance and seduce his audience. His show was almost as much about old school entertainment as it was about Prince and his music.
In order to most effectively bring this message to his audience, Prince wisely chose to share the stage with top-flight performers, some hailing from schools even older than his.
He didn't need them, but they enhanced his show.
Maybe it is about Prince
Prince seduced the Essence crowd, just as he was supposed to, just as he used to do 20 years ago when his tickets were among the most sought-after on the pop circuit.
As we walked out, no one complained that the set was too short or the seats too expensive or the star too self-indulgent. A half hour after the last note had sounded, my date and I were walking to the car.
"You. I would die 4 U," she was singing.
But somehow I don't think she was singing about me.
. . . . . . .
Lolis Eric Elie can be reached at lelie@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3330 | 
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He's a soul man 
