ok before i get flamed here... read the text

at the time Prince performed on the big stage i remember my friend who was watching the show with me and didn't know much about Prince asking me.. "why is Prince covering songs of other artists??

"Is it because he dosen't have enough big hits for a Superbowl performance?".. at the time, i looked at him like he was crazy.. but looking back i understand more why Prince chose to cover songs for his Superbowl performance

Here's how i categorized his popular songs for the performance

songs with lyrics that didn't fit : Controversy, Little Red Corvette, You got the look

songs too minimal sounding for superbowl : Kiss, I wanna be your lover, Rasberry Beret, When Doves Cry, I Would Die for You

Songs that havent been that good live : Sign o the times, When Doves Cry, I would die for you

so what's left.. 1999.. The lyrics have sounded a bit dated on that imo .. maybe that's why he left it off? who knows..

He didn't seem to have much to play with for the big stage....

So as he result we got Lets go Crazy, Baby I'm a Star (a song he hasn't performed in full in a long time) mixed with Proud Mary Cover , Best of you Cover and Purple Rain...

[Edited 10/4/15 12:38pm]

It's simpler than that: it was a showcase of his performance skills designed to let him play a wide range of songs that would be familiar to the largest audience, so that even if you didn't like his music you could like appreciate him as a performer on those other songs. He had often performed most of the songs except All along/Best of you, so the setlist could be executed with military precision comfortably even in the rain.

To this day, that performance is often near the top of best half-time shows and it deserves a good spot and actually looks even more impressive today.

Aerogram said:

It's simpler than that: it was a showcase of his performance skills designed to let him play a wide range of songs that would be familiar to the largest audience, so that even if you didn't like his music you could like appreciate him as a performer on those other songs. He had often performed most of the songs except All along/Best of you, so the setlist could be executed with military precision comfortably even in the rain.

To this day, that performance is often near the top of best half-time shows and it deserves a good spot and actually looks even more impressive today.

He already has a wide range of songs that he could have executed with precision though..

Most of them wouldn't fit in a Superbowl Performance type though..

Why else would he go on stage and waste an opportunity to promote his own stuff?

[Edited 10/3/15 6:49am]

kapo74 said:

That show was aweful, for some reason I never liked it. It made him look bad. But then again, the world was impressed. So who cares

it's the only time I ever heard him screw up the ending of purple rain too, maybe it was the actual rain that was throwing him off, but he strummed the last guitar chord a beat before he should have. But I loved the performance, especially All Along The Watchtower/Best Of U.

[Edited 10/3/15 12:53pm]

Magical performance,

to those who did not like it..??? Did you watch the set on youtube, could that be the reason, in case you watched this set live on a tv set.. in 2007..... this performance was so impressive, on level with the Lovesexy concerts 88.

why Prince keep playing cover songs?? - and he has a back-catalogue like noone else...

That is a mystery... I agree,


still the Best Of U cover song was fantastic...

kapo74 said:

That show was aweful, for some reason I never liked it. It made him look bad. But then again, the world was impressed. So who cares

Not sure how it made him look bad when the performance wowed the audience and the press and is still fondly remembered.

Maybe you heard it with crappy sound on YT, there were several horrible sounding copies of the performance that have since been taken down.

Did that guy who has triple the amount of material of most artists not have enough songs?

There was a time when the trolls put in some effort. This is just embarrassing.

Noodled24 said:

Did that guy who has triple the amount of material of most artists not have enough songs?

There was a time when the trolls put in some effort. This is just embarrassing.

Songs of his own TO PERFORM FOR THE SUPERBOWL. do you know how to read??

He has recorded a lot of music.. no shit sherlock .. but how many of it does he actually perform live?

He coudn't just go on a Superbowl stage and decide to play Newpowersoul or Lets have a baby.

and why did he decide to go on the most watched show of the year and perform other artist's songs??

do you have an answer for this?

[Edited 10/3/15 12:16pm]

purpleshadow said:

Noodled24 said:

Did that guy who has triple the amount of material of most artists not have enough songs?

There was a time when the trolls put in some effort. This is just embarrassing.

Songs of his own TO PERFORM FOR THE SUPERBOWL. do you know how to read??

He has recorded a lot of music.. no shit sherlock .. but how many of it does he actually perform live?

He coudn't just go on a Superbowl stage and decide to play Newpowersoul or Lets have a baby.

and why did he decide to go on the most watched show of the year and perform other artist's songs??

do you have an answer for this?

[Edited 10/3/15 12:16pm]

Simply has to do with the audience he was playing for, he covered a spectrum of music that EVERYONE there could appreciate one way or the other.

[Edited 10/3/15 12:42pm]

leadline said:

purpleshadow said:

Songs of his own TO PERFORM FOR THE SUPERBOWL. do you know how to read??

He has recorded a lot of music.. no shit sherlock .. but how many of it does he actually perform live?

He coudn't just go on a Superbowl stage and decide to play Newpowersoul or Lets have a baby.

and why did he decide to go on the most watched show of the year and perform other artist's songs??

do you have an answer for this?

[Edited 10/3/15 12:16pm]

Simply has to do with the audience he was playing for, he covered a spectrum of music that EVERYONE there could appreciate one way or the other.

[Edited 10/3/15 12:42pm]

MJ, U2 and Bruce Springsteen had no issue performing their music for that audience..

Prince however didn't seem to have enough songs that would work for a Superbowl kind of performance so he covered other's songs..

[Edited 10/3/15 13:31pm]

TraSoul82 said:

You still call what MJ did "performing"? After watching his halftime show today, I now realize that I gave that man too much credit when I was younger. 2 minutes of standing, followed by 5 minutes of decent dancing to a prerecorded track. Mike was Mike, but it was pretty weak overall. The crowd reaction was literally the best part. [Edited 10/3/15 13:20pm]

that's your opinion.. i'm fine with you loving Prince's performance.. but why automatically deem those that don't share the same opinion as you as haters.. You said that Prince's halftime is widely regarded as the best one.. yet poll results show that MJ had it by a large margin..

[Edited 10/3/15 13:32pm]

purpleshadow said:

TraSoul82 said:

purpleshadow said:

that's your opinion.. i'm fine with you loving Prince's performance.. but why automatically deem those that don't share the same opinion as you as haters.. You said that Prince's halftime is widely regarded as the best one.. yet poll results indicate that MJ had it by a large margin..

[Edited 10/3/15 13:29pm]

Post these "polls" you're referring to. Billboard.com has MJ listed 10th and Prince listed first. Also, don't fall into that trap of assuming that I'm calling anyone a "hater." Not only did I never use the word, I also never implied any label to those who disagree with me. Let's speak like adults. With that said, if you continue to express this line of thinking, I might refer to your as childish. But anyway, let's see these polls.

This is a quote from one of your previous replies

" Widely regarded as the greatest Superbowl halftime ever, yet the Billy Jack Bitches still complain."

heres one" Billy Jack Bitch and hater are kinda synonymous to me

and here are some poll results

http://www.billboard.com/articles/events/super-bowl-2015/6450958/best-super-bowl-halftime-show-ever

[Edited 10/3/15 13:52pm]

TraSoul82 said:

purpleshadow said:

that's your opinion.. i'm fine with you loving Prince's performance.. but why automatically deem those that don't share the same opinion as you as haters.. You said that Prince's halftime is widely regarded as the best one.. yet poll results indicate that MJ had it by a large margin..

[Edited 10/3/15 13:29pm]

Post these "polls" you're referring to. Billboard.com has MJ listed 10th and Prince listed first. Also, don't fall into that trap of assuming that I'm calling anyone a "hater." Not only did I never use the word, I also never implied any label to those who disagree with me. Let's speak like adults. With that said, if you continue to express this line of thinking, I might refer to your as childish. But anyway, let's see these polls.

Yes just looked Prince at number one from Billboard , suppose that's false and MJ should be first to make purpleshadow happy

Guitarhero said:

TraSoul82 said:

purpleshadow said: Post these "polls" you're referring to. Billboard.com has MJ listed 10th and Prince listed first. Also, don't fall into that trap of assuming that I'm calling anyone a "hater." Not only did I never use the word, I also never implied any label to those who disagree with me. Let's speak like adults. With that said, if you continue to express this line of thinking, I might refer to your as childish. But anyway, let's see these polls.

Yes just looked Prince at number one from Billboard , suppose that's false and MJ should be first to make purpleshadow happy

so ONE list make it official?? Rolling stones had a readers poll and Madonna ended up being number 1.. MJ wins with billboard poll.. How is Prince's superbowl performance widely considered to be the best one?

[Edited 10/3/15 14:00pm]

TraSoul82 said:

CBS sports: Prince #1 Rolling Stone: Prince 4th, MJ 9th NY Daily News: Prince 1st, MJ 7th Yahoo Music: Prince 1st, MJ 3rd

you're taking lists made by average people a bit too serously..

CBS put Janet Jackson performance number 3 .. so let's call her performance one of the best ones?

[Edited 10/3/15 14:07pm]

purpleshadow said:

TraSoul82 said:

purpleshadow said:

you're taking lists made by average people a bit too serously..

CBS put Janet Jackson performance number 3 .. that's odd

[Edited 10/3/15 14:01pm]

Well you still haven't posted your polls that shows this "large margin" that you described. Go ahead...

i have.. here's the link again :

http://www.billboard.com/articles/events/super-bowl-2015/6450958/best-super-bowl-halftime-show-ever

purpleshadow said:

TraSoul82 said:

purpleshadow said: Well you still haven't posted your polls that shows this "large margin" that you described. Go ahead...

i have.. here's the link again :

http://www.billboard.com/articles/events/super-bowl-2015/6450958/best-super-bowl-halftime-show-ever

That link just shows the voteing page? Just because MJ is on top of the voteing page you your taking that as he is number one ,well thats up to you. It don't bother me who is number one half time show , Prince is number one on billboard>. am going by what billboard says. peace

[Edited 10/3/15 14:17pm]

Guitarhero said:

purpleshadow said:

i have.. here's the link again :

http://www.billboard.com/articles/events/super-bowl-2015/6450958/best-super-bowl-halftime-show-ever

That link just shows the voteing page? , Prince is number one on billboard>.

what do you mean? scroll down and check the results

TraSoul82 said:

I'm going to quote someone "random". I'll let you guys guess who it is: "So ONE list makes it official?" [Edited 10/3/15 14:17pm]

so you checked the poll results yet? Prince's performance is not widely considered the best one whether you like it or not..

TraSoul82 said:

I'm not not wasting time with this nonsense. Anyone with some sense can see my point by now. I literally posted 5 lists with writers justifying their positions and you post 1 poll with no accountability to who voted or how many times. I'm done. "Childish"

you asked poll results twice to prove my point.. i show them to u.. now the results don't matter to u because they don't match your opinion? I'm not the one calling others Billy Jack Bitch and acting like I didn't..

THAT'S what i'd call childish..

and I've proved my point that Prince's performance is not widely considered to be the best one..

Just look at the youtube hits his Superbowl performance is getting vs others'..

u2 got around.. 1 000 000.. Madonna 10 000 000... MJ 13 000 000... Prince 250 000

but lets all pretend that Prince's is the most appreciated one because you say so..

[Edited 10/3/15 14:52pm]

purpleshadow said: