BartVanHemelen said:

Prince's great years were 1983-1988. Those were the years that he made his mark on the general public. 1989-1993 were the years he sold out. 1994-1995 saw a short return of kick-ass Prince, but it was overshadowed by all this ridiculous Slave-nonsense. 1996-now saw him loose the plot completely. Let's face it: to the major public, Prince has been irrelevant for a really long time, and he's been putting out irrelevant music for a vastly longer period than he's been a star.

Although I feel Prince owes me nothing and wish the best for his future, you are pretty right on with that timeline.

I don't feel his music is irrelevant now...There is an article in Rolling Stone with Prince that was back in the late eighties, and Prince is talking about how critics like to say things like "Stevie Wonder is fallin off..or Aretha Franklin just ain't doing it like she used too...etc. To which he replies that he would NEVER say something like that about Stevie Wonder, or Aretha Franklin, or any other great musician who has blessed us.

I mean, people have a right to be critical, I'm not against that. I just believe, personally, in Prince's case (as well as many other musicians whom I adore....) I would never belittle his talent or contribution to music out of reverence for his greatness. I also happen to love LotusFlo3er and his live shows have been EPIC!

There is a lot of music being passed off as "Relevant" today that gets MUCH play on the radio...Is Drake more relevant because he gets played more? Not in my household..

[Edited 3/6/11 13:50pm]

serpan99 said:

http://www.flickr.com/pho...478249982/

Thanks for posting the pic I took and linking it so others could see the rest of the pics from that night.

BartVanHemelen said:

BigSurScott said:

The funny thing is, every single Deadhead I know, who ever came out of a show complaining about an average set list or even worse, the one's who would just look at a set list and brush a show off, would give anything to be able to go see Jerry and the boys play that same average set list just one more time. Keep in mind that one day, one of these shows will be Prince's last and the book closes.

And I feel his legacy should be a long and fruitful career, instead of "great decade - downward slope due to him getting commercial - short burst of inspiration (1994-95) - completely lost the clue and never got it back". Prince could and should be doing MAGICKS right now, instead of doing these "I can't be arsed but I has cash flow problems" lame-ass gigs where songs have been replaced by chants and interminable jamz.

To justify this crap by saying "ooh once he's dead you'd pine for gigs like these" is too dumb for words. Once he's dead people will point out "awesome artist in the 1980s, completely lost it afterwards". What did people say about Johnny Cash after he'd died: "awesome artist, kinda lost it in the 1980s, but then returned with some of the best albums of his career with his American Recordings". Cash was a legend, but it's those "American Recordings" that really got him noticed. If he hadn't done those, his legacy would have been the prison shows.

Prince should be doing incredible things now -- instead he's flushing his legacy down the toilet. Seriously, whenever I see people talk about Prince they're talking about the dude from the 1980s, and they always dismiss his work from the past decades as "forget about that it's rubbish" -- and rightfully so.

Peopel will not be pining for the mediocre crap he's pushing out now. They will be pining for the insanely talented artist who re-invented himself with every album and every tour in the 1980s, who rocked and shocked their teenage selves, who gained commercial success despite releasing some seriously odd singles.

Hell, look at what you wrote next: he started playing Purple rain, and you started remeniscing about the first time he played that song. If I'm at a gig and my thoughts wander to a previous gig, one from NEARLY THIRTY YEARS AGO, I wouldn't come out thinking "this was an awesome show that I'll remember for the rest of my life".

Wanna know what people will say once Prince dies, or stops doing these gigs? "It's sad that he wasted so many years doing such average shit when he should have been doing amazing stuff."

Prince's great years were 1983-1988. Those were the years that he made his mark on the general public. 1989-1993 were the years he sold out. 1994-1995 saw a short return of kick-ass Prince, but it was overshadowed by all this ridiculous Slave-nonsense. 1996-now saw him loose the plot completely. Let's face it: to the major public, Prince has been irrelevant for a really long time, and he's been putting out irrelevant music for a vastly longer period than he's been a star.

It was such a great show the highlight for you were the SEATS? If I come out of a show and the first thing to cross my mind is how great my seats were, I'd stop going to shows. Seriously, when I saw Prince in 1995, I didn't came out thinking "man I had a pretty sweet spot", but I had my mind blown and I couldn't stop thinking "he played I Love U In Me" and "Days Of Wild is amazing on record, but live it just killed me" and so on.

I think I enjoyed seeing Prince and Sheila, the genuine affection, musical respect and appreciation they have for each other the most.

Yeah, massive amounts of affection. So much that he kicked her off his European tour just like that. She has to beg her Twitter followers for pics and videos while promising not to rat them out.

Hey, let's ask Sheila how she feels about Prince holding her back catalogue hostage. Not that she'd give you an honest answer, mind you.

I see you are still beating that dead horse, when will your madness end?

Prince never asked you to be his business manager nor his PR person. He's doing his own thing and guess what... he has enough cash and success to do that. He doesn't need to be out there hustlin.

jeromejack said:

BartVanHemelen said:

Yeah, massive amounts of affection. So much that he kicked her off his European tour just like that. She has to beg her Twitter followers for pics and videos while promising not to rat them out.

Hey, let's ask Sheila how she feels about Prince holding her back catalogue hostage. Not that she'd give you an honest answer, mind you.

I see you are still beating that dead horse, when will your madness end?

Prince never asked you to be his business manager nor his PR person. He's doing his own thing and guess what... he has enough cash and success to do that. He doesn't need to be out there hustlin.

Why shouldn't he be? He certainly claims he is already.

Spinlight said:

jeromejack said:

I see you are still beating that dead horse, when will your madness end?

Prince never asked you to be his business manager nor his PR person. He's doing his own thing and guess what... he has enough cash and success to do that. He doesn't need to be out there hustlin.

Why shouldn't he be? He certainly claims he is already.

Aaah, oh... u know, you are on to something there...

Let's get Bart a job as a Business Manager for drugged up rock groups or a job as a flakey PR person for PopTart singers. Get him out of the application development room. The juvenile delinquent, best sit your ass down! Give him a week in the job talkin' more Schick than a Bic and Bart will be running back to the cubicle looking for his tisket, a tasket. He'll think twice before pushin' up on somebody that wanna hear that.

And the moral of this motherfucker is: best sit your ass down, can U dig it?

[Edited 3/22/11 22:19pm]

More pics from the Oakland Oracle 23rd show:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lumack

[Edited 3/27/11 0:13am]

serpan99 said:

More pics from the Oakland Oracle 23rd show:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lumack

[Edited 3/27/11 0:13am]

Yay! Thanks...can you please tell the North Carolina concert goers that this is how it is to supposed to be done...PHOTOS!!

versiongirl said:

serpan99 said:

More pics from the Oakland Oracle 23rd show:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lumack

[Edited 3/27/11 0:13am]

Yay! Thanks...can you please tell the North Carolina concert goers that this is how it is to supposed to be done...PHOTOS!!

Thanks for all the wonderful photos from the Oakland concert! I have a great photo album now and I didn't have to take any at all! It was a great ride...