Royalty, in princely purple, too, returns, charms, reigns brilliantly

04/19/04
Robert Cherry
Special to The Plain Dealer

It's been 20 years since Prince first invited us to go crazy with him in order to "get through this thing called life." And we did join him. For a while.

In the 1990s, many of us diverged from the Purple One's increasingly out-there trajectory. This fan, for one, started to lose interest around 1987's famously naughty "The Black Album," then completely bailed during the whole Symbol Man deal. (Insert still-perplexed shrug here.)

But . . . dearly beloved . . . I'm here to tell you . . . there's something else . . . Prince, a recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, is back to re-establish his purple reign.

Wisely - and beneficently - Prince has decided to capitalize on the renewed interest with a greatest-hits tour, one which also reminds music fans that, once upon a time, pop stars actually performed to live accompaniment.

Last Saturday at Cleveland's Gund Arena, Prince proved he's still got the it we remember from his commercial heyday: his androgynous good looks, his graceful moves, his near-messianic charisma.

But he's also refined the preternatural gift with which he started. Essentially, the man is jaw-droppingly good at everything he attempts (although, truth be told, his spelling has never been great). Dressed in an asymmetrically cut purple suit jacket, a silky white shirt and pants, and some crazy white boots with glittering heels, Prince lead his top-flight band through inventive new arrangements of the hits, plus key tracks from "Musicology," his latest.

Throughout the two-hour-plus performance, he transformed the nearly sold-out arena into an intimate dance party, using the egalitarian stage-in-the-round to full advantage. The highlight among highlights was a solo acoustic turn during which he strummed and crooned hits such as "Little Red Corvette" and "Raspberry Beret," as well as the hysterical new "On The Couch."

As for Prince's musicology lesson, any contemporary performer who considers him- or herself a "musical" entertainer would be wise to follow Prince's tour for a week or so, take copious notes and do some real soul-searching. In the end, some might decide they're better suited for another vocation - like spokesmodel, stripper or paperweight.