THE MOTORCYCLE.

Seriously, back in the 80s and in the early 90s it was still considered cool to drive around on a two-wheel, wearing a leather jacket and having a big perm that looked like leather too. Everything was leather and chrome. Of course these days, it's hard to think of anything more dorky than that within the current time-frame and popular culture iconography, unless it's portrayed in a campy / kitschy fashion, but them were the days I guess. Remember, this was the time when Lorenzo Lamas was still considered the epitome of male sexuality, and Prince's image was considerably butched up too by the motorcycle he rode in the movies and the videos. That's what most nostalgic folks remember Prince from, the black rocker on the motorcycle. And that's what the women fantasized of - Prince picking them up on his bike and driving them... well wherever he was gonna ride them in order to get their clothes off.

Come to really think of it, how embarrassing is it that on the cover of his most successful album release he poses on the saddle of a custom-painted bike?

Very manly.

Novabreaker said:

It ain't! Bikes are hot!

Yeah, like in the 80s they might have been.

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[Edited 1/25/06 9:12am]

Novabreaker said:

Then, today, and tomorrow. Forever HOT!

DarthTater said:

Just like hot body-oil and aerobic suits.

Yeah I used to fantasies that Prince would pick me up on his motorcycle and we'd drive around Minneapolis together. Little girl fantasies!

But yeah you do have a great point. I think guys on motorcylces look cheesy for some reason but yeah somehow Prince looked SO cool on that Purple bike!

I thought the motorcycle was silly. Prince would have been much cooler in a Cadillac. Prince dressed like a cross between a pimp and hooker so he should have rode like one too.
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[Edited 1/25/06 9:29am]

vainandy said:

Did he not write Little Red Corvette in the back of Lisa's Cadillac??

"guess shoulda known, by.." Oh heck you know the words!

you guys are fucked up!
motorcycles aren't cool? Motorcycles will ALWAYS be cool. How can you even say back in the 80's they were in and not now with all the tv shows about custom choppers and what not. You're crazy! Bikes are badass and Prince should get a harley or an indian!

yep. something about prince just makes a person think: 'Harley Davidson'

Cloudbuster said:

this picture says they are homosexual. not that they are not manly!

Krystal666 said:

You know that was just two days ago!

BlaqueKnight said:

vainandy said:

That was actually something I liked about him...that he didn't ride in a Cadillac and road a motorcycle instead.

vainandy said:

Driving around in a Cadillac doesn't take much effort. Nor does it look cooler than riding a motorcycle.

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Novabreaker said:

I have to disagree with you on virtually everything you have posted on this occasion.

Motorcycles will always epitomise the true essence of cool. Marlon Brando built a career by virtue of wearing a leather jacket and leaning on one of those mean-looking suicide machines. And Tony LeMans (remember him?) built his entire carrer recycling the iconography as presented in the "When Doves Cry" video, more tellingly the bike scenes, before meeting a grisly end on one of those things.

Ultimately, it's not so much a matter of whether the bike was custom-painted or not. The machine is another analogy for pleasure-seeking and experiencing life in the big outdoors, particularly if the activity entails taking your significant other with you to share your particular brand of freedom and, preferably, if it involves shedding some clothes at the end of it.

I think your argument would have held more water had you pointed out that only those who can't ride end up looking like dorks.

i think his trend-setting style is best illustrated by his use of one of these:

Well I don't see no bitches giving up their hard earned money to a man on a motorcycle.

THAT bike was not ever "cool", nor did it do anything for his sex symbol image - at least not the heterosexual side of it.

giotto said:

My bad.