Prince now safe for prime time

Larry Rodgers
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 17, 2006 12:00 AM

It's official: Prince, who once sang X-rated lyrics onstage while wearing bikini briefs and a purple trench coat, has become a "safe" artist in the eyes of mainstream America.

The National Football League's decision to ask the singer-guitarist to perform before 1 billion global viewers during halftime of Super Bowl XLI on Feb. 4 stamps Prince as non-threatening.

He follows in the footsteps of a pair of baby-boomer favorites - the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney - who were booked for the Super Bowl after Janet Jackson's breast-baring "wardrobe malfunction" in 2004.

Jackson's antics earned CBS a $550,000 fine from the FCC and prompted the NFL to take tighter control over the halftime show, including a role in hiring the entertainment, which had been left to a third party (MTV) in 2004.

"Prince's credentials speak for themselves," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. "He's an electric performer who puts on a great show."

The NFL is confident that Prince has matured to the point where he'll deliver a 12-minute halftime performance that won't generate controversy, McCarthy said.

"It was underscored with the Janet Jackson matter that the spectacle that the Super Bowl has become puts us on a stage (where) we're under scrutiny, knowing it's a mass audience," he said. "So we work with the artists, their management and even their record label to ensure that they put on a show that's suitable."

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's 2004 religious conversion to Jehovah's Witness and his reluctance since then to perform some of the kinkier songs from his catalog have changed the way he's viewed by the entertainment industry.

"Earlier in his career, it was a very suggestive show," recalled Steve Trella, assistant program director at Phoenix classic-rock station KSLX-FM (100.7). "Considering everything else that's out there right now - the rap and rock acts get pretty far out - I guess he would be considered safe. He's been pretty low-key for a lot of years."

After raising eyebrows in 1980 with his graphic Dirty Mind album and a live show that featured him rolling around in a bed onstage, Prince dialed things back a decade later. His more recent albums still have had some sexual undercurrent, but nothing that matches such '80s fare as Sister, Head and Do Me, Baby.

Prince, 48, fell off the mainstream-music radar a decade ago when he started releasing his albums through his own label, NPG, and, for a time, changing his name to a symbol and creating the catchphrase "the artist formerly known as."

But his past two albums, 2004's Musicology and this year's 3121, have been more widely released and critically accepted. The latter CD earned Prince five 2007 Grammy nominations; the awards show will air a week after the Super Bowl.

Local concert promoter Tom LaPenna says Prince also is connecting with middle Americans, including older NFL fans, with the opening last month of his Las Vegas club, called 3121, where he will perform weekly.

"Anybody who's able to have their own theater in Las Vegas is in the backbone of American society in terms of musical acts," LaPenna said.

KSLX's Trella sees the Super Bowl appearance as another step in Prince's bid to regain a profile that peaked when he starred in the 1984 film Purple Rain.

"He wants to get back on that national stage, and this puts him right back up front," Trella said. "It makes him somebody."

"It makes him somebody."



WTF?!?!?

I don't get it. why the sad face.

PocketFullofHorses said:

Right ... Prince was clearly a nobody before he wisely decided to follow this expert advice!
.

wonder505 said:

because he's safe for primetime [he USED to NOT be safe for primetime, remember?] nah I'm j/k it's all good.

edit: except I don't appreciate it when the press exaggerates his musical past.
[Edited 12/16/06 16:08pm]

It's the end of an era.

FruitToAttractBears said:

for Prince or for those who still want him cursing and running around with assless pants and humping the stage.

wonder505 said:

I hope I don't nod off while he's on.

DanceWme said:

same here. , WTF

it makes his somebody

fuck that!

´

myloveis4ever said: