I THINK YOU ARE NOT A BAD PERSON FOR THINKING THAT WAY OR FEELING THAT WAY.WE ALL QUESTION OURSELVES ON ADMIRING A MAN WHICH NOT MANY PEOPLE UNDERSTAND.ANOTHER THING IS THAT PRINCE HAS CHANGED THROUGHOUT THE YEARS AS EVERY1 DOES.PURPLE RAIN WAS GREAT BUT IT CAN NEVER BE DUPLICATED.PRINCE SET THE BAR SO HIGH FOR HIMSELF WITH PURPLE RAIN IT HAS BEEN HARD FOR HIM TO MATCH IT.I ALSO THINK THAT THE TWINS ARE BRINGING HIM DOWN BUT THATS JUST MY OPINION.

I just saw the repeat of his performance on SNL and so much comes to mind right now, now that it's been close to eight hours since I saw it.

As much of a shock this is, I was disappointed. :gasp:

I know. I couldn't believe it either. But I think a lot of factors contribute to how I feel (and I apologize in advance for overanalyzing this, I tend to do that)

1) Maybe I just plain wasn't impressed with the song or his habit of wearing scarves... almost if he's trying to hide something. Or orange just isn't his color combined with the scarf.

2) Maybe my attention was divided so I really couldn't pay attention to the song and its lyrics. It was 2:45 or so at night and my roommate was trying to sleep. I was half thinking, 'I really hope that this doesn't wake her up.' This morning, I was thinking 'am I a "closet" Prince fan? Am I ashamed to admit that I'm a fan?' I feel like I can't enjoy watching him when someone else is in the room, especially someone who has no idea how much I enjoy his work. It feels weird in saying this. As I walked to campus this morning, 'little red corvette' ran through my head and I thought 'Am I thinking about my fav. song because he wants me to forgive him for a mediocre performance?' Then I thought, 'No, Prince doesn't beg for forgiveness. The real reason I'm thinking is that I'm trying to compensate for how disappointed I was.'

3) It just plain too late at night to really enjoy it regardless of who was with me.

I could always test my theories by finding his performance and watching it alone, but I feel so guilty about my reaction towards it. I half thought, "have I misjudged you? Have I developed a sense of what I think you are and you didn't live up to my expectations?" Part of me still believes that I think Prince is as close to perfection as you can get. The fact I was seeing almost nothing but flaws shook me because regardless of anything else he's done, I've always been loyal and thought he was perfect. (The flaws I'm now referring to are the fact that a lot of his songs are 'dirty'... but for all of those, he has plenty that hide the meaning behind his words very well and I respect the poetry so much that I could care less what it means).
I feel even more guilty about the fact that I feel almost ashamed to admit what a big fan I am... if Prince has taught me anything, is that you can't be afraid of what other people think, be an individual, be unique no matter what anyone else says. I suppose that I still barely know my college roommate that my admiration of Prince would be a hard thing to begin to explain, because he himself is complicated.

It wasn't all bad, though. The one thing I was a little impressed with was the guitar solos that he added. That never disappoints. Then I saw him control the pitch of his guitar by pulling on a little lever... I've never seen that before and it has more even more convinced that he's the best guitarist in the world. Then while he did so, I worried that the high-pitched notes he plugged would wake up my roommmate...

I gotta ask, though. Does saying all this make me sound like a bad person? I feel better now than I did this morning, but that question still hovers in my mind. Should I be ashamed to call myself a Prince fan when 90% of what I see are flaws?

egyptkizzee said:

Thanks.
Yeah, Purple Rain really did set the bar high for him. I thought his SuperBowl concert was slightly above average until he did all of the theatrics for that song... and the twins thing, yeah. I agree with you there. I never really liked the idea of back-up dancers... can't any single artist have the stage to himself without any help from back-up dancers/singers?

I just can't get over the fact my roommate being in the room with me threw off my concentration. I looked at the lyrics for the song, most of which I didn't even catch last night and they were decent lyrics... not his best, but at least they had some rhythm to them. That feeling of guilt and slight embarassment... I shouldn't feel that way. Prince is so awesome... just because he's different, why I should feel embarassed by my own "love" of him in the face of people I hardly know? My opinion of him is the only one that should matter.

Because I was distracted, I just felt so empty afterwards because I felt like I missed out on a lot by worrying about waking up my roommate. There was no magic, he didn't cast his spell on me the way he usually did.

FYI Genesia, I saw the repeat last night... I didn't see it back when it premiered.

Wait a minute -- you're comparing SNL and the Super Bowl to Purple Rain?! Honey, Purple Rain was a movie. It was tightly scripted, they used four cameras and were able to edit afterward to make sure they had the right shots, the climate was controlled, hair and make-up were primped at the last second, and he sang to playback (ie, not live).

You can't compare the two -- they are apples and oranges.

Genesia said:

Man, when I think I clarify myself, someone still misunderstands... I'm talking about his performance of "Purple Rain" AT the SuperBowl... I can't really compare anythign to the movie since I haven't seen the whole thing.

Yeah, I probably did expect too much... of the past three performances I've seen, he just gets better and better... the SuperBowl kinda threw everything off because that was the ultimate.

If I ever get the chance to see it again, I'll take it... but unfortunately, I'd have to search it up (I don't have a VCR/DVR)...

I loved the end of the show, when Steve Martin and Prince made that look of, "Holy Shit, How long have they been filming us?" Man, I couldn't do live TV. I'd be paranoid of getting filmed doing stupid shit and not realizing that the camera was on.

estelle81 said:

Yeah, I know... when they realize that the camera's rolling, Prince looks like such a dork, lol.

I still say he looks better in blue than orange, heh.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

I'm always amazed that Prince can pull off some of the most loud and unusual colors. That's a skill, people.

I've only seen a handful of performances, so I really don't know much in that area.

But in the mid 80's, purple was a really good color for him... for obvious reasons.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

You have to see him in the "Rasberry Beret" video wearing that bright blue suit with all the white clouds; and the "Scandalous" video wearing all that red. I have to say that I really do appreciate his sense of style. It's eye-catching and fun.