Prince Turns Halftime Into Primetime Purple Rain At The Super Bowl
Written by Glen Boyd
Published February 06, 2007

So how about that halftime show this weekend with Prince? I don't know about you, but I heard as many people talking about that today near the water cooler as they were about the big game itself. Now when was the last time you could say that about a Super Bowl halftime show? (Well okay, aside from a certain wardrobe malfunction a few years back.) Prince simply rocked the house at the biggest show of them all, and in doing so may have just re-established himself as music's most electrifying live performer.

The fact is it wasn't that long ago that the halftime Super Bowl spectacular was anything but. Remember all those years ago when the halftime show featured the sort of "entertainment" that signaled bathroom breaks and beer runs? Remember those ridiculous "Up With People" type shows featuring the sort of milque toast dance troupes that no doubt inspired South Park's "Getting Gay With Kids"? For the few folks not refreshing their beer and pizza during those fifteen or so minutes, they were often changing the channel. Anybody remember the lingerie bowl?

Since the NFL saw fit to give halftime a much needed makeover a few years back, the biggest rock stars in the world have been tripping all over each other to get in on the action. In recent years we've seen everyone from Kiss and Aerosmith, to the Stones, McCartney, and U2.

Unfortunately the results haven't always lived up to the hype. When Kiss did their thing, all the bombs and explosions in the world couldn't mask the fact that the performance was lip-synched. Likewise, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry looked the very definition of sellout when they did "Walk This Way" cheek to cheek with Britney Spears. As for last year's Rolling Stones performance, is their anybody left in America (well anybody over 30 anyway) who hasn't seen the Stones in concert at least once, when they were a much leaner, meaner, and yes, younger band? And then there was of course Nipplegate...

For his own fifteen minutes this past Sunday, Prince played as though he were mounting a fresh challenge for the title of world's greatest live performer on the biggest stage of his professional life. Truth be told, Prince effectively reclaimed that title a few years back with the breathtaking shows of the Musicology tour.

But anyone who has ever seen Prince in concert knows that as great a performer as he is, his shows can often consist of little more than fragments of songs strung together in what can amount to a non-stop two hour medley of hits. The effect is exhilarating, but can also be frustrating if you are looking to hear complete songs.

In the fifteen minute halftime format of the Super Bowl however, this approach suited Prince perfectly. And he took full advantage. Showing off more of his Jimi Hendrix side than his James Brown, Prince ripped through a set heavy on guitar pyrotechnics that began with the familiar "dearly beloved" of "Let's Go Crazy." After teasing "1999" briefly, he then went straight into "Baby I'm A Star." This led to a series of great cover choices including John Fogerty's "Proud Mary," Dylan by way of Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower," and finally The Foo Fighters "The Best Of You."

Ending with "Purple Rain," Prince looked every bit his majesty silhouetted in the pouring rain and the purple lights. For anyone who wrote him off in the nineties while he was busy battling his record company and engaged in all that unpronounceable symbol nonsense, Prince has served notice to the world on the biggest stage of all that he is back. In doing so, he has also set a standard for Super Bowl halftime shows that will be a challenge to match, let alone top next year.

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Oh man, that is such an awesome article.

To be honest, I don't think I even cared about the SuperBowl HalfTime shows. I was more of a football fan and the intermission was intermission. Can you really blame me, though? I'm a die-hard football fan and I've only been a fan from ages nine to present... and back then, I didn't care for an intermission to the biggest football game of the year.

I think my very first HalfTime show that I ever watched was Paul McCartney back at the Eagles-Patriots game. He was pretty good, I'll admit even though I wasn't a die-hard Beatles fan. But the fact the Eagles lost took away from the thrill. The year after that was the Rolling Stone and I couldn't care less for them. (Yes, I did miss out on the Janet Jacksong "wardrobe malfunction", but I don't care that much... it was another Patriots game and I just don't like them).

Prince's HalfTime show really did set the standard and I really doubt that anyone will be able to top what he did. He made the HalfTime show into the spectacule it's supposed to be and I actually looked more forward to it than the game and I sure wasn't disappointed. Then again, Prince hasn't disappointed me yet.

BananaCologne said:

Isn't that the truth...

Great Review! Thanks for posting, NaNa!

Great read. Thanks!!

The SuperBowl Performance was his BEST TV performance!! The more you watch it, the more you realize that!

Perfect song selection for the masses.

AMAZING Idea for the FAMU Band to play! You can even Prince got a chill from Horns. You can tell he was feelin' it so much he forgot to bring it home with a final little ending solo on PR. FAMU was just bringing it.

The whole performance was perfect!

1) Guitar Solos!!! Guitar Solos!!! Guitar Solos!!!

2) I love the middle when FAMU took over for a few seconds, it felt like Party Man.

3) The Rain, which handicapped him, well could have, but brought the biggest edge to the performance! For me the rain now is like the best part, for him to bring it like that in a storm? wow!! Shit the Football Players were fumbling and turning the ball over. Prince didnt fumble

4) He was LIVE!!! His voice sounded amazing, so relaxed.. even though it was in the middle of a rain storm!

5) He hit every Era for everyone!
a) He hit the Purple Rain Crowd
b) He hit the Motown/1960's Crowd with Proud Mary
c) He hit the Classic Rock with Watch Tower
d) He hit the 1990's with The Best
e) He had the FAMU Playing which was the Partman/Batman-ish Prince
f) He had the old school sexual Prince with the Curtain
g) He brought it home with Purple Rain, The best Encore you can ever have, everyone leaves happy

Great review!

Nothinbutjoy said:

Ditto.

Especially putting Guitar solos as #1... his Purple Rain guitar solo won me over and whenever I see it, I just go nuts. It was so good.

And the rain didn't affect him... he even improvized a little while doing "Baby I'm a star", mentioning something about the rain in his lyrics... I found that hilarious.
And yeah, he sung live. My Ecology professor wondered why he didn't get electrocuted and even thought "maybe he lip-synch"... I'm like 'no way, Prince doesn't lip-synch'. I bet he would refuse to perform if his only choice was lip-synching (the exception being for a music video, of course). And he did sing Live quite well.

obsessed said:

It is

This is sooooo cool! Thanks!

Nice article. And I agree. I was just thinking the same as I read the article. This year's show is going to be quite possibly nearly impossible to top, unless they did something like EWF with Chicago. Yeah, that would be a great show.

Oh please, what nonsense. This kinda ridiculous baloney gets trotted out every time Prince does something high profile. "He's back"? Really? So what did he play? Oh yeah, a "look at me I'm so hip" cover of a Foo Fighters song (*), and a medley of nearly 25 year old songs he "retired" years ago. Any new music? Of course not, the man's not an idiot, he knows fully well that outside of a small group of hardcore fans nobody gives a damn about anything he's released in the past 10 years, and that includes P himself.

(*) Which exposes his hypocrisy once again, let's not forget that he was whining about artists doing covers a while ago.

BartVanHemelen said:

Are you sure about that? By the way... love the footnote... it makes your post look almost scientific and shit!

MartyMcFly said:

ElectricBlue said:

He did bring it home with the guitar solo. Unfortunatle they had technical problems that's why it couldn't be heard on TV. What a shame! As great as the performance was I will always wonder, what the end would hav sounded like w/o the "dying guitar" at the end.