You know, whenever I see Prince performances like the Superbowl performance, or his live rendition of shhhhh , I just fall in love with him as a performer all over again. As a man approaching 50 years of age, he’s lost absolutely nothing when it comes to being able to captivate me. Absolutely nothing.
Sure, he hasn’t done the splits in awhile, but I think that’s mainly because his balls are so big, it hurts when they slap the stage floor. You don’t believe me? What kind of musician has the balls at the age of 17, as minority, growing up in the barely desegregated US, to refuse a major record label a huge contract, so he could retain soul creative rights to his work? What kind of musician turns and bites the hand that fed him because that hand was feeding him table scraps and keeping the lions share? What kind of musician follows his or her heart regardless of market preassure? That person would be Sinead O’conner.

But I’m not talking about Sinead O’conner here—I’m talking about Prince, who has done all these things, and actually did so in the true sense of Rock & Roll.

This man reinvented what it was to be a minority in America, and though I felt his depiction of sexy black women in the earlier part of his career was sorely lacking to some extent, his portrayal of interracial love making was such a breath of Fresh Air. Not shying like the George Jefferson couple (bless your heart Lenny), he practically ate Applelonia’s face in Purple Rain – just imagine the audience’s reaction in Birmingham Alabama during the early 80’s. Prince tore down barriers in all forms of media—not just music.

And his sexual gender bending persona—Camille didn’t just toy with cross-gender notions, it slowly cooked in them allowing us to dip our hard bread into his soft, brothy, stew of femininity to sop it up in our quivering mouths. Where Van Hunt and Maxwell sound like men trying to channel their feminine side, Prince sounded like a little girl bursting to come out—He simply did it better than anyone else.

And sometimes I forget this in all the petty bullshit of aggrandizing expectations of my little rock god, but when I see him get up on the mic and sing live, when I see how effortlessly he commands the band, his instruments, and the crowd, I melt. I forget about everything but that this is the greatest all around pop performer of my generation. And I am blessed to realize this.




spelling edit
[Edited 7/10/07 18:06pm]