guaranteed to please the fans there

After years of hearing prince name check cheesy R&B, it been refreshing to see he still has an ear for good old Pop/Rock

syble said:

I think it is as simple as that; Creep, even though not often played by Radiohead themselves, is still an alternative rock staple, Radiohead very much a festival band.
I think Prince wanted to build a simple bridge between him and an audience that would be mixed; meaning it was not an audience that came for him especially.

i don't think it was a piss take. i do think prince kinda made it his own (as he always does), rather than trying to capture the self-deprecating, emo-ish energy of the song. it's kind of a weird choice for prince, considering he wrote "cream", which is lyrically kind of the polar opposite of "creep".

I really like what he did with the song - even though I wasn't sure that I would. I posted this in another thread but:

Below are the lyrics I was able to decipher from what he was singing.
Please augment or add corrections if you have em. Thanks.

(I didn't hear the very begining)...

couldn't look you in the eye
it's just like an angel
skin makes you cry

you float like a feather
this beautiful world
you wish you were special
so do I

but you're a..(?).
you're a liar
what are you doin here?
you don't belong here

you don't really care
you just want to have control
you want a perfect body
you want a perfect soul
you want me to notice
yes you do
when your not around

I wish you were special
yes I do
Cause I think you're special

Maybe I'm just a...
who to say Maybe were the liars?
what are we doin here?
we don't belong here?

(Falsetto)
shoo da da doo
sho wa hoo hoo
sho hoo hoo hoa
sho hoo hoa hoo

(kick ass guitar solo)

A pisstake? That is really not Prince's style.

To DJ a song, tongue in cheek is one thing, to learn a song with a band for live performance is another.

Anxiety said:

If that's what Radiohead music sounds like, I haven't missed anything.

Anxiety said:

If that's what Radiohead music sounds like, I haven't missed anything.

RodeoSchro said:

actually, no, it's what prince's version of radiohead's music sounds like.

syble said:

I think it is as simple as that; Creep, even though not often played by Radiohead themselves, is still an alternative rock staple, Radiohead very much a festival band.
I think Prince wanted to build a simple bridge between him and an audience that would be mixed; meaning it was not an audience that came for him especially.

I really like what he did with the song - even though I wasn't sure that I would. I posted this in another thread but:

Below are the lyrics I was able to decipher from what he was singing.
Please augment or add corrections
couldn't look you in the eye
if you have em. Thanks.

(I didn't hear the very begining)...
it's just like an angel
skin makes you cry

you float like a feather
this beautiful world
you wish you were special
so do I

Personally i have my doubts if Prince really likes to play songs like Creep and Angel (the Sarah McLachlan cover).
I mean, apart from him liking the UK indie-band The Sundays (something he said in an interview in the late eighties), i have never saw any real interest by him for the indie / alternative rockartists.

To me it appears like he asked some people (bandmembers? his management?) for advice about songs that will do 'good' with the alternative rock / festival crowd, and he choose this two out of the ones mentioned.
It all appears to me as a calculated move to 'please'.

I cannot look inside his head, for sure, but i really think Prince had rather played a Hendrix-cover or some Sly Stone-medley then these two songs.

But, hey i could be wrong...

Did he say he liked Bjork? I know he mentioned the Cocteau twins ones or twice, but to my memory he mostly gives up high about Nu-soul / R&B artists like Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, Common and Alica Keys.

I mean: personally i thought he would enjoy what cross-over artists were doing in the 90's (Living Colour, Fishbone, Urban Dance Squad, King's X) or that he was interested in what artists like Beck, The White Stripes or Daft Punk (and also Bjork) are doing. But i never heard him mention those type of artists.

I agree with you that Creep isnt the most obvious song for him to play: rhythem and riff-wise. Its too wooden and 'english' for his style of playing i think.
I mean, most of the time when he plays covers of white rockbands, he seems to choose songs with more soul, funk and/or groove in the riffs (Come together, Whole lotta love, Rock lobster).
Creep has that kind of 'britishness' (like songs from Elbow and Snow Patrol also have) that just doesnt seem 'right' when an american artist (especially one with soul/funk origins) tries that kind of stuff (no offend here)

Maybe he should have played 'My Iron lung' instead, with all those cascading guitarbreaks... lol
[Edited 4/28/08 9:48am]

Riverpoet31 said:

he's also said in years past that he enjoys bjork and cocteau twins. plus, it's no secret that he's an admirer of kate bush.

i wouldn't doubt that his choice of performing a radiohead song was strategic for the benefit of the coachella audience, but why "creep"? the foo fighters song seemed like a more logical choice, as it was a bit more current. "creep" is so not-prince in terms of its lyrics, not to mention there are radiohead songs much more suited to his style of playing. i'd love to have heard him tackling "just", for example. not that i'm complaining. it's pretty amazing to hear prince cover ANYTHING by radiohead. it just seemed like a really random choice, kinda like when he covered that cars song during 7/7/07 last year.

NouveauDance said:

I agree. Prince has more class than that. He wouldn't take the piss out of someone by playing THEIR song so well!. He just took it to a different level. It was an accolade if anything.

About Prince never taking the piss out of anybody, i must say that i dont agree with everyone here.

I have heard Prince dissing overweight women on a regular base, he has made some remarks about people lacking (his kind of) 'style', 'punks', people without a job, to name a few.

I know, those remarks were often made during songs that were meant to be humorous, but nonetheless, sometimes i could really sense the vileness or misplaced arrogance underneath.

I mean, he is no angel.

When it to comes to dissing other artists i remember remarks he made in 1987, when U2 won the grammy of the year with The Joshua Tree album.
He probably thought he should have won that award with Sign of the Times, that is his right, sure, but the remark he made was unproffesional, something like: I could easily play the music U2 makes... Likes he was saying: those music is so simple, i could play it easily myself.
The truth IMO is: he can't. I am no U2-fan. Technically he might be right, but the way music is played, the feelings put into it, the 'colour locale' rooted into it (Dublin vs Minneapolis) is just as, or maybe even more important then exactly what kind of notes are played.

To put it short, Prince might try to play all different kinds of music, but when it comes to covers, he usually doesn't succeed when it comes to genres he has no real affinity with: He screwed up the country-rock 'slur' of One of Us, he offers reggae on 'autopilot' on Blue Light, and to me, this Radiohead-cover sounded like a Vegas show-version of a type of (British) indie-rock that just isnt 'his thing'.
[Edited 4/28/08 10:21am]
[Edited 4/28/08 10:22am]

To put it short, Prince might try to play all different kinds of music, but when it comes to covers, he usually doesn't succeed when it comes to genres he has no real affinity with: He screwed up the country-rock 'slur' of One of Us, he offers reggae on 'autopilot' on Blue Light, and to me, this Radiohead-cover sounded like a Vegas show-version of a type of (British) indie-rock that just isnt 'his thing'.
[Edited 4/28/08 10:21am]
[Edited 4/28/08 10:22am]

About Prince never taking the piss out of anybody, i must say that i dont agree with everyone here.

I have heard Prince dissing overweight women on a regular base, he has made some remarks about people lacking (his kind of) 'style', 'punks', people without a job, to name a few.

I know, those remarks were often made during songs that were meant to be humorous, but nonetheless, sometimes i could really sense the vileness or misplaced arrogance underneath.

I mean, he is no angel.

When it to comes to dissing other artists i remember remarks he made in 1987, when U2 won the grammy of the year with The Joshua Tree album.
He probably thought he should have won that award with Sign of the Times, that is his right, sure, but the remark he made was unproffesional, something like: I could easily play the music U2 makes... Likes he was saying: those music is so simple, i could play it easily myself.
The truth IMO is: he can't. I am no U2-fan. Technically he might be right, but the way music is played, the feelings put into it, the 'colour locale' rooted into it (Dublin vs Minneapolis) is just as, or maybe even more important then exactly what kind of notes are played.

To put it short, Prince might try to play all different kinds of music, but when it comes to covers, he usually doesn't succeed when it comes to genres he has no real affinity with: He screwed up the country-rock 'slur' of One of Us, he offers reggae on 'autopilot' on Blue Light, and to me, this Radiohead-cover sounded like a Vegas show-version of a type of (British) indie-rock that just isnt 'his thing'.
[Edited 4/28/08 10:21am]
[Edited 4/28/08 10:22am]

About Prince never taking the piss out of anybody, i must say that i dont agree with everyone here.

I have heard Prince dissing overweight women on a regular base, he has made some remarks about people lacking (his kind of) 'style', 'punks', people without a job, to name a few.

I know, those remarks were often made during songs that were meant to be humorous, but nonetheless, sometimes i could really sense the vileness or misplaced arrogance underneath.

I mean, he is no angel.

When it to comes to dissing other artists i remember remarks he made in 1987, when U2 won the grammy of the year with The Joshua Tree album.
He probably thought he should have won that award with Sign of the Times, that is his right, sure, but the remark he made was unproffesional, something like: I could easily play the music U2 makes... Likes he was saying: those music is so simple, i could play it easily myself.
The truth IMO is: he can't. I am no U2-fan. Technically he might be right, but the way music is played, the feelings put into it, the 'colour locale' rooted into it (Dublin vs Minneapolis) is just as, or maybe even more important then exactly what kind of notes are played.

To put it short, Prince might try to play all different kinds of music, but when it comes to covers, he usually doesn't succeed when it comes to genres he has no real affinity with: He screwed up the country-rock 'slur' of One of Us, he offers reggae on 'autopilot' on Blue Light, and to me, this Radiohead-cover sounded like a Vegas show-version of a type of (British) indie-rock that just isnt 'his thing'.
[Edited 4/28/08 10:21am]
[Edited 4/28/08 10:22am]