New topic
Printable| Author | Message |
opening nights of a new era in 1984 This is an excerpt from the opening night of the PR tour back in 1984 by Greg Tate in Record Magazine--"And he was baaad" is the title.
Another problem I had with Princes act now, matter of fact, is that he's really the only one who throws down visually in terms of that tepschore. Guitarist Wendy Melvoin and bassist Brownmark look cool and doo-hickey on the frontline, but the Prince band with Dez Dickerson and Andre Cymone was too chill. Yet if the loss of Dez and Cymone cost Prince's show a measurable degree of fire and stage presence, losing his black ausience of old to the MTV generation may end up costing him something more precious as far asemotional and spiritual gratification goes. I really didnt pick up on this vibe until the final encore of Purple Rain, truly rhe evenings transcendent moment all three nights. Principally because it's there Prince kicks into a torrid and explosive intense 10 minute guitar solo ablaze with Hendrixian fury ( albeit if not ablaze with Hendrixian imagination). The spiritual pull Prince exerts stretching out this anthem is both riveting and chilling, becasue for perhaps the first time in the show you feel as plugged in to whatever energy he's been drawing on as he himself does. The upshot is that on the third night he got so into it his face and body was so visibly wracked with pain, suffering, tears, and dare I say it, a need to be loved. And however he came to sense it, he seemed to know that his audience that night was not feeding back to him what he was pouring forth in incendiary ergs. And during the end of the solo he began screaming and cursing at the crowd, the rage clearly evident on his face. I suddenly thought of Hendrix back when he was playing his heart out to stadiums full of drugged-out zombies who could no more reciprocate his energy than catatonics:only this crew wasn't spiritually void by way of substance abuse (I may have smelled but one or two joints each evening) but by way of music videos. Concerts simply arent the Events of Ones Young Life as they were when I was coming up. The rock audience of today is so saturated by music, its heroes so accessible by way of television, film, and home video that much of the magic of live events seem to have been considerably diminished. Walking out of the show with Princes audience I felt none of the excitement or electricity in the air that I know would've been there when me and my friends were 16, 17-, 18 years old: that night I felt like was with people who were heading home after watching a giant video screen light up then fade to black. And I got to wondering what would happen to Prince when, like Hendrix, he got tired of being the circus freak and just wanted to recieve as much respect for his musicianship as for his visual razzle-dazzle and highly sexual showmanship" "Climb in my fur." | |
- E-mail - orgNote -  Report post to moderator |
rdhull said: And I got to wondering what would happen to Prince when, like Hendrix, he got tired of being the circus freak and just wanted to recieve as much respect for his musicianship as for his visual razzle-dazzle and highly sexual showmanship" [/b]
Hmmm, very interesting...thanx Rdhull. ***************************************************
Seems like the overly critical people are the sheep now days. It takes guts to admit that you like something. -Rdhull ...it ain't where ya from, it's where ya at... - Rakim | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
