Curious as to why there were'nt any soul train appearance during this period of his career? He did American Band Stand, Saturday Night Live, Midnight Special and Solid Gold. But no Soul Train, was it because he wanted more of a main stream audience? I just recieved a copy of the best of Soul Train and it sure would've been nice to have seen Prince in the rawness of his prime tearing it up!!!

wilsoqp said:

Curious as to why there were'nt any soul train appearance during this period of his career? He did American Band Stand, Saturday Night Live, Midnight Special and Solid Gold. But no Soul Train, was it because he wanted more of a main stream audience? I just recieved a copy of the best of Soul Train and it sure would've been nice to have seen Prince in the rawness of his prime tearing it up!!!

I could see Don Cornelius NOT being a fan of Prince. He seemed to have a very strict set of standards in his head of who was representing the black community well and who was not. I don't know; this is just my guess.

soul train at that time rarely had anyone but fully black artists. it's clear prince wasn't completey black and his music was "black style", and he was too sexual for don more than likely.

Don was afraid that he would look in his eyes and fall madly in love with him!!

Find that Jamie Foxx Comic skit.......

Agreed but it would have been nice though!

There's no evidence to support Don not liking Prince. Prince just didn't do a lot of those variety type shows. Here's what he did do through 1989:

16 DEC, 1979 ::::: Hollywood, CA, USA – ABC Television Center Studios: Stage 55 | American Bandstand

06 JAN, 1980 ::::: Burbank, CA, USA – NBC Studio 3 The Midnight Special

21 FEB, 1981 ::::: New York, NY, USA – NBC-TV Studios, RCA Building – Studio 8H | Saturday Night Live

14 DEC, 1982 ::::: Los Angeles, CA, USA – KTLA Studios Stage 6 | Solid Gold

04 APR, 1983 ::::: Los Angeles, CA, USA – KTLA Studios Stage 6 | Solid Gold

24 SEP, 1989 ::::: New York, NY, USA – NBC-TV Studios, GE Building (Studio, 8H) | Saturday Night Live

And here's the award show stuff he did:

16 MAY, 1983 ::::: Bloomington, MN, USA – Carlton Celebrity Room (Minnesota Music Awards)
29 JUN, 1983 ::::: St. Paul, MN, USA – Prom Center Ballroom (Minnesota Black Music Awards)

21 MAY, 1984 ::::: Bloomington, MN, USA – Carlton Celebrity Room (Minnesota Music Awards)

28 JAN, 1985 ::::: Los Angeles, CA, USA – Shrine Auditorium (American Music Awards)
26 FEB, 1985 ::::: Los Angeles, CA, USA – Shrine Auditorium (Grammy Awards)

20 MAY, 1986 ::::: Bloomington, MN, USA – Carlton Celebrity Room (Minnesota Music Awards)

11 SEP, 1987 ::::: Universal City, CA, USA – Universal Amphitheatre (1987 MTV Video Music Awards)

Sheila E. appeared on Soul Train promoting Romance 1600. It's been a while since I've watched it, but I think I remember Don asking her to get Prince to come on.

Prince didn't wanna be categoriezed as a Black artist doing Black music which is my guess as to why he stayed away from Soul Train as a musical guest. Also, if you watch that Soul Train docu that comes on occasionally on VH1 they've had musical guest in the past they weren't Black, so it wasn't that Soul Train didnt want Prince because he wasn't Black enough. My guess is that Prince didn't wanna do the show because he didnt want folks to think of him as just a Black artist. Plus with the exception of very few artists, most of the performances were lip synced. That could have been another reason he didn't wanna do Soul Train.

I do remember the AB performance was lip synced. I vaguely remember Solid Gold so I don't know for sure if artists on that show performed live or not.

[Edited 9/2/10 14:29pm]

It was rediculous for him to do "The Midnight Special", "American Bandstand", "Saturday Night Live", and "Solid Gold" but not do "Soul Train". He was all over black radio, had droves of black fans, had concerts where 90% of the audience was black, but wouldn't do a black show like "Soul Train". It was kinda like biting the hand that feeds you. He could have absolutely tore "Soul Train" up in 1981 with "Controversy" and "Let's Work".

I agree..It's funny how he was mentioned by Don when Vanity 6 performed. When he himself never performed.

jaybendy said:

Prince didn't wanna be categoriezed as a Black artist doing Black music which is my guess as to why he stayed away from Soul Train as a musical guest. Also, if you watch that Soul Train docu that comes on occasionally on VH1 they've had musical guest in the past they weren't Black, so it wasn't that Soul Train didnt want Prince because he wasn't Black enough. My guess is that Prince didn't wanna do the show because he didnt want folks to think of him as just a Black artist. Plus with the exception of very few artists, most of the performances were lip synced. That could have been another reason he didn't wanna do Soul Train.

I do remember the AB performance was lip synced. I vaguely remember Solid Gold so I don't know for sure if artists on that show performed live or not.

[Edited 9/2/10 14:29pm]

Yeah, his Solid Gold performance was lip synced aswell.

Efan said:

Sheila E. appeared on Soul Train promoting Romance 1600. It's been a while since I've watched it, but I think I remember Don asking her to get Prince to come on.

I'm not going digging for that tape, but Sheila was on performing Sister Fate and A Love Bizarre. During the interview part, Don asked Sheila to ask Prince if he would "please" come on the show. Sheila was acting very coy. Solid Gold was a lip sync show as well.

[Edited 9/2/10 16:00pm]

Rinluv said:

jaybendy said:

Prince didn't wanna be categoriezed as a Black artist doing Black music which is my guess as to why he stayed away from Soul Train as a musical guest. Also, if you watch that Soul Train docu that comes on occasionally on VH1 they've had musical guest in the past they weren't Black, so it wasn't that Soul Train didnt want Prince because he wasn't Black enough. My guess is that Prince didn't wanna do the show because he didnt want folks to think of him as just a Black artist. Plus with the exception of very few artists, most of the performances were lip synced. That could have been another reason he didn't wanna do Soul Train.

I do remember the AB performance was lip synced. I vaguely remember Solid Gold so I don't know for sure if artists on that show performed live or not.

[Edited 9/2/10 14:29pm]

Yeah, his Solid Gold performance was lip synced aswell.

As were all of them. Just like Bandstand. It was just easier to lip sync for some of these shows.

Rinluv said:

jaybendy said:

Prince didn't wanna be categoriezed as a Black artist doing Black music which is my guess as to why he stayed away from Soul Train as a musical guest. Also, if you watch that Soul Train docu that comes on occasionally on VH1 they've had musical guest in the past they weren't Black, so it wasn't that Soul Train didnt want Prince because he wasn't Black enough. My guess is that Prince didn't wanna do the show because he didnt want folks to think of him as just a Black artist. Plus with the exception of very few artists, most of the performances were lip synced. That could have been another reason he didn't wanna do Soul Train.

I do remember the AB performance was lip synced. I vaguely remember Solid Gold so I don't know for sure if artists on that show performed live or not.

[Edited 9/2/10 14:29pm]

Yeah, his Solid Gold performance was lip synced aswell.

Thanks. All I remember of SG is the intro song and Marilyn McCoo.

Maybe, Just Maybe he was never asked to do Soul Train......

jaybendy said:

Prince didn't wanna be categoriezed as a Black artist doing Black music which is my guess as to why he stayed away from Soul Train as a musical guest. Also, if you watch that Soul Train docu that comes on occasionally on VH1 they've had musical guest in the past they weren't Black, so it wasn't that Soul Train didnt want Prince because he wasn't Black enough. My guess is that Prince didn't wanna do the show because he didnt want folks to think of him as just a Black artist. Plus with the exception of very few artists, most of the performances were lip synced. That could have been another reason he didn't wanna do Soul Train.

That's what I was thinking too. He had too much variety in his music and that didn't really fit the Soul Train style IMO. Prince would have been great on there though.

lydiaravenswood said:

soul train at that time rarely had anyone but fully black artists. it's clear prince wasn't completey black and his music was "black style", and he was too sexual for don more than likely.

WHAT ?????????

banks said:

lydiaravenswood said:

soul train at that time rarely had anyone but fully black artists. it's clear prince wasn't completey black and his music was "black style", and he was too sexual for don more than likely.

WHAT ?????????

Yeah,that statement is wierd to say the least

vainandy said:

It was ridiculous for him to do "The Midnight Special", "American Bandstand", "Saturday Night Live", and "Solid Gold" but not do "Soul Train". He was all over black radio, had droves of black fans, had concerts where 90% of the audience was black, but wouldn't do a black show like "Soul Train". It was kinda like biting the hand that feeds you. He could have absolutely tore "Soul Train" up in 1981 with "Controversy" and "Let's Work".

I agree.I understand his need to not be categorized as an R&B artist,but shunning 'Soul Train' made it appear as if he was trying too hard to crossover.

metallicjigolo said:

Maybe, Just Maybe he was never asked to do Soul Train......

He was asked.When Sheila E. appeared on the show,Don Cornelius all but begged her to convince him to perform.

Marvelette said:

wilsoqp said:

Curious as to why there were'nt any soul train appearance during this period of his career? He did American Band Stand, Saturday Night Live, Midnight Special and Solid Gold. But no Soul Train, was it because he wanted more of a main stream audience? I just recieved a copy of the best of Soul Train and it sure would've been nice to have seen Prince in the rawness of his prime tearing it up!!!

I could see Don Cornelius NOT being a fan of Prince. He seemed to have a very strict set of standards in his head of who was representing the black community well and who was not. I don't know; this is just my guess.

One problem with this theory: Prince's proteges The Time,Vanity 6 and Sheila E. were all allowed to appear on the show,all singing songs that Prince wrote.Don had to have been a fan.

I think a better answer is he just didn't want to do many TV shows, especially not ones where he might be asked questions. Whether he was shy or just wanting to build up a mysterious image or whatever, he didn't talk much publicly back then, and he wasn't making many appearances on TV at all (like on The Tonight Show or SNL or whatever).

Soul Train in the 70s and early 80s was about Chicago funk and dancing. They had to move the studio to LA b/c they were getting more and more popular being that they were the only black music/dance show on tv. When disco and rap came around, other shows were coming on the air and they were loosing their popularity so they had to add these elements to the show even though Don didn't like it. Prince's music didn't fit in these catagories. It's not about a Black thing at all b/c there were white musicians on there at this time also.

Angelic1302 said:

Soul Train in the 70s and early 80s was about Chicago funk and dancing. They had to move the studio to LA b/c they were getting more and more popular being that they were the only black music/dance show on tv. When disco and rap came around, other shows were coming on the air and they were loosing their popularity so they had to add these elements to the show even though Don didn't like it. Prince's music didn't fit in these catagories. It's not about a Black thing at all b/c there were white musicians on there at this time also.

but they played his music during the show