People,

I appreciate your niceness.

Regarding 21 night – I went to 12 main shows and 13 after shows. I loved every single night. The atmosphere was positively carnival-like for me. The performance was jaw-dropping from my perspective. I don’t care if Prince used dancers and lights because the focus was the music.

The original post wasn’t about putting down Usher or suggesting the only music worthy of appreciation is complex and scholarly. That’s why I don’t agree with the assessment that my critique would be applicable to Prince in 1984. He was never ‘singing mediocre songs in a mediocre way’.

I’m not against dancers and fireworks. I’m just more excited by something special and other-worldly coming from the given performer. I certainly don’t frown upon popular artists. I’ve been to hundreds of shows by everyone from Prince to Beyonce / Bjork / John Legend / Bilal / Maxwell /Talib Kweli / Black Eyes Peas / Lauryn Hill / Janelle Monae / Badu / Blackstreet / Mary J /Jaguar Wright / D’angelo / Talvin Singh / Ani Difranco / Amy Winehouse / Michael Jackson / the Roots and so on and so on.

In all of the above instances I had fun because the given performer did something special. They may not be the greatest musician or present their music like a thesis but that’s cool. I enjoyed it because in each instance it was the music that was the driving force. They made me dance or sing or jump around or just really feel something. That’s the defining thing. It’s not about posturing and putting anyone down or pretending I’m too clever to appreciate anything less than a 14 minute drum solo. It’s about what moves me.

I believe that should be the defining thing. Prince moves me and so I love him. That’s it really.

MobeenAzhar said:

'For me - it’s the bass on 'Sticky Like Glue', it’s the orchestra on 'Crystal Ball', the bass on 'Wall of Berlin', the vocals on 'Future Baby Mama', the piano on 'All the Midnight's', the guitar on 'Lion of Judah', the percussion loop on 'When Doves Cry', the vocals on 'Solo', the sentiment of 'third eye', the bounce of 'Love', the violin on 'Hallucination Rain'. It’s all these things because these songs move me. I love them, and I love Prince because of them. His hair, his videos, the image: that’s all great too, but honesty, the music is what keeps me interested.'

'Don’t get me wrong - I go clubbing all the time. I would love to hear 'Laydown' this weekend when I’m dancing in London, but it’s not going to happen. Does that frustrate me? A little. Does it actually detract from the music? Not at all. Ill dance to Laydown in my sitting room instead.'

Wow! Now there are orgers who post here on practically every other thread (you all know who I'm talking about) but this is the first time in a very long while that someone has got it spot on. I mean, that violin on 'Hallucination Rain'; truly amazing piece of music. In fact, Exodus is his most underrated album. To me its a masterpiece, I even love the segues. And about wishing you could hear Princes latest tunes when you're out and about, so true. In my new job, my young manager (he's 23), when the chatter came to music and I let him know that I'm into Prince, he laughed and quipped that he's just a fake Michael Jackson. Yeah, go figure. He's into all that predictable r n' b and hip hop/ pop, malarkey, so no surprises there I guess. But I just know that if he was fortunate to hear all those great Prince tunes that the masses never get to hear, he'd be blown away. Oh well, c'est la vie.

MobeenAzhar said:

People,

I appreciate your niceness.

Regarding 21 night – I went to 12 main shows and 13 after shows. I loved every single night. The atmosphere was positively carnival-like for me. The performance was jaw-dropping from my perspective. I don’t care if Prince used dancers and lights because the focus was the music.

The original post wasn’t about putting down Usher or suggesting the only music worthy of appreciation is complex and scholarly. That’s why I don’t agree with the assessment that my critique would be applicable to Prince in 1984. He was never ‘singing mediocre songs in a mediocre way’.

I’m not against dancers and fireworks. I’m just more excited by something special and other-worldly coming from the given performer. I certainly don’t frown upon popular artists. I’ve been to hundreds of shows by everyone from Prince to Beyonce / Bjork / John Legend / Bilal / Maxwell /Talib Kweli / Black Eyes Peas / Lauryn Hill / Janelle Monae / Badu / Blackstreet / Mary J /Jaguar Wright / D’angelo / Talvin Singh / Ani Difranco / Amy Winehouse / Michael Jackson / the Roots and so on and so on.

In all of the above instances I had fun because the given performer did something special. They may not be the greatest musician or present their music like a thesis but that’s cool. I enjoyed it because in each instance it was the music that was the driving force. They made me dance or sing or jump around or just really feel something. That’s the defining thing. It’s not about posturing and putting anyone down or pretending I’m too clever to appreciate anything less than a 14 minute drum solo. It’s about what moves me.

I believe that should be the defining thing. Prince moves me and so I love him. That’s it really.

Could it have something to do with how much you were looking forward to those other concerts, and the expectation going in that you were really going to enjoy it and get something out of it, rather than being dragged along to a show you didn't care much about to help babysit a neice and nephew?

Not that I'm saying Usher is a great entertainer or that his show isn't just a bunch of background dancers and fireworks, but I know that my enthusiasm pre-show has a lot to do with my appreciation of it. Of course I can be very disappointed by someone I'm really glad to be seeing. Likewise, I can be pleasantly surprised by someone I couldn't have cared less about.

Great post !

But I like Usher, I remember some past live performance with amazing gospel style drum player (aaron spears if you wanna youtube)

It is not only about fireworks, there is a great rythm section !