Last night I was channel surfaing and I saw that the U2 cocert from Paris was going to be shown on HBO. So, it was getting ready to start and I watch the first several minutes of it and while I am not really a U2 fan, I appreciate their success even if I don't really see the over whelming appeal, but hey, to each his own.
But my thoughts were, this is just another crazy missed Prince opportunity. I believe it is pretty well established that his ability to garner radio play with new stuff is probably not ever going to happen, for one reason or another. But what Prince has over probably everyone else, at least living for sure, and that is his live performance ability. I can find the most Prince disinterested person and whip out some footage from many live performances and they are always like, whew, I never really liked his music but wow, he is good live. I just think if he would allow one of his FULL concerts, not some chopped up second rate version with vignettes and bimbos acting like they are such big fans, be shown on HBO or whatever MAJOR channel, again, not some half assed channel that 1/3 of the world has never heard of, I think this could be something that might generate even a little buzz about the guy. That kind of energy might encourage the casual fan to pick up a new CD or download a new song and who knows, maybe some of this newer stuff might appeal to a segment.
Clearly, when it comes to Mr Nelson, its all about the Benjamins and I have no idea what kind of financial arrangment or pay day these kinds of things provide, but who cares, it is a way to just again, display his best asset, his live performance ability. Plus, if he is going to tour Europe then many of us in other areas of the world cannot make that trip or even if he is here in America, same thing for the Europeans. Even in the US, my days of traveling all over the country to see him has somewhat come and gone due to life's responsibilities. And so I will travel certain distances, but I live in a major city but not one that he would probably visit on his last minute announced residency shows. So to have a concert I can watch in Hi-Def on HBO would be great. Keep in mind the crazy positive response he got to his Superbowl performance which was good, but c'mon, you and I have seen stuff wayyyyyyy better than that.
So, I know for Prince, many of these business decisions have not made sense for many years, but was just thinking about this last night as I was watching Mr Bono and trying to figure out if the audience knows that Beautiful Day and Vertigo seem like the same song!! LOL. No offense to any U2 fans out there, just having a little fun.
Thoughts?
Feel free to call me computer stupid, but I always tryp my messages here with separated paragraphs, but when it posts I cannot figure out how to keep it that way and it seems to just make it one big paragraph. So, I will apologize for my amateur computer skills up front!!