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Thread started 05/01/16 1:18am

mechanicalemot
ion17

Iconic performance or something else?

Just revisited the 1991 MTV performance where Prince wore 'the pants' after several years of not having seen it.

What statement was he making with that performance? How odd that he had those guys mount him at the begin as he made that crying out sound.

Any thoughts?
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Reply #1 posted 05/01/16 1:20am

mechanicalemot
ion17

.....and the pants!!!
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Reply #2 posted 05/01/16 8:20am

SPYZFAN1

I remember watching that at a party and hearing a loud collective groan when Tony M did the dry hump with P. My friends looked at me (they knew I was a big fan) and asked; "Yo what's up with your boy?..I think he's trying to tell us something". I stayed quiet and didn't say anything. cool

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Reply #3 posted 05/01/16 8:43am

nursev

Some distrubing mess...damn you for bringing it up lol

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Reply #4 posted 05/01/16 8:51am

mightycow

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it was only this week I found out his errr backside wasn't really exposed

.

wish I'd known that back then lol

.

really like the performance. it was one of the first P performances I saw 'live' on TV

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Reply #5 posted 05/01/16 9:23am

djThunderfunk

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nursev said:

Some distrubing mess...damn you for bringing it up lol


Yeah, I remember how hard it was being a Prince fan that week... lol

Of course what I mean by that is I had to take a lot of shit from my friends after that. wink

Don't hate your neighbors. Hate the media that tells you to hate your neighbors.
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Reply #6 posted 05/01/16 9:31am

funksterr

THe dance move with Prince and Tony M was a really old school pre-hip-hop move. I think I first saw Fred Berry's crew (Rerun frrm What's Happening) do it. The pants costume was something Prince had worn by that point roughly 10 years, just in black not yellow.

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Reply #7 posted 05/01/16 9:35am

nursev

djThunderfunk said:

nursev said:

Some distrubing mess...damn you for bringing it up lol


Yeah, I remember how hard it was being a Prince fan that week... lol

Of course what I mean by that is I had to take a lot of shit from my friends after that. wink

OMG...Prince fans took a lot of teasing that week lol

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Reply #8 posted 05/01/16 9:37am

FunkiestOne

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I never liked that song. Prince tried to be less sexual with Lovesexy album, and just felt that he was retreating to the sex thing to sell records. And that performance was a big Caligula type orgy, just designed to shock people and just wasn't imaginative.

.

I just felt at the time that he wasn't being true to himself with that song and was doing it for commercial reasons. It's not a bad song but it is very contrived.

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Reply #9 posted 05/01/16 9:38am

ufoclub

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As the show was televised... "wait.... is that his butt?"

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Reply #10 posted 05/01/16 12:25pm

rightbluecheek

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Something else.

"No one plays the clarinet the way U play my heart"
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Reply #11 posted 05/01/16 1:11pm

mechanicalemot
ion17

rightbluecheek said:

Something else.


How is 'iconic' defined in your book? Its definitely one that people often mention when talking about Prince. In this past week alone there have been countless notations of the man who was "bold enough to wear ass chaps" and things of that nature. It definitely struck a cord with people...and the fact that it was widely televised gives it even more impact on the overall composite that we piece together of him
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Reply #12 posted 05/01/16 1:13pm

mechanicalemot
ion17

mightycow said:

it was only this week I found out his errr backside wasn't really exposed


.


wish I'd known that back then lol


.


really like the performance. it was one of the first P performances I saw 'live' on TV


It was a lace window
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Reply #13 posted 05/01/16 1:13pm

2freaky4church
1

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He was ass out trying to show us he still mattered.

All you others say Hell Yea!! woot!
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Reply #14 posted 05/01/16 1:15pm

mechanicalemot
ion17

funksterr said:

THe dance move with Prince and Tony M was a really old school pre-hip-hop move. I think I first saw Fred Berry's crew (Rerun frrm What's Happening) do it. The pants costume was something Prince had worn by that point roughly 10 years, just in black not yellow.


I never saw Rerun nor Ozone do ANYTHING like that.
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Reply #15 posted 05/01/16 1:19pm

mechanicalemot
ion17

FunkiestOne said:

I never liked that song. Prince tried to be less sexual with Lovesexy album, and just felt that he was retreating to the sex thing to sell records. And that performance was a big Caligula type orgy, just designed to shock people and just wasn't imaginative.


.


I just felt at the time that he wasn't being true to himself with that song and was doing it for commercial reasons. It's not a bad song but it is very contrived.


I liked it back then...it was Prince!

But in retrospect, there was a climate being set around that time with Madonna and Truth or Dare/Blonde Ambition.

Did Prince feel he had to outsex her?
[Edited 5/3/16 3:57am]
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Reply #16 posted 05/01/16 1:32pm

weirdozmedia

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I think he set out to reclaim pop territory and have a big hit album with Diamonds & Pearls, and it worked. Now I'm wondering if his ass was really out or was that just flesh colored fabric though? Either way it got people talking and earned him a lot of free publicity.

¡The Future Is Ours, If You Can Count! https://www.youtube.com/w...A_zTY0qWWk
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Reply #17 posted 05/01/16 1:58pm

nayroo2002

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Does noone remember Prince at the Grammys winning numerous awards with his butt-out britches on and Lionell Ritchie screaming, "OUTRAGEOUS!"???

Prost! lol

"Whatever skin we're in
we all need 2 b friends"
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Reply #18 posted 05/01/16 2:04pm

mechanicalemot
ion17

nayroo2002 said:

Does noone remember Prince at the Grammys winning numerous awards with his butt-out britches on and Lionell Ritchie screaming, "OUTRAGEOUS!"???


Prost! lol


Just watched that last night in YouTube.
It was the American Music Awards (back when that was still taken seriously) and there was no ass-out that I saw. But then...at one point Lionel did make a comment about Prince staying in his seat that I neglected to go back and clarify the meaning behind
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Reply #19 posted 05/01/16 2:32pm

rightbluecheek

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mechanicalemotion17 said:

rightbluecheek said:

Something else.


How is 'iconic' defined in your book? Its definitely one that people often mention when talking about Prince. In this past week alone there have been countless notations of the man who was "bold enough to wear ass chaps" and things of that nature. It definitely struck a cord with people...and the fact that it was widely televised gives it even more impact on the overall composite that we piece together of him

You gave two possible answers. I chose the second one.
"No one plays the clarinet the way U play my heart"
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Reply #20 posted 05/01/16 4:49pm

mechanicalemot
ion17

nursev said:

Some distrubing mess...damn you for bringing it up lol




I would really like to delve into this reaction of repulsion more.
It seems that most of us (Prince die hards anyway) are comfortable with his blatant androgeny....as long as it's quickly backed up/countered by a deep voice and something on the verge of womanizing. He could be as effeminate as he wanted/needed to be personally as long as there was no uncomfortable male on male innuendo that creeped its way into our fantasies about what his sexuality entailed.

Do you think that Prince new the line in the sand and respected it by not daring to cross it for the most part? Hence his objection to the 'Bad' collaboration with Michael and the awkward jokes he made about it
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Reply #21 posted 05/01/16 9:51pm

mechanicalemot
ion17

Even when he was dressing in heels, leggings and the bikini briefs there was that proverbial 'line' that he didn't dare to cross
[Edited 5/3/16 3:57am]
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Reply #22 posted 05/02/16 1:53am

NorthC

FunkiestOne said:

I never liked that song. Prince tried to be less sexual with Lovesexy album, and just felt that he was retreating to the sex thing to sell records. And that performance was a big Caligula type orgy, just designed to shock people and just wasn't imaginative.


.


I just felt at the time that he wasn't being true to himself with that song and was doing it for commercial reasons. It's not a bad song but it is very contrived.


My thoughts exactly!
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Reply #23 posted 05/02/16 2:21am

rightbluecheek

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rightbluecheek said:

mechanicalemotion17 said:


How is 'iconic' defined in your book? Its definitely one that people often mention when talking about Prince. In this past week alone there have been countless notations of the man who was "bold enough to wear ass chaps" and things of that nature. It definitely struck a cord with people...and the fact that it was widely televised gives it even more impact on the overall composite that we piece together of him

You gave two possible answers. I chose the second one.

Ok, I'm going to elaborate on this, as I don't want to be misunderstood. I don't think he needed this kind of things to be "Iconic", as you say. I was a big fan in the eighties and for me personally, that was definitely not the way I expected him to portray himself. This has nothing to do with the dance with Tony M, or the fact that he was wearing those yellow pants, it's the overall situation I personally did not appreciate. Hope I explained my position.
"No one plays the clarinet the way U play my heart"
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Reply #24 posted 05/02/16 3:21am

Lianachan

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weirdozmedia said:

I think he set out to reclaim pop territory and have a big hit album with Diamonds & Pearls, and it worked. Now I'm wondering if his ass was really out or was that just flesh colored fabric though? Either way it got people talking and earned him a lot of free publicity.



I recently read an interview with his costume designer of the time, who said it was a skin coloured piece of fabric, as nothing else kept its shape.

"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge"" ~ Isaac Asimov
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Reply #25 posted 05/03/16 4:17am

mechanicalemot
ion17

NorthC said:

FunkiestOne said:

I never liked that song. Prince tried to be less sexual with Lovesexy album, and just felt that he was retreating to the sex thing to sell records. And that performance was a big Caligula type orgy, just designed to shock people and just wasn't imaginative.


.


I just felt at the time that he wasn't being true to himself with that song and was doing it for commercial reasons. It's not a bad song but it is very contrived.


My thoughts exactly!

You're forgetting about Graffiti Bridge being smak in the middle of those two albums. Tick, Tick, Bang, Bang was definitely sexual. We Can Funk was also dripping with innuendo
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Reply #26 posted 05/03/16 5:03am

sfinky1

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^^^ LOL "dripping"
lol
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Reply #27 posted 05/03/16 9:59am

NorthC

mechanicalemotion17 said:

NorthC said:


My thoughts exactly!

You're forgetting about Graffiti Bridge being smak in the middle of those two albums. Tick, Tick, Bang, Bang was definitely sexual. We Can Funk was also dripping with innuendo

Not really, because Graffiti Bridge was still about finding enlightenment and saving your soul or whatever you want to call it. But both Lovesexy and GB were flops in the US, so Prince must have figured, sex sells and made Gett Off. And the Diamonds and Pearls album which was the first time he started chasing trends instead of creating them. That was the biggest complaint fans and critics had about D&P: ihis music was becoming more and more commercial. And I always thought Prince himself felt this too and that's what led to the name change (not just a contract thing): the only way to be himself again was to lose the "Prince" image.
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Reply #28 posted 05/03/16 10:05am

DarkKnight1

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Its fantastc, because it was pure Prince. Never scared, and never duplicated.

(Insert something clever here)
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Reply #29 posted 05/03/16 3:25pm

mechanicalemot
ion17

NorthC said:

mechanicalemotion17 said:


You're forgetting about Graffiti Bridge being smak in the middle of those two albums. Tick, Tick, Bang, Bang was definitely sexual. We Can Funk was also dripping with innuendo

Not really, because Graffiti Bridge was still about finding enlightenment and saving your soul or whatever you want to call it. But both Lovesexy and GB were flops in the US, so Prince must have figured, sex sells and made Gett Off. And the Diamonds and Pearls album which was the first time he started chasing trends instead of creating them. That was the biggest complaint fans and critics had about D&P: ihis music was becoming more and more commercial. And I always thought Prince himself felt this too and that's what led to the name change (not just a contract thing): the only way to be himself again was to lose the "Prince" image.

It also deserves mention that the Love Symbol album fell in between Lovesexy and D&P.
Sexy M.F. was overtly sexual (and never one of my favorite songs)
[Edited 5/3/16 15:28pm]
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