I always assumed it was the style of music Prince was playing was not to their taste.

Also (I don't usually throw out this card) but is it possible there were some racists in the mostly white, classic rock-and-roll crowd? I know you say the Stones were progressive, but that doesn't mean their audience at this concert necessarily was. And even if they were relartively progressive, we're talking about 1970s America -- progressivism back then wasn't what it is today. Obviously there's no way to prove or disprove it, so I don't want to instigate a protracted debate. I'm just saying it's a possibility.

lurker316 said:

https://ultimateclassicro...ng-stones/


https://en.wikipedia.org/...versy_Tour


https://www.foxsports.com...981-042116

I'm sure part of it was that he was black.

Plus I don't think any of the previous andogynous artists were quite as explicit as Prince.

Also, I heard he opened that concert with "Jack U Off". Is that true? That was a bad idea.

Also note... this was 1981... so we were past the 70s glam rock movement and into the Reagan-era. The Rolling Stones weren't rebellious counterculture youngsters... they were an old school rock and roll band at this point.

luv4u said:

https://ultimateclassicro...ng-stones/


https://en.wikipedia.org/...versy_Tour


https://www.foxsports.com...981-042116

This subject is also discussed in the liner notes of the 1999 Super Deluxe Edition.

RJOrion said:

brownmark and dez dickerson have both said the crowd was yelling racial slurs and throwing stuff... obviously racism... [Edited 1/14/20 14:15pm]

Throwing stuff at the stage like buckets of fried chicken.

RODSERLING said:

You realllyyy dont know why, huh?

RODSERLING said:

[Snip - luv4u]

Lovely. Reported

Do Lovesexy and American Bandstand next.

Of, better, GTFO with this shit and fuck off to Reddit with this bigotry.

...

That ugliness aside, yes, it was a combination of homophobia, race, disco backlash and impatience in the heat waiting for the stones. It can't entirely be racism since the Stones played with black members a lot and I don't recall any backlash against Billy Preston, but then again he wasn't opening either.

I knew a lot of Stones fans growing up that somehow overlooked ot "excused" the blatant homoeroticism of Jagger and the Stones doing disco and R&B. Mick tongue kissed his guitar player, Ronnie Wood, live on SNL in 1978 or so (Google it). Being a "faggot", back then, as out friend so eloquently put it, was often the kiss of death commercially. Elton John's sales tanked when he came out as bi and Bowie had similar issues with sales as well. Judas Priest shit the bed when Rob Halfold came out as gay, a cardinal sin in metal.

Rumors of Rod Stewart's sexuality hampered his sales. It was still going on in 86 when people thought Cat was Prince on the SoTT single cover and in 1988 when the Lovesexy cover dropped. High school in the mid 80's was not a good time to be perceived as gay or effeminite, even though you had Adam Ant, Culture Club and Wham pushing the envelope.

I wasn't there obviously so I don't know but I was coming of age around that time and knew the atmosphere. Disco backlash was at its peak, culminating in the Disco Demolition riot in Chicago. Hard to say. "Jack U Off" might have triggered the more closed minded folks for sure.

We've come a long with the way with this stuff, RODSERLING's shitpost notwithstanding, and happily this sort of shit is not tolerated anymore for the most part.

herb4 said:

RODSERLING said:

[Snip - luv4u]

...

That ugliness aside, yes, it was a combination of homophobia, race, disco backlash and impatience in the heat waiting for the stones. It can't entirely be racism since the Stones played with black members a lot and I don't recall any backlash against Billy Preston, but then again he wasn't opening either.

And '76 was way different than 81...especially in southern California. The radio stations and audience were very segregated at that time. This is the time of no poc on MTV as well remember.

I think it was a mix of things, the strangeness of Prince, and not knowing what to think or make of him, they probably didn't dig him or his music, his being black, there were some racist people in the crowd, etc. Back then, I think it really was true racism and racist people that treated him the way they did then, unlike today, where racism and being a racist is blamed for everything, so much so that people have gotten sick and tired of "everything and everyone" being called racist!

^^^It was like that everywhere^^^

I looked it up and the Stones had several black opening acts over the years so just saying "he was black" is too lazy. I'm sure it didn't help matters though.

https://rickkeenemusicsce...ince-1962/

Rufus, The Meters, Gap Band, Peter Tosh, Black Uhuru, Living Color, Lenny Kravitz, Tina Turner, Etta James, Screamin Jay Hawkins...go look. Shit, the Stones whole sound is "black" and rooted in or blatantly ripped off from blues and r&b.

So I'm gonna put it down disco backlash, the falsetto, the bikini briefs (even Jagger never went there), homophobia and, if I had to guess, I'd bet that "Jack U Off" wasn't working for em much either and my have been what tipped the scales. Weird to think about but if, at that time, Prince had a setlist that could have included The Ride, Calhoun Square, Xanalee, Joy in Repetition, I Could Never the Place of Your Man, The Truth and shit like that, it might have turned out differently.

That, and wear some god damned pants lol.

By 1981, rock and roll fans were openly hostile to disco and even Stones fans were not keen on "Miss You" and "Emotional Rescue" and die hards hated the band for doing those tracks. I liked them but at that point I was liking a lot of different musical styes that my cohorts weren't embracing even though they loves the Stones.

It came up in another thread, but busing opened my eyes and ears to a lot of stuff I wouldn't have heard otherwise but others I knew were more..."tribal" about it and didn't dig anything that wasn't Led Zep and shit like that. Weird, again, because all that stuff is straight up blues and r&b and Jagger pushed the edge of sexuality constantly so who knows.


Sorry....rambling

sexton said:

RJOrion said:

brownmark and dez dickerson have both said the crowd was yelling racial slurs and throwing stuff... obviously racism... [Edited 1/14/20 14:15pm]

Throwing stuff at the stage like buckets of fried chicken.

RAW chicken is what I heard. Likely left over from tailgating.

noobman said:

Also, I heard he opened that concert with "Jack U Off". Is that true? That was a bad idea.

That was certainly a bold move

https://prince.org/msg/7/426762 ,

https://prince.org/msg/7/451046 ,

https://prince.org/msg/7/456896 ,

https://prince.org/msg/7/317915 ,

https://prince.org/msg/7/266058 ,

etc.

Uh oh...


The org police is here!

Cheese it, everyone!

U didn't call anyone stupid though. U Feeling OK?

U know, ignoring threads is an option. I do it all the time. It's easy.

Just sayin

[Edited 1/14/20 14:57pm]

SoulAlive said:

noobman said:

Also, I heard he opened that concert with "Jack U Off". Is that true? That was a bad idea.

That was certainly a bold move

Jack U Off was 3rd


https://www.setlist.fm/se...079c7.html

Why U Wanna Treat Me So Bad was last

herb4 said:

^^^It was like that everywhere^^^

I looked it up and the Stones had several black opening acts over the years so just saying "he was black" is too lazy. I'm sure it didn't help matters though.

https://rickkeenemusicsce...ince-1962/

Rufus, The Meters, Gap Band, Peter Tosh, Black Uhuru, Living Color, Lenny Kravitz, Tina Turner, Etta James, Screamin Jay Hawkins...go look. Shit, the Stones whole sound is "black" and rooted in or blatantly ripped off from blues and r&b.

So I'm gonna put it down disco backlash, the falsetto, the bikini briefs (even Jagger never went there), homophobia and, if I had to guess, I'd bet that "Jack U Off" wasn't working for em much either and my have been what tipped the scales. Weird to think about but if, at that time, Prince had a setlist that could have included The Ride, Calhoun Square, Xanalee, Joy in Repetition, I Could Never the Place of Your Man, The Truth and shit like that, it might have turned out differently.

That, and wear some god damned pants lol.

By 1981, rock and roll fans were openly hostile to disco and even Stones fans were not keen on "Miss You" and "Emotional Rescue" and die hards hated the band for doing those tracks. I liked them but at that point I was liking a lot of different musical styes that my cohorts weren't embracing even though they loves the Stones.

It came up in another thread, but busing opened my eyes and ears to a lot of stuff I wouldn't have heard otherwise but others I knew were more..."tribal" about it and didn't dig anything that wasn't Led Zep and shit like that. Weird, again, because all that stuff is straight up blues and r&b and Jagger pushed the edge of sexuality constantly so who knows.


Sorry....rambling

It was racism at that point..from the audience. Mick was playing at his most effiminate but the racist crowd was ok with that because he was white. Tghe audience for the most part in the 80's never got that the Stones (Im aware of the Stones influences, openers etc trust) and other bands were parlaying rnb and blues into their rock but.....

herb4 said:

Uh oh...


The org police is here!

Cheese it, everyone!

U didn't call anyone stupid though. U Feeling OK?

U know, ignoring threads is an option. I do it all the time. It's easy.

Just sayin

[Edited 1/14/20 14:57pm]

rdhull said:

herb4 said:

^^^It was like that everywhere^^^

I looked it up and the Stones had several black opening acts over the years so just saying "he was black" is too lazy. I'm sure it didn't help matters though.

https://rickkeenemusicsce...ince-1962/

Rufus, The Meters, Gap Band, Peter Tosh, Black Uhuru, Living Color, Lenny Kravitz, Tina Turner, Etta James, Screamin Jay Hawkins...go look. Shit, the Stones whole sound is "black" and rooted in or blatantly ripped off from blues and r&b.

So I'm gonna put it down disco backlash, the falsetto, the bikini briefs (even Jagger never went there), homophobia and, if I had to guess, I'd bet that "Jack U Off" wasn't working for em much either and my have been what tipped the scales. Weird to think about but if, at that time, Prince had a setlist that could have included The Ride, Calhoun Square, Xanalee, Joy in Repetition, I Could Never the Place of Your Man, The Truth and shit like that, it might have turned out differently.

That, and wear some god damned pants lol.

By 1981, rock and roll fans were openly hostile to disco and even Stones fans were not keen on "Miss You" and "Emotional Rescue" and die hards hated the band for doing those tracks. I liked them but at that point I was liking a lot of different musical styes that my cohorts weren't embracing even though they loves the Stones.

It came up in another thread, but busing opened my eyes and ears to a lot of stuff I wouldn't have heard otherwise but others I knew were more..."tribal" about it and didn't dig anything that wasn't Led Zep and shit like that. Weird, again, because all that stuff is straight up blues and r&b and Jagger pushed the edge of sexuality constantly so who knows.


Sorry....rambling

It was racism at that point..from the audience. Mick was playing at his most effiminate but the racist crowd was ok with that because he was white. Tghe audience for the most part in the 80's never got that the Stones (Im aware of the Stones influences, openers etc trust) and other bands were parlaying rnb and blues into their rock but.....

For sure. I'm not trying to argue it wasn't a factor. At all.

I'd put my money on homophobia and disco hate for the most part.

But, of course, I wasn't there and the stones never had a huge black audience either. Christ, look at what happened at Altamont.

herb4 said:

sexton said:

Throwing stuff at the stage like buckets of fried chicken.

RAW chicken is what I heard. Likely left over from tailgating.

You are right, I'm reading Roy Bennett's quote and he said, "heaps of shoes and buckets of chicken, it looked like".

sexton said:

herb4 said:

RAW chicken is what I heard. Likely left over from tailgating.

You are right, I'm reading Roy Bennett's quote and he said, "heaps of shoes and buckets of chicken, it looked like".

First show was light stuff..cups, bottles etc. And this was brown.mark's first ever show with the Revolution. Crazy

Second show they wanted to overdo it and brought food like chicken parts.

Hearing the boos from the 1999 podcast was so so disheartening, but boy did he triumph

[Edited 1/14/20 16:36pm]

Toxic Masculinity. Racism. Being different in looks both in color and clothes.

I mean he was singing "Jack U Off" in his bikini briefs. It's not surprising the RAWK-ists didn't fuck with that.

It all worked out pretty well for him in the end though.

SoulAlive said:

The cool thing is....just a few years after this fiasco,Prince was on top of the music world.Suddenly,everyone wanted to see him in concert.

Everyone says this but I dont agree that half or the critical ones in that 1981 Stones audience gave a fuck about Purple Rain or seeing him in concert still.