Don´t you think it´s kind of funny that a song with a title like that isn´t really a rock and roll song at all (it sounds just like regular funk with a guitar riff to me). You´d think P would want to prove that rock and roll really is alive and living in Minnie, but this song almost proves the opposite. When I first listened to it I almost felt as cheated as I did when I heard Chaos And Disorder after having been promised "the return of Prince´s electric guitar playing" (or something to that effect) on the man´s official website.

On the other hand, I do kind of like it as the upbeat silly funk song it is. What do you think of it?

"Regular funk"? Do you have any idea what you're talkin' about?

EvilSkittle said:

Call it whatever you want then. But you can´t mean it sounds like rock and roll, can you?

the video for it is pure cheez.

IT IS ALIVE. WAIT 'TILL HAR MAR SUPERSTAR GETS BACK FROM IBIZA AND MANUMISSION.


ALL THOSE LIVE SEX SHOW WILL NO DOUBT INFLUENCE HIS NEXT ALBUM.

GO HAR MAR!

gnahhh!!!

yes it ain't rock per se, but it's the idea that as opposed to Lenny's proclamation that rock is dead, Prince is rocking (to whatever groove) and is tearing shit up in MPLS. and yes, the song is fonkay but shit, it rocks becuz of it.
i actually think it is one of Prince best songs ever. it's the same as a James Brown song: Sex Machine, Doin' To Death, I Feel Good!...all those songs ROCK!

keep listening. you will eventually hear what rock's and what don't rock.

TRUST ME. CHECK OUT HAR MAR!

pm1 said:

i did and he sucks. altho, he's very funny and those babes of his...ooh la la.

HE IS FUNNY . I LIKE HIM . DOING ALT MORE THAN PRINCE IS..

pm1 said:

Prince is nearly 50 and he practically invented ALT! let him chill for a minute will ya!

One of my least favorite Prince songs.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I SAID ALT.

pm1 said:

are you high? type in lower case...no one likes a shouty person.

milty said:

I was amazed when we were in England visiting to see what a big following Har Mar has over there and all of the critical praise he got. He's really just a local oddity here in MPLS that doesn't get much attention at all. Too strange...

endorphin74 said:

let me tell you, the whole Beevis and Butthead thing is so big in England it is sick. i don't mean actually Beevis and Butthead the characters; i'm talking about the mentality. Har Mar is so Beevis and Butthead mentality. plus in England they have a thing for oddities, not like in America where music is loved more for a historical aspect.

endorphin74 said:

Well, he can sell out the First Ave. mainroom.

theSpark said:

that's true...but compared to the critical praise we saw heaped on him In England (and his performance at Glastonbury) he's basically ignored here...NOT that the press is the way to judge a performer, I was just commenting

Moonbeam said:

I agree.I never liked this song and I was really disappointed when I heard it.I bought the "Gold" CD-single expecting to hear a killer B-side,but this song is just a throwaway jam.

Don't know about throwaway, David!! Sure, it's a tongue-in-cheek retort to Lenny, but there are many musical ideas within the tune (and Vibrator - they ain't FUNK!! lol), all based around a rock-skit or blues twist. Its incredible really, (well, from the part where the guitar-led coda starts anyway), as it goes from a trad-blues interlude, to choppy stop-start staccato rock and, by the very end, ends up sounding like Yes in a delightful, futuristic prog-rock denoument!

Play it back to back with Lenny's and the difference in quality and content is remarkable.

Yes, I like it!

Mindflux said:

co-sign.

Excuse me, but what exactly is Rock and Roll??? The term Rock and Roll has come to mean many many different things over the decades.

Go back to the late 50's and early 60's and tell me what Rock and Roll was. Then go to the late 60's and early 70's and tell me what Rock and Roll became. It was really only the necessity to seperate Black artists from White artists that another genre of music was created.

If Rock and Roll is truly alive, then it can be whatever Prince wants it to be.

abucah said:

co-sign.

abucah said:

Really, so Prince gets to decide what rock and roll is? He must have been given some very special priviliges recently that I haven´t heard about...

You know, I agree that the meaning of many words and terms change over the years, but if we´re going to play the old it-can-mean-whatever-we-weant-it-to-mean-game then we might as well go ahead and call Prince a country and western artist with a touch of ambient techno. It doesn´t get us anywhere, and frankly it´s a game that belongs in kindergarten.

Oh and by the way, to make this a racial issue was bloody ludicrous. I bet you people would turn a PC versus Mac debate into a racial issue if you got the chance.

Unbelievable...

Originally,wasn't the term "rock and roll" a slang word for sex?

Vibrator said:

What the hell are you talking about? Special privlages??? Just for calling a song Rock and Roll? So who made YOU judge and jury over what IS or IS NOT rock and roll???

As far as the racial issue is concerned, you need to do some homework on history of music in the U.S... you'll be amazed. Do your homework and then we can talk.

abucah said:

Nobody. Just like nobody made you or Prince judge and jury either. The term "rock and roll" does have a meaning all on it´s own that has evolved during the past half century or so. Sure, people can have different interpretations of it, but the core meaning remains. To start saying that words only mean what we want them to mean is just silly because then the concept of language as a way of communication is lost. I think you know this even though you pretend not to.



Oh lovely, more kindergarten games.

Vibrator said:

Ok oh great one. Tell us what "Rock and Roll" means. Since your definition is obviously the only one that will satisfy you.

The point is that Prince is an artist, and as artist he is free to make artistic statements which the song "Rock and Roll is alive" does. Just because YOU don't agree with that statement doesn't make YOU right.

But I mean this sincerely, you really should do your homework before speaking. Better to be thought a fool...

ok just chill everybody. it's only a song.

The problem with defining "Rock and Roll" is that it is much more than just musical style - its an attitude, an image, a philosophy (ok, maybe that's reaching!) but its not just music!

For example, one might say that the Rolling Stones epitomise rock and roll, but you would not say the same about, let's say, James Taylor!

In Kravitz's tune, he is not saying that a certain style of music is no longer played, he is bemoaning the disappearance of the rock'n'roll attitude - you know, its been replaced my marketed, "angelic" boy bands and teenage girls. All Prince was doing was saying "You seem to have forgotten that I'm around, mate!". And he did so by blending a plethora of rock styles in to 5 minutes of wonderment! (note also how the attitude aspect really comes to the fore in Prince's kicking of "The King" - considered herecy amongst reticent music afficionados(sp?!)!

milty said:

I agree. I didn´t exactly expect this kind of controversy when I posted this topic and right now I feel sick of it. So if anybody else wants to continue to debate word definitions then fine, but I don´t feel like it.