Last update: March 12, 2004 at 6:08 PM
Claim to fame: Prince is a peerless talent -- and a world-class paradox
Jon Bream, Star Tribune

March 14, 2004 JONPRI




Prince is the most complete rock star ever.

That might sound like a preposterous overstatement that begs for some qualifier. But none is necessary. He is singular in stature.

That's why the Twin Cities' most famous musicmaker will be inducted Monday into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

Who else in pop history could sing, write, arrange and produce music in a variety of styles; play a wide range of instruments with remarkable skill; shine onstage and on screen -- and create an alluring mystique while being a visionary musically, visually and commercially?

Many Minnesotans don't see Prince that way, however. To them, he's an eccentric -- the guy who changed his name to a symbol, who feuded with the record label that had just signed him to a record $100 million contract. He's the high-heeled dandy who always calls attention to himself but demands privacy with his phalanx of bodyguards.

Prince, 45, is a paradox, which is partly why he's so enticing. He has made a career out of shocking us while still keeping us riveted.

Back in 1980 when he was a rising R&B star, he wore bikini underwear and a trenchcoat while singing deliciously catchy rock songs about incest and oral sex. This year, he donned a conservative (for him) purple suit to open the Grammy Awards with a rousing medley from "Purple Rain," upstaging his 22-year-old duet partner, Beyoncé.

In that brief moment with pop's It Girl, Prince reminded us that he's the most dazzling performer of his generation, more so than Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson or Madonna.

"I'm always floored every time I've seen him live," says Hall of Famer David Bowie, also a revolutionary on stage. "There's very few people to touch him."

Ask anyone from John Mellencamp (who didn't get elected to the Hall of Fame this year) to OutKast (who will join Alicia Keys in giving induction speeches for Prince on Monday), and they will tell you that Prince is arguably the most widely respected musician of the past 25 years.

"To see without all the trappings of the imaging and see him as a pure musician, it's my greatest thrill ever," said Jimmy Jam, a Prince protégé who went on to work with such Hall of Famers as Michael Jackson, Sting and Aretha Franklin.

'Touched by a higher power'

Prince's gifts are once in a generation.

"He's a rare individual touched by a higher power," says Ron McCurdy, a trumpeter and chairman of jazz studies at the University of Southern California who spent the 1990s at the University of Minnesota. "I would put him up there with Duke Ellington and Miles Davis.

"I always measure greatness by staying power. The Stevie Wonders, the Billy Joels, who are able to write songs that stick, that people remember, that touch people's soul. And certainly Prince will be one of them."

It's not just his enduring songs but his influence as well. His imprint has been heard on recordings by others for the past three decades -- as recently as OutKast's Grammy-winning album of the year, "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below," which sounded like the best Prince album in nearly a decade.

Numbers bolster his credentials for the Hall of Fame. (An artist becomes eligible 25 years after the release of his or her first album.) Prince had chart-topping songs in the 1970s, '80s and '90s. He scored 14 top-10 pop singles (including four at No. 1) in the '80s and five more in the '90s (including another No. 1). His U.S. album sales have topped 36 million; "Purple Rain" alone has sold more than 13 million.

The numbers speak more loudly than Prince does. While he can be charming and even outgoing, the image that jumps more readily to mind is of his first TV appearance in 1980 on "American Bandstand." When Dick Clark asked how many instruments he played, Prince wordlessly held up four fingers.

That indelible oddness makes him the Andy Kaufman of rock, says Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas: "Sometimes he'll do things, and he'll be like, 'I don't care if you get it. I dig it.' "

Taken for granted?

The mad genius is one of us. Prince Roger Nelson was born in Minneapolis, grew up on the South Side and the North Side, and moved to Chanhassen when he became rich and famous. We see him at Timberwolves games, read about him in gossip columns and generally take him for granted.

But to non-Minnesotans, he is a franchise like the Vikings, Garrison Keillor or the Mall of America. He is our most famous export, known from Tokyo to Tivoli Gardens.

Prince has certain similarities to the state's other idiosyncratic Hall of Famer, Bob Dylan. Both have maintained a presence in Minnesota, with houses on the western fringe of the Twin Cities. Both have large egos but crave their privacy.

Both starred in self-styled autobiographical movies, but while Dylan's "Renaldo & Clara" was a self-indulgent flop, Prince's "Purple Rain" was an unexpected sensation. And he made one of the most compelling concert movies ever, 1987's "Sign o' the Times."

Where Dylan forged the role of the modern singer/song writer, Prince set standards for musicianship, stagecraft and business innovation. He created spectacular arena tours and broke all modern records for prolificacy, cranking out albums faster than Warner Bros. could (or would) release them, all the while spinning off side projects and helping neglected heroes get a new start.

As his commercial fortunes waned, Prince articulated ideas that would revolutionize the record business, including selling CDs through such alternatives as private music clubs, the Internet and one-shot deals with major labels.

He's actively shopping his next album, "Musicology," to major labels, and his drawing power in concert remains undiminished as he plans an arena tour, starting this month, to play his hits for what he says is the last time.

To be sure, his track record is checkered. The same could be said of Dylan or any other musical giant. Whatever his hits and misses in the studio -- or with his wardrobe -- Prince's next move demands that serious followers of popular music pay attention. Because he will never rest on his Hall of Fame laurels.

Once I travelled all around Europe to watch Prince perform when he was on tour.

I didn't even bother to see him on the ONA tour even though the concert was in walking distance from where I live.

So what would it take to get me excited enough to make me actually go see him live again, not just locally, but all over friggin' Europe?

I've been thinking about that and my conclusion is that nothing short of a reunion of The Revolution (Wendy, Lisa, Dr. Fink, Brownmark & Bobby) could get me excited enough at this point.








































I guess I'll never see him live again.

scififilmnerd said:

You'll never know if you never go.

Well... Come to think of it... Brownmark really isn't that important. He could bring Andre instead.

Mazerati said:

revolutionary

legendary

prince

scififilmnerd said:

Whistler said:

Actually, no. I heard my friend's bootleg recording of that particular show. I didn't miss anything.