Here's the link: http://www.rockymountainn...01,00.html

Mark is one of the last music critics that still is worth reading. One of his articles even ended up on the NPGMC site back when Prince would comment on stuff back in 2001 thanking Mark for "doing the work".

[story follows:]

Brown: Prince is back where he belongs - in our faces
March 20, 2004

By all accounts, Prince has decided to show everyone once again that he's arguably the best musician on the planet.

He's hit the talk shows, performed new music and has an album ready to come out, and he's announced a proper tour - rock venues, with promises to do full versions of his biggest songs rather than the truncated medleys of previous tours. Watch for a Denver date in the summer.

Prince opened the Grammys with a searing Purple Rain/Let's Go Crazy performance that reminded the world: "Oh yeah - that guy."

He's joining forces with Anschutz Entertainment Group by putting his face on dozens of movie screens across the country when his Musicology tour kicks off March 29. A live digital broadcast of the concert will hit Anschutz-owned theaters, including the UA Pavilions in Denver and the Greenwood Plaza 12 in Englewood (9 p.m., tickets available now at $15 - and a copy of the new album, Musicology, is included).

Also, he was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame this week (the ceremony airs Sunday night on VH1). And watch for the rumored expanded edition of Purple Rain to come this year as he mends fences with Warner Bros. Records.

This is a flurry of activity you wouldn't expect from His Royal Badness. Most surprising is his participation in the Rock Hall. It's the sort of thing he's steered away from, but this time he ran with it.

"When I first started out in this music industry, I was most concerned with freedom: freedom to produce, freedom to play all the instruments on my records, freedom to say anything I wanted to," he said in accepting his award. "After much negotiation, Warner Bros. Records granted me my freedom, and I thank them for that."

As one fan noted, it was great to just see a real rock star up there again. Prince's career of late has been all over the place - jazz, funk, rock, rap - but he's never stopped pushing and has created more music, released and unreleased, than any other artist you can name.

He absolutely belongs in the Hall of Fame. Yet it has become cool for critics and music fans to bag on the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. Rock doesn't belong in a museum, they say. It's just older musicians honoring other older musicians. It's an old-boys club honoring only what's safe, commercial and mainstream.

How ridiculous. Of course rock belongs in a museum - it's part of history. You can hear it and you can see it and you can touch the instruments that were used to make that history. That doesn't somehow negate the new music being made, as everyone seems to think.

Of course it's older musicians honoring other older musicians - what, you want to pop the White Stripes in there right now? This is a lifetime-achievement award, so you need a lifetime of achievement to get there.

Safe? Anyone remember the uproar over Prince's lyrics that led to creation of the Parents Music Resource Committee? That's why parental-advisory stickers exist today.

They point to this year's induction of Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner as the worst excess of the ceremony, which is sponsored by Rolling Stone. Yes, Wenner has turned RS into a joke in recent years, but you can't deny the groundbreaking influence it had in its heyday. That's like dismissing all Stevie Wonder's masterworks just because of I Just Called To Say I Love You.

There's nothing wrong with paying homage to people who came before and made a difference. It's too easy to believe all new music comes out fresh and pure when actually it's strongly influenced by what came before. Example: Anyone out there grooving to the new song Are You Gonna Be My Girl, by Aussie rockers Jet, please go give a quick listen to Iggy Pop's 1977 song Lust for Life.

On the Rock Hall broadcast Sunday night, you'll see OutKast and Alicia Keys paying tribute to Prince, because they know what they owe him.

Mark Brown is the popular music critic. Brownm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2674

Nice one!

kewl

Excellent points.

EverlastingNow said:

Jeez, I hope Prince realizes that people are really hyping up the FULL VERSION thing. I'm so eager to see what the setlist is gonna be like, and if there will be any changes as the tour progresses. Last time around, Europe got all the rare gems: The Ladder, Empty Room, Sign O The Times (now added full-time to the repertoir, curiously sand guitar?)....maybe this time we can get an America or a Girls and Boys or a MOUNTAINS...please?

YEAH RECOGNIZE ROYALTY WHEN U HEAR IT

PRINCE
4EVA TIL' THE DAWN
KIDEROTICA

Mark needs an editor. He was practically going, "... and another thing! Blah blah..."

SquarePeg said:

YEH! I SUPPOSE IF U SAY MORE THAN 1 WORD YOU'D BE AN EASY TARGET FOR CRITICISM. KEEP IT BRIEF.

Excellent article!
Thanks Brown Mark / Mark Brown.

ThreadBare said:

Look who's talking

http://www.prince.org/msg...sg_1486271

Wow... I can't believe I live in the same city that printed that article.

Prince is bad cuzzin.' At the Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame, he proved to the world, what I have been saying about him for decades... "He is the greatest player, to ever hold a guitar!"

YEAH! Great article!
[This message was edited Mon Mar 22 4:50:52 2004 by billyjackbitch]

Nice, thank you, EverlastingNow

Summer date for Prince... YEA!

Do you hear that Scar?

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

I would have to disagree with you there.
Prince is an AWESOME guitar player, but I wouldn't go so far as to say the best. My husband plays guitar and has turned me on to other players. . like:
Joe Satrianni, Eric Johnson, Tony McAlpine, Stever Via, Al diMeola (mostly accoustic)
My personal fav is Joe. . he makes that guitar SING!!

But please don't get me wrong. . I LOVE it when Prince shreds on guitar. . He was by FAR the best guitar player on stage that night!!

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

Paisleyprk said:

Apparently, I am the only Prince fan that is into him, mainly for his guitar chops. I thought the outsiders were hard on his playing, but I haven't heard a single Prince appreciator back me up on this.

I've heard Joe, Steve... they all put me to sleep. The only person in the world who ever made me appreciate the guitar, was Prince. But that is only my opinion so we'll just leave it at that.