http://www.herald-review....life01.txt

By RICK SHEFCHIK - Knight Ridder Writer
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Most artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame feel happy to be remembered so many years after their last burst of musical vitality. But Prince's induction may be just the opposite.

Those who've followed the career of Minnesota's most flamboyant rock star see the induction not as a culmination but as a new beginning.

The performer brings his "Musicology" show to Champaign's Assembly Hall Saturday night.

"I feel like the stars might align right now for a Second Coming of Prince," says Kevin Cole, who was a disc jockey at the Minneapolis rock club First Avenue at the time of the First Coming of Prince.

Cole, now senior music editor at Amazon.com, recalls how introverted Prince was before the enormous success of "Purple Rain" in 1984. Prince would ask Cole and disc jockey Roy Freedom to play his new records without identifying the artist, hoping to gauge the song's quality by the reaction of the dancing crowd.

"My experiences with him at First Avenue prior to him busting out big-time is he was shy and quiet, but he wasn't aloof," Cole recalls. "He just expressed himself through his music."

But now Cole sees a new, more relaxed and confident Prince. He cites Prince's electrifying opening to the recent Grammy Awards. Wearing a purple suit and playing one of his stylish white guitars, Prince performed a couple of his old hits - "Purple Rain" and "Baby I'm a Star" - with current pop diva Beyonce at the February awards show. A more recent performance and interview on "Ellen," the syndicated talk show hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, was even more impressive, Cole says.

"The Grammys was stunning, but 'Ellen' is a stripped-down show, not a huge production like the Grammys," Cole says. "He came out and just blew everybody away. I don't know if I've seen or heard anything that sounded as good as that on TV in ages.

"He seemed so gracious, generous and warm. They had a really funny interchange. It was cool to see Prince. He's so reclusive, you don't get to see inside him that often. I think he's setting the table for us."

While Prince's admirers are unanimous in their belief that he still has tremendous wellsprings of talent, opinions are divided over whether - or how - Prince can reach the commercial heights he once scaled.

Alan Leeds, who managed Prince for 10 years during the peak of his fame, found the Grammy performance to be "effective" but unsatisfying.

Prince, Leeds says, has a choice to make: He can tour arenas playing his old hits and new dance material, or settle for a smaller core audience but continue to create new music with no regard for commercial trends.

"Musically, because he's so easily bored with the old songs, he tends to labor finding new ways to do them," Leeds says. "That's admirable, but what I've found is in recent years some of the performances have become forced and contrived.

"That's maybe what affected me about the Grammy performance. He did two classic songs, but they weren't really moving. The band he has is high caliber, great - but at the end of the day, was it moving? I don't think so. It was almost a Vegas-y level."

Some see "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below Album" as a sign of Prince's current potential. The recent breakout hit album by Atlanta hip-hop group OutKast proves that the public retains a powerful craving for Prince's brand of rock crossed with funk and soul, they say.

"When you listen to OutKast, it's like a tribute to Prince," Cole says. "Not to take away from the album itself - it's so creative, fun and genre-bending - but that's exactly what Prince is about. It's hard to listen to it and not think about Prince."

The music world probably identifies Prince more with the pop-funk style of OutKast than the many ballads he's written, but Leeds believes Prince's greatest area of opportunity is with ballads.

"Is he capable on any given day of writing a hit song?" Leeds asks rhetorically. "Absolutely - especially boutique songs or ballads. I think they're a lot more timeless than the funk jams. ... If he were to concentrate on that, he could write a hit today. That's how gifted he is."

Hate to be picky, but it wasn't a white guitar he used at the Grammies - he used a Purple symbol guitar, followed by his usual brown guitar.

I can kind of agree with Alan Leeds saying that the current reworkings of his old hits lack emotion - when they originally came out, a lot of Prince's hits were very 'in your face' and agressive, but they've lost that - he's just too happy at the moment! He used to perform 'Let's Go Crazy' like he was holding a machine gun to the audience - now he smiles and inserts a sax solo to pad it out.

Well, it's a different way to go I suppose, can't perform them the same way all the time.

I think there's a big gap in the pop market at the moment - for emotional, sad songs. All the songs in the charts are so happy! Yet the sad 'Mad World' got to number one at Christmas. Can't think of another emotional heart-wrending song that's been in the charts for ages.

I think there's a big gap in the pop market at the moment - for emotional, sad songs. All the songs in the charts are so happy! Yet the sad 'Mad World' got to number one at Christmas. Can't think of another emotional heart-wrending song that's been in the charts for ages.[/quote]

Hey, Metalorange!
I feel ya on that!

I've always felt that Prince's music has been tooooo happy since 'Emancipation', as a whole.

I kinda miss the nastiness from around '94-'95
He wrote some bad-ass songs in that time frame.

"What's My Name?" is a good example.

Hell, "Face Down" was even great, the Live NYC version, anyways!

Alan Leeds knows Prince very well and he knows what he's talking about....he should be managing Prince again...he'd assure his success I believe.

mrdespues said:

I think we allll have a little "Alan", donchathink?

Hell, I'd do it for free!!!

You all make good points. But I think with Prince, what we're hearing right now with positive vibe in his music is a reflection of where he's at right now in his life. Prince isn't writing "angry and bitter" songs because well... he's no longer angry and bitter. Asking Prince to do otherwise at the moment would be disengenious of him if he were to comply.

I think that one of the things we all have to remember is that Prince lives through his music. So the vibe that we feel coming from his music is a reflection of where he is in his life at any given moment. So when you stop and think about it, to want Prince to write songs with the same anger and bitterness that he has written in the past is like wishing him ill or to be in a situation where he is spirialing out of control.

And on a personal level, I would hope that none of us really want such a thing to happen to Prince or anyone for that matter.

I remember thinking the same thing. Everyone was so excited about the Grammy performance and I thought it was great seeing him in such a high profile spot, but it was just so vanilla. I didn't anything spectacular about the performance. It was standard stuff.

Alan Leeds makes the perfect point about the Grammy per4mance being "Vegas Style." Although the Musicology tour has some HUGE WONDERFUL moments, Prince is still watering down his lyrics...and some1 a few posts back hit the nail on the head about Let's Go Crazy with the sax parts. He even ignores that the song has words..and starts going "Go Crazy..GO GO GO GO GO GO..." At least his guitar work was satisfying..Let's Go Crazy was 1 of the few low points on the SOTT tour with the horns. It's just NOT a horns song. Miles Davis and Charlie Parker were great, but would you want them playing with a metal band? NO! Just like I would cringe if Morris Day could go back in time and Sing on "Bitches Brew."

Prince is so close to doing a great concert right now. He's got a PR machine working 4 him, and he's playing some songs like "Shhh" that r performed just legendary. "The Question of U" coupled with "The One." was just great...but "Forever In My Life" was perfect until halfway through, he goes on his "Players" poem. Now that was funny...but NOT AT THE EXPENSE of singing the FULL lyrics 2 "Forever In My Life." Please. Prince U R more talented than The Beatles, The Stones, and U2 Times 10 THOUSAND...but your concerts R capable of MUCH MUCH more. Even though the set list on One Nite Alone wasn't as friendly as Musicology...the ONA tour is a little better than this one. The piano medley was the only big negative, cuz..u got 2 sing the words 2 your songs...in your own words, u got 2 b WILLING 2 DO THE WORK..

Well, I am much critical of Prince, but he's still the best. It's kind of like watching a football team with the best offense that wins the Super Bowl 10-7, when they won all their regular season games 48-7. U No the talent's there..but something just ain't workin' out.

Where is Alan Leeds wrong? He's wrong about Prince either choosing mass appeal or artistic integrity. Prince can have both. It's a lot of hard work, but he can do it...but WILL he do it? The Sign O The Times album is a great example...the album had everything...oh well..enough.

metalorange said:

i feel the same way. don't get me wrong it's great to see the world appreciate prince again

kevin cole

Wow! This is some article! I am always happy to be on this ride, for the ups and the downs. This article voices much of how I've seen the ride lately.

stillwaiting said:

Imagine Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' - with a horn section backing the band! That would have sounded horrible. Rock songs cease to be rock songs when you have a horn section. Now with orchestra backing, that's something different...

stillwaiting said:

Well i've read at least 12 to 15 reviews of prince's tv and tour performances from the national media critics and some international and not 2 really disagree with Alan Leeds or others on this thread but the reveiws have been sensational with most writing that prince has returned back 2 his rightful place sitting at the throne 4 all 2 see. I just think that we have seen prince so many times that its like a Micheal Jordan fan seeing him score 40points for the 50th time. He's selling out areanas ,u got newspeople on CNN marveling at his performances,he got ROLLINGSTONE mag. giving the tour and cd mad props! U're right about SOTT,but prince only put out 1 video(UGTL)fromthe album. All he has 2 do with MUSICOLOGY is put out more videos and 2 keep touring, something that he did'nt do with SOTT. He's real hot right know and it's all about the music and not about who he's dating and does he worship the devil,or is he straight or gay,it's all about his talent so this will be a big year 4 prince!

metalorange said:

Thats your opinion. I have'nt heard any negativity in the reviews of the shows in the newspapers and Magz about the horns. As a matter of fact they mostly say that he delivers his hits in anew fresh and funky way. Long live the Prince!

metalorange said:

Someone should inform The Who and Plant/Page about that.


`
[This message was edited Sun Apr 11 11:38:48 2004 by Supernova]

He has done both... and Alan knows this. Not too long ago, he was raving about the One Nite Alone show he saw. This time around, it's for the masses.

That should get the what guitar(s) he wuz playin' @ the Grammy's settled.

ELBOOGY said:

I'm not really criticizing the tour - or having a horn section - for most of Prince's song they're fantastic and I really love them. But for a couple of his harder 'rock' songs I think would have more emotional impact without the horns - horns tend to soften them. I thought Candy 'dueting' with Prince on Nothing Compares 2 U on the Ellens show was outstanding for example.

mrdespues said:

-----
He never mangaged him. He was his road manager and later the V.P. at Paisley Park.

NuPwrSoul said:

-----
We know that Alan knows that Prince did ONA. I have no idea why he made some of the comments he did in this interview.

I'm sorry up until Leeds opened his mouth, the article was like a casual acquentist talking about Prince feeling. Then Leeds speaks in it's like honey laced with cyinaid.

I don't think Allan was ever technically Prince's manager. He certainly spent many years managing aspects of the business, but not managing Prince.

mrdespues said:

Yes, we see what a great job he did with D'Angelo

Alan was Prince's Tour Manager way back. I Totally DISAGREE with him. The Grammies were AMAZING! I Think Prince is Creating New HITS with MUSICOLOGY. I Think he is doing the RIGHT THING with the STADIUMS and He is SElling them. I Think and will Always as a Longtime Fan that Prince is a HUMUNGOUS Talent Of GIGANTIC PROPORTIONS...I WISH I WAS His Manager . I tell you that All The Naysayers should be Eating CROW with HOT Sauce to Burn More. Prince is PROVING that HE's an ENORMOUS FORCE to Be RECKONED with. I TOTALLY BELIEVE in HIS POWER to Do It ONCE more to RESERECT so to SPEAK....

Zelaira said:

(in best Homer Simpson voice) Mmmmmm, crow! With hot sauce! Awwwwwllllggg!!!

TRC was powerfull, MUSICOLOGY is not
ONA was absolutely amazing, MUSICOLOGY is not

That's the difference, and I totally agree with ALAN LEEDS, PRINCE is far now from
his best. LET'S GO CRAZY and all the PURPLE RAIN stuff have been played and heard 100000 times, XENOPHOBIA was and I even should say is still incredible.

When you have a band like he has now with Renato, Ronda, Candy, and sometimes
Maceo, you should keep on the same way.

MUSICOLOGY has been done for radio listener.

When PRINCE wants to be high in the charts, he plays MUSICOLOGY

When PRINCE doesn't care, he plays THE RAINBOW CHILDREN

Hope that in Europe he'll change his setlist.

SAY NO TO THE commercial musik without interest.

See u

esther319 said:

ELBOOGY said:

Sorry about the double post, but esther the commercial music will give him more exposure 2 draw newer fans in 2 the musicclub so that he can expose them 2 the music that u like and other cd's that were being blackballed during the symbol/namechange period like crystal ball,nps,trc, 1 nite alone, and even Rave. This way people will judge the music 4 themselves while he's HOT instead of relying on some critics review. More exposure will mean more appreciation 4 his talent and newer music. A lot of my friends think prince's last album was the symbol. Don't worry prince will never go totally commercial, he's got alot left so enjoy the ride baby!!!!