In advance of Monday's show, this was in Friday's Tampa's Tribune Friday Extra. Pretty much a rehash of previous articles, borrows heavily from EW.

http://ae.tbo.com/index.c...sicID=6506

Prince
By Curtis Ross of The Tampa Tribune
Published: April 23, 2004

This may not be the last time, actually.
Although press releases touted Prince's current tour as the last time His Purple Majesty would perform his hits live, don't assume it's the last we'll hear of ""Little Red Corvette'' and ""1999.''

""Well, it is called the 2004ever tour. And time is forever,'' Prince told Entertainment Weekly. So this is ""probably not'' the actual retirement of the hits that made him a superstar, he told the magazine.

Those who attended Prince's last Bay area appearance, April 6, 2002, will recognize a pattern.

""This is not 1984,'' he told the sold- out crowd of 2,270 at the Lakeland Center's Youkey Theatre. ""If you came to get your "Purple Rain' on, you're in the wrong place.''

Later in the show, of course, he played ""Purple Rain.''

Prince watchers know to expect the unexpected. But after years of increasingly obscure music … the smooth jazz and apocalyptic visions of 2001's ""The Rainbow Children'' and the endless instrumental noodling of 2003's ""N.E.W.S.'' being the latest … many had abandoned any expectations for Prince at all.

Recent events, though, have resurrected those expectations.

First, Prince opened February's Grammy Awards with a smoldering performance, basically providing the only real excitement (until Outkast's portion at the end of the evening, and Andre 3000 of Outkast is nothing if not a Prince protegÂ).

He repeated the feat when he was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, tearing off psychedelic-tinged guitar licks during the ceremony's closing jam.

And Tuesday, he released ""Musicology,'' which critics are calling his best album since his mid-'80s heyday.

""It sounds as if he's rediscovered his muse,'' wrote Stephen Thomas Erlewine on the All Music Guide Web site (www.allmusic.com).

""In short, it's the comeback that it was meant to be,'' Erlewine wrote.

""Comeback? I never went anywhere!'' Prince exclaimed in the Entertainment Weekly interview. ""I never stopped playing and recording. Never had a problem filling arenas.''

Whatever he wants to call it, many listeners will be thrilled to hear new Prince music that sounds like, well, Prince music.

But anyone longing for the naughty thrills of ""Darling Nikki'' and ""Head'' will have to get their Parental Guidance kicks elsewhere. Now a Jehovah's Witness, Prince has dropped the racier songs from his act. And he wishes other artists would follow suit.

""Look at the situation with the FCC after Janet,'' he says, referring to Jackson's breast-bearing baring stunt. ""We've gone too far now. We've pushed the envelope off the table and forgotten there was a table. You can't push the envelope any further than I pushed it. So stop! What's the point?''

Reporter Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568.

WHEN: Monday, 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: St. Pete Times Forum, 401 Channelside Drive, Tampa

TICKETS: $49.50 and $76.75; box office, (813) 301-2500; Ticketmaster, (813) 287-8844

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[This message was edited Fri Apr 23 5:18:35 2004 by TampaPurple]