TD3 said:

Black press/media embraced him though, with no questions asked. I never understood that.

Black press usually embrace anyone black-except Tiger Woods. So P was on Soul Train, doing I wanna be your lover?
No matter what, I love P unconditionally. Always have, always will.

I could see it now, Tiger Woods doing an essence magazine cover spread, and the subject is a confession about his sexual addiction and his attempt to cure it.

I'm not sure about that comment about Prince not embracing Black media, he really didn't have a choice but to work with Black press. It was really the opposite, the white media didn't embrace him or any Black artist back in the day unless they did disco or pop.

I remember Right On! and Soul Teen was really heavy on Prince calling him a musical prodigy, he was referred as "The Next Stevie Wonder".

I also don't remember EWF being on Soul Train either, or am I wrong?

Harlepolis said:

at the beginning of his career he was in the black and white media, doing intervews, whatever. when he was hot, he wasn't really doing any media. when he needed exposure again, he was back to working with the media again. black and white.

WTF is soul teen? Any pics of that mag?

scriptgirl said:

Soul Teen later became Black Beat.

errant said:

He did 2 of the biggest from each outlet; MTV & RollingStones.

I don't remember him giving ANY interviews to Ebony or BET

scriptgirl said:

He did "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" with Mayte. He lipped too lol

thatruth said:

I think they were in later years, I have to look at the schedule lol

Smittyrock70 said:

I think author Per Nilsen referenced that date in one of his books about Prince, but I remember reading in a thread here (or at the old site Housequake), that he actually did not appear on the show that year. I've looked everywhere for that episode for a long time, but I've never found any footage of Prince on Soul Train except for his performances in 1994.

Harlepolis said:

There ya'll go talkin' about my cousin

Harlepolis said:

guards Harlepolis from the rocks and shanks

bboy87 said:

Harlepolis ain't no easy customer either

Harlepolis said:

Your statement above is the truth though. I've said that in threads here before too. People usually either agree, or don't respond, LOL.

scriptgirl said:

Then why AND how did The Isley Brothers (especially Ernie Isley's & Chris Jasper's outfits) & Cameo (especially Larry Blackmon's codpiece) got on Soul Train?!?

Harlepolis said:

People should know BY NOW not to FUCK with you but somehow somebody always does. smh

TonyVanDam said:

Don didn't like Prince or P-Funk that well it seems.

vainandy said:

The Time, Vanity 6, & Shelia E made it on Soul Train. If you believe in symbolism, they represented Prince's black side without him being on the show at all.

Just saying.

vainandy said:

I think it's a shame that he waited so long.By the time he finally made an appearance on Soul Train,the show was on its last legs.Imagine if he had performed in 1981,when 'Controversy' was released.That would have him amazing!

And you're correct,he was on other shows like Midnight Special,Solid Gold and American Bandstand.I can't see why he neglected Soul Train

SoulAlive said:

If that Don quote is true, then maybe it was the other way around.

Prince never passed up the promotion back then, performing wise, so I wouldn't think he neglected it but maybe he did when he started to get mainstreat.

Harlepolis said:

yeah,you're probably right.But I remember when Sheila E. appeared on Soul Train in 1985 and during the interview,Don mentioned something about Prince making an appearance.I think Sheila implied that he was "too shy" to do interviews and Don was like "Uh-uh...tell him that if he appears on this show,he's GOTTA do an interview"

thatruth said:

Surprisingly,they never did but on September 16,1978,Soul Train did a special show devoted to EW&F that showed footage of them in concert.

Harlepolis said:

I remember Steve Ivory (the former editor of Black Beat magazine) complaining about this.I'll never forget something that he once wrote:

They (Prince and his organization) have this crazy idea that the black press doesn't "get" Prince.Fact is,maybe we "get it" too much.For example,no black journalist worth his word processor is buying that BS about Prince being racially mixed.We know that blacks come in all shades.


I was shocked at his brutal honesty,lol.

Ironically,he made these comments in a Prince cover story,when Prince invited him to Paisley Park during the D&P era.He was skeptical about going,because of Prince's earlier reluctance to do interviews in black publications.

So what did Steve write about P when he visited Paisley Park. Is Steve still alive?

scriptgirl said:

Things got off to a rocky start Prince was aware of some of the stuff that Steve had written about him and he had an attitude.Steve admitted to Prince that,one of his major criticisms is that Prince has strayed too far from the '1999' album.Prince was pissed.He told Steve....

If you wanna hear '1999',then listen to the '1999' album.That album amounts to me being in the third grade,musically.That's why I stay here in Minneapolis and block out all you critics

OUCH!

There were a few more embarassing moments like this,but at the end of the interview,Steve said that he finally understands Prince,and actually likes him.

Is that interview online anywhere?

SoulAlive said:

Wow!

Was that you BlaqueKnight?

I agree with that statement, wholeheartedly. One thing I noticed about the DMSR book was that it touched on how black audience supposedly viewed Prince BUT at the same time, how Prince(and members of his band) looked down on R&B R&B was the root of your craft, how do you downplay it?

This whole "Black people don't get Prince" argument was condescending & insulting. Its just another fancy way to say that black audience are idiotic and strongly one dimensional/limited when it comes to their taste.

But turned out, those are the same audience who embraced him when his episode with Warner Bros didn't turn out well. Even though I agree with the argument about "record labels being high collar plantations", I've always thought that he was doing this charade for the wrong reasons, I bet he wasn't "racially mixed" when he started to write Slave on his cheek seeing that it wouldn't have served his convenience.

BTW, do you know where I could read the interview online?

TonyVanDam said:

The difference is they weren't naked.

WaterInYourBath said:

No, I'm telling U he actually appeared. As a little boy (I was nine at the time - great now I'm showing my age), me, my second oldest brother (a diehard P fan who actually got me in2 his music) and my oldest brother (who liked P but was more in2 Cameo, Gap Band, and Zapp at the time) watched that episode. This was the one where P and Andre Cymone faced each other jumped and bumped heads in sort of a "hip" fashion during their performance of "WYWTMSB." At least it appeared that way 2 my second oldest brother and me. But 2 my oldest bro and several others it looked like they "kissed" 1 another. It was funny because EVERYONE was talking about that at school days later! I'm shocked that all the old skoolers don't remember that.