Thursday, April 21, 2016

In praise of his Funky Purpleness

I was going to post about more right-wing stupidity, but that went out the window after I got the awful news around Noon. Where arguably the greatest musical and cultural artist from the Upper Midwest (yes, including Dylan) has now left this earth. It doesn't seem right- it doesn't seem comprehensible to me that Prince could ever leave this planet in this life form.

The first clip I want to show is from Prince's unbelievable performance in the 2007 Super Bowl in the middle of a rainstorm. I happened to be in Indianapolis with friends to watch the Colts win their first (and to date only) Super Bowl that night, and while being around so many of my friends from my great years in Indy and the celebration itself was memorable, I still remember how the whole BW-3 stopped and went silent when Prince took the stage, and absolute KILLED IT in a downpour. And how us Gen Xers exploded in applause as this performance ended.



I still rate U2's post-9/11 performance as the best Super Bowl halftime ever, but you could certainly talk me out of it with this one. So incredible.

And the other clip I want to show may not be one of the Purple One's classics, but it's a great memory for me. This one hit as I was graduating high school and heading into college, and was a standard of any Witte 6B dorm party that we were at. It also became unofficial intro bumper music of mine in my few random times as a radio talk show host. (language may be NSFW, but who the fuck cares?)



In the beginning God made the sea
But on the seventh day he made me
He was tryin' to rest y'all when He heard the sound
Sound like a guitar cold gettin' down
I tried to bust a high note, but I bust a string
My God was worried
'Til he heard me sing...

The world is worse off today, and not by a little.

2 comments:

  1. Dylan is great but he never returned after leaving UM. Prince stayed in town and still remained a superstar.

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    1. That's kind of my thought. Dylan went to NYC and upstate NY, and generally never came back.

      Prince stayed in the Cities, and his presence looms so strongly over that area culturally. I truly think some of the Twin Cities' image as a progressive, open-minded and interesting place goes directly back to the Purple One.

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