Absolutely astounding how much Alicia Keys has matured as a songwriter on her latest album, "As I Am". Of course this is the one that was custom0made for me -- it's got a great lift of the piano part from the outro to "Purple Rain", along with the classic Purple Rain chord transition, and it's produced by Timbaland. And the video's got Common as Alicia's boyfriend. What's not to love?
I just re-watched Prince's performance from the Superbowl halftime, and I while I have some nitpicks because I've truly seen him at his best, I just don't think anybody's ever topped what he's done tonight.
Apparently, the New York Times agrees:
I'm quite pleased that at least some large number of people who'd never gotten to see him before have an idea why I've always been such a fan of the little man.His performance last night at Super Bowl XLI will surely go down as one of the most thrilling halftime shows ever; certainly the most unpredictable, and perhaps the best. “Dearly beloved,” he whispered, intoning the famous first words of “Let’s Go Crazy.”
What followed was a dizzying demonstration.
The setlist, in case you need it:
"Best Of You" was a great surprise, though rumors were out in the fan community as early as last week that he might do the song, since he'd sent the Watchtower/Best medley to Howard Stern to play on his show. I'm a big fan of the Foo Fighters, too, so that was especially fun for me.
Most everybody who knows me well knows that I've been a fan of Prince for pretty much my entire life. So when casual fans or non-fans hear that Prince is playing the halftime show at the Superbowl this year, they ask me, "What's up with that guy?" or "Is his name still a symbol?"
So I figured I'd put together a quick primer on Prince, at least what he's been up to since he was at his most prominent back in the 80s.
Since most of my readers are geeks who like technology, and care about issues ranging from DRM to artist's rights to the tyrrany of the RIAA, there's some other things that might appeal to you about Prince's career. A short list of highlights:
There's a lot more trivia I can spout, and I love the man's work because it's funky, not because he's been a pioneer in digital distribution. But my geek friends are always surprised to find out that "that guy who wrote Kiss" is also seriously on the edge of technology and tech culture in many ways.
If you want a sneak peek at what he's going to be performing at the Superbowl this Sunday, ther are some great video clips from the CBS affiliate in Miami. Prince had told reporters he'd be answering some questions in a press conference, but played 3 songs for them instead. The station then staked out his rehearsal stage (shaped like the symbol!) with a helicopter and shot footage from the chopper. Judging by the lighting and choreography, since there's no sound, it looks like we'll see a medley of 5 or 6 songs, with Purple Rain thrown in towards the middle. There's a marching band, the Florida A&M University Marching 100, and if they actually release doves then he'll probably have to play "When Doves Cry". And Tipper Gore will have to apologize to us all for saying he was offensive, because Prince isn't offensive, he's cheesy.
I get excited about this stuff because I forget most people have never seen him play. (From a jaded reporter: "I've never been to a Prince press conference before, but after Thursday, I would recommend them to all my friends. In fact, I'd give it a 9 out of 10 because you can dance to it.") Anyway, I have a pretty exhaustive storehouse of otherwise-useless Prince knowledge, so feel free to ask any questions if you want in the comments.
]]>I don't think I've blogged about it on Vox before, but I'm a big fan of Alan Leeds and Eric Leeds... they've both been huge parts of my appreciation of music. Alan because of his helping run the business affairs of James Brown, Prince, George Clinton, Maxwell, D'Angelo, ?uestlove and others, and Eric because he was the sax player on my favorite records at a time when I had just been learning to play the saxophone.
Amazingly, Alan Leeds does not (yet) have a wikipedia profile, and Eric only has a stub of one. Because one of my older posts about him is one of the first results for Alan's name, I thought I'd collect some links in case maybe I get time later to write a post or even a (my first!) wikipedia article.
Okay, this is totally wrong, but I have to post it anyway:
I've liked Prince and his music pretty much my whole life, and for a while I was self-conscious about it. These days, pretty much everybody who knows me knows about me being a fan, though I still struggle to explain why.
Two recent YouTube finds might tell the story better than I can.
From New Year's Eve, 1987, one of (I think) only two times Prince and Miles Davis ever played on stage together. Vamping on the middle section of "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" from Sign O' The Times.
We're inept Quakers
We've been here in California for a few minor tremblors, and miss almost every single one. I caught one, once, but Alaina just plain can't catch a quake to save her life. Then I read about people's stuff falling over, dogs barking, cats singing, and we've got nothing. Our animals are as dumb as us
The best part? david is in from New York, and he felt it. At the time, Promiscuous Girl was playing, and I was thinking about how it should be remixed with "HouseQuake", due to the similar beats. IRONY EXCEPT IT'S NOT IRONIC.
HouseQuake!
Was okay, but not a great performance. At least he had the dignity to not perform alongside any of the contestants.