Prince et al: While My Guitar ...
I lived in
a place where MTV did not shine for many of its early years. Of course, you can undoubtedly get it now
even in Shabaab/Somalia. But, as a result, we used to videotape hours’
worth on slow speed VHS and watch it over and over. We had the full Purple Rain
film, and of course 1999. At about that time Prince seemed to me to be musical royalty
personified.
Like many
of you, I kind of lost track of Prince over the years – probably about the time he changed his name
to a symbol/the artist formerly known as Prince. I do guess I last bought Emancipation. And he appeared to be trying to defy the major
labels by marketing his music online. For a while.
I still
have a lot of respect for the man. While I wonder about his direction (not so
sure about whether I really like this Charlotte live stuff, even if the stage
show aint bad at all), I gotta admit that his rather flamboyant performance in the clip I am
featuring re-establishes his credit in my books. You’ll have to wait till about
minute 3.30 to see him do his thing, but you can look out for the man with the
red fedora a bit earlier. If you ever wanted proof of his royalty, this
has got to be it.
