« Grotesquery | Home | What Does a Candidate Have to do to Get a FreakinÂ’ Vote Around Here? »

July 15, 2004

robot

His Name is Prince, and He is Funky

Last night, the majority of the staff of Amy's Robot headed down to Madison Square Garden for some of the FunkyPurpleLove that only Prince (and special guest stars Morris Day and the tremendously hot Sheila E.) can provide. And as an added triumph, we are proud to say we had better seats than Puffy.

I've been a bit down on the stadium rock concert recently, perhaps having been burned one too many times by the overproduced, lipsynched, costume-focused dramas inflicted upon us by your Britneys and even - yes - your Madonnas. One of our companions, who saw Madonna earlier this summer, was blown away by the difference between the two shows. Overall, she said, Madonna just wasn't....fun.

Prince, on the other hand, brings nothing but energy and joy to his show. He plays with the audience, he teases, he dances, he freaks out on the guitar. And the audience gives it all back. It was a truly great night.

Thank you Prince, for an awesome night. And thank you for being just as funky now as when we were 11. -Emily

As Emily remarked last night, a lot of the reason why people can still get so worked up over Prince is that he isn't overexposed in the way that Madonna is. Part of this might be because his album sales haven't been so strong over the past 10 years, but I think that it's mostly because Prince is actually a talented songwriter whose fame comes from his own creativity and style, whereas Madonna is just a good performer. He's had an album every year or every other year since 1978, and his career has been clearly about music the whole time, not about writing children's books or pretending to be a geisha. Even Prince's wacky new religious orientation (which I assume is the reason the line in "I Feel 4 U" was changed to "I'm spiritually attracted to you") is far less overbearing and tedious than Madonna's insistant Kabbalah phase.

So while Madonna's and other non-songwriters' tours have disappointing ticket sales, the fans at Prince's full house at the Garden have a collective heart attack when he gets to the "Honey I know, I know, I know times are changing" line of "Purple Rain". -Amy

categories: Music
posted by Emily at 10:30 AM | #