{"id":677,"date":"2007-02-04T19:01:23","date_gmt":"2007-02-05T03:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2007\/02\/04\/prince-at-the-super-bowl\/"},"modified":"2007-02-04T19:01:23","modified_gmt":"2007-02-05T03:01:23","slug":"prince-at-the-super-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2007\/02\/04\/prince-at-the-super-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince At The Super Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey, look me over
Tell me do you like what you see
Hey, I ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t got no money
But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m RICH on PERSONALITY!<\/em><\/p>\n

If you didn’t come to party, don’t bother reading this.<\/p>\n

Tonight we partied like it was 1999.\u00c2\u00a0 And we didn’t even EXPECT IT!<\/p>\n

Fuck the Revolution, fuck Kanye, certainly fuck Justin Timberlake.\u00c2\u00a0 While we were reveling in the best Super Bowl in years, because of the weather, Prince took the musical slot, which was previously fumbled by everybody from Aerosmith to the Stones, to the point where it’s become a joke, and made the game IRRELEVANT!<\/p>\n

Oh, U2 did a good job.\u00c2\u00a0 But they’re from IRELAND!\u00c2\u00a0 What the fuck do they know about football, the American version thereof?\u00c2\u00a0 And they’re supposedly credible.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about show, but meaning.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas Prince comes from a long tradition of black musicians, who first of all want to get paid, who don’t have to play by the rules, since they’ve been fucked over by the man FOREVER!<\/p>\n

I’m categorcally against playing the Super Bowl.\u00c2\u00a0 It makes you small.\u00c2\u00a0 You appear desperate.\u00c2\u00a0 But I guess rules are made to be broken, because the execution in this performance evidenced all the rock, all the roll, all of the soul absent from music today.\u00c2\u00a0 Fusing the opposing colors of the human spectrum in a way that Michael Jackson tried to but never could, Prince united us, showed us it was all about the joy, the feeling, the rush, that we’re all in it together.\u00c2\u00a0 That we want and need leaders, but they’ve got to have charisma, we’ve got to believe in them. And we believe in Prince.<\/p>\n

Oh, he hasn’t had a hit in eons.<\/p>\n

But he looks just the same.<\/p>\n

And the do-rag seemed affected.\u00c2\u00a0 But the choice of material excused the headgear.<\/p>\n

"Proud Mary"?\u00c2\u00a0 "All Along The Watchtower"?\u00c2\u00a0 Without all the stunting we usually see at an event like this, no appearance by Tina Turner or John Fogerty?\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, Prince suddenly gives narcissism a good name.<\/p>\n

Yes, it’s all about Prince, but he’s doing it for us, to entertain us, to blow us away.<\/p>\n

"Let’s Go Crazy"??\u00c2\u00a0 Could there be a better opening number?<\/p>\n

And you KNEW he was gonna close with "Purple Rain".\u00c2\u00a0 It just FIT!<\/p>\n

But the inclusion of the covers, and the album track "Baby I’m A Star", those were unexpected, those touched our hearts, reminded us of when music still counted, brought us right back to the advent, the HEYDAY, of MTV.<\/p>\n

MTV fumbled.\u00c2\u00a0 All they could do was show the titty of someone who didn’t have much musical talent to begin with.<\/p>\n

The Stones?\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got no excuse.\u00c2\u00a0 As Jake says, that’s where they USUALLY play, STADIUMS!\u00c2\u00a0 How could they be so bad?\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, they couldn’t even nail SATISFACTION!<\/p>\n

Aerosmith fucked up by sharing the stage with others.<\/p>\n

We no longer believe.\u00c2\u00a0 And just when we’ve given up, a saviour comes in to rescue us.<\/p>\n

The game is now unimportant.<\/p>\n

If we’re lucky, Steve Jobs will stun us in the final half.<\/p>\n

But today we learned, it was proven, that NOTHING compares with music.\u00c2\u00a0 No sport, no video game.\u00c2\u00a0 There IS no competition for the entertainment dollar when music is done right.<\/p>\n

It hasn’t been done right in a long time.<\/p>\n

But it was done right tonight.\u00c2\u00a0 The choice of material, the turquoise outfit, even down to the shoes, and the orange shirt.\u00c2\u00a0 The ripping guitar solos.\u00c2\u00a0 The vocals.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the complete package.<\/p>\n

I don’t know who should be ashamed more.\u00c2\u00a0 The labels or the public.\u00c2\u00a0 For straying so far from the essence, for losing the magic touch.<\/p>\n

Prince was an inspiration.\u00c2\u00a0 He took all the spectacle of the Super Bowl, all the glitz and the glamour, and RAISED THE BAR!<\/p>\n

The marching band, the explosions, the stage, it was PERFECT, and it was all in service to the man.\u00c2\u00a0 Who was in service to the music.<\/p>\n

Shall it live forever on YouTube.\u00c2\u00a0 Shall you buy tickets and experience the essence.\u00c2\u00a0 Shall you be overjoyed by the power of music.<\/p>\n

Inspiration not manipulation.\u00c2\u00a0 Prince didn’t cowrite with Diane Warren.\u00c2\u00a0 No exec told him what to record.\u00c2\u00a0 None could contribute to the plan in his head, which he executed so perfectly tonight.<\/p>\n

Shall artistry, and rock and roll, rule FOREVER!<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey, look me overTell me do you like what you seeHey, I ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t got no moneyBut I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m RICH on PERSONALITY! If you didn’t come to party, don’t bother reading this. Tonight we partied like it was 1999.\u00c2\u00a0 And we didn’t even EXPECT IT! Fuck the Revolution, fuck Kanye, certainly fuck Justin Timberlake.\u00c2\u00a0 While we were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-aV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}