For the most part, you all know me in some regards. Whether you know me as a friend, a relative, or a complete asshole, the point is you know me, for better or worse. Now, I don't know what you know me as, whether you know me as "Steven", "Mez", "Silky", "that fuckin idiot", whatever, the point is that I am known to you one way or another. About half the friends I have on myspace, I met in college at some point, some are high school friends I found after graduating from high school, and the remainder are friends I see on a regular basis or family (safe). When I was a sophomore I worked maintenance for the university; I guess they figured since I was Mexican I could cut the grass. Anyway, one of my friends there started calling me "Mez", which I guess was short for Ramirez, but I never saw the correlation. Well, as it turns out from that point on, everyone knew me as Mez. I even had some professors call me Mez, I don't know if they were trying to be cool, or if they even knew my name, I was just glad they didn't call me 'dickhead'. As I got older and moved back home, I took on the moniker of "Silky Johnson" and shortened it to "Silky"; I think it sounds lot better than Steven. Steven is a boring name; it sucks and it sounds like I am an accountant.
I played baseball with a dude last night whose name was Bernie Bailey, but he went by 'Burner'; now that's a sweet name, sounds like a wrestler. I want that. Anyway, when my friends hear "Silky", they pretty much know it's me, probably up to no good again. So, what does this all mean? Well, basically (a) "Steven" as a name sucks (b) Silky is my alias and (c) apparently I have a fetish with satin-smooth textured penises.
This segues me into what I am really trying to get at: people who are known simply by one name. I am, by no means, comparing myself to these people, because it's not even fair (I am waaay cooler). But, what is it about the people with one name that separates them from the other people? I'm talking about celebrities like Madonna, Seal, Sting,
You'll probably remember the Diane Lane All-Stars blog I wrote a while back, and the roster for that squad is deadly, but I want to introduce a new wave of all-stars. The only criteria I have for the members are (a) must be famous celebrity (b) achieved special accomplishment(s) (c) recognizable by one name. Now, this cant be interpreted by a celebrity who has a unique last name, in other words, if you say Robert De Niro, because no one else is called De Niro, that doesn't count. You can have Scarface (rapper and movie character) but not Al Pacino. You can have Rocky (and even The Rock) but you can't include Sylvester Stallone. Anyway, I just wanted to throw out a new All-Star team to give the Diane Lane All-Stars a run for their money, but that's not what this blog is about, it's actually dedicated to one of the greatest showman and musicians I have seen, and yet never really gave him his due…until now. Yeah, I'm talking about everyone's favorite purple velour outfitted diminutive munchkin from
If you saw the Super Bowl (which I was pretty close to calling exactly how it would turn out at the end of my last blog) Halftime Show, you no doubt saw Prince rock the stage. I mean, he didn't just put on a show; he really put on a show. I have been watching Super Bowls for as long as I can remember and the best one I have seen was when U2 performed "Where the Streets Have No Name" during the 2002 Super Bowl, dedicating the performance to the victims of 9/11. But, after seeing Prince put on his show, I think I am going to have to rethink the best half-time performance over. Sure, The Rolling Stones may be a bigger name than Prince, or Paul McCartney could be considered a better choice, but in both instances, Prince was ideal: he is not out of his prime, like The Rolling Stones were at the time, and he, individually, is a better performer than McCartney is. Prince is a showman, the others were performances. When you have a Super Bowl halftime show, you want a showman who can entertain you, because in some cases, the halftime show is better than the game.
Ok, after further review, I think I am still going to say U2's performance was better, and yes, I am biased. I think U2's performance was better than Prince's because of the circumstances surrounding the Super Bowl at that time. U2 is arguably the most influential, popular, and best band of the past 25 years, if ever. U2 can kill a show live, to this day, they are the best band I have ever seen perform live. That said, what Prince did this past Sunday was on par with what Bono and the rest of the gang did 5 years ago. The amazing thing about this performance, compared to the others before him (save U2), was that Prince has never diminished in his popularity and ability to create not just a musical event, but a spectacle. And, you know what the weird thing is? He has been doing stuff like this his entire career; over 90 million people got a glimpse of what he can do musically. Fuckin amazing if you ask me. Think about it, when he sang "Purple Rain" in the actual rain, I mean you cant script things like that happening during a live performance, much less at the biggest sporting event in the country. It's like when Live sang "Lightning Crashes" during a concert and as soon as they actually said "lightning crashes", a bolt of lightning struck, without any hint of rain or clouds….music has a way of getting a little help from a higher being. Not to say God is a Live fan because if he was he wouldn't have let them release Secret Samadhi, but still it's cool to hear about that.
I emailed AJ this week and asked him what he thought about Prince and if he reminded him of anyone. Much to my surprise he didn't know much about him, other than a few of his songs. In a way, this pretty much encapsulates the way the majority of the general public views him. Sure, he wears weird outfits, he is a caramel color, and he makes blueberry pancakes after playing basketball games with Charlie Murphy, but there is more to him than the movie "Purple Rain", Raspberry Beret, the Revolution, and the New Power Generation, and banging Carmen Electra. But my main point I wanted to get to is "what makes him so great"?
He has been linked from Morris Day and the Time to the Bangles, and that is what makes him so unique. I think the coolest thing about him as a musician is his diversity. I mean look at his influences on them, Morris Day and the Time could probably be classified as R&B dance-groove music, while obviously the Bangles are a female 80's band, nothing more, and nothing less. So what do I mean? Well, the Time is one of Prince's most successful side projects and with their success, Morris Day and the Motherfuckin' Time (as Jay and Silent Bob would call 'em) has had a pretty successful career, albeit nothing compared to Prince's. Prince was such a bad-ass that because of his popularity Morris Day, who fronted the Time, was often viewed as a decent frontman but nothing special as a performer or musician…all because he was compared to Prince.
Little known fact about Prince with the Bangles: everyone has probably heard the song "Manic Monday"…you know the one where the Susanna Hoffs wishes it was Sunday, because that's her fun day? Well, originally Prince recorded it as a duet for an Apollonia 6 album. For whatever reason, the song was pulled and it was never released. So, when Prince was trying to get a piece of ass from Susanna Hoffs, he gave the song to the Bangles as a way of trying to get into her pants and when they released it, it ended up being one of their biggest hits. So, now you know the truth behind "Manic Monday", we can all thank Prince for the song, one of the better 80's songs of our generation. So what does this say about Prince? Like 50 Cent says, he's a motherfuckin P-I-M-P. Not only does he have great singles lying around in his collection, but he can also use them to get a piece of ass, like he did with Susanna Hoffs. So, not only do women want everything in the world, but if you have an extra #1 hit lying around your probability of knocking boots shoots through the roof. I mean, I knew pimping aint easy, but apparently if you can write hit singles, all those rules are thrown out the window.
Speaking of throwing things out the window, let's get one thing out of the way: Prince is not gay. I am a Prince fan, I like his music, and I like him as an entertainer. The guy can fuckin rock the stage. Me being a fan of his does not make me gay, much less anyone else who is a Prince fan. You hear people talk about being a "closet Justin Timberlake fan", or a "closet New Kids on the Block fan", make no mistake I am a Prince fan. Why I am a fan of his other than just his showmanship as a performer and musician? Well, he banged Carmen Electra. That's kinda' cool right? I already told you he used his music to hook-up with other chicks, like Susanna Hoffs, but if that wasn't enough, he also was involved with, but not limited to Apollonia and Vanity. Mind you these chicks were in their absolute prime, I mean, you couldn't get much better than them. Unfortunately, Vanity also hooked up with Craig T. Nelson in "Action Jackson", but she is forgiven because she was in "The Last Dragon"…who's the master? Sho'nuff! He introduced Carmen Electra to the world and for that I give him many-a-thanks. As for Apollonia? Well, I don't really need to say a whole lot because anytime you take an Italian and mix it with Mexican and a female is produced, I mean, I think you can imagine the creation. It also helped that she was in the movie "Purple Rain" which, overnight, made her a huge star and she has parlayed that into a "career", albeit nothing over-the-top, but anytime you star in back-to back movies with Lorenzo Lamas, my friends, you have made it.
Ok, so we know Prince has undoubtedly tagged some sweet ass, but aside from that. It's hard to define Prince as a musician, compared to other musicians. Is he funk, like Parliament? A little bit. Is he R&B like Luther Vandross? (big Luther, not little Luther) A little bit of that too. But looking further than that, you'll see jazz elements in his songs, rock elements, and even some hip-hop elements, maybe not like 2 Live Crew, but he is pretty close, as Pussy Control proves my point. But the influences don't just stop there, he also has new wave elements, obviously influenced by the decade which his prominence was gained. With some artists you can classify them as one type of genre, or creating a type of genre; whether it's Nirvana with the "Seattle sound", Rage Against the Machine with "rap-rock", Metallica with "hard-rock" music, or Run-DMC with "hip-hop", the point is, when you go to a record store, which is amazing if people do these days in the age of digital music, you can find your favorite artists under one category: Chamillionaire is under "rap", Wade Bowen is "country", Nickelback is "fucking shitty music no one should ever buy". With Prince though, it's hard to identify him with just one genre of music. Of course he is both over the top sexy with his lyrics, in other words, you know exactly what he means, other times they are covert, you have no idea if he is talking about boning or not; it's all interpretation sometimes, like Little Red Corvette.
Other times, his music isn't hard to interpret. Obviously, the song Darling Nikki is the best example of that. If you haven't heard that song, well, put is this way, he's pretty much talking about having sex, masturbating, and leaving a number for a booty call. The impact this song has was that it was the start of Tipper Gore going ape-shit over music and because of the lyrics and content, it lead to the black and white sticker that we have on music now. Thanks Prince.
Besides, being sex-craved, is he an R&B singer? Or is he a rock singer? Is his "Sign 'O' The Times" album jazz, pop, blues, what? See that is what's cool about him. I don't think I can think of anyone else, notably, who is as eclectic within their own musical stylings; U2 tried with their Pop album, to mix it up a little bit, but that was pretty much panned as a U2 album; it was nothing like The Joshua Tree or even Achtung Baby. I think when U2 made Pop they thought "Hey, you know what, we're U2, and we can do pretty much whatever we want" and they gave us that album. It failed somewhat; Prince probably thought the same thing with the majority of his albums and, for the most part, been a lot more successful, critically and popularity-wise, than Pop (album only), not the rest of the U2 catalogue because, honestly, U2 is the best band ever. I will get into that blog one of these days.
By Prince changing his name to that fuckin symbol it stated he didn't want to be considered Prince anymore, he was breaking away from that musician and creating a new one. Was he as successful as he was as Prince? Not so much, people kept calling him the Artist Formerly Known As Prince. He could never escape just being Prince, but when you're name is Prince why would you want to? He's stood the test of time and has been as strong and popular as ever.
There are only a few bands that have been able to stay relevant for 20+ years, U2, Madonna, Prince, it's a select company. I just hope Nickelback doesn't make it, and chances are they wont. That's why two of the best Super Bowl half-time shows have been U2 and Prince's performances, no matter if you're teenager, young adult, or my mom (who shouldn't be reading this, but I never know), one thing they can all agree is on that Prince is a once in a lifetime musician. I can guarantee Madonna will be asked to do a Super Bowl half-time show within the next 5 years; it's inevitable. The performance he gave at the halftime show should have shown why he is such a showman and how he can command an audience and put on a show that very few could do, and that thing he did with the guitar that made him look like he had a huge dong was funny.
It's hard to say someone is a genius musically speaking, Beethoven, Mozart, and 2Pac were musical geniuses, but Prince ain't far behind, that's why he's the leader of the Prince All-Stars…
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