Purple Rain

I've been watching too much politics on TV lately and its causing me severe anxiety/anger/acid indigestion. I had to turn it off tonight so I flipped around a bit and landed on the movie "Purple Rain". Prince is one of a kind, he can dance, sing, act, play numerous instruments and change his name - all with a certain flair of arrogance and class. I like him.

Back in 2005 I wrote about my experience of watching Prince being "booed" off stage at a concert in the 80's. He's come a long way since then. Like him or not, he's got talent. A guy I dated recently had the opportunity to be his bodyguard for a weekend and told me all about him. They did't talk much but he got to watch him rehearsing (not sure for what) and said he was in awe watching Prince go from one insturment to the next, playing each one with excellence.

Do you like Prince?

Prince

Prince

Is Prince Classic Rock and Roll? No...but he's in a class all his own and is a musical genius. Not everyone has that opinion and it took quite a while for him to gain recognition and be taken seriously. Here's a story from "back in my day" when he was booed off the stage...

It was '82 (acutally I am fuzzy on the exact year) and the Stones were doing an all day outdoor gig with other bands such as George Thourogood, and J Geils, etc.

But the first act to come on was a total UNKNOWN. Here comes this skinny black dude in a really funky outfit and people started throwing trash at him:

During this period, Prince began to attract attention for the clothes he wore onstage. He wore high-heeled shoes and boots and tended to flaunt and express an intense sexuality onstage in addition to in his music, using symbols associated with transgenderism and as a result, people began questioning his sexual orientation. His stylistic choices brought him trouble as an opening act for The Rolling Stones' two Los Angeles Coliseum shows in 1981, where he was infamously pelted with garbage while wearing bikini briefs, leg warmers, high-heeled boots, and a trench coat, in addition to being booed off the stage for his wardrobe.

I felt sorry for him. The small amount of music he was able to play while he endured the critical masses sounded good. Little did we know he'd be the headlining band within a few years.