2004-07-13 - 11:03 a.m.
I�LL BE THE ONE IN THE RASPBERRY BERET
In five days�count �em, 5!�I�ll be breathing the same air as The Purple One. He�ll be on center stage, sending out those purple vibes, playing his custom made guitar, and I�ll be in the stands, soft and wet (and not from spilling a drink on myself). Once a mere symbol, Prince is back, with a vengeance. His return is overdue, as musicians have been channeling him for years. Think about the debt Andre 3000 owes to Prince, when you compare �Hey Ya� to �I wanna be your lover.� While Prince�s choice of religion scares me, this revival is like a dream come true. Having become a huge fan during the period that many consider to be his decline, I thought I�d never get the chance to see him live. I�m fucking delirious about this Continental Airlines Arena show. It takes me back.
The year is 1997 and my friend and I are too young to drink, so we�re driving around New Jersey, hitting up coffee shops, the only acceptable alternative for bars. She�s driving her parents� old Buick, and slips in a tape (yeah, the Buick was that old, no CD player) of Prince�s Purple Rain soundtrack.
Do ch-ch do, Do ch-ch do
Dig if you will the picture
Of you and I engaged in a kiss
The sweat of your body covers me
Can you my darling, can you picture this?
Oh God that�s so hot. What happened next was not a spontaneous episode of lesbian sex, but an infusion of love of Prince. It�s not like I hadn�t heard �When Doves Cry� before, but for some reason, at that moment, I just got it in a way I�d never felt before. So the next day I bought the CD. In my opinion, it�s Prince�s best effort. From �Let�s go Crazy� to �Purple Rain,� it just keeps on rockin�.
By this time there were so many albums I didn�t know which one to buy, so tried to think back to some other Prince songs I�d liked, but never thought to buy.
All 7 and we'll watch them fall
They stand in the way of love
And we will smoke them all
With an intellect and a savoir-faire
No one in the whole universe
Will ever compare
Okay, so maybe that song was off of the Symbol album, but whatever. You didn�t mind it when you were singing �You sexy mothafucka,� or �My name is Prince, and I am funky.� You might have thought the glyph was stupid, but he�s a fucking artist. They do weird shit, it�s their job. He felt like his record company took his artistic power away, so he took his own name away. When artistic power reverted back to him (the end of that contract, I believe), he was Prince again. Makes sense to me.
Forward to 1999. I�m in full alcoholic mode with Driggles. We drink Cap�n and Coke like kids drink Kool Aid, all the while dancing to �Little Red Corvette.� By this time I�d bought Sign O� the Times, Diamonds and Pearls, The Gold Experience, and Hits. We had quite a catalogue to dance to, and that was pretty much how I spent my junior year of college (hence, the five year plan).
His reviews have ranged from stellar to sordid, but to me, he�s always been the best. This guy was playing guitar at a time when black people were even fewer and farther between on the rock and roll scene than they are now.
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