March 24, 2004
THE PRINCE DISSES A KING:
Al Green on Gay Marriage and Prince (Peter Scholtes, March 19, 2004, Complicated Fun)
Have you ever met Prince?
Yes, I got some Minneapolis memories. And I got to see Prince once. But I really never got a chance to get close enough to him to shake his hand. And that's what we wanted to do, was go meet him. He was at the Grammys once, maybe two or three years ago. He sung and he played his guitar, and vroom, they went off the stage, and nobody got a chance to meet anybody or say hello or anything like that.
But he's a tremendous, dynamic personality and a wonderful performer, and I know you guys up there know that. I mean he's awesome in his own right. And everybody got their way of doing things, you see. That may be his way of keeping himself where he's clear at, you know? So if he don't want to talk with the Letterman or Leno people, or whatever that is, everybody got their own way. I don't condemn a man for having his own way. If that's the way he is, then that's what he's got to do, to keep his head together. If he don't want to talk to people about what he's doing and what his thing is, then that's his prerogative to have that, and people should respect that, you know?
I mean, I don't want to jump in the man's business. My idea was, it would be exciting for me to meet him.
It is a disgrace that an artist as gifted as Prince is going into the Rock Hall of Fame with the flock of riff-raff that got voted in with him, but ya gotta make time for Al Green. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 24, 2004 11:19 PM
There are a lot of measures of "greatness", and longevity is one of them.
While bands and solo artists come and go, Prince has built a modestly large and intensely loyal fan base, that has kept him onstage for 20+ years.
In addition, Prince is accomplished at the business side of the music industry, which has traditionally been the bane of "artists".
After he forced the Sony label to drop him, he put out a self-produced album, and embarked on a self-financed nationwide tour, promoted solely by word-of-mouth.
Naturally, sales of his album, and attendance at his concerts, were lower than the numbers he'd pulled when Sony was promoting him.
However, because he didn't have to split the take with a record label, or concert promoters, his net profits for the year were among his best ever.
Al Green is indeed the king. OJ, you and I admire all the same artists. Prince is good, but few artists can sing like Reverend Al. And that band he had, that was some understated power right there; Al Jackson the drummer in particular was fantastic. BTW, I read something recently about the latest Al Green record, it's produced by Willie Mitchell, like the old days, and he even dug out the original microphone that he only lets Al record with.
Posted by: Jeff Brokaw at March 25, 2004 7:26 AMIf Prince had less ego and was subsumed within
a rock-band he would be up there with many of the
great rock guitarists. As it is he tends to be
over-rated for his non-rock oriented recordings and overall eccentricity.
He's very nearly the only interesting pop act since the Clash.
Posted by: oj at March 25, 2004 11:10 AMHave you seen/listened to Bare Naked Ladies?
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at March 25, 2004 12:11 PMSure. That Eight Days song is cool.
Posted by: oj at March 25, 2004 12:19 PMHugh Hewitt was taking votes from his listeners on who of the latest batch of nominees do not belong in the Hall. Pretty much all of his audience dissed Prince, as did Hugh.
Posted by: Robert Duquette at March 25, 2004 4:24 PMShocking. While ZZ Top must be top of the ofay charts.
Posted by: oj at March 25, 2004 4:40 PMSome of his personal antics are a little annoying, but I'd argue that Prince is the best pop songwriter of the last twenty years. (He doesn't compare with Lennon/McCartney, Lieber/Stoller, Smokey Robinson, or even Bob Dylan, but he is tops for the current era.) I will take him any day over the current crop of angry "don't matter if it rhymes" guitar-gnashers who all try to sound like Disturbed or Pearl Jam. And don't get me started on rap.
Posted by: John Barrett Jr. at March 25, 2004 10:22 PM