Obligatory “Big Game” Music Post
Spoiler alert, it's about Prince's attempt to Usher in a different approach to the press conference.
You might have heard that the big sports ball game is today. There are a lot of traditions and events that mark the week leading up to the game that cannot be named (for fear of legal action). Those events include a constant stream of press conferences for just about everyone involved in the event. That includes the half-time musical guest. This year, Usher’s press conference was a pretty straightforward affair.
But not everyone takes this self-serious approach to their role in the biggest American football game of the year. Let’s go back to 2007 when the late iconoclast Prince tried to show us a far better approach to the press conference (which few have dared to try):
I hope everyone has a good national best commercial day!
Oh, shoot, you mean there’s something besides commercials, talking heads, and ION bing-watching today? Maybe it’ll be on a television somewhere I’m at today. Unlikely, but possible.
Then Prince went ahead and played the greatest halftime show ever… in the rain!
@Scott F.: That version of Purple Rain was especially epic.
The man could play that guitar
@Scott F.: He simply willed it.
@Flat Earth Luddite: I would have thought that your wife, child, and putative S-i-L would be committed to watching the game today. Hmmmm…
I used to love the Stupid Bowl. I would go skiing. Lots of people would sit in the lodge during the game making the slopes more pleasant. I did miss the halftime shows, but my local newspaper would fill me in on what I should be outraged about. Did you know that Janet Jackson had areolas? My news was full of that fact for months.
I’m not against sports. I’m very impressed by Ewa Swoboda’s recent 60 meter time.
@MarkedMan:
I have to confess that I didn’t get Prince until my mid 30’s. And it wasn’t until after his untimely passing that I really came to appreciate how good of a guitarist he was.
The article that really helped me see it was this oral history of the guitar solo he played at the George Harrison tribute concert. It, and the footage of that performance, are so worth a watch. I still have no idea what happened to that guitar.
https://www.openculture.com/2021/05/watch-a-new-directors-cut-of-princes-blistering-while-my-guitar-gently-weeps-guitar-solo-2004.html
@Franklin:
To your point about willing the rain, the best comment I ever saw about Prince was from a Youtube commenter:
But after that, did he serve pancakes?
@Matt Bernius: Prince didn’t make music. Prince WAS music, in flesh and bone, body and soul.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Well, they are. I suspect. I’m sitting on the back patio enjoying a drinky-poo and surfing the inter-webs.
@Matt Bernius: Oh, man, great quote and yeahthat disappearing (flying?) guitar is an eternal mystery. Just one more enigma about him.