On any given day, if asked to blow out a candle and to make a wish, this could be what my mind would come up with as fast as any other possible response. To hear Prince do a Radiohead cover. And it happened a few days ago at the Coachella Music Festival. Since then it has become a legal battle between Prince's publicist and online posters to keep this important prince moment special. Finally today Radiohead said "It's our song, play the video." Prince, I'm sure, is completely unaware this is even going on. He has concerns we mere mortals will never know.
But now, finally, here it is in its glory. Wander's entire musical taste wrapped up in one song. Prince, my beloved, and Radiohead, my liege's, together. Just a word of caution, the guitar solo brought tears to my eyes. Come prepared yourselves, for we are not worthy of this greatness we behold here.
Friday, June 13, 2008
A Wander Dream Come True
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1 comment:
I think a big part of it is Prince's history with having ownership of his work. That was a big deal for him back in the early nineties and his record label. They were getting most of the money, and he didn't have complete ownership of his material.
Or something like that.
Anywho, I do know that it was a huge struggle for him to have complete ownership of his work. One of the reasons you didn't really hear from him in mid nineties to the early 2000s was because he was no longer releasing his music via a record company at all, but was selling it as a download via his website. (Yeah, he was one of the firsts, if not the first, to do that.) Because he didn't have a big company pimping his stuff, he didn't sell that many. But since he got 100% of the cabbage, he actually made more money with it's weak sales than many previous albums released by a label.
So anyway, if it was Prince who tried to get it off YouTube, and not just his people, then my guess is he's hyper-sensitive about losing control of his work. I can dig that. People get all indignant when artists don't want people stealing their work - I was completely on Metallica's side with the whole Napster thing from a fews years back.
But of course as Thom Yorke pointed out, it wasn't completely Prince's work. So, I'm thinking the purple one can jive with having one performance of another artists' song floating out there for free.
Oh, and by the way, granted that was a cool solo...
BUT (and I hate to be the one-up-guy here)
BUT!
... it was nothing compared to his performance a few years ago when they inducted him into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. He was inducted with George Harrison (posthumously), and at the end of the show, the surviving Traveling Wilbury's (or maybe just Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne; I don't remember if Bob Dylan was there) along with George's son and Prince did a rendition of While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Now at the end of that, Prince breaks out into a wailing three or four minute solo that is the greatest I have ever heard. And I don't mean the greatest from Prince, I mean the greatest period. I mean better than anything I've heard from Hendrix, Clapton, Paige, King, Van Halen, Satriani, Vai - anybody. If you find it Wander, take precautions. I know you; you'll need an adult diaper.
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