It’s a little known fact that that the Morris Day/Time song Oak Tree was covered by the Wicked Witch’s guards in Wizard of Oz

Prince (now again known as) + TGIF, good weekend kickoff.

As if my oldest daughter turning 16 next week didn’t make me feel old enough! Ahh, well, for her Sweet 16 we’re seeing the Offspring in Seattle. One good laugh I get from that era is how horrified people were about the song “Darling Nikki”. Contrast that to lyrics that make it even on radio edits today…

Hee Prince had a store in Uptown in Minneapolis for a red hot second my 1st year of college.
EVERYTHING he EVER recorded (it was a lot but knowing Prince it probably wasn’t CLOSE), condoms, etc.

I still have the skin tight “symbol” shirt I got there. No way I’m getting rid of it.

Oh, man, I don’t know, Realist Mom.  Darling Nikki is about the only song I censor the words to when singing it w/in earshot of my one year old.  Of course, I don’t listen to pop radio anymore, so maybe it’s as you say.

Anyway, I just wanted to note that I always find myself confusing Morris Day and Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The music produced by the artist formerly and once again known as Prince is fantastic.

The artist formerly and once again known as Prince is a homobigoted piece of shit.

Anyway, I just wanted to note that I always find myself confusing Morris Day and Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

It is vital that Morris Dees’ hair be impeccable during closing arguments, which is why co-counsel is always poised by that big mirror, ready to dash up and present it to him mid-speech if necessary.

Quitit.  Ur mkn me feel old!

My car stereo was blasting “Erotic City” (a “Let’s Go Crazy” B-side) when I arrived at work today. One of my co-workers came running over and we danced in the parking lot. For all his flaws, Prince has made some of the most fun music in human history.

While undeniably a great album, the best Prince album IMHO was “1999”.  It was certainly the best album ever to frack to.

The Time do indeed whoop ass.

Prince, however, is miles ahead of them and Purple Rain is one of the top five albums of albums of all time (VERY subjective I know). You’re right though, the movie sucks. I have had the privilege of seeing Prince live a few times and it is definitely ALL THAT.

Between this and the realization that Sonic Youth have been around for 28 years this month, I feel freakin’ ancient. Popmatters.com has a tribute to Purple Rain up, with a ton of articles. I haven’t read it yet, but it looks a treat.

Controversy and Dirty Mind are my favorite one-two punch of purple goodness.  But Purple Rain is right up there on the plateau with 1999 and Sign o’ the Times, along with the underrated Around the World in a Day.

I don’t even want to think about how many times I saw that movie.  In the theater, no less.

Last record he made with Wendy & Lisa, wasn’t it?  His stuff wasn’t the same without them.

I like the DRUM ad behind the stage.

1999 is full of filler. Purple Rain is thematically unified: it works as a longer document the way Led Zep IV does.

I was sixteen when the album and film came out. I remember sitting in the theater when Apollonia took her top off, and some guy a couple of rows back stood up and took a Polaroid of the screen. Here I am, a virgin, a geek, a burgeoning Nice Guy(tm), and I still thought, “Dude, you are really hard up.”

The Time! SQUEAL!

Shortly after Purple Rain the record came out and shortly before Purple Rain the movie was in theaters, I picked up a copy of the Wayne State student newspaper somebody left lying around. The reviewer went on and on about how good the record was, and went on to predict how fantastic the movie would be, and how the deep meaning in the lyrics would be shown by the action in the movie. They went on for a couple of pages like this.

The music sequences were great, though.

I think the point is that The Revolution only reach their potential when Prince learns to share. Fortunately there are a lot of performance scenes in the film or it would be unwatchable.

Sonic Youth have been around for 28 years this month

DON’T TELL ME THAT!  Argh, it’s time for my Geritol…

I just have to say, for Prince, the Revolution, Morriss Day, the Time, First Avenue (Seventh Street Entry), Purple Rain, and all of it: FUCK YEAH, MINNEAPOLIS!

Ghostbusters is 25 this year, and Back to the Future will have its 25th anniversary next year. This moment of “Oh my god I’m fracking old” was brought to you courtesy of TRM.

So that would make it a quarter of a century back to when I commenced a short-lived pancake marriage (‘marriages can be like pancakes, sometimes you have to throw the first one out’) when our guests who showed up at the courtyard (site of the climax of Kentucky Fried Movie!) of Yamashiro’s in Hollywood, nestled halfway between the Chinese Theater and the Magic Castle, were subjected to the ex’s ex on lead guitar, treating us all to Prince covers (”...a thing called life…” “Let’s go crazy!”) before the Buddhist officiant nearly recovered from the host punch bowl that was only a sterno float away from being a Tonga Room Scorpion for fifty or so guests, and got propped up and prompted through our ceremony.

Had the marriage been built upon the firmer foundations of Morris Day, then Jay and Silent Bob might have helped celebrate our silver anniversary, but I’m a happier person with a much happier spouse now.

Yes, next year is my 25th high school reunion.

At least I have a 2 year old who makes me feel young..when I don’t think about the fact I’m ~40 years older than she is.

Oh, man, I don’t know, Realist Mom.  Darling Nikki is about the only song I censor the words to when singing it w/in earshot of my one year old.

Quite rightly, too.  Children should be taught to respect magazines with an eye to long term preservation.

Shit - the study is getting to me, isn’t it?

If you want to talk anniversaries, then I think it’s important to note that Tetris turns 25 today.  Google is celebrating - go look at their page.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to spend pretty much this whole day watching blocks fall.

Realist Mom:

I strongly disagree. A lot of 80s music was very edgy by modern standards—semi-explicit sex (“Nasty Girl”, Vanity 6), stalker songs (at least a quarter of the Police’s greatest hits, but especially “Every Breath You Take”), masturbation (“Darling Nikki”, “She Bop”, “Turning Japanese”), drug use (“Down Under”, Men At Work), class resentment (“Money for Nothing” and “Industrial Disease”, Dire Straits), barking mad insanity (“Somebody’s Watching Me” by Rockwell, “Jenny” by Tommy Tutone), etc. I’m not saying none of that stuff exists in pop music in the last 10 years, but it’s a lot more marginal compared to the 80s hit parade. Our shit is fucking *tame*—actually seeing Britney Spears do a song like “If You Seek Amy” is kind of a relief after all that.

Piator:

The fun part is, everyone assumes it was probably a porno. How do you know it wasn’t a copy of The Economist, and Nikki was just a big fan of Mutually Assured Destruction?

My first “oh shit I’m old” moment came when I picked up a collection of DC Comics’ Justice League International and the heroes met President Reagan.  I collected the original comic books as a kid, and seeing the Gipper reminded me of just how long ago that was.

drug use (“Down Under”, Men At Work)

Um, care to explain?

My first “oh shit I’m old” moment came when I picked up a collection of DC Comics’ Justice League International and the heroes met President Reagan.

Mine was when I saw Guns ‘N’ Roses listed as “classic rock.”  That and when my students didn’t know who the Swedish Chef was.

FlipYrWhig:

I can’t be too sure about what exactly “full of zombie” is in the first verse, but I’ve always assumed it was pot. The third verse seems to mention an opium den. As for the second verse… well, I’m sure we’ve all heard of the horrors of vegemite by now.

BrianX the songs existed most definitely, just that many of them resorted to euphemisms (hell, look at the early jazz/ ragtime era, some of the most sexually explicit music ever if you know what they’re referring to, and lots of opium/ cannabis references!) or were more underground/ independent labels and not given a lot of airtime on “mainstream” radio. Top 40 didn’t have the outright sex and ‘hos of a lot of hip-hop seems to today or the profanity laced angst of alternative (damn, now I sound old). I still remember the radio stations putting in a stupid “WOO!” sound over the evil word sex in “I Want Your Sex”. Embarrassingly enough I didn’t know what “I’m Turning Japanese” was until adulthood.

PiatoR… coffee and monitors do not fare well together. Indeed, we need to be teaching our young people the value of the written word!

@ BrianX—Talk to your children about Vegemite.  Before someone else does.

drug use (“Down Under”, Men At Work)

Um, care to explain?

Shit yeah ... “lying in a den in Bombay ... slack jaw, not much to say ...”  Drug tourism, right there.

Purple Rain ... even though the soundtrack was all over the place I didn’t see the movie until it was run at a dollar theater in my college town at midnight.  It was my freshman year, and my boyfriend, his roommate, his roommate’s girlfriend and I smoked a joint in the car before we went in.  Much of the audience had the same idea.  Pot has the effect of making good music sound awesome and a horrible movie watchable, so naturally we thought it to be The Greatest Movie Ever Made.  And saw it about ten more times.  To this day I’ve never seen Purple Rain straight and I probably don’t want to.

Twenty-five years.  Damn.

Shit yeah ... “lying in a den in Bombay ... slack jaw, not much to say ...” Drug tourism, right there.
Yes.

I can’t be too sure about what exactly “full of zombie” is in the first verse, but I’ve always assumed it was pot.
Um, I don’t think so.  I’m not even certain you have the words correct….  Anyone got the lyrics sheet handy?

I’m sure we’ve all heard of the horrors of vegemite by now.
Discusting, agreed IMO; but not a drug reference.

No mention of “I Touch Myself”?

I take it back, Hippie trail and head of Zombie - my money would be on payote probably or mushrooms, but maybe pot.  I figured at the time it could be road hipnotized as well, with the use of combie and wanting to find a rhyme for it.

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