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Dearly Beloved, We Are Gathered Here Today to Get Through This Thing Called the Super Bowl Half Time Show
Super Bowl halftime shows are, of course, bland blimps of branding; processed cheese whiz for the widest possible audience, which no amount of excess, earnestness, or manufactured controversy can puncture. So I was surprised to feel a touch of sadness as I watched Prince roll out all the empty signifiers one would expect from a Pepsi commercial: the atonal call-and-response with "authentic" fans; the writhing Aussie twinbots, and the accessory du jour, the marching band. Prince was once so transgressive, so outsider, and so defiantly himself, and now here he was warbling feeble medley versions of 20-year-old songs. The only song that stood up to the ant-in-a-swimming-pool staging was "Purple Rain," and that was only because it always was a lighters-aloft arena power ballad anyway.
The Purple One could not even shock sartorially: In his teal frock coat and orange shirt, he looked like Little Richard dressed as a Miami Dolphins cheerleader, and although I was glad to see him strap on the purple glyph guitar for "Purple Rain," I half expected him to coax a fountain of Pepsi from it, in a nod to the fret board autoeroticism of his past live shows.
Or maybe it was just a sign of the times. Perhaps what I'm really offended by is the fact that my musical heroes are now officially irrelevant.
Oh, ye of little faith. Yes, our hair may be getting a bit greyer, our cars a bit safer (how many air bags can you fit in a Volvo?), but we all must admit that relevance is subjective. Perhaps Prince a.k.a Glyph has abandoned the amount of energy he formerly put into becoming a non-spoken word, and an artist who could never be understood, and is re-directing it into becoming--dare I say?--relevant again?
Unfortunately, relevance is usually accompanied by attention, or at least some acknowledgement of existence. Therefore, I applaud Prince for showing that he's still himself (and has shockingly not aged a day in 30 years) and that he CAN perform at Half Time and still hold his head high--however high that is. I bow down to the Purple One.
Are you kidding? That was the best Super Bowl halftime show ever AND one of the greatest live performances ever. One can only imagine how much better it would have been without the rain.
PS I was a bit surprised by the song choices, too but man he sang and played his heart out.