Most of my thoughts on yesterday's installment of Coachella were scoured away by Prince, who put on a
show, complete with swagger, virtuosity, and that little bit of ego that more people who play music for a living really should have. He brought out Morris Day and Sheila E. He went on these extended freestyles that made me wonder if he's going to transition into a career as an MC soon. He covered "Creep." (And I was stuck in the bathroom line for it. This is where I curse my femininity.) I heard some frat bro in cargo shorts say "dude, I'm sorta getting, like
emotional" during his backup singer's bringing-down-the-house performance of Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" (!)—and I'm sure that the association of that song with those
tear-jerking ASPCA ads didn't help on the waterworks front. And he declared the Coachella grounds to be "his house," and really, who can argue? Roger Waters? Uh, no. Any video of last night's show will probably vanish from YouTube as soon as it's put up (thanks to
Princely decrees), but I've got the set list after the jump.
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Idolator
The attention the media gives to Guns N' Roses and My Bloody Valentine may give young bands the idea that it'd actually be good for their legacy to record regularly for six years, then hold off for at least another 15 so that fan excitement can build and their myth can blossom. (Hey, if Sting and Joe Strummer had waited that long to record follow-ups to Synchronicity and Combat Rock, maybe people would have cared more about Brand New Day and Rock Art And The X-Ray Style!) So I looked at what would have happened to some of rock's most legendary figures if they, too, had waited 15 years to release new albums once their first six years of putting out records were done—and found that extended absences rarely make later projects look much better.
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Highlights from WPRB's early-'90s hip-hop show "Raw Deal" that include freestyles by Treach and a pre-Wu-Tang RZA. [
