U2 Superbowl vs. Prince Superbowl

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I thought both were equally great performances. BTW - the NY Times and Chicago Sun-Times called Prince's the best S.B. performance ever.
 
U2FanPeter said:

What about the silhouette?
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I missed the silhouette, so can't really comment on it, other than to say I don't know why he would do a shout-out to the infamous wardrobe malfunction.

I just don't think every little aspect of a performance has to be analyzed as to whether or not it has a deeper meaning or reference.

All this Prince talk has got me all wound up and I feel a burning need to run home and listen to Purple Rain at high volume!
 
U2FanPeter said:


Purple Rain - It was a rainy day

Bedsheet silhouette with possible Phallic and/or devil's tail imagary was a nod to Janet's appearance.

Ikettes and the do-rag on his head could be nod to the first ever black NFL coach in the Superbowl(confirmation from anyone that actually watched the game???)

It was Florida on a rainy day - just like Dylans "Hard Rain " tv special in 1976 - where Bob wore a do-rag. An impressionable Prince would have watched that network TV special when he was 16.

"Proud Mary" may have been a nod to the Mississippi delta

Prince's Blue and Orange attire may have shown alligiance to his favourite team.

Lights and marching band - Prince was always about excess.
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the teal and orange outfit was probably a nod to the miami dolphins, who have the exact colors and who's stadium the super bowl took place in... but i would have to guess that prince is a vikings fan.

and what exactly does a "do-rag" and the fact that there was a black coach in the super bowl for the first time have to do with each other... i'd love to know.
 
corianderstem said:


What, do you think you're Prince or something, typing like that? I recommend typing out words in full. It's exciting and fun!
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It's okay. I not only 4give U 4 ur sarcasm, but I Would Die 4 U!


LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
u2's 2002 super bowl performance was the right performance by the right band at the right time. the emotional factor of it being right after 9/11 is what makes it so special. take the aside, and it really wasn't anything special, per say...

based on performance and performance alone, prince's half time show was much better.

... but you can't base it on performance alone. you have to include the timing of it as well, which is what lifts u2's performance up to another level.

i personally think prince was better... but which ever way you lean, they're certainly #1 and #2 on the all time super bowl half time list in my eyes.
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:up:
 
Personally I was just a tad bit disappointed in U2's performance. I mean, it was still great, but i thought the performance of Streets could have been stronger. I did like what they did with the victims list though. That was very touching.

Prince's performance was damn good, though I'm not crazy about "The Best of You". and the only other thing about his performance I wasn't crazy about was how choppy it felt. I can appreciate the attempt at creating a medley sort of structure to the set, but it felt a bit jarring and incomplete.

I liked Paul McCartney's performance better than both of these though. His was by far my favorite SB halftime show ever. :up:
 
Lancemc said:
Personally I was just a tad bit disappointed in U2's performance. I mean, it was still great, but i thought the performance of Streets could have been stronger. I did like what they did with the victims list though. That was very touching.
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You really had to be there. It wasn't about technical proficiency...it was just powerful. Bono's voice was crap that night, but he put a lot into it, and his enthusiasm was contagious.
 
Prince was terrible , he just wanted to play guitar and had no interest in playing songs at all.

It bored me silly.

u2's performance is my favourite next to macca's.
 
Oh yeah. The power certainly was there. It was an incredibly emotional performance, but I just can't place it above McCartney's impeccable show. "Hey Jude" was mindblowing. :love:
 
oh, come on...


McCartney was the most boring thing ever on the Superbowl... the "good clean act" after Janet Jackson...

I can give you that HEY JUDE was amazing... but the song itself its great... but "get back"?... a lousy "helter skelter" (if I recall)... and I don't know what else...


McCartney is the worst off all the ones I've seen... even No Doubt/Sting were better

Aerosmith/Nsync/Britney/Run DMC were far better

even the worst Rolling Stones performance (with Keith playing like he didn't care) was better (just for Mick... he MADE the show)



I don't know...

U2
Prince
Rolling Stones
Aerosith/Nsync
No Doubt/Sting
McCartney

I didn't watched Janet/Justin or the first I wanted to see, KISS in 97 or 98, I think
 
I never saw prince perform (isnt superbowl softies playin rugby?) But i thought u2's performance at it was one of worst i have witnessed. I was cringing all the way thro MLK. Dont care wat anyone says...thats my opinion
 
rather be a 6ft 5 280 Lbs man running full tilt at equally well built man fully padded than be a similar sized man running at another of same dimensions WITHOUT padding!!
 
gman said:
rather be a 6ft 5 280 Lbs man running full tilt at equally well built man fully padded than be a similar sized man running at another of same dimensions WITHOUT padding!!
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I give you a :up: for fitting that into one sentence.
 
Prince was great, but U2's was the best SuperBowl halftime show ever.

youtube.com/profile?user=AcoU2sticMike
 
Prince was great, but U2's was the best SuperBowl halftime show ever.

youtube.com/profile?user=AcoU2sticMike
 
Prince was great, but U2's was the greatest Superbowl halftime show ever.

It was one of the greatest moments in musical history as a matter of face.

youtube.com/profile?user=AcoU2sticMike
 
MrsSpringsteen said:
I thought Prince was awesome. It appears that all Super Bowl halftimes are all being "scripted" in the same way now-crowd running and acting in the same staged way, same sort of general themes, etc. I liked the covers mixed in and the energy. As for comparing it to U2, apples and oranges. I don't think U2 could have been like Prince in light of the more somber tone of theirs-for that reason it had to be more "scripted". U2 isn't like Prince anyway, but they are both very good live performers.
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Prince was better. Just say who you like better.
 
BrownEyedBoy said:
People are now giving the sillhouette part a different connotation... Is EVERYTHING sexual these days?
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Honey, guitars have always been phallic. ;)
 
I don't think you can really compare U2 and Prince, since they are so different.

I guess you could say U2's performance was more meaningful, but Prince is such a great performer and musical genius. I wasn't crazy about the marching band at first, but then I got into it. I just wish he had performed more of his own songs instead of other people's.

I didn't even notice the "suggestive" shioulette until someone pointed it out to me!
 
:crack:


capt.sge.phi50.060207003112.photo00.photo.default-512x341.jpg



Prince's halftime imagery questioned

By JAKE COYLE, AP Entertainment WriterTue Feb 6, 11:16 PM ET

In the sensitive post-wardrobe malfunction world, some are questioning whether a guitar was just a guitar during Prince's Super Bowl halftime show.

Prince's acclaimed performance included a guitar solo during the "Purple Rain" segment of his medley in which his shadow was projected onto a large, flowing beige sheet. As the 48-year-old rock star let rip, the silhouette cast by his figure and his guitar (shaped like the singer's symbol) had phallic connotations for some.

A number of bloggers have decried "Malfunction!" — including Sam Anderson at New York magazine's Daily Intelligencer. Daily News television critic David Bianculli called it "a rude-looking shadow show" that "looked embarrassingly rude, crude and unfortunately placed."

CBS spokesman Dana McClintock said Tuesday that the network has received "very few" complaints on Prince's performance. CBS last aired the Super Bowl in 2004 when Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's "wardrobe malfunction" sparked criticism and a subsequent crackdown on broadcast decency from the Federal Communications Commission.

But this time, it was the NFL that produced the halftime show (MTV had in 2004). Spokesman Greg Aiello said the league has received no complaints.

"We respect other opinions, but it takes quite a leap of the imagination to make a controversy of his performance," Aiello said. "It's a guitar."

The majority of the reaction to Prince's performance has been laudatory, including positive reviews from The Associated Press, the New York Times and USA Today — all of which noted the lack of controversy in this year's halftime show. AP Entertainment Writer Douglas J. Rowe wrote: "He delivered one of the best Super Bowl halftime shows — ever."

For decades, the electric guitar, by nature, has been considered phallic. From Jimi Hendrix's sensual 6-string swagger to Eddie Van Halen's masturbatory soloing, the guitar has often been thought an extension of a male player's sexuality.

Was Prince's pose phallic?

"The short answer is, of course it is," says Rolling Stone magazine contributing editor Gavin Edwards, who points out that on Prince's "Purple Rain" tour in the mid `80s, he performed with a guitar that would ejaculate, squirting water out of its end during the climax of "Let's Go Crazy."

"All that said, it didn't seem like a sniggering little puppet show," adds Edwards. "I think it was one of those things because a guitar at waist level does look like an enormous phallus."

By enlarging his shadow, it's possible Prince intended to accentuate this aspect of his solo, but it's just as likely it was accidental. (You can find videos of the halftime show at YouTube.com.) A message left with Prince's publicist Tuesday wasn't returned.

The late-night shows have taken notice. On CBS's "The Late Late Show" on Sunday night, host Craig Ferguson said of Prince: "He was obviously very happy to be there, wasn't he?"

Stephen Colbert reacted with mock outrage on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" Monday night: "They knew that they were dealing with a lustful, pansexual rock 'n' roll deviant," said Colbert, who joked that the sheet hid (not enhanced) Prince's "demonic guitar phallus."

In recent years, Prince has scaled down his performances, which were once renown for their gymnastics. His mini-concert at the Colts-Bears game in Miami included parts of "Purple Rain," "Let's Go Crazy," "Baby I'm a Star," Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," the Foo Fighter's "Best of You" and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary."

The Minnesota native has attracted controversy before. Tipper Gore launched a campaign to place a warning sticker on his 1984 album "Purple Rain" because of the lyrics to the song "Darling Nikki." Though his musical style has been expansive, he's best known for funky, sexually charged songs like "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "Get Off."

Prince's previously most talked-about performance came at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, where he donned yellow, butt-baring pants, (a stunt later spoofed by Howard Stern). Always eccentric, he famously changed his name to The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, then to simply a symbol and finally back to Prince. He also became a Jehovah's Witness in the mid-`90s.

But Prince's halftime performance, though celebrated, came in a much different cultural environment, where even the fleeting outline of a man and his guitar could, for some, suggest shaded depravity.

"If people want to be hypersensitive, they can be hypersensitive," says Rolling Stone's Edwards. "Those trombones are phallic, too. What are you going to do?"
 
Were they seriously suprised that prince's show contained sexual overtones?? Thats like bookin hugh heffner then complainin theres was gals wi their tatti boobs hanging out!
 
gman said:
rather be a 6ft 5 280 Lbs man running full tilt at equally well built man fully padded than be a similar sized man running at another of same dimensions WITHOUT padding!!
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no one's questioning the "toughness" of rugby players... you're the one who's calling american football players "softies" because of their pads, when it couldn't be further from the truth. the pads in football were first introduced because too many people were dying from football related injuries. do a youtube search on "joe theisman lawrence taylor" and tell me how "soft" they are.
 
Geez man...give it up. It was a tongue in cheek comment. If it makes ya feel better, american footballers are the toughest, bravest, most athletic individuals on the planet! There ya go.
 
Two completely different performances but even as a huge U2 fan, I have to say I preferred the Prince performance.

I'm not saying that I love everything he has ever done but the fact remains that he is just an awesome talent. A brilliant musician.

I remember seeing him play to 80,000 people for two and a half hours at Wembley Stadium and then turn up at the after show party (held at a club sized venue) with his band and play another, completely different 2+ hour show. What a night that was.
 
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