Prince: No more controversy The Michigan Daily - Friday, November 9, 1984 - Page 7 x By John Logie 'MONDAY NIGHT'S Purple Rain " Revue was thought-out, rehearsed, and dynamic. In terms of performance, it would be hard to fault Prince and the Revolution. In terms of selection of material, it is easy. While many aspects of Prince's character are controversial and am- biguous, The Purple Rain Revue will eliminate one area of discussion. This tour will make it clear that Prince is A willing to embrace the audience that didn't know he existed until his "Little Y Red Corvette" and "1999" videos showed up on MTV. With this concert, Prince has shut the door on his R-rated past. It's almost as " if he recognized that mothers would be taking their thirteen year-old daughters : to this concert, and set out to convince - them that he's really not a rude boy anymore. If you've listened to that Purple Rain album and seen the movie, you've seen more than half of this concert. Prince did every song on the record except "Take Me With U." One Must wonder why he didn't do that song, a duet with Appolonia, since Appolonia did show up to bop across the stage during one of the show's long musical o interludes. Maybe the audience wanted to see a rehash of the last three years of Prince Material, but did they really want to see the exact same choreography? Monday's "Darling Nikki" was car- bon-copied from the movie, and "Little Red Corvette" was xeroxed from the video. Purple Rain matched-up down to the kiss Prince placed on guitarist Wendy's cheek. Of the fourteen songs Prince perfor- ' med, nine were from the Purple Rain ;sessions, four were from 1999 and only one from Controversy. 3 It seems that Prince no longer wants r ; to be associated with Controversy and Dirty Mind, and this is unfortunate, c since those two albums were among the most innovative and daring records to K - be released in the 70's. Prince is now a tasteful commodity, suitable for mass consumption. Prince's set was 105 minutes long, but at least forty minutes of this time was consumed by theatrical musical in- terludes, five minute absences, and hurling tambourines and flowers to the crowd. For some, especially those who happened to catch something, this may have been exciting. Teenage girls seem ed to relish the breaks in the show, and used them to scream their devotion. Anyone who has been listening to Prin- ce since Dirty Mind couldn't help but view this time as time wasted. In a tighter show, forty minutes is eight songs, and there were enough notable omissions to make Prince's use of time irksome, if not intolerable. Also bothersome was Prince's con- stant teasing of the audience. At one point he claimed he was too tired to go on, knowing damn well that this audience wasn't about to pay almost twenty dollars to see a Purple Rain Revue, and not hear him do "Purple Rain." Prince also paraded Appolonia 6 and Jerome of The Time across the stage, and one has to wonder why. It is criminal to have those people there without having them perform. As an opening act, Shiela E. demon- strated glitz and proficiency, but lacked the good humor that The Time and Vanity 6 provided in past tours. Shiela E.'s set was marred by a power outage during "Erotic City," which at first prompted boos from a confused audience. Shiela demon- strated true showmanship by working this to her advantage, returning to the stage shouting, "I ain't gonna leave Detroit without finishing my set." The audience welcomed her back, and was most appreciative of her set-closer, "The Glamorous Life." Shiela is adept, flashy, and enjoyable, but suffers from a musical sound that is nearly in- distinguishable from that of her men- tor. If Prince is, in fact, playing Svengali with Shiela, he should not leave his signature so clearly. Prince's set was pandering and in- dulgent in terms of selection. Even more surprising was the fact that DRINKING AND DRIVING CAN KILL A FRIENDSHIR Look into the one market research graduate program that all these companies are involved in: A.C. Nielsen Company Advertising Research Foundation Audits & Surveys, Inc. Burke Marketing Services Campbell Soup Co. Coca-Cola USA Custom Research Inc. Frito-Lay General Foods General Mills, Inc. Grey Advertising Kenneth Hollander Associates McDonald & Little Advertising Market Facts, Inc. Marketing & Research Counselors, Inc. MRCA Information Services Needham, Harper & Steers Advertising NFO Research, Inc. Procter & Gamble Ralston Purina Co. Sears, Roebuck SSC&B:Lintas Worldwide The Pillsbury Company Yankelovich, Skelly & White Young & Rubicam Associated Press Prince continues his concert series at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. very little in this show could termed ob- jectionable by the Moral Majority. Prince simply wasn't at all daring. He played it safe. For ninety percent of the people seeing this show, that will be just fine. This show is what they are paying to see, what they want to see, but it sure would be nice to see Prince challenge them to accept some music, some politics, some morality, and some con- troversy that they haven't yet accep- ted. Prince is an excellent live performer. My hope is that he once again will be a challenging live performer. Attack of the killer algae and it S music By Eric Mattson . Q uick! What do you think of when you think of algae? Mold? Slime? Sea creatures oozing through a swamp? Your first French kiss? Spyro Gyra? Spyro Gyra, for those of you who took "Biology for the Non-Scientist," is a one-celled green algae considered to be a universal life form. It's also the name of a jazz/rock/reggae/a-few- other-things band which appeared at Hill Auditorium Wednesday night. And, in the immortal words of me, they were y good. Damn good. Better than any jazz/rock/reggae/a-few-other things band should be allowed to be. 6 What makes Spyro Gyra unique is its The University of Georgia's Master of Marketing Research Program is truly unique. It is governed by a Board of Advisors drawn from the leaders of industry. Their personal involvement results in an outstanding program that prepares you for the real world. It's an eighteen month program that combines classroom and on- the-job research experience. It was the first and is still the finest integrated program of graduate study leading to a Master of Marketing Research degree. As you would expect, admission is selective and competition is stiff. Scholarships are available for qualifying applicants. Professor Fred D. Reynolds 122 Brooks Hall University of Georgia' Athens, Georgia 30602 Dear Sir: Please send me complete information on your MMR program. Name Street Apt. City State Zip_ L-----------------------17 willingness to experiment with all types of music. Its tight ensemble sound flows easily into a five-minute percussion solo or a marimba-keyboard duet. All seven members of the group were showcased at some point in the show, and each of them took advantage of the opportunity to vacillate somewhere between creativity and the Twilight Zone. Tim Stone's bass solo, for instance, was simply sublime. Stone fretted around until the entire audience had one collective aural orgasm. Another piece, "Laser Material," sounded like the soundtrack from a Clint Eastwood movie. I can just see the promos-"Clint Eastwood is... Laser Material. He's tough, and he carries a big gun, and he kills almost everyone with his big gun. Bang. Bang." Or something like that. Spyro Gyra's saxophonist and leader, Jay Becken- stein, played the part of Clint, except he carried an electric sax instead of a .44 magnum. Spyro Gyra's keyboardist and marimba player got together for a duet that was, well... unique. It was called "Pacific Sunrise," but it must have been an utterly bizarre sunrise. It was weird-almost alien. One might even think that the song was written under the influence of some sort of foreign substance. One might even hope that is was. In any case, it was a refreshing change from anything you would ever hear on a top-40 station, although it would be easy to go quite mad if you listened to that sort of music all the time. There were other things: an electric keyboard guitar, sax solos galore and glorious, a percussionist who danced like a banshee, amazing guitar solos, some of the most polished ensemble playing land, and a heck of a lot of fun. After Beckenstein said good night to the appreciative crowd, a standing ovation prompted the band to come back out and perform their first big hit, "Morning Dance." Beckenstein and the rest of the band obviously got into it. The only problem was that they might have been a little too into it, i.e. it was very loud. But overall, it was good. Damn good. i N . IT 5' S# Q n 4 . 4. dm. k t t b t t { } h t 5 A piano recital (ContinedfromPage6) compris at The Vermont Mozart Festival in the Bagatel Burlington, Vermont. His future Posthum engagements which include appearan- All are i ces with the symphonies of Chicago, to be a n New York, London, Budapest, and Rome are deservedly anticipated as he has been enthusiastically received all over the world and has received much critical acclaim. With that note there is not better reason than to definitely attend Rose's Sunday evening program which will be Hoodoo (Contined from Page 6) well worth looking int sed of Beethoven's Seven cert. les, Schubert's Sonata in A I've heard him, and he brings no nous, and also music of Liszt. disappointments, only favorable regard nvited to attend what is surely and concurrence. most emotionally arousing con- -Neil Galanter r the desired quotient of unpretentious danceable fun. Puff-haired lead singer Dave Fauklner was in fine tattered voice, and fellow members James J. Baker (action-packed drums), Clyde Bramley and Brad Shepherd (both of whom did pretty fine backing and lead vocals on occasion) provided equal amounts of animation. Perhaps if they were more limitedthe Gurus would at- tract a fanatical minority devotion-but it's doubtlessly better- that they manage to tread so well the fine line between slickness and grunge, never quite hitting the ecstacy button but pleasing consistently. This is a band to watch out for-they could just as easily achieve radio/MTV stardom as opt for cultdom. East Lansing's wonderfully named 22 Cave Gods opened the show with a fairly strong and varied set of power pop, with elements of funk and wavey playfulness. They started off very promisingly with a song that blended a danceable beat with perfectly on-pitch screaming and a refrain of what seemed to be South Seas mumbo jum- bo. From then on it ws basically downhill, despite good playing of a few good musical ideas. A major problem was the female lead singer, whose over- polished emoting and gesticulations could have benefitted from a lot more LIBERAL ARTS MAJORS ... You 're Needed All Over the WVorld., Ask Peace Corps volunteers why their ingenuity and flexibility are as vital as their degrees. They'll tell you they are helping the world's poorest peoples attain self sufficiency in the areas of food production, energy conservation, education, economic development and health services. And they'll tell you about the rewards of hands on career experience overseas. They'll tell you it's the toughest job you'll ever love.