Filed under: Black Music Month
Today Prince turns 53-years-old, which is as good a reason as any to go back to one of my favorite moments in his very long and illustrious career.
Anyone who has followed the Super Bowl halftime show throughout the years knows the National Football League designates this time to celebrate the more conservative side of America. When the NFL tried to get risque in 2004 by asking Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake to perform together there ended up being a "wardrobe malfunction," causing many conservatives to have a field day. So for the next two years the NFL played it safe ,inviting Paul McCartney in 2005 and The Rolling Stones in 2006.
When the news broke that Prince was going to perform in 2007 at Super Bowl XLI, those who remembered what happened with Jackson and Timberlake snickered. If they thought those two artists were controversial, wait until they got a load of the man who wrote the lyrics to the song "Insatiable Lover" and wore high heels without shame.
But as you can see below, Prince's performance ended up being decent enough that I'm pretty sure no parents had to put their hands over their children's eyes. There was the unintentional comedy of him wearing a hair net the entire time, and the questionably phallic moment of the silhouette he cast as he rocked out during his guitar solo on "Purple Rain." But other than that, Prince's halftime show is a landmark moment in his career. It proved no matter how controversial and racy he has been throughout the years, Prince Rogers Nelson's music is an American treasure.