*** - a photo on Flickriver

***

after a run of a few glorious sunny days we are back into a short stint of rain and wind which gives me well appreciated downtime not having to garden , mow, paint the fence, dig clay out, do stuff ... so I re-read a few bits written earlier for altogether different purpose and I felt an urge to let them out, let them walk about and see other people ...

so let's make it "Show But Tell" series.
because words have nothing to do with the image.
or do they?

belated tribute to Sinead

Prince for me is the artist, musician #1 of the last 50 years, no contest. Nobody touches Prince as a performer, musician, guitar artist. Trying to cover a Prince track is a reckless endeavor. Certain things you simply do not go near. Nobody ever succeeded to do justice to a Prince track let alone doing it better. It is humanly impossible.

With one exception.

It takes a mad as a box of frogs Irish girl to make Prince's song her own and leave Prince no chance to ever reclaim his song back.

The video of a strikingly beautiful girl with eyes of a movie star from the black and white era of Hollywood and a shaved head, dressed in a black cape, a reversed monk getup. Hollywood glamour meets monk-punk. This clip was on heavy rotation on MTV in 1990. It seemed it would play once an hour. And every time it played I could not take my eyes off that girl, mesmerized, transfixed by her face and her voice. She looked straight into your eyes delivering percussive phrases, barely singing, with "2U" landing in a strange, bordering on dissonant, place.

At the time I didn't know it was a Prince song. Years later when my admiration to Purple Rain album developed into a full-on obsession with anything done by Prince I heard a few live recordings of him doing the number. This was the only time when I was ever disappointed in Prince. Every time I heard him going at it, with enthusiastic audience reception, I was left feeling "I'd rather hear her instead". It also felt like he accepted his defeat from Sinead. He saw that he could not possibly surpass sheer desperate intensity she'd put into the song. So he often offered a somewhat ironic, almost tongue-in-cheek delivery, exchanging a joke with the audience singing a line back to him:"I can eat my dinner in a fancy restaurant"
"Oh, yeah?!"

Prince trying to charm the crowd with his delivery could never work after Sinead's short sharp shock of each line.

Sinead has gone on to prove that she was quite as mad and quite as great as the clip suggested. I have her records are on constant rotation including records in Irish. It takes a remarkable singer and performer to compel you to listen to songs in a language you don't understand.

I never knew what kind of relationship, if any, Sinead had with Prince. What led to her singing the song? Have they ever met? Then her memoirs surfaced painting her fiery encounter with Prince ending up with her spitting on him.

If it wasn't true I still choose to think it was.

It takes a mad genius to spit on Prince.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-EF60neguk

Taken on: September 16, 2023

Sets appears in: • minimum • Show But Tell more » • 2023 • This is not a bird photo ! ... « less

Groups appears in: • Black and White • B&W more » • Minimalism • New Zealand photography • Minimalist art • Flickritis: over 87,000 waiting for a vaccine. • Lonely Planet • Noir & Blanc. • Life in Black & White • B+W • Black & White Digital • B/W ... the world in black and white • FELT LIFE • The New Zealand Photographers Group • Who needs Colors?! • A Shot a Day ... Or So • New Zealand Black and White • White/Black • Tu mundo Blanco......Y negro. • world in B&W • New Zealand in Black and White • Best of Black & White • Elegantly Minimal • New Zealand Group(Anything taken in New Zealand) • L'arte del Bianco e Nero • Black & White Done Right !. • Bianco & Nero - Black & White • ART PHOTOGRAPHERS Salon • Bianco e nero passion • New Zealand on Flickr • my life is a picture... • Minimalist Photography 101 • GRAIN - B+W photography magazine • B/W Club • Black&White Photo Group • The Heavy Collective submission pool • Art of Monochrome • Amateur Photographer Magazine • This is Why I Bought A Camera • Today's Flickr • Uncomplicated and Uncluttered • Senses - Black and White • EYE-Photo Magazine Black & White • Mansfield Smith-Cumming & his black and white memories • b/w instantanέ « less

Camera: Canon EOS 70D, f/36.0, 1/200 sec, 85mm, ISO 320 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 70D
Lens:	EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM
Aperture:	f/36.0
Exposure Time:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Focal Length:	85mm
ISO:	320
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Shutter speed priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Partial
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 12.3 (Windows)
Show full info

Stats: 1,157 views / 4 comments

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: