Posted on 02/03/2014 7:23:53 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Review: Young charmer Bruno Mars brings fresh energy to familiar styles during his brief but snapped-tight set. Too bad L.A.'s own Red Hot Chili Peppers crashed the stage.
The question dominated much of the nonfootball-related chatter in the run-up to Sunday's Super Bowl: As the featured act of this year's halftime show, was Bruno Mars really up to the job of entertaining a television audience of approximately 100 million people?
The answer, it turned out, was yes. But before he could prove it, Mars had to weather a storm of skepticism. He's only 28, decades younger than other artists who've played the show recently, such as Prince and the Rolling Stones. And Mars has released only two albums, a puny songbook compared to the deep troves of Bruce Springsteen and the Who.
The singer himself seemed to acknowledge his inexperience at a news conference last week, saying the call to perform "definitely came soon" in his career. (Wary of arming his naysayers, he quickly added, "I ain't scared.")
Yet after several halftime extravaganzas touched by controversy — including the appearance of M.I.A.'s middle finger during Madonna's 2012 show and last year's performance by Beyoncé, who just weeks prior had caused an uproar by lip-synching at President Obama's second inauguration — it's easy to see why the National Football League chose Mars to headline Sunday's halftime show at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
An old-fashioned charmer with old-fashioned talent, Mars is probably the most wholesome star in Top 40 pop right now, not to mention the one whose skill set most readily overlaps with that of the legends of yesteryear. He's also deeply unlikely to flash any skin — a reassuring prospect to NFL brass still haunted by a glimpse of Janet Jackson's nipple 10 years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Bruno reminded me of a cross between Jackie Wilson and James Brown. Very talented performer. Couldn’t make out the lyrics though, so I don’t know how wholesome they are.
I couldn’t understand a word out of either bands.
I’m a 64 year old musician and old school in taste. I was prepared to hate Mars and had never heard him. He has a lot of talent and while I dislike the band of backup dancers that is now required for these types of acts, I though he was very good and very talented.
He’s been well-trained in singing, dancing and presentation. Sinatra would have liked him.
Electric bass is my main instrument and both bassists had great tone and groove.
The RHCP were meh. Flea lays down a great groove but the rap/monkey vocals leave me cold. Flea should look for a fresh band imo, but I doubt that will happen.
You know who else I got a hint of while watching Mars?
Early Ricky Ricardo.
I have been a musician for more than 50 years, graduated magna cum laude from the world renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston, been a professional theater music director, a recording producer/arranger, a booker of musicians for various gigs. I have done many hundreds of gigs and played rock, jazz, theater and function music.
My late girlfriend, with whom I shared a breathtakingly joyful mutual immersion in music, was a world renowned professional classical viola player who performed at many of the world' great performing venues (i.e. Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall), performed for 30-years with an award winning string quartet with more than 30 CDs to its credit (available on Amazon) played as a guest artist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (among others), was in the orchestra that recorded John Williams' soundtrack for Saving Private Ryan, and headed the music department at a well-known Boston area university. Through her I attended dozens of classical music concerts, and met and interacted with many of the world's finest classical players and composers living today.
So with all due respect, I am very confident in my ability to recognize talent when I see and hear it.
If you want to say that you don't care for Bruno Mars' music, that's certainly legitimate. There are many brilliant and famous jazz and classical musicians whose brilliance is undeniable, even though I don't really dig their taste and don't really care for their music.
So if you don't like Bruno Mars, that's one thing. But if after watching his performance at the Super Bowl you think he has no talent, well, with all due respect, I think your opinion about that is pretty worthless.
I’ve not played on as high a level as you and your wife, but have played for major signed acts in the dim past. Also opened for giant names and got to hear them up close.
I agree with your take.
Give Bruno some congas and have him reprise Ricky Ricardo.
I like the kid, he’s miles above most of the crap around today. If he is handled properly and handles himself properly he has a great future.
I think Bruno’s half-time show was MUCH better than anything I’ve seen at superbowl over the last couple of years. It was refreshing by comparison.
The shows of the last couple of years were in my opinion, horrid.
He started off with children singing a chorus from his song Billionaire. (Some inspirational music for the kids?) What’s up with the word “Prepare” behind them? Prepare for what?!
He then went on to sing (to the jumping teens) Locked out of Heaven...(check out those lyrics!).
Just some good, modern-day family entertainment. /s
(I’d never really heard of him, before last night...so I checked out the video at link and listened to the lyrics...then had to look them up to better *understand*. Yikes! Yes, I must be getting old. :)
Sorry, I should have written “your late girl friend” not wife. Sorry for your loss, that had to be a great union of musical souls.
So what did you think about the National Anthem?
I’d like to add that having Renée Fleming sing the National Anthem was a wonderful idea! She did a splendid job!
I totally agree. Also the music they play in the stadium is about as bad as can be.
We have come to the point where not one channel is family friendly on TV
You didn’t ask me, but I was somewhat disappointed in the anthem. Didn’t care for the slow tempo and pauses. She missed on a few notes but that could have been a monitor problem.
That said, there was good emotional content and it beat hell out of the typical Soul-Train-look-at-me crud we’ve been subjected to in the past.
Because nothing say wholesome family entertainment like a song about being banned from your girlfriend’s reproductive passage.
Admittedly, his stuff is catchy as heck....
My opinion is not worthless.
We all have opinions, and just because you have “credentials” does not mean your opinion is any better than mine.
It is a free country and we are free to have opinions.
I don't see why it has to be some musical act every year. Do some variety! Have a magic act (Penn & Teller?), a puppet show, a stand up comic, etc. Those things would probably cost less, too.
Thank you so much for your kind condolences. It truly was an extraordinary union -- obviously we shared a very sophisticated understanding of music, but being immersed in two separate worlds (jazz vs. classical) was incredibly fulfilling.
She loved jazz but didn't know much about it, and had not a clue about improvisation, which seemed to her to be a great mystery. I really enjoyed chamber music, and although I had studied orchestration and music history and had some favorite pieces, I couldn't really say I had a deep understanding. Obviously I can read and write music, but I am the world's worst sight-reader, and she could instantly play anything you put in front of her. (But she was lost without a sheet of music.)
So we were able to learn so much from each other, and really open each other up to totally different musical experiences. It was just wonderful.
She was my muse and my true soul mate. I love her forever and will never stop missing her.
Thanks again for your sympathies.
Haul out a stage with props and have the cast of Seinfeld do a live “episode” of their old show. lol. Hey, its New York (well, not really but they act like it is)
Seriously is the the convention of people that love to pretend that some band they listened to 50 years ago was the apex of talented, clean, and wholesome music?
I have bad news for them, their parents equally thought those guys were trash too.
Last good halftime show was Tom Petty, last night was noise. Pigs farting would have been more entertaining.
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