Posted on 05/09/2015 8:06:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
(AUDIO-AT-LINK)
In a sly way, Prince has always been a political artist. Like Marcel Duchamp upending the art world with his readymades, he stormed the pop scene courting controversy, but always with a wink. Like Bob Dylan throwing down signs in the video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues," he sent out messages – some of them explicit, as in his anti-nuclear plea "Ronnie Talk To Russia" and the more recent call to the streets, "MARZ" – but scrambled them in ways that made them both poetic and prophetic. Like Jimi Hendrix, he's made bold statements within a veil of feedback and funk. Most of all, like his role model George Clinton, he's created a utopian space where partying allows for transcendence that eliminates all –isms and makes us the best people we can be.
Now, with "Baltimore," Prince is trying on a different protest singer's hat — he's playing funky Pete Seeger, leading chants and rousing hearts to inspire activism in a specific place and time. This song personalizes its call for armistice with names we've all come to know, names that press upon our hearts. "Does anybody hear us pray for Michael Brown or Freddie Gray?" Prince sings before offering a philosophical zinger: "Peace is more than the absence of a war." The chant that anchors "Baltimore" is contemporary, too — not "We Shall Overcome," but "No Justice, No Peace," which arose in response to hate crimes in the 1980s and resonates in Ferguson, Staten Island and Sandtown today. And the song ends with what sounds like a newscaster's fearful mention of a "developing situation in Los Angeles," placing this call for love, reconciliation and respect within a timeline that starts with the L.A. Riots and which lasts another painful day every time a citizen is felled by police.
It's confrontational stuff. But this is Prince, so "Baltimore" is truly a Sly protest – that is, in the style of Sly and the Family Stone, specifically the band's early, joyful, genre-obliterating anthems like "Everyday People." Prince and 3RDEYEGIRL very clearly present music as a path toward the peace for which they long, as well as a means of protest in itself. Prince's guitar solos here blend quick, hopeful licks with poignant, grounding blue notes; near the end, a rock and roll bassline mingles with gospel-choir vocals, turning the song's California sunniness into something more incendiary. At its peak, "Baltimore" presents itself as a new "Dancing in the Streets" — a song that offers a brand new beat in the name of real change.
DOES ANYBODY HEAR US PRAY? 4 MICHAEL BROWN OR FREDDIE GRAY PEACE IS MORE THAN THE ABSENCE OF WAR ABSENCE OF WAR
R WE GONNA C ANOTHER BLOODY DAY? WE’RE TIRED OF CRYIN’ & PEOPLE DYIN’ LET’S TAKE ALL THE GUNS AWAY
ABSENCE OF WAR – U AND ME MAYBE WE CAN FINALLY SAY ENUFF IS ENUFF IT’S TIME 4 LOVE
IT’S TIME 2 HEAR, IT’S TIME 2 HEAR
THE GUITAR PLAY! (guitar solo)
This Prince is actually a Joker in a 51 card deck.
tryin to likn prince to Bob Dylan is pretty laughable
see also:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3288084/posts
Wow! Love this stuff/s WTF?
Yeesh.
I swear the little smurf dude is devolving.
That’s even lamer than his last “work”.
Hey Prince..here’s an idea, how about YOU tell YOUR armed security team to disarm, walk around the streets of Compton for a week, UNARMED with no one around you, ya know, just like the average folk, and see what happens
Dear Ann:
Buy a good meat slicer because only Oscar Mayer puts out more baloney than you.
Anybody wanna hazard a guess as to how many weapons the Baltimore princess has?
He should start with foreign language versions —
Russian, German, Chinese, ...
Lets not. Lets arm the gunless against thugs of all colors.
Great guitarist, complete liberal idiot.
Meanwhile two more officers were killed today(In Mississippi) I presume Prince won’t be having a song about their brutal murders in his next album
I honestly hope they keep this stupidity up. It’s just POing the millenials.
Here’s the one thing that people scoff at (many anyway) but needs to be considered with all the anti gun crap. The Dem voter base LIVES in these places. Including the non thug variety. They see for themselves the feral crime and killing. All the gun sales aren’t going to old white men.
There are two things millenials hate above all. Being told what to do and having their toys taken away. At least that’s been my experience with them. So when faced with “We want your $500 possession/protection from the ferals we empower and you’re on your own,” It’s not going to translate to Democrat votes like they think it will.
And the dems will be making gun control one of if not THE primary issue to ‘fix’ cities like Baltimore, Chicago and Detroit. The math isn’t favoring dems. Illegal voters and dead people or not.
Missing the Ace of Hearts... sigh
This is what the left wants..cops dead and criminals with the guns..notice they don’t demand the gang members or the criminals give up their guns, just law abiding citizens..that is what they want, us unarmed so they can kill us meanwhile the criminal scum will be protected
npr lol do they have to be SO predictable?
Good luck taking them from the Bloods and Crips.
Well they can’t place such hardship on their poor downtrodden can they? that wouldn’t be fair...
Good to know his body guards don’t carry, right?
Well, he doesn’t have to worry about copyright infringement. It’s an impossible song to play since you spend all your time face palming.
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