I am from a small town in the South and my co-conspirator, Mr. Sweetypants is from a factory town in Engerlund. I've written before about how we talk different. (That's not a typo, it's vernacular.)
We celebrate our diversity and each other's heritage and background. Not regularly; we usually just sit around making fun of each other. From time to time, we play the "How do you pronounce this?" game, wherein one of us writes a word, asks the other to say it and then ridicules his or her laughable mispronunciation.
So I was sitting here at the computer, minding my own business last night when Mr. Sweetypants thrust a piece of paper in my face. It read: Controversy.
"Con-TRO-vers-y," I said. "Not Cahn-trahv-ers-y, you silly person."
Except I didn't say "person." I said (sang, actually) another word, one from "Sexy MF" because I have been in love with Prince since I was a tween and "Controversy" is the best. song. ever.
Prince. He is one sexy person. "1999" came out when I was in the 8th grade and I got weird feelings every time I saw the "Little Red Corvette" video. The next year, when I was 14 and too young to see an R-rated movie on my own, I got my aunt to take me to see "Purple Rain." Then I swooned at dances in the school cafeteria my freshman year in high school when the dj played "Purple Rain" as the slow jam.
It only got better. "Sign o' the Times" came out when I was old enough to drive and I tore that cassette up in my bitchin' Camaro. My girlfriends and I, during our freshman year in college, ran squealing onto the dance floor at the club every time "Hot Thing" was played. And we did the same thing four years later, when we were official young professionals, when "Gett Off" came on.
In 1997, Prince announced a tour of "surprise" shows, wherein tickets went on sale seven days in advance. I was shocked -- SHOCKED -- to hear one of the shows would be in Raleigh. So I called my best friend Michael and we agreed to buy two sets of tickets, like we'd always done for Lollapalooza, and sell the lesser seats whichever one of us ended up with.
At 10 that Friday morning, in the days before online buying, we both called and got tickets. I called Michael afterward. "I got 7th row!!!!" he proclaimed jubilantly. "That's cool," I said calmly, "But I got FRONT ROW!!!!"
That's right. We sat in the front row for Prince on a greatest hits tour. No "Here's one from the new album" giving us a reason to go to the bathroom or concession stands. It was Prince, feet away from us, performing the songs we grew up with and loved. When he slapped Michael's hand, our other friend grabbed Michael's hand and put it on her boob.
So, vicariously, Prince touched my girlfriend's boob. And she gets to think about it every day for the rest of her life when she's getting dressed. I too, took home something Prince touched, and it's been on my refrigerator ever since.
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1 comment:
A few thoughts...
- When I read 'Engerlund,' I started singing "...in Engerlund, born and bred, and 18th century brain in a 21st century head.'
- I can't remember what year I was in college when Sign O' The Times came out, but the day it did, we road tripped to the biggest town near my Missouri school so my friend could buy the cassette (which wasn't available at the Easters grocery/home goods store in college town). I remember HATING it. Being FORCED to endure it on the ride back to campus. My, how quickly that changed. I still have it on regular rotation in the minivan!
- That same friend and I went to see Prince in concert. On a school night! We drove hours from our college campus to another college town in Iowa to sit in crappy seats, hanging over a ledge, and went down, down, down, 'cause that's the only way, to make this cruel, cruel world hear what we gotta say along with Prince.
When he was getting ready to release this new album, I watched his performances on Leno. The last evening, when he played outdoors in front of a crowd, you could see nothing but this sea of middle age (sigh...) white cube dwellers standing around while he sang the new stuff, waiting, just waiting, for him to bust out with Purple Rain or Little Red Corvette. The man is still awesome, but we'll never let him out of that fantastic (funktastic!) box we've put him into
In the meantime, I'll be standing by the bar, mmm, I'll be lookin' alright...
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