After two weeks of mounting anticipation, full-on anxiety and a teasing rehearsal clip, Prince finally landed the mothership on SNL with a little assistance from Purple disciples Lianne La Havas and 3rdEyeGirl. After a proper introduction from THE Paisley fanboy and the evening's host Chris Rock, the funky 5-piece dove into "Cloudz" with a breezy and atmospheric backdrop, before rounding off the performance with the more steel-toed rock offerings "Marz" and "Another Love." For those of us that might remember his jaw-dropping debut on the program back in 1981, this was as straightforward of an outing as you can imagine, free of the leg-warmers, androgyny and sex-soaked stage antics, but it was certainly fitting of the now 57-year-old hero of disorderly funk, But we really just wanna hear The Kid play guitar anyway, right? And boy did he deliver on that front (even though he seemed to forget to plug himself in when he picked up the axe.)
Speaking of which, did we mention that it was a no-holds-barred defiance of SNL's standard two-segment music platform? His Purple Majesty seems poised to continue bucking all the trends, even if he wasn't willing to round The Revolution up for his third appearance on NBC's flagship show. Go ahead and cap your weekend off with some high-flying-frequencies from the gawd and watch Prince take control of your computer screen for 8-minutes down below. If you want a little companion read, peep Rock's personal testimony to the GOAT- status of Purple Rain or Sheila E. on the first time she locked eyes with him and fell under his spell.
