News of Prince's cover of Radiohead's "Creep" from Coachella this year has traveled far and wide, but somehow the controversy around it has only just now kicked up. The basic facts: Prince is ridiculously stingy about the amount footage from his concerts and his overall image on the internet (he shut down his website and declared war on eBay and YouTube over his material). Prince covered Radiohead's breakout hit. Video of said performance hit the web, as a reasonable person might expect would happen. Prince's label has squashed nearly every video of the show, citing a copyright violation.
Problem is, Prince doesn't own the rights to the song. Thom Yorke does. Based on Radiohead's attitudes toward digital content, a reasonable person would suggest that Radiohead wouldn't mind the video's existence. Thom Yorke recently said so in an interview. And yet, footage of the video is still getting stomped on by NPG. That said...
I post the video on the following grounds:
1) Prince doesn't own the rights to "Creep". Thom Yorke has more or less given the video his blessing
2) This material was filmed by a fan in attendance at the concert. Again, Prince has no grounds here.
3) It is true that Prince owns the right to his image, and if he really wants to be a dick about it, he can impose a draconian code on how that image is transmitted. But if you can watch the video above and positively identify that the man on stage is Prince and not just a guy in a bright white suit singing (the wrong lyrics to) Radiohead's "Creep", then maybe there's grounds. In my view, no video I've found gets a good enough look to tell Prince from Michael Jackson circa 1981.
(Wait...you mean people at the concert couldn't make that distinction either? Oh...)
This is a very interesting situation for all the reasons above, but there's one fatal flaw: save for the mildly interesting-but-too-long guitar solo, Prince's version sucks. It's just a subpar performance of a song that Radiohead has all but disavowed. I don't know what Prince was trying to accomplish in covering the track, but what he's done is piss off the general internet-saavy, music-enjoying public. Smooth.
If you REALLY want it, here's the MP3.
Prince - Radiohead (Live @ Coachella)
==TJ==
PS If the video goes away (as it probably will sooner or later), just search 'Prince Creep' on YouTube and another video will inevitably surface.
Monday, June 2, 2008
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1 comment:
interesting point!
Thanks for your stubborness (equalled only by that of the artist -formerly known as- but once again known as- Prince)
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