Decency can only go so far

[Slappie 9]

I think it's really getting out of hand now. I'm starting to wonder just what is going on in this country. No wonder the rest of the world looks at the USA and scratches it's head and laughs.

Story here

Controversy raised over Prince performance at the Super Bowl.

Prince's acclaimed performance included a guitar solo during the "Purple Rain" segment of his medley in which his shadow was projected onto a large, flowing beige sheet. As the 48-year-old rock star let rip, the silhouette cast by his figure and his guitar (shaped like the singer's symbol) had phallic connotations for some.

A number of bloggers have decried "Malfunction!" — including Sam Anderson at New York magazine's Daily Intelligencer. Daily News television critic David Bianculli called it "a rude-looking shadow show" that "looked embarrassingly rude, crude and unfortunately placed."

CBS spokesman Dana McClintock said Tuesday that the network has received "very few" complaints on Prince's performance. CBS last aired the Super Bowl in 2004 when Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's "wardrobe malfunction" sparked criticism and a subsequent crackdown on broadcast decency from the Federal Communications Commission.

But this time, it was the NFL that produced the halftime show (MTV had in 2004). Spokesman Greg Aiello said the league has received no complaints.

"We respect other opinions, but it takes quite a leap of the imagination to make a controversy of his performance," Aiello said. "It's a guitar."

The majority of the reaction to Prince's performance has been laudatory, including positive reviews from The Associated Press, the New York Times and USA Today — all of which noted the lack of controversy in this year's halftime show. AP Entertainment Writer Douglas J. Rowe wrote: "He delivered one of the best Super Bowl halftime shows — ever."

For decades, the electric guitar, by nature, has been considered phallic. From Jimi Hendrix's sensual 6-string swagger to Eddie Van Halen's masturbatory soloing, the guitar has often been thought an extension of a male player's sexuality.

Was Prince's pose phallic?

"The short answer is, of course it is," says Rolling Stone magazine contributing editor Gavin Edwards, who points out that on Prince's "Purple Rain" tour in the mid '80s, he performed with a guitar that would ejaculate, squirting water out of its end during the climax of "Let's Go Crazy."

"All that said, it didn't seem like a sniggering little puppet show," adds Edwards. "I think it was one of those things because a guitar at waist level does look like an enormous phallus."

The late-night shows have taken notice. On CBS's "The Late Late Show" on Sunday night, host Craig Ferguson said of Prince: "He was obviously very happy to be there, wasn't he?"

Stephen Colbert reacted with mock outrage on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" Monday night: "They knew that they were dealing with a lustful, pansexual rock 'n' roll deviant," said Colbert, who joked that the sheet hid (not enhanced) Prince's "demonic guitar phallus."

In recent years, Prince has scaled down his performances, which were once renown for their gymnastics. His mini-concert at the Colts-Bears game in Miami included parts of "Purple Rain," "Let's Go Crazy," "Baby I'm a Star," Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," the Foo Fighter's "Best of You" and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary."

The Minnesota native has attracted controversy before. Tipper Gore launched a campaign to place a warning sticker on his 1984 album "Purple Rain" because of the lyrics to the song "Darling Nikki." Though his musical style has been expansive, he's best known for funky, sexually charged songs like "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "Get Off."

Prince's previously most talked-about performance came at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, where he donned yellow, butt-baring pants, (a stunt later spoofed by Howard Stern). Always eccentric, he famously changed his name to The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, then to simply a symbol and finally back to Prince. He also became a Jehovah's Witness in the mid-'90s.

But Prince's halftime performance, though celebrated, came in a much different cultural environment, where even the fleeting outline of a man and his guitar could, for some, suggest shaded depravity.

"If people want to be hypersensitive, they can be hypersensitive," says Rolling Stone's Edwards. "Those trombones are phallic, too. What are you going to do?"

"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

[fallinbear 0]

the guitar has been and always will be an extension of one's self. Not literally, of course, but think about it...

How many guitarists during the high, squeakin, crazy solos are holding it like their johnson while they're busting a nut??!! I've even heard interviews from popular guitarists discussing how their instrument is like an extension of their sexual anatomy and therefore and expression of their sexual self.

But this is all stuff most have heard or thought of before. What's next? It's publicity and hype!

I don't want to make all the decisions because if I screw up, then I can't blame it on you...

[popsjumper 2]

For some people, stirring up shit is a job.

At one point. I thought it was a religious experience. I saw a cool shadow and thought it showed him nailed to a cross.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[Cudlo 0]

What I want to know is... was Prince really the best act they could dig up? That is pretty sad.

_________________________________________
"People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid." - Kierkegaard

[piisfish 135]

come on... :

1-This is Prince, all his music was always turned around eroticism
2- it is just a guitar
3-those who see a penis should seek counseling/get medication

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[dbattman 0]

They already had the Super Bowl?

[NWFlyer 2]

See here for another example of people who need to chill the fuck out.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[guppie01 0]

My theory is that the people who are crying phallic are really just VERY sexually deprived and need to get FUCKED!

just my .02...

g

"Let's do something romantic this Saturday... how bout we bust out the restraints?"
Raddest Ho this side of Jersey #1 - MISS YOU
OMG, is she okay?

[downwardspiral 0]

funny....i watched the half time show, enjoyed the silhoette performance and not once did I see anything sexual. In fact I wish I had noticed!

If you see something sexual in something that is not, donchathink that you might want to seek some form of counseling whether it be a priest or a hooker?

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[turtlespeed 212]

Quote

My theory is that the people who are crying phallic are really just VERY sexually deprived and need to get FUCKED!

just my .02...

g

Phallic!!!!!

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[shermanator 3]

well, I saw a phallis when i watched it, and it made me laugh and go.. "oh here comes the controversy"

CLICK HERE! new blog posted 9/21/08
CSA #720

[downwardspiral 0]

well two out of three specifically chosen dz.commers suggest that not only are you sexually deprived but might also want to visit a hooker.

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[Lindercles 0]

For chrissake, it's PRINCE. Has he ever done anything in his life that wasn't sexual? That dude could make doing his taxes a sexual experience. Were people actually surprised by this?

[Gato 0]

People see what they want to see.



I say, as long as we don't have to look at his nipple(s), let the boy play.

T.I.N.S.