Re: Keith's guest entry, I'm siding with Keith.

I'm not a HUGE prince fan, but I admit that he has talent (I mean, c'mon, he wrote Kiss! Tom Jones sang that!). However, when he changed his name to that symbol (which means Prince, doesn't it?) I remember thinking that he'd sunk to new levels of pretension.

Basically, I think that he changed his name to the symbol, it was an attempt to grab headlines, make more money and be weird. Now, however many years later, he tells everyone that he was protesting slavery by his record company. Ummm, no, buddy, try protesting by actually protesting! Make some noise! Being vague is no way to protest anything, and neither is changing your name.

So anyway, I'm just venting, but I'd like to hear some other oppinions. Is Prince full of crap, or was he being legit?

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2000

Answers

I too found it interesting that Prince only now is being vocal about the fact that changing his name to the symbol was all about protesting record company slavery. At the time he changed it, I don't remember hearing anything about that.

Also, I've been thinking, and I think I agree with Keith, too. He made a good point that, while record companies are big swindlers, they also have the ability to turn nobody bands into big stars, and if those bands sign crappy contracts, they know what they're getting into. I still maintain that it shouldn't have to be that way, but yeah, I think Prince's thing was probably more a publicity stunt than a genuine effort to protest.

Did that make sense?

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2000

I agree, Jan. I think he changed his name to notPrince because he thought it was cool and/or for the publicity. Now it seems he has finally realised how stupid it is, and is saying it was done as a protest. Bzzt.

I actually get a big kick out of hearing "poor" Prince whining. It's like hearing these poor millionaires crying about their money problems. Wanna trade places?

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2000

LoL.. Prince was "enslaved"? Every single time I read that I laugh. So I'm assuming if Prince was a woman, he'd have used the term "raped"? I just can't buy the whole image of Prince being enslaved.. as far as his little symbol thing goes.. I think he officially "jumped the shark" (www.jumptheshark.com) when he changed his name to some stupid symbol.

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2000