Everyone knows that I have long been a fan of Prince and purple music. As a matter of fact, this blog came about because I abandoned my other blog that was dedicated to the Purple One. When I abandoned the Playground, I decided then that I would not blog about Prince here. But that was then and this is now (hopefully he won't sue me for borrowing a lyric). Prince has recently been back in the international spotlight with his band 3rdEyeGirl and the simultaneous release of their album 'Plectrum Electrum' with his "solo" album 'Art Official Age'. I'm not going to critique the albums here but I do wonder about the look of both. I wonder if the logo of 3rdEyeGirl and the cover of Prince's album were influenced by George Clinton? We all know that P borrows from others and I think that maybe he borrowed from Dr. Funkenstein with 3EG and AOA. This is not some kind of conspiracy theory or some type of derogatory rant. It is simply me thinking way too much which usually causes me to end up with some rambling post like this. Anyway, I digress. So, to get us started, let me digress even more.
[Cue up dreamy flashback music]
So a couple of years ago, I actually stumbled upon an interesting bit of information about an unreleased song by P that he had been including in his act for years. The song was called 'Electric Man' and he would often include it at the end of various songs live (For example, he would often include it at the end of 'The Question of U' during the Nude Tour). So for years, all of us wanted to hear the studio version of this song if there was one. Then one day while digging through the crates, I came across a Muddy Waters album entitled 'Unk in Funk' from 1974. On this album is a song called 'Electric Man' and I thought, "Wow, what a coincidence." Then when I listened to it, I realized it was the same song Prince was playing. Prince was only using the first verse but it was the exact same song. I shared my discovery with the folks over at the Org and it even led to some info being changed on the Prince Vault. I'm not bragging but I was sort of proud that I could finally supply some information to the Purple Army that no one else had discovered yet (well, at least if they had they hadn't shared it).
[End dreamy flashback music]
Now, this isn't a breakthrough like 'Electric Man' (if that can count as a breakthrough) but I thought this was interesting. I was watching a movie called 'Finding the Funk' and when they were talking to George Clinton, they showed some interesting pictures. They were George with a third eye in the middle of his forehead. When I saw it, I was like, "WTF?!?!?!" There is even a picture of George with sunglasses with a third lens. Hmm... where have I seen that before? Here are two pics from the movie.
Now, I'm not saying that Prince stole the idea of the album cover or anything like that. I would like to think that he is actually paying homage to Brother George and the P-Funk legacy. And did Prince maybe get the concept for 3rdEyeGirl from George? Was it a collaboration from back in the day? Is it all just coincidence (which I don't believe in at all)? Is this just me trying to stir the pot? Who actually knows the answers besides P and he ain't talking. Anyway, I just thought this was interesting. What do you think?
