Prince on SNLI caught Prince perform on SNL this past week and I was reminded what an incredible talent he is. I’ve always known the guy could write music, and he’s got amazing vocal range, but what really impressed me in this performance was his guitar chops. The guy was just flat out amazing on his first song “Fury”.

As is to be expect with Prince the appearance was not without its idiosincracies (I had to check the spelling on that one). After completing his first song he left the guitar on the stage ringing feedback and quickly exited before the applause could get rolling. My wife reminded me of Kevin Smith’s Prince story on the “An Evening with Kevin Smith” DVD where Smith recounted in detail his trip to Prince’s ranch to film a video that never saw the light of day. Highlights include Prince’s assistant informing Smith that Prince lives in Prince world (which means he expects that if he wants a llama at 2AM in the morning in Minnesota, that this is not an unreasonable request) and Smith speculating on how Prince plays basketball.

Unfortunately in Prince’s case the craziness has taken away from the music. Seeing Prince on SNL reminded how inaccessible he’s been in recent years. His public image bordering on Michael Jackson territory. Some may argue that he’s simply been off his game musically, though his performance on SNL was certainly eye opening for me. Hopefully his increasing public presence and Universal’s promotion of his upcomming album, 3121, will pull things together for him. Though the fact that I can’t find a public website for the guy, NPG Music Club, was the best I could do ($25 bucks to get access? All I wanted was some recent Prince news).