Prince, Clifford Brown and Big Black- so-so video, great clips

Ah, YouTube... how else would we non-football fans (hey, it's a fake sport... unlike wrestling) catch Prince's half-time show. Sure, his medley stayed back in the 80's and he dared to take on "Proud Mary" and "All Along the Watchtower" but he's part of the tradition now and deserves a place there- if I was there, I'd be waving my cell phone in the air during "Purple Rain" too. Also, maybe because of his religious beliefs or a panic-stricken NFL, he didn't have any wardrobe malfunctions (bet the FCC would dying to see that). Also, as you can tell from the clip, he's still a helluva performer- along with Springsteen, he puts on the best shows I've ever seen and I'd definitely catch him again.

But if you're in the mood for a little more nostaglia and video clips with not-so-great visuals, there's two other great ones on YouTube. First, there's a mid-50's excerpt from the Soupy Sales show with trumpeter Clifford Brown (who died at age 25) where he's playing his heart out, chatting with Soupy and playing out the show while the Soupster does a wacky dance.



Then there's a clip from Touch and Go Record's 25th Anniversary last September. As part of a few once-in-a-lifetime reunions, there was Big Black with Steve Albini. Again, this video of "Racer X" ain't great quality but just to see and hear this is a treat.



As Albini notes in the clip, there's a lot of people that forget what was happening between punk and Nirvana during the 80's. This video is a nice reminder of that. The two other songs they did for the brief set are also posted but not as vital as the one above: "Cables" and "Dead Billy." Also note all the cameras near the front, frantically trying to snap a picture of this piece of history.