Let’s be fair. This is not the worst thing Prince has ever written. If you dig around the Crystal Ball collection or The Rainbow Children for a while, you’ll find a few things more unbearable than this. Plus, the man did give us the best Super Bowl halftime show ever.
That said, is this a “fight song”? Is this supposed to rally the troops? Would this make a Vikings fanatic like, say, Drew Magary want to run through a brick wall? I’d say no. Fight songs have some energy to them. This is more like an alma mater, complete with alma mater-ish lyrical oddities.
the eyes say ready 4 battle
no need 4 sword in hand
we r all amped up like a rock n roll band
ready 2 celebrate every score
ready 2 fight the elegant war
ready 2 hear the crowd roar
that’s what we came 4 and so much more
in the name of the purple and gold
It’s a bit more modern that “Gloriana, Frangipana, e’er to her be true,” but the vibe is pretty much the same. I get more pumped up hearing Brett Favre sing “Pants on the Ground.”
Prince seems better suited toward writing party songs, love songs and the occasional socio-political commentary — no fronting on “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night,” please — than a fight song for a football team. Let’s just hope he doesn’t try to put this up against what U2 & Green Day did in New Orleans a few years ago. Bono’s a total dick about copyright, but at least he picked a song that got the crowd completely psyched:
(Hat tip to Joe Ovies for the heads-up. Video from The Huffington Post.)
