As is well known by now, Prince doesn’t have a particularly high opinion of the Internet. In the past decade, he’s sued YouTube, kept his music off every streaming service but one, and made something of a second career in claiming copyright infringement.
One of the more tragic consequences of this technophobia is the near-impossibility of finding online footage of Prince’s live performances—few of which are as mythologized as his cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” at the 2008 Coachella music festival. At the time, the singer immediately took down all videos of the performance, and uploads have appeared only intermittently since.
Until now, that is. On Monday, Prince tweeted a link to a YouTube video of the performance, suggesting that he’s fine with its existence. Which is good, because this cover is a small, eight-minute miracle: It captures all the stage presence and vocal wizardry that make Prince such a complete performer, and adds, for good measure, three or four guitar solos that are better than most artists’ entire sets. Enjoy:
Previously
Every Prince Hairstyle From 1978 to 2013, in One Chart
Questlove Remembers the Time He Went Roller-Skating With Prince
