This all gets down to a point I didn’t understand to my early 20s. Some musicians view music as an art, some view it as entertainment.

I guess I realized that when I started hanging out with a musician (or wanna-be musician depending on your point of view) and he pointed out to me the showmanship aspect of it all. I think we were talking about Prince at the time.

It got me thinking…some musician do view it as a show to be performed. Others view it as an artist views a painting.

I’m not picking a side here, as both types of music are appropriate. I like the show, but I also like the art.

As long as the “show” is quality music, I’m on board.

Prince: I’m not dissing Prince, I’m a fan of his music. My wife is a BIG prince fan.

Which reminds me of a time 10 yrs back when we were in a hole-in-the-wall bar in SF. We’ve met all sorts of Europeans in that place and we’re not shy, we’ve struck up conversations with them – it’s fun!

Anyway, we are at this bar in SF and the band starts playing Willie Nelson. My wife goes nuts. The singer goes “I see we got a little Willie fan in the audience.” as he looks at my wife. Without missing a beat, my wife replies “no, I’m a BIG Willie fan!” knowing full well what she just said. The band had no comeback.