Super Bowl Halftime Complaints, 2007 edition

I know I'm getting to this at least a week too late, but give me a break. I've been busy with... laziness.

Anyway, I have a couple points to make about Prince's Super Bowl halftime show.

Let's start with this one. I'm using FOX News' article about it because they had the best picture of it. First of all, yes, it has "phallic connotations," and yes, it was probably intentional. Who cares? If you looked at that and saw a giant guitar-penis, that says more about you than about Prince or anybody else. I highly doubt that any young children had that thought upon seeing it. What's the big deal? What the hell year is this? 1955? I thought we were living in the era where nothing is offensive anymore, not when paranoid prudes make a big deal out of seeing dicks everywhere.

It's also giving people an opportunity to use the irritating euphemism "wardrobe malfunction" again. (On an unrelated note, most people seem to have forgotten that the originator of that ridiculous term was none other than Justin Timberlake.) I can't even express how annoying that first sentence is: "In the sensitive post-wardrobe malfunction world..." ARGH!

Second, most things I read about while goofing around on the 'net seem to be pretty unanimous in declaring that Prince delivered the best Super Bowl halftime show ever.

My question is: really? I mean, first of all, that's a backhanded compliment at best, since for most of its history (or what we might call "the pre-wardrobe malfunction world") the halftime shows have been things like star-laden medleys featuring Britney Spears singing with Aerosmith (Super Bowl XXXV), or the Grambling State University Band (Super Bowl II), or "The Walt Disney World Small World Tribute to 25 Years of the Super Bowl" (Super Bowl XXV, duh).

But was Prince better than, say Paul McCartney in Super Bowl XXXIX? I was pretty underwhelmed by Prince, to be honest. To be sure, the dude can shred like no other, but to what end? Covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival, a Bob Dylan song that Jimi Hendrix has owned since 1969, and, of all things, the Foo Fighters? Sure, the "Purple Rain" in the rain finale was pretty cool, but how cool would it have been if it hadn't rained? And was that better than 60,000 people singing along with "Hey Jude?"

Admittedly, I am indifferent to most of Prince's music (for reasons I'm not going into right now), and I am staunch McCartney fan (even though I think he's an a-hole), so I'm not an unbending pole of neutrality here. And of course, Prince's performance was worlds better than the dreadful show the Rolling Stones put on last year. But I know a good performance when I see it, and Prince was good, but not mind-blowing.