>I wonder if some of his tension with it on AI was because he was working with a genre/mentor/expectation that he doesn't really connect with
That seems likely. Even more likely, though, is that I think he was doing a lot of really careful- like, tightrope-walking careful- image management on AI. It was, after all, a mainstream popularity contest... especially in the earlier clips like Black or White and Ring of Fire and comparing it to what he does now, when he's free to really let go, I suspect he was keeping a very firm grip, like, "this far and no farther."
The concert version of RoF maybe isn't so much more shocking or over the top that the show version, but given that it's his own show on his own tour where he can do whatever the hell he likes and everyone in the audience came to see him be exactly who he wants to be- well, it certainly feels less fraught.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-06-14 10:15 pm (UTC)That seems likely. Even more likely, though, is that I think he was doing a lot of really careful- like, tightrope-walking careful- image management on AI. It was, after all, a mainstream popularity contest... especially in the earlier clips like Black or White and Ring of Fire and comparing it to what he does now, when he's free to really let go, I suspect he was keeping a very firm grip, like, "this far and no farther."
The concert version of RoF maybe isn't so much more shocking or over the top that the show version, but given that it's his own show on his own tour where he can do whatever the hell he likes and everyone in the audience came to see him be exactly who he wants to be- well, it certainly feels less fraught.