There are few major music icons that enjoy pulling out surprise covers as much as Prince does. The Purple One regularly punctuates his live sets with popular and obscure tributes alike, and true to form, the 54-year-old musician has pulled out an equally awesome and unlikely cover with his new all-female backing band, 3rdEyeGirl.
As music news website Dr. Funkenberry reported, the Minneapolis musician turned his musical radar to Seattle during rehearsals for his upcoming North American tour with 3rdEyeGirl, jamming on Pearl Jam classic ‘Even Flow’. But rather than try his hand at mimicking Eddie Vedder’s distinctive singing, Prince instead lets his axe do the talking on a funky take on the 1991 single.
The ‘Even Flow’ cover is part of a broader guitar duel between Prince and Donna Grantis, and incorporates Aretha Franklin’s version of ‘Rock Steady’ before reprising a coda back to the Pearl Jam hit, from the band’s career-making debut, Ten. Dr. Funkenberry was even kind enough to provide audio from the band’s rehearsal sessions.
The grunge tribute perfectly aligns with the rock manifesto that Prince (currently sporting a Kravitz/Hendrix-worthy Afro) is undertaking with 3rdEyeGirl, his latest musical project that sees the prolific muso employing the talents of an all-female three-piece as his backing band to play new material, featuring the aforementioned guitarist Donna Gratis, bassist/vocalist Ida Nielsen and 22-year-old drummer, Hannah Ford.
In a rare interview with the Star Tribune, Prince – who celebrates his 55th birthday on June 7th – says 3rdEyeGirl is about rejuvenation, and shifting his focus to a younger audience.
“I don’t have time for old people,” he says. “I want to work with young people. I have my legacy. It’s time for their legacy,” he says of his newest outfit. “They’re a Minneapolis band, too.”
3rdEyeGirl have been steadily releasing a series of single digital downloads of music and video through their official website, including new Prince compositions, ‘Bambi’, ‘Screwdriver’, ‘Breakfast Can Wait’ and most recently dropped the official video for new song ‘Fix Ur Life Up’, the song the group recently performed live at the Gotye-scooping Billboard Music Awards.
The song features also features the rather telling lyric: “A girl with a guitar/ is 12 times better/than another crazy band of boys.”
A full album, tentatively titled Electrum, is due later this year from the lean four-piece, with Prince and co. recently kick-starting a theatre tour of America, in some cases playing two shows a night at venues in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego, Anaheim, and Denver; no doubt treating audiences to their Pearl Jam-centric medley, and who knows? Maybe there’ll be some more obscure covers to come.
You can view the newly released video for 3rdEyeGirl’s ‘Fix Ur Life Up’ below:
