We may as well paint the rest of the year purple in honor of Prince, because the aftermath of the legendary icon’s sudden death last week has not only inspired an endless blizzard of cover songs and tributes, but a vast array of staggeringly great YouTube clips. We’re going to keep bringing you the best of them as they arrive, because he’s Prince, damn it.
The Purple One was notoriously aggressive in his campaign to prevent his music from being streamed, but since his passing a treasure trove has been unveiled. One such video is a relatively unknown pro-shot clip of Prince performing Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” in such an incredibly passionate, virtuosic way that it demands several repeat views. Sources place the video at the end of 2002, when Prince would regularly tear off the song in his live sets.
Watch Prince cover Led Zeppelin below, and listen for a positively ridiculous guitar solo beginning around 0:57, immediately after he screams “no format tonight!”. At the very end, he laid a cloth over the exorcised corpse of that goddamned guitar and exited the stage as if he singlehandedly saved the world. And rightfully so.
