Can’t f*ckin’ believe it. One of my biggest (smallest!) heroes. A true music wizard, decades of prolific note-perfect inspiration. Genius musician. Like 40 albums. Dead at 57 years old, I don’t know why.
I asked for Purple Rain and 1999 for my birthday in 1984 and I’ve bought every album since. I was just now on a Prince kick, and spinning his recent material in reverse chronological order over the last couple months. I put back Planet Earth yesterday, and brought 3121 to the car this morning. Last week I preordered his new CD.
Seen him three times, 1988 & twice in either '96 or early '97. The only thing I seem to be missing from my move the the new place is the box with all my old Prince VHS in it.
Truly the best performer I’ve ever seen, but he’s so much more.
I can’t begin to express my love and admiration for this man. I was late getting into Prince. I really didn’t start listening to him until I bought Purple Rain on vinyl in like '98. From there though it became a sick obsession. Of course I owned every album. Of course I downloaded every bootleg, audio or video, I could get my hands on. Of course I played those albums constantly and tried to get everyone I know to feel the same.
But when Prince finally came to play in my city in 2001, being a first year college student and broke, I could not afford the $120 tickets and watched as my friends, and mom, and sister all got tickets and I had to pretend like it didn’t bother me, but it did. I caved, and the day before the show managed to get one ticket, for $20 less than face, and pooled every cent I had to buy that ticket. I could not afford a drink at the show, but I was there, and ecstatic. I was sat by myself, with a couple dressed in tux and gown to my left and an old farmer couple to my right, but I was in the same vicinity as Prince!
I remember when the lights went down there was an enormous black dude standing right beside me by an entrance (I’m on the aisle), and I’m sitting there thinking, “Man, Prince has security all up in this bitch”. Next thing I know, dude picks up his saxophone and starts wailing. I’d been standing next to Maceo goddamn Parker that whole time and didn’t even realize it. Prince attracted some amazing musical talent. You had to be on another level to play with Prince, but no one could ever get as high as his level.
Prince goes on to start the show by basically playing The Rainbow Children in it’s entirety, an album which I was kind of luke warm on at the time, but that show made it one of my all time favorite Prince albums. (Highly recommended if you want some real jazzy Prince). He then just funks up the place for like an hour straight before going into an hour or so of solo piano stuff, which was as incredible as every other part of the show.
All in all, probably the best concert I’ve ever been to, and man, I was at that last Phish Halloween show, that Dicks FUCK YOUR FACE show and Fare Thee Well in Chicago this past summer, and those are legendary performance by any bands standards. Maybe the show I saw was some prairie Canada, forgettable show for Prince, but for me, and everyone I’ve talked to in the last day who were there, it outshines any concert I’ve seen by anyone.
Man…I could go on forever. I just want to talk to people about The Black Album, and get down to all that Dream Factory stuff. I love that whole mythos or conceptual continuity (to steal a Zappa phrase) that was a mainstay for his entire career.
I think Brady just shared this link to a Paul Westerberg interview with Rolling Stone, that really says a lot of how I feel about Prince. This part in particular:
I always thought that I should see him but I never knew enough of his library outside of the big hits. I’d heard he’d been experimenting more in recent tours and was playing more obscure stuff (I knew a few folks who saw him in his heyday and wasn’t big on this) so this was even less incentive for me to go. But had someone asked me to go with them, I would have seen him. I probably would have liked it…I’d heard a few shows and they sounded pretty solid.
I kinda lumped Prince and Bowie in the same group as guys I wasn’t big on but who I respected for being their own guys and playing what they wanted. It’s definitely weird that both are gone since neither seemed really “human” to me. The huge outcry on Prince was interesting since I never knew many who were THAT into him but I think folks even liked the “idea” of Prince even if they didn’t know his music.
Dude, you are missing out. Of all people around here to NOT have a real appreciation for Prince! I thought you’d have been big into Prince … let me know if you need recommendations. Anything 80s is generally gold. Like the entire decade is just so solid. Venture outside of the 1980s with caution.
I’m still pretty effected by this. Such an expressive individual and so prolific, that I feel like I know Prince personally, and I don’t really feel that way about celebrities and musicians I admire. Strange how perspective changes once things end.
Of all people around here to NOT have a real appreciation for Prince! I thought you’d have been big into Prince …
Well, I’ve got a couple greatest hits laying around. But I guess it’s a lil “too 80’s” and “too R&B” and “too weird” for me. Even his major hits are just kind of “meh” to me outside of maybe Let’s Get Crazy. I’ve seen a few live shows on video and they were good but not blowing me away. Heck, my favorite Prince song might be Manic Monday…
Venture outside of the 1980s with caution.
Especially the mid-90’s when he was purposely just spewing out albums on a bi-yearly basis just because he had a quota of albums he had to make for Warner Bros…so he just threw whatever he had out there to finish the contract. Kind of humorous, really.
This dude’s been occupying ALL of my listening since around Feb or March.
I picked up his Sept 2015 CD at a f*ckin Walmart of all places. It felt cool to “buy it at the store”, you know? I found myself surprised by how much I liked it, and decided to revisit his other recent albums sometime late winter … haven’t stopped since.
I spin other music just as a sort of relief effort.
“Dead On It” was the tune that blew my mind today. You gotta realize it’s him on guitar, bass, effects, keys, drum loop is his design … backing vocals are him … he wrote it … holy sh!xz d00dzx.
Tidal (music streaming service site) released a bunch of Prince stuff on his birthday yesterday, some of it I’ve never heard. As a lifelong Prince collector, it’s just insane how much there is that is in circulation already, that I’ve still not heard … and I’ve got a ton.
It really never ends. It’s like laundry, trying to get my personal collection to some sort of semblence of complete. This guy was ridiculously prolific and proficient.
I re-subbed (actually paid money) for a month of Tidal because of Kev’s post. (And I wanted to see this new “controversial” Kanye video). I was kind of hoping for rarer stuff. Crystal Ball is great and all, but I was hoping they’d have more live stuff (One Night Alone I own as well). I really hope all those outtakes and stuff that I have scattered on c.d.'s all over my place somehow get real releases one day.
Make sure you check out Chocolate Invasion, The Slaugherhouse, 20Ten, Indigo Nights (that shit’s live dude), Xpectation, … that stuff is all Tidal only I think.
