Prince RIP

A friend of mine who was actually irl friends with Michael Jackson (!) just said on Facebook that MJ once described Prince to him as "really weird, but the most talented motherf'er you'll ever meet."

a unique factor I always appreciated about this longed-for world that Prince both explicitly and implicitly invoked - a social utopia transcending race, class, gender etc. - was that it was based on sexual pleasure. There were pop stars in the past who preached about leftist politics, about peace and love, about racial equality, whatever, but for Prince the unifying factor that cut across all lines was sex/pleasure. In Prince's world it was something everybody wanted and that everyone could have, and it would make everything all right.

xp

people call me rude
I wish we all were nude
I wish there were no black or white
I wish there were no rules

WRECKA STOWE

only major performer (besides, uh, Bowie) I haven't seen live

This isn't possible.

I saw him a second time on the Musicology tour at the MCI Center in DC. That was the "in-the-round" show with the band including John Blackwell, Candy Dulfer and Maceo Parker and it was fucking amazing.

a world of neverending happiness, you can always see the sun, day or night. farewell sweet prince!

This world has officially stopped making any sense at all. RIP

Christ

I only got to see him once (my wife saw him a whole bunch of times, including after-hours shows that she always raved about and I am sorry I missed) on the Rainbow Children tour - not the greatest tour, although he still had Maceo with him which was awesome, and he was very funny and unpredictable, such a showman.

Never got to see him either. I almost went to Paisley Park after the last D'Angelo show at First Ave, but he didn't show anyway. I went to Bunker's a few times to see Dr. Mambo's Combo (all ex-Prince players) play, and always hoped he would make an appearance (there is precedent).

Saw him twice, the first time he played a guitar solo that actually made me cry, not the song, the solo, that's how fucking great he was. That was in Glasgow. The second was at the O2 in London where I was like 5 miles from the stage and he was 5 foot 2 inches tall, so I cursed the O2. Can't fucking believe it tbh.

i really hope he didn't pull some steve jobs christian science type of shit and be like 'i trust in my own body to heal me, namaste' :(

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, April 21, 2016 12:53 PM (51 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Totally speculative, I know, but I'd wager that's exactly what it was. I'm comfortable with blaming the Jehovah's Witnesses for the death of great grandmother and, absent any actual facts, I'm comfortable with blaming them for what was possibly the preventable death of Prince.

i never ever expected to be able to see him live.
having grown up in the late 70s/early 80s, my 2 musical heroes were bowie (#1), and prince (#2).
so i just assumed i would never get the chance.
then the "21 nights" thing happened.
now, bh was not a fan, so, i had no idea how to approach the situation when the dates were announced.
then as the nights ticked by, i got an email from geoff t/age of chance (KISS), about going to see prince together.
i delicately approached the topic as a trip to london while she was left at home with baby etc was not an easy option.
amazingly she said 'just bloody do it .. '
having left it so late, the only seats we got were up in the heavens,
but damn ... what a night.
there i was, with the bass player from my all time noise/sample/guitar band who had covered prince, while prince was on the stage doing his thing..
after bowie died i could not listen to his stuff as it was all too closely associated to bh,
however, prince was all for me, so, f*ck it, tonight, this weekend, i am going to rip the roof off this funker.

i have no more heroes alive now.

;_;

His glamour was accessible somehow. Listening to his music always made (makes) me feel a little Prince-like.

xpost — Jon not Jon: From where?

My mom always maintained that Prince must be gay. I never did, but as my fandom grew even more intense during my early teen years, I like to think that there was something about the palpable queerness of Prince's music that might have eased my coming-out process somewhat.

this is true for me too, he made it easier for me to be queer.

WRECKA STOWE

http://www.thecurrent.org/listen

everybody should bump the fukk outta this…

the very first music records I ever owned were 45s that were thrown out/given away by DJs at bar mitzvah parties. Prince's "Delirious/Horny Toad" was one of three, I was totally hooked by those synth sounds, parents were confused.

xp

My thoughts just turned to a roommate/friend from almost 10 years ago, amazing guy whose parents met at a Prince concert circa 1985. His folks had a brief fling that lasted only a few weeks, but during which she inadvertently became pregnant with my future roomie and close friend. I should give him a call; he owes his very life to Prince.

i'm thinking about the relationship i have to artists i love, their work. w/ something like can or roxy music i love it but i didn't grow up to it, it wasn't part of the narrative of my youth or whatever and so when holger czukay or bryan ferry die i'll be sad and i'll play the records alot but eventually i'll move on and i'll be able to listen to the records in roughly the same state of mind i was able to prior. w/ the stones i grew up w/ much of it and heard it all my life but they weren't mine really, they were my mom's, and when that moment comes it'll be like an uncle passing, a drunk uncle i guess, and there will be sadness but some wistfulness and i'll move on, i'll sing 'dead flowers' at karaoke and a few years down the line when i hear 'moonlight mile' i won't have nervous breakdown or anything. when bowie passed it felt like an incredibly important teacher from my life had passed, i was almost surprised to discover how central he had been in my life and i took comfort in commiserating w/ the many many ppl across many generations that had been touched by his music as well, i liked hearing the stories of how his work and his being had changed ppl's lives and though i was sad and shocked i felt mainly grateful. madonna is the only musical act (and really it's only musical acts i get this way w/, you live w/ music in a way you don't w/ books or films or whatever, it can serve so many purposes whether you listen deliberately to it or just have it on in the background while you study or clean or live basically, it has an incredible social aspect but also is extremely effective when it's only you and your headphones isolated from the rest of the world, you can dance to it, you can fuck to it, you can fall asleep to it) that has meant something close to me in importance as prince in terms of breadth and depth, when she dies i'll be devastated, as if my best friend had died. prince though, i'm trying to understand it, trying to face his death and it isn't like a friend died or a parent or teacher or obv just someone who made a lot of records i liked. it's like i stepped outside and suddenly the sun wasn't there anymore. his death feels apocalyptic. it makes no sense. i want to curl up in a ball on the floor and scream. it makes no sense.

not easy to post any of the mans classic tracks via youtube.

this is probably a first for a big name death.

WRECKA STOWE

ha yes

I idly watched a bunch of Under the Cherry Moon recently which makes no sense and is a mess but in a charming way

xp the first album i bought was 1999. a lot of that was 9 year old me being thrifty - i can get two lps worth of material for just this much more - but i still thank the fates for it nonetheless.

dinnerboat, i was jumping to the conclusion that you are the fellow cartoonist who just posted about a montreal prince show on fb (i am j0n L3wi5)

balls otm again

Just found out. Feel like I've been hit by a tonne of bricks. RIP.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEeH8GBRz3O/?taken-by=thuggerthugger1

Shakey thank you for that lovely unpacking of the world prince pointed to

It was pleasure in sex but also in sound

balls otm. I'm trying to think of any other musicians from the past like forty years that had the highs and staying power and overall impact of Prince or Bowie and I'm coming up short. In terms of '80s music specifically and impact on me specifically, I think only Cocteau Twins come close. Stay with us, Liz.

firing up itunes for the first time in the longest just to shoot through discog
Come is such a beautiful profane spectacular response to death

Ulysses you should come to the signing at desert island tonight I wish to prince hug u

this is a hard listen rn (recent live piano version of Purple Rain): https://soundcloud.com/anildash/let-me-guide-u#t=0:00

i'm working a show with Mazz Swift tonight, i cannot imagine but we will be hugging there

I saw one of those 2007 London shows and for real Prince was the single best thing I have ever seen on a stage. Kind of numb even thinking about this - like has any one musician ever seemed as full of life as Prince?

Fucking hell. Here's the long version of Purple Rain, from the first gig Wendy and Lisa performed with the band, at First Ave in Minneapolis. The moment when he can't quite bring himself to start the first verse is staggering:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58229402/Prince-%20Purple%20Rain%20Live%201983.mp4

Half the radio stations I just scanned were playing purple rain, but I don't think I'm ready for that.

Half the radio stations I just scanned were playing purple rain, but I don't think I'm ready for that.

yeah, i dropped that album on a bit ago, but had to hit the button once the title track kicked in.

BBC been waffling about The Queen, so only just seen.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cgla1TxWsAAmAEM.jpg

I'm wondering if this is another case of someone who has a ridiculous work ethic and a tendency to deny they're that sick dying from the flu or something that should have been a minor infection. Would be completely unsurprising if Prince was like that, he seemed like he was always "on"

take care of yourselves, people

The last year or three have made it pretty clear how certain figures are so deeply part of the firmament that even if I wasn't a huge fan, when they're gone, everything fucking quakes. You question the world a little. Things are different. I didn't know Bowie's music well and was never a fan, but felt a jolt when he passed. Phife Dawg kinda tore me up because I was huge fan. Prince - I liked a bunch of Prince songs, never got invested, but this still feels brutal somehow, because even if I wasn't listening there was something elemental about Prince continuing to exist and to live on his own terms, artistically and otherwise, not giving one. flying. fuck about what critics or record executives thought. Touring or not, releasing records or not, saying "yo, I want to do a solo piano tour because I can." It just seemed like he'd always be there. As an icon and as an artist there was huge inspiration there, and a cockiness, a confidence. This means: no more news items about new Prince statements or off the record interviews, and every time I encounter a "1800-New-Funk" bumper sticker (which has happened! around Baltimore!) it'll hurt.

(incoherent but where I'm at with this)

not easy to post any of the mans classic tracks via youtube.

yeah, i was gonna say that prince's assiduousness (?) at removing all his work from streaming sites means it's not easy to do the usual post-some-music thing now.

I was thinking about putting on whatever Prince stuff was immediately accessible to me but I think I need to hold off for a while. I was listening to Ween already so maybe 'LYLYP' can be my baby steps in that direction.

I saw one of those 2007 London shows and for real Prince was the single best thing I have ever seen on a stage

did you get the book ?
the book was crap, just lots of pics, but there was a live cd that came with it.
insanely good stuff.

The clip of him doing While My Guitar Gently Weeps with every ageing rock musician in the world is astonishing, half way through he just steps into the middle of the stage and blows everyone else away.

that clip is really "why prince is amazing for non-prince fans" but I have watched it so many times. Dhani Harrison's face lighting up is so joyful

haha yes

where does his guitar go

I seriously hope he died while being fellated by a bare minimum of two nurses at once.

He used samples of Fischer's strings all over "Batman" and some other stuff from that era.

xpost i think the version of that I have is just called Parade Demos and it's got some exciting shit like the truly bizarre 'Others Here With Us' and the original of 'Old Friends 4 Sale'

My friend told me that he went to college with Clare Fischer's son Brent and he could pretty much always tell when some new Prince tapes recordings came in to be transcribed because Brent would be walking around campus wearing dark sunglasses looking like he had pulled an all-nighter.

https://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/clare-and-brent-fischer-keep-it-in-the-family

https://theiconicprince.wordpress.com/2017/03/30/brent-fischer-recollections-working-with-prince/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc-JbACCgeM

There's a heartbreaking story about that - after Prince died, one of the producers discussed that episode in an interview. He said everyone at Henson thought Prince was going to cancel on them due to a personal tragedy. He wouldn't say in the interview what that was, but going by the timeline, it was clear he meant Prince's son, Amiir, who had just died six days after he was born. But to their surprise, Prince assured them he was committed to doing the show and not to worry. The interview's out there somewhere, but basically when he came in, he realized being on set with the Muppets was kind of therapeutic for Prince - he was clearly happy to be there, there was no indication he was difficult or anything, but you got the sense it was a little somber because everyone knew what he was going through.

The whole episode, which didn't air until the fall in 1997. (The air dates were kind of screwed up because ABC decided to drop the show before the first season ended. The Disney Channel kept it alive, but there was kind of a bumpy transition as that happened - for example, several episodes from the first season didn't even air until after the calendar for that season had passed. The Prince episode was produced as the first episode of the second season but I have no idea if they were actually able to broadcast everything in order.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkHnfCj-dqU

(I just noticed the opening credit on that video says February 17, 1997, but according to Wikipedia, it didn't actually air until September 13, 1997.)