Prince RIP

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.

μpright mammal (mh)
Posted: April 21, 2016 at 2:21:03 PM
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"

Yes I posted on one of these threads that when the flu hospitalization thing came out I had a dark thought of 'I hope this does not turn out like Jim Henson'

i realise this is small fry for you who collect studio offcuts/bootlegs/live rips etc,
but i have just added my prince digital collection into a playlist, hit the random option, and crossfade function.
321 tracks in total.
ooh yes.
unloved/forgotten deep cuts are sounding wonderful right now eg. push.

How long until articles about Prince and Sinead start showing up on my FB feed

this is on youtube and it's pretty glorious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4SGn-nnnhw

Enjoy the fruits of his songwriting labors if nothing else:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STQ6Z4NnukY

Jon, I immediately think of Jim Henson every time something like that happens, too! When I think of Henson dying at 53 it breaks my heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMfAXjoqDks

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/t31.0-8/13041385_10154114849074841_6340402726226358794_o.jpg

can't process this. saw him in London during the Lovesexy tour, still one of the best concerts I've ever seen nearly 30 years later.
;_;

There have been a lot of recent deaths of people whose music I grew up with enjoyed immensely, or at least respected but none of them were as big a deal to me as Prince.

He's one of those artists that was around for as long as I was paying attention to music; when I heard he died I immediately remember the 1999 and Little Red Corvette videos (probably on Night Tracks while playing with Legos during sleepovers at my friend's house) and listening to my cousin's Purple Rain tape on a walkman while reading Mad Magazine. But he's one of the few that I stayed interested in as an adult.

I never saw him live and really regret not doing so in Seattle a couple years ago, I remember thinking ticket prices were insane and he wasn't that old and would probably be around again at some point. Alas.

xxxxp see also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1NLrpNhfRc

Prince and Vanity both dead, both at 57 :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQQdA2aat2k

Like imagine being in your 50s and still being onstage being consistently, outrageously sexual and never once looking sleazy or creepy? No male musician in history has ever been able to pull that off, plenty of dudes 30 years younger can't, and Prince did it pretty much effortlessly.

Goddamn, I can't even listen to a Martika song yet without feeling overwhelmed! Fuck!

I'm right there with you Jon & mh. Jim Henson is probably still the most impactful celebrity death of my life, and the weird, out of left field, too damn soon deaths of Prince and Bowie are close runners up.

I really want to re-watch that one old awards show clip of Baby I'm a Star that's like 11 min long and just full throttle energy all the way through.

Also very curious to see what happens to his catalog & vault.

xpost Like people who you'd reasonably presumed had transcended such petty human concerns as death.

the jukebox in my high school lunch room had "Erotic City" on it and I can remember female fans trying to convince school admin that it was okay because he was actually saying "funk" on the chorus and not "fuck" lol

henson was a jhvh witness too, right? or xtian scientist?

https://www.facebook.com/uspto.gov/photos/a.128840003796166.21901.114912688522231/1267507836596038/

Also very curious to see what happens to his catalog & vault.

^^^ I brought this up earlier on Prince threads. with no children and no clear heir and *tons* of unreleased stuff + the back catalog you have to wonder who he was willing to cede control of his estate to.

Like imagine being in your 50s and still being onstage being consistently, outrageously sexual and never once looking sleazy or creepy? No male musician in history has ever been able to pull that off, plenty of dudes 30 years younger can't, and Prince did it pretty much effortlessly.

well Prince didn't exactly look like a 57-year old man to begin with. he was more like...a space alien

the jukebox in my high school lunch room had "Erotic City" on it

wow lol

i wrote my high school's comedy revue one year and had a really age-inappropriate prince parody in there that somehow was allowed in.

henson was a jhvh witness too, right? or xtian scientist?

― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Thursday, April 21, 2016 1:39 PM (47 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The latter, I think? And I'd always assumed that had something to do with his death, but the biography that came out a couple years back painted it as kind of a legitimately freak thing, like a very rapid decline pretty much out of nowhere.

don't know if this has been posted but to me this is the best thing to watch right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAYQUbh8HHA

the current tribute is great, except for the banal, Minnesota nice public radio commentary, just like whatever that SNL skit was.

In terms of well known african american music from Mpls, there really isn't any after him and the scene he presided over, is there?

in general i hate arena shows -- i probly have been to 20 max -- but he filled up MSG like a cabaret on both Lovesexy and the Musicology tour.

what Prince and Jam & Lewis aren't enough for you

xp

with no children and no clear heir and *tons* of unreleased stuff + the back catalog you have to wonder who he was willing to cede control of his estate to.

i think its pretty clear the man was seriously lawyered up, so, would like to think this aspect has been well and truly locked down.
i mean, he was insanely tight on his archive, so, there should be little problem sourcing mastertapes etc. for the inevitable boxset excess.

just so long as we dont get any l.a reid lead albums.

xpost Sure, they pretty much dominated a couple decades worth of popular music, but who hasn't?

i will buy all these prince box sets, no shit

still so bewildered and confused right now

!

saw prince for the first and only time with 3rdeyegirl last year

we had seats way back in the gods, there were no screens to bring the onstage action any closer, and even though from that distance we could barely see him his charisma was still utterly transfixing. never seen anything like it and i guess i never will again.

It never occurred to me that he could die...it just wasn't on my radar. Wasn't he just starting to write his memoirs? Shit.

ps: props to Prince for outliving Rick James by one year

2016 can seriously go suck a fuck already.

― Fat Idiot (Old Lunch), Thursday, April 21, 2016 1:33 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

btw re his queerness, it was quite literal, via an anecdote someone i trust shared with me recently

anythingthatmoveslikeaholeinyohead

maybe this is weird but I keep thinking about how D'Angelo is handling this news