RIP Prince

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Interestingly, Vox.com just pointed out, that if you want to listen to some Prince and don't have his albums, the only streaming service that has his albums are... Tidal.

That's unfortunate.

Well, shit.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by rowech

I guess I need to listen to more of his music because I'm not understanding the reaction across the Internet. Must have missed the boat on him.

I think he peaked in the stretch from 1999 through Sign o' the Times, but what a peak. Purple Rain is brilliant from start to finish, and while the rest aren't quite that consistent, there's a huge number of amazing high points.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by rowech

I guess I need to listen to more of his music because I'm not understanding the reaction across the Internet. Must have missed the boat on him.

I'm just ribbin' you, and it's not that you have to like him or his music, but it seems like you'd really have to actively avoid the boat to miss Prince's significance. He had 39 records! Wrote and performed most of the parts of each one. Sold more than Bob Dylan, The Who, David Bowie or the Beach Boys. He starred in 4 movies! He changed his name to a symbol! He played the Super Bowl! You missed all of that?

[rowech]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I'm just ribbin' you, and it's not that you have to like him or his music, but it seems like you'd really have to actively avoid the boat to miss Prince's significance. He had 39 records! Wrote and performed most of the parts of each one. Sold more than Bob Dylan, The Who, David Bowie or the Beach Boys. He starred in 4 movies! He changed his name to a symbol! He played the Super Bowl! You missed all of that?

Not all of it. I really didn't realize he has that kind of presence. His music is certainly not my type of music but I think in general I lost track of him while in college from mid 90s to late 90s. Never really picked back up on it.

[CrimsonFox]

[Buccaneer]

RIP to a genius.

[Dutch]

A great musical talent. Sad to see him gone. RIP.

[cthomer5000]

He was an incredibly influential performer AND writer. Even if you put his own stuff aside, don't forget "Manic Monday" by the Bangles, "Glamorous Life" by Sheila E, or "Nothing Compares 2 U" (which Sinead O'Conner took to an incredible level with that performance). He wrote them all.

He was a genre-blending androgynous weirdo, and I mean that in the most positive sense possible. The world needs more artists like this.

I find some deaths like this strangely affecting. I think there is a big part of me that realizes that in a cultural sense I simply take the existence of some people for granted. I felt the same way when Bowie died. It prompts a surprisingly introspective phase where it sort of really drives home the concept of mortality. Because some people seem beyond death. It seems too petty for them.

[Lonnie]

As a guitar player I know the genius of Prince. I find it amazing that as a pop star he still slung that guitar around him and played with the band when many others chose to just stick to the microphone or limp syncing. His love for music drove him to play 1000s of instruments (his own words.)

Although I did not follow him in recent years, like all recently deceased great artist I will pay homage by trying to dig through the catalog as limited as it may be to streaming services. Imagine the money his heirs would have made this week if he was on Spotify.

[BYU 14]

Very sad news, many are called legends, few deserve it. He deserves it! Rest easy.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by rowech

Not all of it. I really didn't realize he has that kind of presence. His music is certainly not my type of music but I think in general I lost track of him while in college from mid 90s to late 90s. Never really picked back up on it.

In your defense, he really didn't do anything of massive significance after that (though he was seemingly always releasing relatively well-regarded material) so I suppose I could see him settling in your cultural blind spot. On the other hand he was already pretty well established by then....I think you really had to be actively avoiding him if you somehow made it through the '80s without noticing Prince. Were you one of those handful of '80s kids who were denied MTV? I think you can sue your parents for that now.

That clip of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" stands as a good indicator of not just Prince's talent, but his cultural/musical significance. That stage is full of musical giants, after the death of a freaking BEATLE, but even surrounded by George Harrison's closest friends and family everybody on that stage takes a step backward to give Prince the clean-up spot, and expects him to hit the walk-off homer, which he does.

[nol]

Such a legend that he had MTV playing music videos again today.

[Chief Rum]

One of the coolest things I know about Prince was from around 5 years ago. He was in LA working on an album or just between tours or maybe just hanging out. He decided to just rent out the Forum one night, and invited anyone who wanted to come see him play for free. And then he did it the next night. And the next. I think he did this for maybe three weeks or more. I was not a big Prince fan so I didn't go. I ended up regretting not taking that opportunity.

He just really loved creating music. RIP

[Groundhog]

Prince was similar to Bowie for me in that I always felt like I should really dig his music, but didn't. I don't not like it, I just wouldn't ever seek it out.

I can appreciate the fact that he was a musical genius, though.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

In your defense, he really didn't do anything of massive significance after that (though he was seemingly always releasing relatively well-regarded material) so I suppose I could see him settling in your cultural blind spot. On the other hand he was already pretty well established by then....I think you really had to be actively avoiding him if you somehow made it through the '80s without noticing Prince. Were you one of those handful of '80s kids who were denied MTV? I think you can sue your parents for that now.

That clip of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" stands as a good indicator of not just Prince's talent, but his cultural/musical significance. That stage is full of musical giants, after the death of a freaking BEATLE, but even surrounded by George Harrison's closest friends and family everybody on that stage takes a step backward to give Prince the clean-up spot, and expects him to hit the walk-off homer, which he does.

I know all of his 80s and early 90s stuff pretty well. I guess at that age, you never think about how big of a musician somebody is. My first "favorite song" as a kid was "Raspberry Beret." Had absolutely no clue what it was about at the time. Just a young kid who thought the song was catchy.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

One of the coolest things I know about Prince was from around 5 years ago. He was in LA working on an album or just between tours or maybe just hanging out. He decided to just rent out the Forum one night, and invited anyone who wanted to come see him play for free. And then he did it the next night. And the next. I think he did this for maybe three weeks or more. I was not a big Prince fan so I didn't go. I ended up regretting not taking that opportunity.

He just really loved creating music. RIP

I don't know that they were free, but he was there for 21 days.

Prince Kicks Off 21-Concert Residency With Epic Three-Hour Show | Rolling Stone

Also, for those of you that have satellite radio, SXM Ch. 50 is all Prince, pretty heavy on his 80's stuff right now.

[bob]

Originally Posted by nol

Such a legend that he had MTV playing music videos again today.

I guess they are pretty out of practice:

MTV Accidentally Adds Fresh Prince Video To All-Day Marathon

[albionmoonlight]

.@cgranger captured purple-lit @MBSuperdome surrounded by puddles of purple rain last night https://t.co/1x1ldc9ZyZ pic.twitter.com/PhXHGI6H34

— New Orleans Saints (@SaintsNOW) April 22, 2016

[JAG]

Google Purple Eiffel Tower for a pretty great shot also.

[Schmidty]

I don't know if this should be embarrassing, but I probably listened to the Batman soundtrack 1,000 when I was 14.

[Grammaticus]

It looks like it may be a drug overdose. I guess that is really not a surprise though. That's too bad.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by Grammaticus

It looks like it may be a drug overdose. I guess that is really not a surprise though. That's too bad.

Unfortunate but not surprising.

I did wear my purple shirt today in his honor.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

I'm honestly not entirely sure I realized just how badass Prince was on the guitar until I watched that.

He throws the guitar skyward and... it never comes down!

[cartman]

Originally Posted by britrock88

He throws the guitar skyward and... it never comes down!

That guitar is now known as Voyager 3.

[Subby]

#supertribute to #Prince #RIP Like the world I mourn but celebrate your spirit with your music pic.twitter.com/NhdPnHRwa9

— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) April 22, 2016

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

I don't know if this should be embarrassing, but I probably listened to the Batman soundtrack 1,000 when I was 14.

Not embarrassing at all, I did the same.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by Subby

#supertribute to #Prince #RIP Like the world I mourn but celebrate your spirit with your music pic.twitter.com/NhdPnHRwa9

— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) April 22, 2016

This deserves more love.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

Not embarrassing at all, I did the same.

It was one of my favorite tapes.

[Butter]

"Batdance" was one of my favorite songs of that year as a 14 year old.

[rjolley]

Very shocked to hear the news yesterday. Talked with my wife and one of my best friends quite a bit about it. Lots of reminiscing about various songs and related memories, which reminded me just how integrated into my younger years Prince's music was.

A group of us, back when we were teenagers, were huge fans. Knew all of the popular songs. And I, for one, owned all of the full releases from Purple Rain until Sign O the Times, and a few after that. Hadn't followed his music much in the last 5-10 years, but always sang along when a Prince tune from back in the day came on.

Hope a posthumous album or two from his vault comes out over the next few years.

Time to watch Purple Rain and Under the Cherry Moon.

[GrantDawg]

Best line I've seen from a friend on facebook (probably stolen):

"They found Prince in an elevator. He had punched the higher floor."

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by rjolley

Very shocked to hear the news yesterday. Talked with my wife and one of my best friends quite a bit about it. Lots of reminiscing about various songs and related memories, which reminded me just how integrated into my younger years Prince's music was.

A group of us, back when we were teenagers, were huge fans. Knew all of the popular songs. And I, for one, owned all of the full releases from Purple Rain until Sign O the Times, and a few after that. Hadn't followed his music much in the last 5-10 years, but always sang along when a Prince tune from back in the day came on.

Hope a posthumous album or two from his vault come out over the next few years.

Time to watch Purple Rain and Under the Cherry Moon.

I checked last night and found 9 Prince CD's and know I'm missing 3 others so I guess you can say I had a lot of them.

I expect the over under on Prince CD's coming out posthumous would be around 5 as supposedly there is a ton of stuff that was recorded and new released.

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

I checked last night and found 9 Prince CD's and know I'm missing 3 others so I guess you can say I had a lot of them.

I expect the over under on Prince CD's coming out posthumous would be around 5 as supposedly there is a ton of stuff that was recorded and new released.

Yeah, heard a rumor multiple times over the years about Prince having enough completed material to release an album a year for the next 10-20 years if he never recorded anything else from that point. One of his albums a few years ago supposedly was from said stash. Probably an urban legend, but would be kool if he did.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by rjolley

Yeah, heard a rumor multiple times over the years about Prince having enough completed material to release an album a year for the next 10-20 years if he never recorded anything else from that point. One of his albums a few years ago supposedly was from said stash. Probably an urban legend, but would be kool if he did.

Nope. The people close to him say there are more than 800 songs, ready to release. One of the girls he works with said she worked with him on over 50 music videos, that have been fully completed, on songs that he has never released.

[digamma]

The Current, a Minneapolis radio station, is starting a broadcast of Prince's full catalogue in alphabetical order at 6:00 central time.

[stevew]

Three days before Prince’s shocking death, Blind Gossip put up a story about a very popular black celebrity who has AIDS. The blind item stated the star contracted the virus in the 90s but kept it a secret while taking his medication. The virus was undetectable during that time.

However, two years ago, he stopped taking his medication as he and the people around him told him God had cured him. Turns out that wasn’t the case. Not at all. The virus took over and “doctors say he’s dying and there is nothing anyone can do about it.” The celeb was expected to pass by summer

Probably BS but interesting timing that the story came out 3 days before he died. I suppose I should check snopes.

Eric Clapton's Prince : snopes.com

also that was from earlier in the thread.



From 4/16

http://mediatakeout.com/301361/shock...ll-avkage.html

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Also, for those of you that have satellite radio, SXM Ch. 50 is all Prince, pretty heavy on his 80's stuff right now.

This was initially supposed to run through the weekend, but now it's scheduled to run for the next week, until Friday morning.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by stevew

Probably BS but interesting timing that the story came out 3 days before he died. I suppose I should check snopes.

Eric Clapton's Prince : snopes.com

also that was from earlier in the thread.



From 4/16

MediaTakeOut.com™ 2014

Wow

[nol]

Originally Posted by stevew

Probably BS but interesting timing that the story came out 3 days before he died. I suppose I should check snopes.

MediaTakeOut.com™ 2014

What I was seeing was that he'd had some hip issues for a while, but as a Jehovah's Witness he was not able to get a hip replacement (due to it requiring a blood transfusion) and he may have turned to self-medication in order to deal with the pain. In both cases, it seems like a possible Steve Jobs type of situation where alternative beliefs resulted in the rejection of life-extending medical treatment.

[Peregrine]

Man I'm listening to the Very Best of Prince album - kinda forgot just how good some of those songs are.

[Drake]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Prince was similar to Bowie for me in that I always felt like I should really dig his music, but didn't. I don't not like it, I just wouldn't ever seek it out.

I can appreciate the fact that he was a musical genius, though.

I feel this exact same way. Recognize the musical genius. Recognize the status as cultural icon.

Didn't actually like any of the music except in a "wouldn't turn the radio off if he came on, but would definitely be waiting for the next song" sort of way.

From that remove, all of the outpourings of loss on my Facebook are a little bewildering to me, even though I understand that it's mostly mourning our own mortality because a piece of "us" has died.

I guess my Prince moment will be when someone like Bono dies. Or one of the guys from the original Guns and Roses lineu...dammit.

ETA: I'm not trying to take anything away from grieving Prince fans. This just seemed like the only place I could say something like that without having my lungs ripped out by hysterics.

[PilotMan]

If that's all you felt then fine, however he was more than just songs and fashion. He was the complete musical package. From incredible musician to writer to producer. It's the pure musical talent that cements his legacy though. Nothing else he did holds a candle to that ability. Like the iceberg, the best was not necessarily what you saw.

[thesloppy]

I think Bowie and Prince are both getting an extra helping of an emotion with their mourning because we almost took them for granted at this point in their lives/careers, and their passing caused folks to go revisit & re-evaluate some special moments/songs that they hadn't necessarily yet marked as significant. They're breadth of material, and similarly shifting personas also could lead to people with fresh/significant memories from one era, and other sets of memories that they hadn't considered for a while. Lots of folks of similar cultural stature (or even greater) we're either so prepared for them to die, or so saturated by their material, that I might not feel compelled to revisit or re-evaluate all that much, and the emotional effect will be a lot less.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

If that's all you felt then fine, however he was more than just songs and fashion. He was the complete musical package. From incredible musician to writer to producer. It's the pure musical talent that cements his legacy though. Nothing else he did holds a candle to that ability. Like the iceberg, the best was not necessarily what you saw.

When MJ died people asked me why I wasn't emotional and my answer was wait until Prince or Madonna dies because those two will probably be bigger to my age bracket. I think if you are 35 or below, you probably missed out on Prince at his best.

What kills me is all the people on the radio saying how various songs changed/molded their life and I keep wondering if someone should tell them to listen to the lyrics a little closer.

[Alf]

Now, I was a suprised, but not shocked. Rock stars and early death are not that uncommon.

ON a more personnal note, I find it sad that one of the only songs from my cover band playlist from a living artist (Kiss) now has to switch to the dead artists category. *shrug*

[digamma]

Comprehensive list of Prince coverage from the MSP Star Tribute.

[Butter]

I probably watched like 6 hours of Prince videos this weekend from the various MTV outlets. So many great songs, many that I barely remembered or hadn't even heard before.

"Mountains"
"7"
"Take Me With U"
"Black Sweat"

Late Saturday night, VH1 showed the "long version" of a live concert video where he performed "I Would Die 4 U" and "Baby I'm a Star"... and Baby I'm a Star literally goes on for like 15 minutes. He just goes nuts and has Sheila E. do something like 4 drum solos... at some point, he takes a scarf off and literally rips his shirt open... you can just see the buttons flying off. Prowls the stage for this whole jam session before finally ending it after 20 minutes. It was amazing... Makes me sad I never saw him live.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Makes me sad I never saw him live.

That was one of the biggest takeaways for me....I wrestled with seeing him every time he came around but always found a reason not to go (it was certainly never cheap!). There's lots of truly classic acts still touring around these days, where going to see them live would allow me to check off a box, and might provide with me some magic nostalgic moments, but are never going to be truly transcendent musically just due to age (or playing the same catalog for 30+ years), whereas I feel like if I had caught a Prince show even last week/month/year I still would've had a chance to see something profound.

[Dutch]

I was fortunate to see him waaaay back in the 80's. But damn, I can barely remember it...

[dawgfan]

I'm going to need to find a copy of the Sign o' the Times concert film - I have a feeling that was the peak of Prince as a live performer before his hip issues started forcing him to dial back the acrobatics.