Re-posting from the other thread:
Shocked and saddened to hear that. Very surprising. He was young and, more than that, if some people seem too famous to die, Prince seemed too evasive. It's strange to think that there will be no more changes in direction from him.
As a tribute, I was reminded of this post about a concert he did in Baltimore last year, after the death of Freddie Gray.
"We're here for you. We are your servants," he said at the beginning of the show and in the fourth and final encore. He and his band, 3rdEyeGirl, as well as special guests Doug E. Fresh, Miguel and Estelle, had proved that. Between a laundry list of hits such as "Kiss," "When Doves Cry," "The Beautiful Ones," "1999" and "Purple Rain," Prince also urged us to keep chanting our city's name. There's power in that kind of incantation, uttered among people who've just lived through the same communal crisis and who, for all intents and purposes, may be bracing for a second wave, if the six officers charged in Freddie Gray's death are granted their request for a case dismissal.
Prince will turn 57 next month, and as he closed out his show with a few of the only overtly political remarks he made all evening, it was clear that he has entered the elder-statesman phase of his career. After telling us that the system is broken, he reassured, "It's gonna be all right. We gon' figure it out this time. It's gonna take the young people to fix it. We need new ideas. We need new life. And most importantly, we need new 'piece.' " He was careful to spell out "piece," lest we'd mistake it for "peace," and stressed the importance of community members increasing their stake in their city of residence. "The next time I come to Baltimore, I want to stay in a hotel that's owned by one of you." He repeated this ownership theme, citing that he also wanted to be able to hire car service and concert promotion companies owned and operated by young Baltimoreans.
2016 is turning out to be a tough year for fans of chameleon-like flamboyantly dressed male musicians.
To avoid inconveniencing Halford, we were all trying to wait on that announcement until after lunch hour was over in California.
Selfishly, just knowing I won't see Prince play again feels like a body blow.
And that was posted before seeing 5, so now don't I look like the asshole.
I have unpredictable and weird reactions to celebrity deaths. (Maybe to all deaths. I'm not sure.) For example, I liked David Bowie just fine and appreciated him as a significant talent, but I didn't really personally spent a lot of time listening to his music. Prince, I've spent a lot more time listening to, as a "fan." And yet for some reason Bowie's death hit me weirdly intensely, whereas with Prince I'm... not feeling particularly emotional about the news.
chameleon-like flamboyantly dressed male musicians.
I wonder if Boy George is getting nervous.
10: Maybe he and Elton John are thinking that maybe actually being gay and not just pretending is some sort of protection.
9: More or less the opposite for me. There's no question that I've heard more Bowie in my life, but I'm much more shaken by Prince's death. Mostly, I think, just because he was of my generation in a way Bowie wasn't. Not by age, obv, but, unlike everybody on rock radio, Prince became a big deal when I was paying attention. Stories about how Musician N Shocked America were history for everyone between Elvis and the Sex Pistols*, but my friends were going to the Orange Bowl concert that the uptight adults were picketing.
*there must have been someone between Sex Pistols & Prince/Madonna, but I don't know who. Some disco person?
Prince's first profile in the NYT, late '81. 21 and with 4 albums already under his belt.
The lady conductor on this train is really upset about Prince's death and her announcement of the Stockton stop was touching. I hope someone did smoke a cigarette on her behalf, 20 feet or more from any train door, to be sure.
14: They lost me when they didn't use a diaeresis mark for the second 'i' in 'multiinstrumentalist'.
I missed Prince's SB halftime show, but this helps me appreciate why it was an iconic performance. "Can you make it rain harder?"
The current NYT headline reminds me of a story that (IIRC) Dennis Elsas, longtime DJ at WNEW-FM in NY (Lennon would occasionally guest DJ with him) told:
I was in England on a tourbus when the young tour guide came on in tears and announced, "The King is dead." We all got excited, like, wow, here we are in England and the King died! But she said, "We don't have a King," so we asked, "What about the Queen's husband?" "That's the Duke of-- look, it doesn't matter, Elvis Presley has died!"
I may have told this story before, but when Elvis died I was delivering a pizza to a motel (at I-71 and Rte. 161, for Columbusites) and encountered a burly truck driver in tears, inconsolable.
When MJ died, I was on a review project and a fight about his significance broke out between 2 AA attorneys and one had to be ejected from the space and project.
It rained all day, the day that Elvis Presley died. And only a legend can make it do that.
Same experience as urple, here. I had an intense sad reaction to Bowie's death.
I don't really get music that much so I don't really have much of a reaction, but I really like the "Darling Nikki" joke I put in the other thread.
Prince dying bothers me more than Bowie, probably for the same reasons as JRoth. I basically experienced Prince's entire career first-hand. Bowie was already a fixture of AOR by the time I first heard about him, and his best work was already behind him. For Prince, I remember the slow dawning realization in my circle of friends that he wasn't just some guy who had a couple of hits on the radio, but was an all-time great.
I remember the slow dawning realization in my circle of friends that he wasn't just some guy who had a couple of hits on the radio, but was an all-time great.
Yup.
Prince dying bothers me more than Bowie, probably for the same reasons as JRoth. I basically experienced Prince's entire career first-hand.
I came to both Bowie and Prince after the fact. I didn't really appreciate Prince until the early 2000's.
But, despite the fact that Bowie's music was way more important to me, I feel much more emotional about Prince's death. Primarily because Prince was younger and he was still active and public in a way that Bowie wasn't (see 1 above).
It is a little weird how recently he has been doing concerts.
I have a date tonight and maybe I can use this?
29: Well, if you're looking for an excuse not to have sex, you could do worse.
I'm amused to see that Dylan Mathews and I have the same favorite Prince song.
I don't want to be a jerk, but I have to get this out of my system somewhere. While Prince's music and concerts were amazing, he also epitomized the sort of artist who's so captivated with his art, and so adored, that he gets away with being incredibly inconsiderate of everything and everyone around him. He would schedule almost-shows at the last minute, fly his crew and band places, have promoters and producers scramble - then change his mind after he'd jerked people around, and fly his people home without their doing anything. When he did come through with a concert, he'd keep changing things onsite and making people jump through absurd hoops. It always seemed to me you'd have to give up all your self-respect and belief in your own autonomy to work on his tour crew, and from the local side, it was just a nightmare. Promoters would go along with it all, because he could sell anything out and still make them money even with all the craziness; and everyone else went along with it because he was "such an incredible artist." Which he was - the performances were always great. But to me, it doesn't justify being an inconsiderate jerk and putting everyone through hell on your whims. But maybe I'm just a philistine and it's all worth it for "great art."
I don't mean to be unappreciative. But with all the praise I'm seeing everywhere I felt this part had to be said too. Sorry about that.
C and I have been sitting here quoting Prince lyrics to each other - he's our main/only overlap in music I think: C's always been an indie boy, I spent most of my teenage years listening to electro/hip hop, but we both loved Prince.
The seventeen year old was at work and a customer told her.
32: Glad you posted that, freight train!
Yeah well, of course I was around and aware of the first three big albums (DM, 1999, PR - some songs on my perm playlist for over a decade) he was all over MTV and VH1 and I remember the controversies from way before Darling Nikki. I watched the 1st two movies at least once apiece. Didn't follow him after that, but dropped music entirely from 1985-2005 or so.
He was good. Somehow I placed him in some kind of the neo-psych of the early 80s with a funk beat. Knew him as a genius songsmith and a coveted producer. Considered him kinda sweet but with a lot of overcompensated insecurity and bravado. Don't much like the sexy. Not into showbizzy stage stuff, thought Bowie and Gabriel were ridiculous a decade earlier. Most live music is like riots, suspending judgement to the crowd in a social ecstasy. Why do people like that.
Not much affection or sorrow, no more than the usual tolls for thee.
32: Maybe you're just like his mother.
I mentioned this at the other place, but one of the best nights of my life was seeing him rock a stadium, whereupon, pissed that some nightclub had tried to claim that they were holding the "official after party," he told the entire stadium to come back to his house. I waited in line outside his house for an hour in 10 degree weather in shirt sleeves before we got in, and it was so, so worth it. The Purple One, Chaka Khan, and Larry Graham(the man who invented slap bass) all jamming for hours five feet in front of me. Nearly 20 years ago now, but it will stay with me forever.
Growing up in Mpls in the 80's, Prince was omnipresent as a topic of conversation. Everybody had an uncle that had known him in HS, and I remember most people affecting a very slight disdain for Prince, just because, hey, he's this guy from Mpls. we don't need to make a big deal out of him. But I guess people changed their minds after awhile.
It's been raining here all day too, like a disturbance in the Great Chain of Being.
I'm pretty sure I saw this when it aired and didn't really know what the joke was, but it's impressive for a children's show. I think it's his expressions that make it truly filthy.
Chyna "the Ninth Wonder of the World" of WWE fame also died, same day as Prince. That one makes me really sad: she seemed like rather a lost soul after the end of her wrestling career (hence the brief sojourn in the adult industry among other things) and I wonder if she ever did manage to find a measure of peace.
On Prince: the obnoxious Howard Hughes-of-Pop tendencies mentioned in 32 were what they were, but were a side effect of one of the things that made him genuinely great. He was one of a disproportionately small number of great and successful black musicians who fought and won the battle to own their own music. The more I understand about the history surrounding that kind of struggle, the more sympathetic I am to his iteration of it.
I was never much of a fan (although recognizing his obvious talent), but, you know, when a famous person born the same year as you dies, you definitely notice.
42.2 -- I sort of agree with the general point, but the specific point I think you're making is wrong. By the 70s and 80s black musicians, certainly black songwriters like Prince, owned their own music and had co-publishing deals. No remotely successful artist with a claim to publishing rights after about 1970 gave up their publishing, because everyone knew that's where the money was. Prince did super well from the record companies, as well -- Warner paid him very very well, even if they nickled and dimed him (as of course they did to most of their artists).
If you just mean that Prince was a great example of a black artist fighting and succeeding in keeping total creative control over his own work, in the face of a lot of pressure to act otherwise, then I totally agree. But the "own your music" thing sounds like you're talking about things like 50s black musicians selling their publishing permanently for a trifle, and that kind of thing wasn't applicable to Prince's era generally or to Prince specifically.
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Anyhow, he was the best. Definitely the best live pop/rock performer I ever expect to see. As a friend pointed out on FB, he's a top-ten all-time great rock guitarist, and that's like maybe the fourth or fifth most important thing in his toolkit. My only regret is that he wasn't more imitated, but that's because it was impossible to imitate him. Just amazing.
Also 37 means that Chopper has been to Prince's house. Prince's house!
46: Yeah, now I'm kinda kicking myself that I was never in a position to go to Paisley Park for one of those parties. My friends did go to the crazy 3-shows-in-one-day thing a few years back. Prince didn't go on at First Ave that night until like 3:30 am or something -- the venue was literally arguing with the cops who wanted to pull the plug, until Prince got onstage.
There's an all-night dance party following the block party that's going on now -- someone must've leaned pretty heavily on the cops/city inspectors to get that set up and approved so fast. Of course, I'm sure everyone in the city administration is looking for bones like that to throw out, even if the demographics are slightly different.
in 10 degree weather in shirt sleeves
I can respect that. And yeah, 37 is awesome.
44: It would be nice if the problem had been solved by the Seventies, but the history of hip-hop (with rare exceptions like Jay-Z and Chuck D) seems to follow precisely the same pattern, it seems to me. Or am I mistaken?
Woah, I had no idea that going to Prince's house was like a thing, but I've just read about 50 accounts of it. I think it was just a plot point on "New Girl", rather than a recurring feature of life in Minneapolis. TV I will never doubt you again.
Best Prince lyric: "Never had four-letter words ever had such dignity and bite."
Best lyric about Prince: "Me and you do the kind of stuff that only Prince would sing about."
Best joke by a stand-up comedian about Prince: "I hope someday to be known as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince of my generation."
I'm sad to see him go, but if I had a chance to touch as many lives as he did I'd take the tragically shortened life. I'm trying to focus on the positives and listen to his music without getting a bit weepy but it's not really working yet.
37 is great.
He was really one of a a kind. Just an amazing genius level talent. But you all know that.
I'll now add to the list of regrets that I never saw him live. At least I never passed on a golden opportunity to see him live but I also never sought it out and living in NYC for years it would have been easy.
Adding to the NMMs' Richard Lyons of Negativland. That makes 3 just this year. Someone should shoot this year in the fucking face.
That makes 3 just this year.
Uhh, who wants to tell Barry that Richard Lyons isn't the third noteworthy musician to die in 2016?
Today my FB feed is full of iPhone video shot last night at the Prince block party. The thing is, there wasn't really anything to film. A friend of mine was DJing, but you couldn't really see her as there was no stage. I dunno, there's just something deeply spectacular about the whole thing.
"What about the Queen's husband?" "That's the Duke of-- look, it doesn't matter, Elvis Presley has died!"
A somewhat-paraphrased conversation I had with the First Lady last night:
Pres.: By the way, Prince died.
1st Lady: Oh no!
Pres.: Yeah.
1st Lady: Wow, I was just thinking about him this morning!
Pres.: Wow, really?
1st Lady: He was still pretty young!
Pres.: Yeah. He was only 57.
1st Lady: I hadn't heard that he was sick or anything.
Pres.: Me neither, but then again I hadn't really been following him closely.
1st Lady: Musically, he was amazing.
Pres.: Um, yeah. [Never realized she was such a fan.]
1st Lady: And he was very intelligent.
Pres.: Uh huh. [I'm sure he was, but it's not the first descriptor that springs to mind.]
1st Lady: He used to be an English teacher.
Pres.: Um, I think you're thinking of Sting.
1st Lady: Wait, who?
Pres.: Prince. Prince died.
1st Lady: OH! Good! [Not glad that Prince has died, but relieved to learn that Sting has not.]
I'm not really the person to have strong opinions in this regard, but I think being sadder if Sting had died than you are because Prince did is generally recognized as wrong.
58: I presume that was the reason for going presidential.
These recollections from Prince's drum programmer are amusing.
He's so confident on stage, but it's basically the opposite when you talk to him. He mumbles, he'd stutter a little bit, he'd look down. But when it came to doing the work, he always knew what he wanted. He was so confident in his abilities--even beyond music. He had a tennis court on his property but he never played tennis. Then somebody would say, "Oh, I want to play you." So Prince would send for his tennis gloves, was completely insane on the court and would beat whoever he was playing. I never saw Prince make a mistake--in anything.
Imagine being in his band. He could play every instrument better than the band. Except maybe the drums, but only because he didn't practice them enough. Still, he was a pretty good drummer.
...
The band at the time, the New Power Generation, were so good, we would do shows and I remember Bruce Springsteen or John Cougar Mellencamp, someone like that, came through and said, "Can I use your band on a record?" And Prince said, "Can I sleep with your woman?" That's the kind of shit that he would say.
Yeah, the only possible excuse for 57 is that the 1st lady is confused not only about who Prince is but also about who Sting is, and she was really thinking of Gene Simmons.
Statistically speaking, the first lady is more likely to be one of Sting's kids than one of Prince's.
Pop quiz, hotshot. There's a bomb on a trolley, and the trolley is hurtling down a track towards Prince. You're standing on a bridge over the tracks, and Sting is standing next to you. If you throw Sting off the bridge onto the trolley, the bomb will explode, killing Sting but saving Prince. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO?
Dead musicians in April 2016:
Prince
Merle Haggard
Lonnie Mack
Pete Zorn
Richard Lyons
Brian Asawa
Ismael Quintana
Peter Rock
Emile Ford
Jade Lemons
Irma Bule
Getachew Mekurya
Royston Nash
Manolo Tena
Carlo Mastrangelo
Bill Henderson
Koji Wada
Gato Barbieri
Leon Haywood
Jos de Rooij
Dorothy Schwartz
Lola Novakovic
Robbie Brennan
Gib Guilbeau
Tony Conrad
Jack Hammer
Jimmie Van Zant
Attilla Ozdemiroglu
Dennis Davis
Nobody gets out of here alive
I bet I could make a list of musicians who are alive that is at least twice that long.
And Ted Nugent remains alive. There is no God.
Pete Zorn? He was very young... oh, that's Pete Yorn.
Watch out, Pete Xorn!
55 I meant third member of Negativland to die within the year (not this year), not third notable musician. (and maybe that's not technically correct since Ian Allen died a little over a year ago).
62: Sting goes, obviously. Due respect to Presidential's First Lady.
Overdose of percocet apparently. For the hip problem.
American medicine so fucked up on pain management.
62 is the easiest moral quandary in the history of moral quandaries. I would push Sting to save, I dunno, the bassist from Thin Lizzy, let alone Prince.
You can take 71 as rumor for now if you want, or you can google for the Moline landing and stuff.
Looks a little to me that Prince may have had more of an addiction problem than just unmanageable pain. Looks like a weeklong overdose, or repeated ODs
I think heroin and morphine might be safer for a couple reasons than the oxycodone/hydrocodone complex. And we obviously need to legalize pot right now. My guess is that Obama will lower pot to Schedule II this year. Schedule III would be a pleasant surprise. Going thru the descriptions, pot shouldn't be "scheduled" at all.
Pete Zorn? He was very young... oh, that's Pete Yorn.
Not to mention that Peter Rock died, but Pete Rock lives.
How about Peter Tork? I think they need a reunion tour reunion.
add Percy Sledge...
The Monkeys plus Percy Sledge would be great.
Dammit Jim, it's worse than you think. Sledge died a year ago.
god DAMMIT, I need some new Facebook friends!
Strongly recommend the "Purple Rain" tribute by Jennifer Hudson and the Broadway cast of The Color Purple. Wow.
I still can't believe Scott La Rock is dead.
Okay, I'm officially done with the Prince mourning. No more fucking purple.
I hope you didn't repaint the house.