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Agreed. For this generation of music artists, you should check out a Bruno Mars concert. Great live performer. Sings well live, mixes up arrangements, covers, plays different instruments, dances well and genuinely seems to be having a great time on stage. I will never get to see a Prince concert live, and I am still crushed about it.
Sadly, I was not a fan during the 80's. I thought he was a flake and I was too wrapped up in my musical "big 5" of The Police/Rush/U2/RHCP/REM to really open my mind up to anything else. It wasn't until I left high school and started listening to all kinds of music besides my "big 5" that I really started to 'get' him if that's even possible. I really love watching him play guitar. He makes it look so effortless that it doesn't even look like he's really playing. I can't think of another player that makes it look that easy. SRV maybe? I don't think it's hyperbole to say that Prince was a modern day Mozart. He was definitely a musical genius and that term gets thrown around WAY too often. Probably the greatest overall musician since Zappa. And I would even argue he was better. Especially when/if that vault is ever opened.....
This times a million. When I see him play I always imagine what it would be like to play any instrument so easily and so well.
One influence on him most people miss is the Charley Chaplain vibe; I missed it also until I saw an interview with Miles Davis and he pointed it out along with the obvious James Brown moves. But his early look and movements are totally from CC...!
I never bought a Prince album and, not being mean, but I'm not going to start now. It's strange to me that everyone goes out buying albums of lost musical treasures only after they pass. Where were your album purchases before this happened? How about appreciating someone's work before they pass? I guess I understand it for younger people that weren't really indoctrinated before. But, that's life. Some people don't truly start appreciating someone till their gone I think. I do understand I guess that you want to hear music of famous musicians lost but, to me, the timing is just off as far as getting into it when he was always there before. It's unfortunate it takes the musician's death to have someone really start getting into it. Now, if you do really like it or appreciate it whereas maybe you didn't before, you've lost that opportunity to see him perform. That is almost a tragedy in itself. I always felt he was other-worldly with his talent, his music was unbelievably good for its genre (wherever it fit...seemed to be its own style), his guitar playing was top notch and probably top 10 all time, and his voice was undeniably pleasant to be heard. I appreciate his work even if it didn't fit into my musical upbringing. I probably haven't even heard 90% of his stuff...just the more popular stuff. He seemed like the ultimate ladies man and I could see every female being into his music because of the image he projected of himself but also for his music. He always struck me as the one guy who could snap his fingers, point at a woman, and have any woman he wanted at any time. And, I believe that is the truth. He was irresistible to women. Very few women would resist his advances and, if they did, then I'd like to know who (lol). We all know he brought women he noticed up on stage and brought them back stage after. And, went on to work with and promote some of these women (even married at least one is my understanding)...along with everything else. I don't think what ima_drummer2k says is a stretch at all. He was a modern day Mozart. Every fiber of his being was music-based and he emitted music from within. He lived and breathed it. It was his inner soul. That is the saddest part of all this...is that the music the world lost which would have continued to pour out of him. And, I'm sure we will continue to get music from his vault for years to come...along with his memoirs. Beyond that, he lived a grand life that none of us could even remotely imagine probably. He was worshiped by everyone his whole life since his career took off. I'm not sure how he learned to draw the line between actual friends and worshipers, though. He just struck me as supremely humble and friendly...not the type of guy to let celebrity or fame get in the way of who he was or how he approached people. But, I'm sure there are some dark clouds in there somewhere as far as hiding from the fame part of it. My regret is I never saw him in concert live. The best part of Prince is you didn't need to even know his music to appreciate it and like it...even if it is not your musical tastes. You just saw a genius on display, you knew the musical work was genius, and that alone was worth watching be performed and applauded. I'll add him to my list along with SRV and Bowie who I never saw perform live. And, in that sense, I guess I can understand why people buy musicians' music after they die...because it is opportunity lost and never to be found again.
I was in my teens and early 20's during Prince's heyday. I was in the truck this morning on the way to work, counting off in my head the singles he released ("I Wanna be Your Lover", "Soft and Wet", "Little Red Corvette", "1999", "Delirious", "Let's Get Married", "Let's Go Crazy", "When Doves Cry", "Purple Rain", "I Would Die 4 U", "Take me With You", "Raspberry Beret", "Pop Life", "America", "Kiss", "Mountains"... um, "Anotherloverholeinyohead", "Sign o' the Times", "U Got the Look", "I Could Never Take the Place of your Man", "If I was Your Girlfriend", "Thieves in the Temple", we can skip "Batdance", but "Partyman" and "Arms of Orion", "Gett Off", "Diamonds and Pearls", "Cream", "Money don't Matter Tonight", "7", "The Morning Papers", "My Name is Prince", "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World".....) and songs that we heard a lot that weren't singles, at least not here in the States ("Paisley Park", "She's Always in my Hair").... He owed a huge debt to James Brown and Jimi Hendrix but he played upwards of 20 instruments, mostly self-taught, and wrote most (if not all?) of his own material. His guitar playing was phenomenal. Weird that he passed so suddenly like that.
I checked out the party that First Ave. put on for Prince. There was no chance getting into First Ave. itself and the city closed off three blocks around the club and Target Center. Here is a pic of the scene outside. Spoilered for size. Spoiler
Would just like to say my buddy and I caught the opening night of Purple Rain at the old Baybrook Mall. We were like the only white people in the audience and it was such a blast. Never been to a movie that was that much fun, in terms of just being a concert, people on their feet, cheering, laughing, and crying. Hard to communicate to younger audiences how different and impactful Price was. (And, for his time, a public freak in the whoa-sexy-time sense of the word.)
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Really, who cares when they buy an artist's music? If they get turned on to his music b/c of this, all the better. There's so many things to read, so many movies and TV shows to see, and so much music to listen to that it's impossible to cover it all. And we don't know exactly how we were turned on to our favorites. Radio? MTV? Recommendation of a friend? Passing of the artist? The means doesn't matter as much. Some people are going to buy his music now b/c it's the cool thing to do. Great. It's like I used to feel about certain artists using their songs in commercials or on shows, like The Who. At first, I hated it. Now, I figure, well, people aren't going to go back and discover it on their own, so why not expose them to good songs?
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That's one. Another is that it was OD on pain pills. Price needed hip replacement (goolge confirms) and his religion Jehova Witness prevented him from getting surgery. At his age I can only imagine the pain of some bad hips. Also, it was brought to my attention that his last concert tour was mostly him on a piano. I guess we'll know soon enough.
There's a bank vault in Prince's basement full of recordings hed been making as early as 1983, one of Prince's women said it was almost full when she left in 87. Sorting through everything they estimate that only about 30% of Prince's recordings have yet to be released. So get ready for 40 more years of Prince albums
Prince was very essentric, some would say a dick, but there was no questioning the man's genius of music. Heres Kevin Smith talking about the unreleased documentary he shot for Prince. Its pretty funny on how Prince really was as a person. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8LhcParuzpc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Yeah, I can't explain the phenomenon behind it but I don't think its a big deal either. Nothing bad comes from this so I don't get the people that complain about it.
