RIP Prince

Personal feeling is he was hugely popular with fans, but even more so with fellow musicians. He could do it all. And, from what I've read, his most incredible shows were for small groups of friends and artists in the wee hours.

And that most kept it all private is a signal of how much they respected the man.

 

Thanks. That was kind of what I was thinking, but even Michael Jackson didn't get this much pub (likely for good reason). But Bowie, etc. ... nowhere near this outpouring. Not even close.

 

I think that says something. MJ and Bowie were unreal, tremendous talents. Prince, in the final evaluation, might have been more. Better.

Art is art to those who experience it.

 

Kinda the direction I was going. Just the utmost respect for the talent. So crazy to me to read now that he had stage fright, etc. But talent doesn't make you immune to being human.

 

I was there and it was very cool. The whole stage was bathed in purple light as the band came out and every member of the band was wearing some article of purple clothing.

Bruce gave a little speech about Prince after the song which seemed heartfelt. A number of the songs on The River are tinged with melancholy about time passing and choices made and Bruce seemed very emotional at times. Whether it was the death of another 80s icon, the end of this leg of the tour or something else, it was a powerful (and long) show.

 

Regardless of the genre they are working in I think it would be impossible for fellow musicians not to be in awe of the guy's talents. He could shred like the best heavy metal and hard rock guitarists, could sing, write, produce, play pretty much any instrument, wrote better songs for others than many of them could write for themselves and he was better onstage than almost all of them.

 

Phish posted this video from its 1998 New Year's Eve show at the Garden.

 

The main goals of most addicts is to keep their addiction hidden. Most, regardless of the source of their addiction, live behind a painstakingly created facade of normalcy.

 

I think one element of the outpouring is that it gives people the opportunity to mourn the '80s without the awkwardness that accompanied Jackson's death.

 

That Phish song was tedious.

 

Haven't seen this before....great solo here....

 

I had not realized how good Prince was at guarding his privacy. He was a huge megastar who as a matter of policy simply did not put himself out there other than what he needed to. He recorded, he toured, and he went back to Minneapolis.

Yesterday I saw his first appearance on American Bandstand when he was nineteen, and Dick Clark mentioned that he had made a couple of demos when he was fifteen, playing all the instruments. He got an offer of a recording contract on the strength of those. He turned it down because they would not let him produce.

At age fifteen.

His music was not part of the soundtrack of my youth. I was not unaware of him but I wasn't a big fan the way I was of Springsteen, say, who was his contemporary. It sucks that I have awakened to what a talent the man was after he is gone. It's my loss.

I look forward to his music becoming a bit more available, to the reissues and new releases from the vault.