RIP Prince

Prince and Bob Dylan remind me of one another quite a bit, in that they both have crafted slippery, private, mysterious personas, simply by managing to stay away from the tabloid spotlight. In fact, because of that, people often have lost sight that, first and foremost, they are both defined by and driven by their love of music, which is quite real.

 

I imagine Morris Day is down to about 17 more hours of phone calls from reporters asking for reaction.

 

Incorrect.

OK. Back to Prince.

 

Prince, under an alias, wrote a song for Kenny Rogers. Who knew?

 

I hope it wasn't Islands in the Stream.

 

SiriusXM channel 50 is all Prince right now.

 

I had forgotten until last night that I have Prince's 3-CD set "The Hits/The B-Sides." A pretty great compilation I'll have to dig out.

 

I think he's definitely one of those artists whose best work is some of his lesser known stuff.

 

Beck is another who comes to mind. I've been listening to him avidly in advance of JazzFest next weekend in New Orleans, and I'm blown away by the amount of terrific stuff he has that's never in rotation on the airwaves. Some of it is pretty low energy and arguably depressing, but still damn good.

 

I didn't know until now that Prince wrote the Bangles "Manic Monday". Shitty way to find out though.

 

I think I'll put on some low-energy, depressing Beck jams this afternoon. Thanks, Boogie!

One thing about Prince -- the 80s were an awful time for pop, rock, R&B, country, whatever.

Lot of disco backlash. Many popular bands did not have music that actually made you want to dance.

Prince was one of the few who put out popular stuff at the time that made you want to get up and move.