After January 10th, I read tributes regarding the surprising death of David Bowie with respect and admiration. But I hadn't experienced peak Bowie. Most of my musical knowledge of his was his 80s music which inarguably was not his best. As I read and listened to these tributes I wondered who my David Bowie was. Which music artists had such an effect on my life and who I came to be as a person. Two names came to mind quickly: Madonna and obviously Prince. I wondered what it would feel like when they, two of my artistic heroes, would pass from this world. Here less than four months later I'm feeling the feels so much sooner than I ever would have expected. Prince was iconic to me as he was for many, but also an important cultural influence in my childhood and early adulthood.
I first became aware of Prince in about 1983 when a lot of other people did. The song was Little Red Corvette. I hovered over the radio for hours listening to KTRS in Casper Wyoming waiting for the very second the song began so that I could record it onto a blank cassette. At this point I knew little about Prince (but did I or anyone really ever know that much about him?), but I knew that I loved this song. There was something exciting and new about it.
Perhaps a year later I became very aware of Prince the man. MTV played music then, and they used to have World Premiere videos at the top of the hour. There had been huge buzz about this relatively known artist and the fact that he was making a rock musical called Purple Rain, but nothing had been seen until that day. The video of When Doves Cry came on that day and I was excited, terrified and in lust as Prince arose out of the bathtub and crawled and writhed and beckoned his audience to follow him. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It felt like I should look away and yet I never could or would.
I won't pretend to be the world's biggest Prince fan. Sure, like many I consider Purple Rain to be one of if not the the best albums of all time. Sure, I kept up with his career in wonder as he posed nude on one his album covers, as he performed on the VMA with assless pants, and when he tried to make Sheena Easton a thing well past her expiration date. After the late 90s I became less of a big fan and more of an admirer as he continued to put out music. Those later albums didn't touch me in the same way that his earlier work had, but they led me to a realization. Prince was to my generation and others what the Mozarts and the Beethovens of the worlds were during there time. Even when I didn't love the newer Prince songs I appreciated the musicianship and technique that went into them. As an artist there was no one that has rivaled Prince's musical talent in modern times. He was an enigmatic legend with more talent than we will probably ever see again from one person in our lifetime.
On December 19th, 2011, I went to my first and tragically last Prince concert. It had been at the top of my concert bucket list to see Prince live. Prince was being a little diva that day it seemed. He came on stage very late and then only performed about 90 minutes which was short for a man with a reputation performing several hours on end. I was a little disappointed the show was so short, but only because I was in awe of what I did see. I knew Prince was a magical musician but as a live performer he took that magic to a different level. After he left the stage we stuck around for an hour hoping that Prince would return to the stage for another encore. Sadly he did not. I vowed to see him live again, but I never did. I'm very pleased though to have had that time with him and for ninety minutes to have been in the presence of a genius.
Favorite Prince songs:
When Doves Cry, Little Red Corvette, Take Me With U, I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, Cream, Let's Go Crazy, U Got the Look
Favorite Prince written songs:
Nothing Compares 2 U, Manic Monday, When U Were Mine.
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