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With first posthumous album, Prince pierces the American condition

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By Maggy DONALDSON

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Melding urgent lyricism with languorous funk, the pop shapeshifter Prince sings of America as the "land of the free / home of the slave."

Long live his Purple Highness.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Eric Clapton spoke personally about Prince two days after his passing.

I'm so sad about the death of Prince," he wrote on Facebook. He was a true genius, and a huge inspiration for me, in a very real way. In the the '80s, I was out on the road in a massive downward spiral with drink and drugs. I saw Purple Rain in a cinema in Canada, I had no idea who he was, it was like a bolt of lightning! In the middle of my depression, and the dreadful state of the music culture at that time it gave me hope, he was like a light in the darkness.

He continued:

I went back to my hotel, and surrounded by empty beer cans, wrote 'Holy Mother.' I can't believe he's gone.

Clapton's words echoed what he said on a 1989 episode of the BBC's Desert Island Discs, where he shortlisted "Purple Rain" among tracks by Stevie Wonder and Muddy Waters, as well as a Puccini aria. Calling Prince a "life-saver," he added that Prince was

"a reincarnation of Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix and James Brown in one. I thought that’s exactly what the world needed.”

Prince was the best musician of an entire generation!

8 ( +9 / -1 )

Was Never a Prince fan by any stretch of the imagination. Never knew what the hype was. He definitely was talented and that can’t be understated, but I also didn’t like how he was as a person towards other musicians especially the ones closest to him. He wasn’t charming and definitely shrewd and cutthroat, which vilified him but also epitomized him as a savvy businessman as well, which is what you need to be if you want to survive in the industry.

Like most who knew nothing about him, Prince was a great humanitarian who did not brag about his work!

Prince, the Secret Philanthropist: ‘His Cause Was Humanity’

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/prince-the-secret-philanthropist-his-cause-was-humanity-157700/

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Rather than being cutthroat, Prince was just a complete control freak, something far more common among musicians. This comes out in all the stories about The Time, including firing the (then unknown) Alexander O'Neal. The Time included Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, but Prince wouldn't let them play on their records and did all the parts himself.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Brilliant and handsome man. One of my all-time favorites.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

For Prince a key component of freedom was ownership, according to Hayes: "if you don't own your own things, you don't have any freedom."

Interesting.

John Lennon sang about imagining no possessions, and how lovely that would be.

Good song, but I definitely come down on the same side as Prince philosophically.

Except that Prince was fighting against predatory corporations for ownership of his creative labor. Which makes him as timely as ever right now.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Great album, listening now. RIP Prince, so much amazing music it's crazy.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Never knew what the hype was. He definitely was talented 

He was known and respected as talented.

Not really my kind of music but his ability to write, perform and play ( pretty much any instrument as far as I could see ) was very impressive. I don’t know if you can play guitar - I can to a point and I’d love to have a fraction of his ability on just that one instrument.

There wasn’t too much need for hype. He was pretty phenomenal.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I was a bit late to the purple rain. He was one of the most underrated guitarists ever. His Rock and Roll HOF performance of "while my guitar gently weeps" was an absolute tour de force.

High hopes for this album.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I will never forget the time when Prince was in concert and he asked Kim Kardashian to come on stage to dance. She came up on stage but didn't last long. Prince kicked her off stage saying she couldn't dance. LOL you can goggle that moment!!

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Prince is cool

1 ( +2 / -1 )

For Prince a key component of freedom was ownership, according to Hayes: "if you don't own your own things, you don't have any freedom."

Interesting.

John Lennon sang about imagining no possessions, and how lovely that would be.

Good song, but I definitely come down on the same side as Prince philosophically.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Was Never a Prince fan by any stretch of the imagination. Never knew what the hype was. He definitely was talented and that can’t be understated, but I also didn’t like how he was as a person towards other musicians especially the ones closest to him.

Fair enough. Just hope you're not an Eric Clapton fan...

1 ( +2 / -1 )

fxgaiToday  03:37 pm JST

Except that Prince was fighting against predatory corporations for ownership of his creative labor. 

What do you mean, “except that”?

Yes, he was fighting for ownership of his own work.

Doesn’t matter who is doing the taking. I agree with Prince on this principle 100% - no exceptions.

Most artists unfortunately don't have ownership of their own work. When the Beatles split they had legal business issues for years and even today Sir Paul, Sir Ringo/Richard, Mrs. Harrison and Yoko do not own the copywrites of what the Fab Four did. And on top of that they were ripped off big time.

The Stones don't own all their copywrites either. Most major stars don't, a few lucky exceptions being Bruce Springsteen. When Jeff Lynne reformed Electric Light Orchestra (he wrote about everything they did), he too had to go thru this rigmarole. He actually had to buy stocks from a bandmate to do this! Does that make any sence? And when I saw the band play in 2019 it was under the name '(Jeff Lynne's) ELO'. Go figure. And the two studio CDs and one live that been released in the past few years are under that moniker.

Rock'n'roll can be an ugly corporate business when it comes to ownership and use of copywrites of songs that you wrote. It's crazy. I agree with Prince and all the others. You write it, you should own it.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Michael O’ DereiterToday  08:41 am JST

By orders of magnitude. I never got the Japanese fascination with Jackson (or that other hack, John Lennon, who never did anything worthwhile outside the Beatles), but they hardly know about Prince, who had more talent than they could ever dream of.

Total agreement.

bass4funkToday  09:02 am JST

 He definitely was talented and that can’t be understated, but I also didn’t like how he was as a person towards other musicians especially the ones closest to him.

I started getting into Prince in the past 10-15 years. Have you ever seen his While My Guitar Gently Weeps performance at the music Hall of Fame way back? That really put him on the map for me, especially as a guitarist.

And his duet with Beyonce--surprising to me as he seemed to be totally cool to her; one of the few times he didn't act mercurial towards other musicians, so yes, you are right he was kind of not too nice to others in the industry.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Prince was

"a reincarnation of Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix and James Brown in one. I thought that’s exactly what the world needed.”

Prince was the best musician of an entire generation!

Pundits often pigeon hole him as 'funk' but he really dabbled in nearly all genres, even orchestral and jazz fusion. He made music for nearly everyone's tastes. On top of that, it all had a very strong psychedelic edge. I grew up with his music and like say the Rolling Stones, the songs and stardom never faded. Prince's CDs were still hitting the Top 10 during the past decade, a few even entered the charts at #1.

He never ceased to be relevant and when he died all the FM stations preempted and played his music exclusively for the rest of the week. Prince wasn't one of the biggest and best musicians of Generation X and since but of all time.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Except that Prince was fighting against predatory corporations for ownership of his creative labor. 

What do you mean, “except that”?

Yes, he was fighting for ownership of his own work.

Doesn’t matter who is doing the taking. I agree with Prince on this principle 100% - no exceptions.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

‘Tell me where have all the raspberry women gone?’

Unforgettable, Prince was such a great artist and musician.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

JimizoToday  02:20 pm JST

I can to a point and I’d love to have a fraction of his ability on just that one instrument.

It would the great if you had a fraction of anything.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Seems like the producer just dug up every social justice track that he could find. Then tries to relate it to today in some way despite it being written in a different America than how.

am interested to hear what they dug up from the vault.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Prince is great. Much more talented than Michael Jackson, who outsold him in the 80s, 90s. and so on.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

Not a fan, but I did like some of his songs, like 1999, Strawberry Beret, You got the look, Cream, Kiss, and the list goes on. But yeah, he was a strange character - just like MJ.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

Prince is great. Much more talented than Michael Jackson

By orders of magnitude. I never got the Japanese fascination with Jackson (or that other hack, John Lennon, who never did anything worthwhile outside the Beatles), but they hardly know about Prince, who had more talent than they could ever dream of.

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

Was Never a Prince fan by any stretch of the imagination. Never knew what the hype was. He definitely was talented and that can’t be understated, but I also didn’t like how he was as a person towards other musicians especially the ones closest to him. He wasn’t charming and definitely shrewd and cutthroat, which vilified him but also epitomized him as a savvy businessman as well, which is what you need to be if you want to survive in the industry.

-13 ( +2 / -15 )

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