stunned…
My heart dropped, and I had to tell my wife. Our thoughts first went towards David Bowie, we both loved Bowie, and we both drew parallels with Prince. Bowie’s core fans were born in the 1958 era, maybe even 1957… we came along a few years later, and Prince made a similar impact.
The years between 1970 and 1980 was a tumultuous time in music. There was a lot happening, everything from disco to several forms of metal, Christopher Cross, and everything in-between. Santana emerged and latin sounds gained notoriety. So time and place are very specific if you want to understand someones musical tastes at that time.
My musical tastes through out my teenage years Rush, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. I also sang latin choral music in high school. In 1980 I graduated High School, joined the military, met my first black person, and began to expand my musical world. In 1984 I was in the Air Force stationed in Germany DGR. We were dialed into every new album and movie coming through the pipeline. In fact, service men normally had early access to releases through the Military Exchange before US markets.
Purple Rain was a hit from day 1! We all liked Purple Rain and for our various reasons… but a bunch of young American Airman with a keg of beer and no women need some sort of release… and it was music… LOUD MUSIC!!! The equipment in our dorm room is the subject for another article.
But universally… across the board Iowa Farm Boys, California Surfer Boys, Chicago City Boys, and even East Coast… everyone loved Prince! Most of us were white, but the military fixes things like that real quick and has a way of making people color blind. A keg of Bitburg does not hurt either. But it was his talent. Everything was incredible, his playing, his music, his very unique sound, his weird look (remember this is 1984 and he was a bit edgy), the story line, the supporting characters… Prince broke lines people never knew existed. He gave you an urban, mad hatter look with a dose of some flaming guitar and incredible rhythm lines.
Prince was a pure artist, not a technician…
It was talent that hooked our generation to Prince. But he lived by his artistic temperament; his playing only served his artistic needs, he did not play to impress… though he did. I can explain. There was a lot of music from Price I did not like. The music I did not like was what I considered under played. Some of his music was simple in its structure, him singing over a simple rhythm. But he did not feel compelled to include guitar in all of his work. And it demonstrated an approach to music which seems to come from a much deeper place. Perhaps i’m wafting poetic, but very few people have demonstrated the musical range that Prince has.
Prince’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was an absolutely incredible performance, and ratcheted him up one more notch on my Rock and Roll totem pole. Prince was on stage with a guitar, fronting the likes of Jeff Lynn and Tom Petty, for “While My guitar Gently Weeps” …Prince KILLED! and in a classic thrash style unique to himself. When he finished he just took that beautiful Maple Telecaster and threw it over his head and walked off… it was the moment I went from liking the Telecaster to loving that Telecaster. And Prince… he was already on my Mount Olympus, but seeing his peers push him out front took him to another level for me.
Thank you Prince! You taught me a little bit about Minneapolis, and a lot about music. Somewhere is an illusive artist I don’t think any of us knew… but as the scriptures says, “you shall know them by their fruits”. And I’m not embarrassed to say that my appreciation of Prince, and his music, has helped me overcome the “racisms” of my youth. And I don’t think I’m alone. He never lived a self-absorbed public life of drama, and shared his art. We all appreciated him for who he was and ended up a little better off. And Damn… Prince could shred an axe like no body’s business!!!
God Bless you Prince!