MOTUnation.com

Oh no! I had great admiration for his talent.

Thank you for starting this, Magilla. I jumped through the requisite hoops to log in and start a thread as this news has thrown me somewhat.

I endured many years of ridicule from my peers when in high school as the only Prince fan out of the 1400-boy strong population. I was sold when I heard Bambi and I Wanna be Your Lover, and became a huge fan after buying Dirty Mind and Prince (late '70s).

To be fair, said ridicule was a consequence of my also being a Michael Jackson fan. He'd only released Off the Wall as a solo artist, but I insisted that he and Prince were destined to become the two biggest artists of our time. I wasn't far off the mark, and would relish the opportunity to hear what all those folks would have to say now about it.

Obviously this isn't about me, but his passing has, in addition to shocking me, left a bitter taste in my mouth because the marginalisation I experienced tainted my relationship with his music; I loved so much of it, and yet always felt guilty about feeling this way, as if something was wrong with me. I was new in the country as a teenager and found the pressure to like only Aussie rock, Pink Floyd, The Stones, Queen, The Eagles and Led Zeppelin impossible to understand. It was against this expectation from which nobody could hide that I chose to proclaim my admiration for these two artists. It's obvious that this experience of feeling like an outcast has affected my life greatly; I still don't feel like I've shaken it off.

As unsettling, disappointing and sad as Prince's passing is for me, I can only hope that the fact that both he and Michael have departed in some small way catalyses the shedding of this heavy cloud that's hung over me all these years. I was ripe for the plucking, having endured a somewhat horrific childhood, so the treatment I received in high school was the proverbial straw. I went on to hang with all the wrong people, something that continued for 15 years and that further destroyed me. Obviously I've been "recovering", trying to rebuild myself during the subsequent 15 years.

His genius moved and inspired me. I saw Purple Rain 7 times at the cinema, the only other film I'd seen more than once was The Empire Strikes Back (twice). The fact that anyone could identify a song as being his after hearing perhaps a single bar or less speaks volumes about the freakishly-unique nature of his creativity and musical identity.

I'm shaking my head in disbelief, and am truly at a loss for words now. Had I Shooshie's flair for communication and expression I might be able to do justice to the immensity of the personality and talent that this man possessed, but alas, I'm a mere simian, and a naive, always-playing-catch-up, overawed one at that.

I'm crying at the thought that he'll no longer be around to surprise us; I've carried a sense of anticipation as to what he'll do next around with me all these years. I relish being surprised and impressed musically, as I'm sure all of us here do, and now there's one less source from which this can arise. I miss him already. This is just horrible.

RIP, my dear, dear Prince.

Prince and Michael Jackson... The two biggest artists for me in the 80s, and now both of them gone too soon. And it's just so hard to conceive, because Prince seemed to never age and the quality of his work continued to excel year after year. We've had a lot of stunning losses in the music world this year, but this one may be the most shocking.

RIP dear immortal genius.

We were lucky enough to hear him last year. He did one of his pop up concerts with his all girl band 3rdeyegirl. The venue was a small theatre built in the '30's. What a great show and one of my personal best shows. A great artist.

Prince was an amazing artist,songwriter and performer.I saw him at 3 shows in one week at 2 different venues during his Sign of the Times tour back in the late 80's.
It was amazing to see him perform and lead his band through different arrangements of songs ,complicated set lists, seguing songs together and even performing a 4 or 5 song encore by himself on piano,he was a very special talent and magical performance artist.
RIP

monkey man wrote:I jumped through the requisite hoops to log in and start a thread...

I just sent you an email that said the following:

I saw you had issues getting on the board. I use a service at stopforumspam.com which maintains a list of IP addresses of known forum spammers. What happened is your IP must have been reported somehow. It could definitely have been a mistake.

You can go to this link to ask to have your IP removed and you shouldn't have any problems accessing the board again.

http://www.stopforumspam.com/removal

It's as if the year 2016 needs its own version of "American Pie".

speechless

What a year!

RIP, Maestro.

Shooshie

Gosh ! Today, I feel like living in less musical world...

Prince was an incredible musician that could play just about any instrument. Remarkable voice in a good way. To me at least you could listen to a piece of music and identify it as his no problem. Another thing I liked about him was he always had at least one female musician in his bands and sometimes multiple; I think he may have been the first of the biggie artists to do so. And those were no slouches or just eye candy either - Sheila E. and now Hannah Welton (used to be Ford) and others I forget at the moment.

In 2011, I had a sit down with Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman. We talked about their film and commercial work for the most part; the subject of Prince naturally came up. Although their relationship in the movie was portrayed as a bit strained, they said that was mostly written for the screen. There was nothing but love for their former band leader and collaborator. I was jazzed to be talking to the other two writers of "Purple Rain", ya know?

Living in Minneapolis, I came across PRN from time to time. Never worked with him, but many (maybe even most) of my musician and engineer friends did. I was always an admirer of his talent and work ethic… even if not always a fan of the result.

Of course, he's gone too soon. The real tragedy is that he had so much more music to share and so much more that he would have done to help re-shape an industry so desperately in need of reinvention.

The best tribute I've seen is this video, that appears to have been created and posted the day his death was announced. You might enjoy it. I did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJdojRBBg0Y

We've lost more heavyweights so far this year than in the past few years combined. And though each has moved me and saddened me, the two that had me bawling for days were Bowie and Prince, because they broke down so many musical (and other) barriers and were so authentic as well as being genuinely nice people who treated everyone around them with respect and unselfishly gave of themselves to help launch (or resurrect) quite a few other musical careers.

I await with trepidation the final coroner's report. I felt so much affinity for Prince in his attitudes towards music and creativity. I have been lucky enough to meet (and sometimes work with) more than my fair share of celebrities over the course of my life, but Prince and Bowie are not on that list and are the two I most would have liked to jam with, or just hang with.

There was a stupid article yesterday about how more are dying now because the Baby Boomer generation is "at that age" and thus there are "more famous people than ever". Baloney! The people who are dropping off are for the most part nowhere near the age where "natural deaths" and genetic disorders start taking their toll. Such articles belittle the human tragedy and the loss for those close to the departed or even the rest of us who feel deeply touched on a level that is unusual for strangers.

On a personal level, I know a couple of people who might not be here today if not for Prince. I'm talking people who didn't fit in (no need to go into details; people will know what I mean) and who had been suicidal, then heard Prince's music, lyrics, interviews, saw his stage show, and felt they were no longer alone. Bowie was similar in that way, even though quite different in other ways (more of a conceptual artist than multi-instrumental whiz like Prince). I can't remember if they ever made music together; both worked with so many people it wouldn't have surprised me.

In one of the obits, I saw that Prince had played guitar on Madonna's "Love Song" from the "Like a Prayer" album. They almost did a "royalty" tour together at one point.

Prince, Michael Jackson, and Madonna were born the same year I was, so I have always felt a special connection with all three of them. Now I'm praying that Madge's recent depression over her son's estrangement -- which has led to some erratic behavior from someone who normally has it together even in the toughest of times -- will be short-lived and that she carries the torch for our generation.