Prince is dead

[CJ Shearn]

It's about time to own some of his music rather than just always hearing it on the radio. Unfortunately, and predictably, prices for his stuff on eBay have jumped through the roof, it will level out, but $50 for an original CD of "Purple Rain"? can't be that hard to find!

[JSngry]

It worked on my phone. Loved the cut, perfect example of how Prince didn't make cheap/disposable music...this thing is loose, casual, in no way "produced" to be "pop", but there's all these little details that are not there by accident...Prince never halfassed, he always made conscious choices about every aspect of his music. Here, it's having a basic but DEEP JB-ish groove going on, but with the JimmyNolanChunk hitting on this weird chord that's got some half-step-up things going on in it. That is enough of a WTF? as a coloristic choice, but then the guitar solo begins, and it's soon apparent that that rhythm guitar chord is really made from the mode that the guitar solo is going to use and BAM, just like that, a seemingly secondary quirk becomes a full explanation. Conscious and quite deliberate manipulation of the sonic hierarchy. Genius.

The word "genius" get overused everywhere, and nowhere more than in popular music. But for me, true genius means not just having total command of your language(s), but also having the ability to use that language freely and inventively, to take it anywhere and bring it back at will, no idea that the skills can't execute, and no skills that the idea can't find. On those terms, I have no problem whatsoever view Prince through the prism of genius, which does not mean that everything he did was genius work, the guy had very real peaks and valleys. But remember, "genius" is not a synonym of "excellent". It's more a quality of character, of essential nature. The work of a genius, failed, triumphant, and in between.

Besides, "Sexy M.F." and the original video that it came with are about as genius as anybody's gonna be in the world that Prince existed, everything he came into, everything he created there, and everything he left behind, visual, musical, all of it. Genius.

http://www.videodetective.com/music/sexy-mf/721321

 

[l p]

1 hour ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

When I click that link, my computer won't even allow me to enable scripts. I guess all.vn (Vietnam) URLs are banned.

 

do a google search for

https://www.google.com/search?num=20&lr=&as_qdr=all&q=prince++%22poor+goo%22+%22mp3%22&oq=prince++%22poor+goo%22+%22mp3%22&gs_l=serp.3..0i22i30.214986.218025.0.218505.6.6.0.0.0.0.116.417.5j1.6.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..0.6.407.bPDXEnQP3_E

 

 

1993 (or 1994?)

The Undertaker

 

This is a very unique live in the studio session (no audience). Power trio with only guitar, bass, drums. There's a video of this session, but it's hard to find.

 

These tunes have extensive guitar solos:

The Ride

Poor goo

The Undertaker

 

[JSngry]

Anybody buy the 45 of "Kiss" and then get super WTF-ed by the B-side?

There's a special place in heaven for people who constructively engaged their B-Sides.

[skeith]

I apologize to the Prince fans for what I am about to say and probably am just displaying my own ignorance.

Around the office water cooler yesterday with office mates (ages 40-60, mixed race) I was asked what my favorite Prince album was.  I responded that I was not a fan because my impression based on what I was able to hear and see in the media from his guitar playing and a number of the outfits and "looks" he adopted when Prince hit the scene was that he was a Jimi Hendrix wannabe and that I would rather listen to Jimi.  I did not want to take this any further because I respect that Prince's fans are in mourning but people really got very angry with me.  Was told by several people at the water cooler who are serious about their music that Jimi Hendrix was an overrated gimmick-based guitar player who wrote bad songs and sang with a mediocre voice and that 100 years from now when the book of rock and roll is written there will be a chapter on Prince and Jimi gets a footnote for setting his guitar on fire at Monterey Pop.   I replied that is so wrong in so many ways....but there was no convincing this crew....again a couple of 60ish types in the mix....said it was all due to an over-romanticization of the 60s causing an overrating of Hendrix...

Oh well...guess I could be wrong

 

 

Edited April 22, 2016 by skeith

[jazzbo]

It's unfortunate that you got that stuff about Jimi, it's not true but I do hear it bandied about by those who are not as old as we are. . . . 

I love Jimi, and no one will convince me of his "unimportance." That said I'm a big Prince fan and he's far more than a "Jimi wannabe". . . far more. I got in on Prince early, with the first album, and was swept up in the "Revolution" wave and really like that stuff. . . but I actually like Prince of a later vintage, his work in the 'nineties and this century is very interesting. It's sad that he has died so young, especially if it is opiate drug related, as may be the case. I expected him around for quite some time. 

[Scott Dolan]

I never heard Prince tied to any drug addiction. Cat had it together WAY too much to have been an addict, IMO. 

[skeith]

36 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

It's unfortunate that you got that stuff about Jimi, it's not true but I do hear it bandied about by those who are not as old as we are. . . . 

I love Jimi, and no one will convince me of his "unimportance." That said I'm a big Prince fan and he's far more than a "Jimi wannabe". . . far more. I got in on Prince early, with the first album, and was swept up in the "Revolution" wave and really like that stuff. . . but I actually like Prince of a later vintage, his work in the 'nineties and this century is very interesting. It's sad that he has died so young, especially if it is opiate drug related, as may be the case. I expected him around for quite some time. 

I believe you Lon....as I said I never got much exposure beyond the Prince's pop hits .....so as I said I may be displaying my ignorance....on the other hand the Hendrix dismissals may be on the ignorant side too.

[JSngry]

Musicology is an album that matters, imo.

And comparing Hendrix to Prince is sorta like comparing a great, engaging novel to a great, engaging encyclopedia.

 

[skeith]

36 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Musicology is an album that matters, imo.

And comparing Hendrix to Prince is sorta like comparing a great, engaging novel to a great, engaging encyclopedia.

 

Well again... I might not have made the comparison had Prince not chosen to look and play like Hendrix at least on some of the limited occasions I witnessed him.

 

Is Prince the novel or the encyclopedia?

 

[JSngry]

41 minutes ago, Scott Dolan said:

I never heard Prince tied to any drug addiction. Cat had it together WAY too much to have been an addict, IMO. 

Agreed in principle, but I've heard speculation that he had ongoing foot/heel trouble that caused ongoing intense pain. Very plausible scenario, and very unfortunate if that's how it happened. He'd not be the first, and he won't be the last.

But as far as being a "wild guy" or any of that, no. The guy was a pussyhound to be sure, but he was also a Jehovah's Witness(?) and got married and settled down. No drugs, no alcohol, just work and sex...not at all a bad gig for anybody.

37 minutes ago, skeith said:

Well again... I might not have made the comparison had Prince not chosen to look and play like Hendrix at least on some of the limited occasions I witnessed him.

 

Is Prince the novel or the encyclopedia?

 

Prince is the encyclopedia...so many times there are so many little details, minutiae in either the actual music or the mix or the EQ, anything having to do with the overall sound of the record, that just make me say WHOA!, this is a guy who knows exactly what he's doing about as much and as exactly as it can be known, and then fucks with it.

My encyclopedia growing up was World Book, the one with all the multiple layered overlapping colored transparencies and stuff like that. Brittanica had the data, but World Book had the grip. When I got older, yeah, sure, you need data. But until then, you gotta go before you grow. For a kid with curiosity, a thing like that is a never-ending source of fascinated digging deeper. That's what the best Prince Music is, you can just keep digging into the layers of it and finding things. Data AND grip.

And for the record, the Purple Rain music, although a brilliant synthesis of so many things, is probably my least favorite era of Prince. He's consciously referencing so many things and doing it brilliantly, but the goal is also to make a place/statement in and about Pop Culture. I like the guy best when he's getting his quirk on. When that happened, hey, Life 'O' The Party indeed.

[JSngry]

Ok, here's a guy who is at once fully immersed in the event and simultaneously wholly outside it, omni-commenting in every available space, macro and micro. He can love it and mock it at the same time becuase he knows all of it, the interior, the exterior, the meanings at all their layers, it's the height of arrogance, it's the height of humility, it's total jive, it's totally brilliant, it's referencing Black Music as Symbol and fully aware of Symbol As Meaning and Silence as both Symbol AND Meaning, social, racial, every kind of way, signifyin', if you will. Like a motherfucker.

What this specific happening has to do with "music" is very little, but what it has do do with Prince is enormous. The guy was crazy mad DEEP.

https://youtu.be/lHaFj7gOWh4

 

I mean, poor Michael, Michael had seriosuly deep skills, but Micheal did not meditate on things the way Prince did. Even if he had an inkling, Michael did not, for whatever reasons, embrace the conflicts of The Meanings In The Face Of The Realities for the purpose of getting in front of them, not like Prince did. Michael, on this stage, was contributing and tributing and loving, but Prince was loving it and fucking with it, from the inside and from the outside.

Yeah, Prince.

[Stefan Wood]

RIP.  Too young to go. 

Musicology was the last album I had paid any attention to, and found it to be remarkably good and cohesive, unlike many of his later projects. 

[Scott Dolan]

Ah, I wasn't familiar with the foot/ankle pain story, Jim. What a true shame...

As for the Jimi/Prince thing, it's as tiring an argument as Parker/Dolphy. Who did it better? Who cares? Did the latter emulate the former to a certain degree? Yeah, so what? Like that's a bad thing. All four offered their own unique voice, and all four did it to an astonishing degree. 

Enjoy it, or don't. 

 

[jazzbo]

It's interesting that many seem to have stopped at Musicology and earlier. . . I have pretty much stopped listening to Musicology and before, and have listened this decade to the newer material. There were different Prince fans, and perhaps different Princes. 

The way that guy danced in heels, I don't doubt a lot of physical pain especially in his fifties. I just turned sixty and I can imagine, though I don't have to, I just have to do one tenth of what he does to feel the pain.

[page]

Lots of rumours here about the  cause. I hate that, let's just wait till it is investigated. I was never a real fan either, although I have enjoyed dancing to his music and did really like some songs. I think he was a real clever musician and he is very respected by the public.
R.I.P. and thank you for the music that taught us something new.

[l p]

3 hours ago, skeith said:

Was told by several people at the water cooler who are serious about their music that Jimi Hendrix was an overrated gimmick-based guitar player who wrote bad songs and sang with a mediocre voice and that 100 years from now when the book of rock and roll is written there will be a chapter on Prince and Jimi gets a footnote for setting his guitar on fire at Monterey Pop.   I replied that is so wrong in so many ways....but there was no convincing this crew....again a couple of 60ish types in the mix

 

these people seem to be as ignorant about music as you can possibly get.

[GA Russell]

RIP.  I never had an interest in Prince's music, but was always interested in his experiments regarding the sale or distribution of his music since ca. 2000.

Edited April 22, 2016 by GA Russell

[kinuta]

2 hours ago, jazzbo said:

It's interesting that many seem to have stopped at Musicology and earlier. . . I have pretty much stopped listening to Musicology and before, and have listened this decade to the newer material. There were different Prince fans, and perhaps different Princes. 

The way that guy danced in heels, I don't doubt a lot of physical pain especially in his fifties. I just turned sixty and I can imagine, though I don't have to, I just have to do one tenth of what he does to feel the pain.

I kept listening to all his new releases right to the end. Some tracks I loved, others not so much but he was always interesting.

I ended up with a lot of compilations of my favourites.

There should be a huge amount of unreleased material sitting in his vault , enough for several new albums I'd say.

I wasn't aware of the dancing/pain issue. It depends on his level of fitness.

I'm 70 this year but still run 5 miles most days with zero aches and pains.

 

[Chuck Nessa]

Reports of death by AIDS complicated by his religion.

[skeith]

2 hours ago, l p said:

 

these people seem to be as ignorant about music as you can possibly get.

yeah...well thanks

[Bluesnik]

I liked how he used girl musicians like Wendy and Lisa or Sheila E.

[robertoart]

6 hours ago, JSngry said:

Ok, here's a guy who is at once fully immersed in the event and simultaneously wholly outside it, omni-commenting in every available space, macro and micro. He can love it and mock it at the same time becuase he knows all of it, the interior, the exterior, the meanings at all their layers, it's the height of arrogance, it's the height of humility, it's total jive, it's totally brilliant, it's referencing Black Music as Symbol and fully aware of Symbol As Meaning and Silence as both Symbol AND Meaning, social, racial, every kind of way, signifyin', if you will. Like a motherfucker.

What this specific happening has to do with "music" is very little, but what it has do do with Prince is enormous. The guy was crazy mad DEEP.

https://youtu.be/lHaFj7gOWh4

 

I mean, poor Michael, Michael had seriosuly deep skills, but Micheal did not meditate on things the way Prince did. Even if he had an inkling, Michael did not, for whatever reasons, embrace the conflicts of The Meanings In The Face Of The Realities for the purpose of getting in front of them, not like Prince did. Michael, on this stage, was contributing and tributing and loving, but Prince was loving it and fucking with it, from the inside and from the outside.

Yeah, Prince.

Or maybe Hendrix, James Brown and to a certain extant Michael were the Cartographers and Prince was 'the legions'. Prince inherited fully formed and mapped out 'territories' from which to extrapolate from. Encyclopaedias don't create new knowledge they document and create narratives from that which has already been named. Michael Jackson's musical opus and journey peaked and created new territories with Off The Wall, Don't Stop, Beat It, Billie Jean Thriller etc. at a time when Prince was just emerging with his transexual basic Funk. That Prince came into his own and got 'deeper', at a time when Michael's music 'and 'life' began to cannibalise itself and lose its connection to an objective force of Black Popular Music - through a kind of tortuous insularity that ended up looking to the outside world as a megalomaniacal display of the spectacle of himself - was probably saved from Prince (to a certain extant), because of the things you correctly identify i.e.; his analytical attention to detail, nuance, the parts in the context of the whole and his gut level improvisatory skills. Prince's insularity was able to luxuriate in his own 'musical mathematics' ad infinitum fractal play. But he had a infinite universe to encyclopaedia-ate.. Michael was ****** up the rear...'there was nothing strange about Michael. It was strange what Michael had to deal with'...It fucked him eventually, it probably fucked Prince eventually too, but Prince could lose himself in the Funky maths his predecessors mapped out, both musically and culturally

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MAKLq865bk

 

Edited April 23, 2016 by robertoart

[robertoart]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAJnpaFRrlw

[JSngry]

I'll advocate for Michael forever, but as for who was smarter about what the whole game was, I gotta go with Prince. Michael played an incredibly intricate and deep game of checkers, but Price played chess. That was an opportunity undoubtedly afforded him by chronology,  but it was an opportunity in no way squandered, and one more than fully maximized. imo, of course.

James Brown, of course, invented wood, rocks, eater, and most of fire. Louis Armstrong did not invent air, but he did define it, so...close enough.

And about Michael, I was telling my daughter this evening, Michael Jackson came up in a world, deep inside a world, that really no longer exists. Michael Jackson saw and learned more before he was 10 than most people do in an entire life.And he not only saw it, he carried it with him all his life. So Michael knew in a way that this kid from Minneapolis could not know. But Prince learned it in his own way, and carried it in his own way, and, really, knew in a way that Michael could never really get a full grip on that the game is to be won on your own terms or else it is not won at all.

RIP Prince.