RIP Prince
Posted by: Slim68 on 21 April 2016
Singer Prince has died at his Paisley Park estate in Minnesota at the age of 57.
Very sad news.
What a terrible catalogue of deaths in the music business over the last six months or so.
RIP Prince
Stevee_S posted:What a terrible catalogue of deaths in the music business over the last six months or so.
RIP Prince
Totally agree, another one on the too long list of recent times....
Truly a sad bit of news. One of the major talents in pop/rock music over the last 30 years. Way ahead of his time. He will be missed!
Very sad to hear this. One of my favorite artist. Grew up listening to him from an early age. Really too young considering his music.
R.I.P. - You have had your stile and your kind.
Hope you can greet Miles Davis ....
More sad news. He was one of those artists that could make you like/ buy musical genres that ordinarily you might choose to not to like let alone buy. "Sign of the Times" is still one of my personal faves.
Bad news from tv tonight.
Charts aside a great player!
Sad loss a truly exceptional artist.
Sad day here in Minneapolis. Our dear friend's son was a member of Prince's band for several years, and he was also the house DJ at Paisley Park.
Mrs. Hook and I were for fortunate enough to get some invitations to parties there in the early-mid 1990's, which included late night, impromptu gigs by Prince. I was never cool enough to actually fit, but I did enjoy the people watching!
Just reviewed his discography. It is quite a legacy, and I know it represents only a small portion of the music he recorded over the years.
Geez, what a crappy year this is for musician deaths!
Hook
Absolutely gutted, what with Bowie only a couple of months ago that is now 2 of my 3 favourite artists now passed.
There is certainly one hell of a supergroup forming up above at the moment.
RIP Prince!
Still numb...
Early fan since my early-teens (I'm 48).
As I have professed here in the past, my all-time favourite guitarist. Hugely underrated on the axe.
The weird thing is, only last weekend I received my LP's from my ex wife after a battle with lawyers.
However last night I went to the garage at 11PM to pull some LP's out as I hadn't had a chance in the past week. Among an arm-full of gems, I selected all my Prince vinyl. Seven hours later I woke to the news I could never imagine.
I was shocked to hear of Prince's death. As a young Englishman in the US my musical tastes while there were influenced from two very disparate places; that of the Grateful Dead, CSN on the one hand, and Prince and Talking Heads on the other. I couldn't get enough of 1999, although Purple Rain almost de-railed the love-in thanks to living next to two guys originally from NYC who incessantly played mixes of "When Doves Cry" over and over, every day, at all hours. It's testament to the strength of Prince as an artist that, while I can no longer ever really listen to that song, he remained a favourite, and subsequent albums such as Around The World In A Day, Lovesexy, Parade and Sign o' The Times underpinned various relationships and key moments in my young life. However, at some point I seemed to stop buying Prince's albums. I don't know when it was exactly, but looking at the LPs I have there's everything up to and including Lovesexy, an album that was the first I bought on CD, and an infuriating one too for track-skippers as it's just one long single track; you have to play it all the way through. So there's a lot of his output that passed me by and still awaits my discovery. So thanks Prince for some great music - some I know, and know oh so well, and much I have still to hear.
Yep, remember middle-school dances...slow dancing to "Purple Rain."
Was surprised once when I heard Prince rip up a guitar...I had always assumed he was just the typical Pop Star that had no real talent like many in the 80s...but Prince was a musician and could really tear into an electric guitar.
Just watched "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from 2002's "A Concert for George". Just one of many examples of Prince's amazing guitar playing!
Hook posted:Just watched "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from 2002's "A Concert for George". Just one of many examples of Prince's amazing guitar playing!
Agreed. Purple rain , live in Japan on his nude tour (91) is another example.
personally, saw him live in 98, Lisbon.
Of my live concerts experience, a top 5.
Hi All,
I just wanted to post this tribute Bruce Springsteen did a couple of nights ago to Prince, it is just excellent, Nils make the guitar solo look so easy, I’ve got 5 Bruce gigs so far this year so really hope he plays Purple Rain at those -
Cheers,
Paul.
'Cause in this life
Things are much harder than in the after world
In this life
You're on your own
And if the elevator tries to bring you down
Go crazy, punch a higher floor
"Let's Go Crazy"
Hook posted:Just watched "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from 2002's "A Concert for George". Just one of many examples of Prince's amazing guitar playing!
"Creep" - Prince at Coachella 2008
Hook posted:Just watched "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from 2002's "A Concert for George". Just one of many examples of Prince's amazing guitar playing!
I think you'll find it was the 2004 concert. I personally preferred Clapton's interpretation at the 2002 event. Just as technically perfect, but played with sensitivity and emotion, rather than the flash "look how good I am" version.
I really don't think he was doing a "look how good I am version" he just got into the moment and took the song somewhere else, for me it is a tremendous guitar solo which is full of emotion. Prince is an incredible guitarist, one of the best however this was missed by a lot of people because he very rarely showed off his talents, the 2004 concert was an exception.
He will be missed and his run of albums in the 80's are up there with the best and for me Sign o the Times is in my top 10 albums of all time.
Timmo1341 posted:Hook posted:Just watched "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from 2002's "A Concert for George". Just one of many examples of Prince's amazing guitar playing!
I think you'll find it was the 2004 concert. I personally preferred Clapton's interpretation at the 2002 event. Just as technically perfect, but played with sensitivity and emotion, rather than the flash "look how good I am" version.
Prince was an American Entertainer...
I wish every Brit and European in the world would read what I'm going to say here, it may stop some American-bashing...or maybe not. All my life I've sat quietly and listened to just about everyone in the world bash American's for one reason or another, usually because we are stupid mostly...but also because we apparently lack grace or talent, jump to conclusions, like to kill people etc (we do like to kill people).
However I thought deeply about this remark about Prince and I felt I must try to explain what its like to be an American, and why are entertainers are mostly they way they are. Of course no one that wasn't born and raised in the USA could begin to really understand why we are the way we are, but I hope that this text will serve to give some insight into the average American.
First off, I was born and Raised in Texas, so I have a lot of that "American" thing, heaps of it. Got my first gun when I was six, first high-powered rifle when I was 12. Why would I bring up guns in this post? Because its always something on topic when outsiders deride Americans, and it speaks to the RESPONSIBILITY heaped upon us as young children and mostly throughout our lives. Stay with me here, it will make sense eventually.
As a boy I was told that the world rests on my shoulders, that everything is a competition, that an individual must be ready to step out against the rest of the world for what is right. Perfection, 100% effort, winning...its that or you are a loser is what I heard. We compete in everything from a young age, victory is most important in all things. We must win whatever we undertake and rise to the top of the heap. Anything less than this type of effort in all parts of our lives are unacceptable. Quite a lot of pressure, huh?
In school we are told we much match up to the greatest of the great people in history and surpass them, fingers at pointed at YOU as being the next president, or Medal of Honor recipient, or world's richest man. People are separated early on and the "go getters" are sorted to the top and the "f-troop" are sorted to the bottom. You rise until you are knocked down, filtered out.
Lot's of pressure...you can see many negative impacts of this in our society, I won't go into those.
So what about our entertainers? Why all this fluff to explain Prince's performance? Going back to the old days of entertainers on black and white TV you can see that these entertainers hald multiple talents: Dancing, acting, singing, playing one or more instruments, public speaking, standup comedy, on and on. They were very well rounded and could at the drop of a hat take over and entertain in any situation; this is important. Any situation: On TV, Radio, in a nightclub, on the side of a street; these people could light a crowd up of any kind at any time under any circumstances.
Prince was not a musician, he was an entertainer. In fact some of her performances were strange and not that great...because he was always doing something different. American entertainers must do something a little different each time, up the game a bit more...this is the pressure...outdoing yourself. In the book "Art and Fear" it talks about artists who reach a major point in their career, doing something amazing they had dreamed of, and then never really being able to create again. Why? Because they believe they can't out-do what they did already. Plain and simple.
So Prince, on this stage saying Farewell to George was entertaining...raising his bar, trying to "blow it out" and make something memorable. Did he over do it...yes I think so. Was it a bit crude and classless, perhaps. Compared to the calm, respectful nature of the Brits, Americans will always come out looking this way in most cases. Is Prince an ******* for doing this? Not at all, it was his way of showing the most respect; that is BY TRYING TO DO AN AMAZING THING FOR GEORGE. Sometimes we Americans get so caught up in the moment, trying to give more than we have, trying to make a lasting impression that can only hope to compare to the moment that we go way past it, we overshoot.
Americans ball up everything we have and put it forward into everything we do. One shot, one chance is all you get. Leave it all on the playing field. Don't save energy for the swim back.
Last thing I'll say about being an American: We are taught that we when overshoot good or great...we don't take it personally because we gave the best we could at the moment. Trying real hard and failing is always better than not trying at all. Most don't try much in their lives. We as Amercians are given the room and support to shoot the moon from an early age, and told we can, and after that we are told to ignore the naysayers.
Prince did his best ad that concert, and I bet most of the crowd loved it and George did too!
SITG
I'd guess the simple answer is that since EC did the leads on the original studio version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps any of his subsequent interpretations would be considered more 'correct' than another artist. The Concert For George is being confused here with 2004 the Rock 'n' Roll HOF ceremonies for George where Prince actually played on the song. I just viewed that video for the first time. Certainly a flamboyant, liberal and energetic interpretation of the leads by Prince, and as an American I'll admit I like EC's better -FWIW. There's nothing wrong with liberal interpretations, especially in rock music, and this post is about Prince. He was all about flamboyancy and entertainment as you say. I did notice in the video that Dhani Harrison was smiling with approval during Prince's performance. As you say, I bet George was too.