I spent the night listening to his songs, searching for videos and following the story online, each song creating a flux of emotions, from despair to laughter and back again. As the hours passed I was struck by the sight of fans massing outside Paisley Park, laying flowers, lighting candles, solemn and reflecting counter-posed with the queues and throng of smiling, dancing party goers at the First Ave. nightclub. What decisions were made by each and everyone as to where they wanted to be, to share, console and celebrate the life of a man the majority of would have never met but had such an impact on their lives? This led to me thinking of why this news had affected me in the way it had? How the conscious and unconscious connections we make with music and its makers in our young years follows us through our days, where we revisit and re-evaluate, where loyalty strengthens and weakens and nostalgia sometimes clouds our view.
1984 - When Doves Cry, this was the song, this was the moment a seismic shift occurred in how and what I would be listening to in the future. Up to this point my main musical obsession had been Michael Jackson. Thriller was everywhere and his back catalogue was dominating radio stations. But this, this was something totally different, a neo-psychedelic soul groove that didn't even contain a base line! I bought the single, with this ultra cool, strangely dressed icon on the picture cover, the label strewn with flowers, the b-side, 17 days (which is still my all time fave, so much so I still have plans to make a video for it!). I couldn't get enough.Next came the album, Purple Rain, complete with a poster of the Revolution, Wendy, Lisa, Bobby Z, Marc Brown and Dr. Fink. Names that were etched into my brain like mythical warriors.
Strange spiritual lyrics laced with sex and abandon. I was hooked and I wanted more, 1999, then Dirty Mind, on and on. 12 months later and he took a complete left turn on Around The World In A Day, a trippy, hippy journey which was the total opposite of Purple Rain. Then came Parade, the soundtrack of his latest film, Under The Cherry Moon. Containing the monster singles Kiss, Mountains, Anotherloverholeinyourhead and Girls & Boys all pop perfection. You were on a wild ride and you didn't know where you were going to end up. He was writing for others as well, Bangles, Shelia E, Morris Day & the Time, he even wrote for Kenny Rogers under the name Joey Coco. The music made me dance, it made me sing, it was a passion I wouldn't swap for anything.
1987 - Sign of The Times. Prince's ninth album. It was soul, It was rock, It was funk and so much more, it was tight, loud, quiet, political,sexy and nasty and it is nigh on perfect. Rightly regarded as his greatest album. Listen to If I Were Your Girlfriend and tell me he was not one of the greatest lyricists ever. There was no one who could have delivered an album like this (and still isn't). He tackled relationships, God, gangs, drugs and Aids. The subsequent concert film is one of the greatest you will see.
Where he led I followed. Contract disagreements, name changes, religious jazz albums, I made time to listen. Not all of it worked, but there was always something lurking, something cool and different. Even the album he tossed off and delivered to close his Warner's contract, Chaos & Disorder, rocks like a bastard and blows away the current batch of generic stadium fillers.
I first saw him live in 1990. The Nude tour at Maine Road. Girls and boys, head to toe resplendent, dressed like their hero and the members of the Revolution, it was like being on a film set. Happy days.
I could write for days about what he achieved, what he created, but there are far more qualified than me. So what did he mean to me? I've been thinking about this all night and I can't pinpoint one simple emotion or sound bite. What I can say is his music has been in my life longer than my wife and kids, and that music has sound-tracked so many memories both good and not so. I've sung at the top of my voice, danced like a loon and shed a tear too many times to mention whilst listening to him. I've had months when he hasn't even registered with me, then I'll catch a brief snippet on the radio and he's all I'll listen to for days.
I've read so much about him, watched his videos, his concerts. I've absorbed his lyrics like religious script, I know so much about him but I know nothing about him. This is how it should be because are heroes shouldn't be human, they shouldn't be accessible. They are viewed as Gods and Prophets because that's what they are.Commanding us to love, to dance, to tell us that regardless of our plight, there is something more, there is music, and true music can make us do anything it wants us to.
Yesterday I was sad. Sad for a loss I couldn't articulate but that's fine because maybe you're not suppose to and regardless if you are lighting a candle outside his home or dancing till you can't dance no more, you calibrate the loss against what he has left. The music. The joy his music brings. So grab a CD, spin an L.P., play it loud and remember what he left and what he will continue to give.
Everybody, get on the floor
What the hell'd you come here 4?
Girl it ain't no use, you might as well get loose
Work your body like a whore
Say everybody - Get on the beat
We're gonna show you mothers how 2 scream
People everywhere, loosen up your hair
Take a deeper breath and sing along with me, yes
Are you ready?
Everybody everybody ooh (ooh), alright (alright), dance music sex romance
Oh, everybody say ooh (ooh), alright (alright), dance music sex romance
Rest In Purple, Prince. I fucking love you man xxxx