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| Prince Rogers Nelson 1958-2016 |
I was stunned when I learned of the passing of The Purple One. I have been a Prince fan since 1982. I was only 6 years old when I was sitting in front of my babysitter's TV when the 1999 video came out. I remember being intrigued by his performance.
When Purple Rain came out in 1984, I begged my mom to take me to see it, and she did. I had many of his albums from For You to Come. During my senior year of high school, I made a Prince collage and painted a portrait of his profile. I'm sure my dad has them stored somewhere.
Prince was definitely a musical genius. He wrote and composed all his songs. He sang with his 8 octave voice range and played 27 instruments (self-taught). On many of his songs, he is playing all the instruments. Prince was a far superior musical artist than his contemporary Michael Jackson (though I will not deny that MJ is probably the best performer). He also wrote hits for others. The best ones: Manic Monday performed by the Bangles. A bit of trivia, Manic Monday has the same tune as 1999. Another favorite is Stand Back sung by Stevie Nicks and The Glamorous Life by Sheila E. If you listen closely, Prince is singing background.
I had a preference for his older music from the late 70s to the early 90s. I didn't really listen to his later music; but I always kept his older songs in my library and I'd occasionally play him on heavy rotation. Perhaps the last time was earlier this year when news came of his upcoming concert (which was way out of my price range).
Today, I've just been walking about my campus singing Prince tunes. Raspberry Beret was always a favorite to sing. I even played his music in the teachers' room. We were all saddened by this great loss.
Good night, sweet Prince.
