Wapsi Square Forum

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/arts/ ... -dead.html

I never was much of a fan, and I normally wouldn't even take notice, but I've seen him pop up in discussions a couple time and figured some of you oughta know.

For those of you who are fans, I'm sorry. I know it sucks to have a favorite artist pass away.

He had some okay music, but I never really liked him much as a person. Still, it's hard to deny that he was quite influential in the world of music and entertainment.

Well, on the bright side, at least Pablo can start referring to him in the strip...

This is just... shocking.

Related to the recent news Prince has passed on:

Just found out once I fired up the Interwebz. And damn, I _am_ a fan, despite his knuckleheadedness on a personality front.

Dude played every damn instrument, but reeds and brass, on every studio recording you are ever going to hear. Damn near every f'ckn one.

He was instrumental in providing a wide exposure to so many other musicians, but conversely it was hard for any of them to break away and fly independently; When was the last time you heard from Dez Dickerson or Andre Cymone? Or Wendy and Lisa?

The seemingly exception to the rule is the folks, most notably for transforming Janet Jackson from a Legacy, but Bubble-Gum teen recording artist, to a fully grown, Oestrogen in Effect, Wow!-man! of "Ms. Jackson, if yer Nasty" fame. (Don't believe me? check her first two solo albums, then check the third... That's the Minneapolis effect at work.)

I'm touching on Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, of the Prince promoted group 'The Time' (featuring Morris Day as front man and collectively providing a foil to Prince's 'the Revolution' during film of the the seminal film 'Purple Rain'. )

An aside; the lead of the Prince spin-off group; 'Vanity Six', one Vanity (Denise Matthews) also recently passed away out here in the SF Bay Area this last February.

(She'd long cleaned up her act, (re)entered the Church and had been dealing with the slings and arrows of an outrageous fortune related to all that Fame and Success...)

That said, it's a much more personal thing, for me, having Prince Rodgers Nelson transition to the next plain of existence than it was for say Micheal Jackson or (more recently) David Bowie.

Now that this has happened I'm going to be blasting selected cuts, using every deep sump amp unit I got, for the next little bit.

Some of you guys in other area codes might stick your heads out the window and catch a riff or two. (On a Home Study Assignment; study up on B-SIdes and 12" releases...)

pre-PS- My buddy on the phone in the room had his conversation turn towards recent developments w/ one Will Smith, of whom there seems to be much drama (and my initial reaction being; "If it turns out some one is shooting at Will Smith, and it also turns out not to have been his Wife behind it, then I foresee Jada having someone handle this... paraphrasing; "Will is from Philly, true, but Jada is from Baltimore and they don't play..."

I diverge because this headline caught my eye during the composing of this post;

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'Will Smith had spoken w/ Prince the night Before he passed away...'

Quoting E-Online;
Will is also known for his own music career—he became a rapper in the '90s when he starred on the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

(edit- No, he became a Rapper and was Famous, THEN he got the TV Show...)

He is currently preparing a music comeback with a reunion tour with rap partner DJ Jazzy Jeff, set to take place this summer and start in the U.K.

Will's wife Jada Pinkett Smith, 44, also posted an online tribute to Prince.

"Prince was one of the first artists to put me on game in regard to the industry," she said on Facebook. "He was not only a genius artist, he was kind, funny, beautifully eccentric, curious, imaginative, magical, spiritual, rebellious and extremely intelligent."

"He showed me early the power of living one's life by one's own rules and no one else's," she added. "There are really no words to express what we have all lost today. To quote my friend Paress, 'Music has lost its heart beat.' Rest in peace Beauty...Jada."
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Love him or hate him or be ambivalent to the whole thing, dude was a thing unto himself.

Off the top of my head, I can drop 'Thieves in the Temple' or 'the Ballad of Dorothy Parker' or 'Another Lonely Christmas' on a dime and rock your world, Prince fan or not.

Don't get me started, there is a whole 'Challenge the up and coming generation w/ learning to actually play an instrument with a Prince Unplugged Canon' that awaits.

btw- Think you got a handle on what Prince was all about? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhouse_%28band%29

Check out Madhouse 8 & the following album Madhouse 16...



Finally, the pressing question now is; what becomes of all the unreleased material? (Reference the semi-autobiographical section of the film 'Purple Rain', in the basement, with the steamer trunk full of sheet music...

I think I'm going to go get drunk now and listen to music...

Or, of course, you could party like it's 1999.

It's somewhat apropos, that a list of "must-hear" songs from Prince that linked to videos on one website... featured at least one "video not available" link.

The man was always "The Superstar Next Door" in the Twin Cities. You never knew when he'd show up at something, from what I understand.

And yes, I definitely want to know what will happen to all that music that he never released. It would be a damn shame if it was just 86'ed because he didn't want it revealed.

Duuuuude,

(Currently self administrating Kraken Rhum) <-- there wasn't enough around the crib to do him justice..)

Listening to 'Lady Cab Driver' in the sequential playlist and digging out the IDE Hard Drive archives in the mean time...

One thing, esp for the uninitiated folks who might wonder if the hype is worth the sizzle;
if anyone has the time, inclination and at this point- the capacity to put the efforts in a context of era-of-publication timeframe,

Start from the beginning, chart the evolution of the first few Romantic couple and the breakout 'Dirty Mind' but more so the 'Controversy' album.

'The Sum of the Total' in so many aspects.

(addendum..)

jwhouk wrote:Or, of course, you could party like it's 1999.

As I type, 'International Lover' comes to close.

'Lets Go Crazy' has started, before I can hit 'submit'.

The rain, just now, on the bare tin roof, has stopped...

We all got a space to fill.

I wanna do that Wapsi fan-fic where he shows up at some point in our heroes' lives, but I'm lost as to how.

I'm surprised I didn't have this in my iTunes library, but I downloaded it. It was the one song I really loved on the USA For Africa album.

Long ago there was a man
Change stone to bread with the touch of his hand
Made the blind see and the dumb understand
He died for the tears in your eyes, your eyes

Many people came from all around
To hear this man preach, glorious sound
He spoke of man in harmony and love abound
He died for the tears in your eyes, your eyes
Your eyes, your eyes

He died for the tears in your eyes
For the tears in your eyes and the tears of sorrow
Four cents may be all that they're worth
For the rising sun each day assures us
The meek shall inherit the earth, the earth

Faith is a word, we all should try
Describing the man who willingly died
Believe that your hunger, sorrow and fears
Is less than the tears in your eyes, your eyes

Less than the tears in your eyes
For the tears in your eyes and the tears of sorrow
Four cents may be all that they're worth
For the rising sun each day assures us
The meek shall inherit the earth

Say it again
For the tears in your eyes and the tears of sorrow
Four cents may be all that they're worth
For the rising sun each day assures us
The meek shall inherit the earth, the earth

JW, that was one of his 'Sunday Songs'; a few of the seemingly party-all-the-time artist’s output where very Spiritual if not outright Ecclesiastical in nature.

There was a B-Side single titled GOD (it was the theme music to the film 'Purple Rain, but with lyrics...) & of course on 'Sign of the Times' there’s 'the Cross' (again a 'Sunday Song', by which I mean they where actually recorded on Sunday...)

Personally, I think, it's a drag that he got into Jehovah’s Witness towards the end of his life, esp as it is a very restrictive, isolating sect, from my experience.
I'm of a thought that it was a pendulum swinging reaction to the sling and arrows brought upon by fame & fortune. (And besides, when Larry Graham stops by and offers you support, you probably pay attention.)

At one point I had everything ever issued, up to about the mid-1990's, (that seminal 'lost my milk crates of vinyl to the Ex...' situation) and I'm realizing there was so much more output put out that even if this thing or that thing turns out not to be pleasing to my taste of the moment- you could cherry pick and make a play-list/mix-tape that would last hours and hours, even if you just started from the year 2000. Or 2010 even.

I'll wrap this up w/ a recommendation; if you don’t have any Prince stuff about the crib, look into getting the three CD set

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hits/The_B-Sides

When the B-SIdes come on, crank it up waaaay loud...

https://insiderlouisville.com/lifestyle ... m-closure/

In 2001, Prince made an anonymous donation of 12 grand to keep a historic library from closing in my hometown. I worked there for a bit after they reopened-it's small, beautiful, and important to the folks nearby, always busy. So I can casually say, 'Oh yeah, Prince got me a job once.' ^_^
Seriously, whatever you think about him, it was a cool thing to do. And the fact that he wanted it anonymous instead of taking credit publicly speaks well of him.

In Corey Taylor's book, Seven Deadly Sins, there is a part, I believe in the vanity chapter, where he mentions celebrities donating to charities, and how big a deal they make out of doing so.

I don't remember the exact wording, but he says, pretty much, that it isn't really charity if everyone knows you're doing it, because then you're trying to maintain an image of yourself. It sounds like Prince, possibly, thought the same thing.

And it appears that it was a combination of Percocet and coke - and I'm not talking about the soft drink.

Yeah, that unconfirmed rumor has been floating around the last few days; including following the unscheduled plane landing and trip to a Hospital, that becasues he couldn't have a private room he left ama after three hours...

... (He) said authorities did not have the medical examiner’s report yet and did not know “to what extent pharmaceuticals could be a part of this.”
An autopsy has been performed, but results are not expected for three to four weeks....

We don't know what we don't know, not yet, and by then it may as well been spun way past the truth anyway...

The door to The Vault has been drilled open, according to reports.

He had no will, so his family is going to divide up his stuff under MN law... Hopefully one of them decides to release the music.