Farewell to his Purple Majesty - Prince

His Purple Majesty - Prince - has been pronounced dead at the age of 57.

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


Prince was one of my favorite musicians. If not my all-time favorite since I was 16 years old. I'm not able to find anything remotely interesting to say about this because I am too sad, but a friend of a friend wrote this on his Facebook wall, and it made me smile and kind of tear up:

"OK, last Prince post. Today. I think.
Memories keep flooding into my brain as I listen to the all-day stream of Prince songs on Minnesota Public Radio.
Like when I went to my cousin's new apartment and first saw the album cover leaning against the wall, featuring a man with no shirt on and flipped hair. I thought to myself, I can't wait to be grown so I can do what the F I want.
Then, when my father found the letters my friend had written to me while I was at boarding school. She had written random Prince lyrics in the margins, but my father didn't know they were Prince lyrics and assumed these were her original thoughts and sentiments. "When you get high...does your daddy cry?" was where he lost it. He tried to forbid me from associating with her after that. I ignored him.
Then, when I was in my thirties I made my answering machine greeting the first eight bars of Soft and Wet. No "leave a message," just the first eight bars of Soft and Wet. This was before cell phones, and I was at that point in my career where behaving like an executive was really important. My boss suggested I change my answering machine message because it could come off as unprofessional and it didn't let people know they had called the right person. I ignored her.
Come to think of it, just about every time I asserted my independence and refused to let other people tell me who to be, Prince was somehow involved.
I wish I had done that more often. But for the times I did, I have Prince to thank."


In closing, I will post the lyrics - which I find very fitting - to one of my favorite Prince songs, and which are also quite mysterious and chilling when you read that he was found dead in his mansion's elevator:

Let's Go Crazy

Dearly beloved
We are gathered here today
To get through this thing called life

Electric word life
It means forever and that's a mighty long time
But I'm here to tell you
There's something else
The after world

A world of never ending happiness
You can always see the sun, day or night

So when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills
You know the one, Dr. Everything'll Be Alright
Instead of asking him how much of your time is left
Ask him how much of your mind, baby

'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

If you don't like the world you're living in
Take a look around you
At least you got friends

You see I called my old lady
For a friendly word
She picked up the phone
Dropped it on the floor
(Ah, ah) is all I heard

Are we gonna let the elevator
Bring us down
Oh, no let's go!

Let's go crazy
Let's get nuts
Let's look for the purple banana
'Til they put us in the truck, let's go!

We're all excited
But we don't know why
Maybe it's 'cause
We're all gonna die

And when we do (When we do)
What's it all for (What's it all for)
You better live now
Before the grim reaper come knocking on your door

Tell me, are we gonna let the elevator bring us down
Oh, no let's go!

Let's go crazy
Let's get nuts
Look for the purple banana
'Til they put us in the truck, let's go!

C'mon baby
Let's get nuts
Yeah
Crazy

Let's go crazy

Are we gonna let the elevator bring us down
Oh, no let's go!
Go crazy

I said let's go crazy (Go crazy)
Let's go, let's go
Go
Let's go

Dr. Everything'll be alright
Will make everything go wrong
Pills and thrills and daffodils will kill
Hang tough children

He's coming
He's coming
Coming

Take me away!

Genius is all I can say. We just lost a musical genius and the world will be less brighter for it. I, myself loved his song Purple Rain.

Maaaaan first Bowie and now Prince. This is not a good year for my childhood heroes...

Prince was amazing. I was never was that into 80s pop as a kid-- but I always loved Prince. It's sad so many icons are dying lately. it makes sense though-- considering they are all of an era. It's sad to see a decade passing away like this.

I didn't want to be your part time lover. I only wanted to be some kind of a friend. Baby, I could never steal you from another. What a shame our friendship had to end.

Rest in peace, Prince.

This has not been a good year, has it...

How come people like the Kardashians or entrenched self-serving politicians aren't dropping at this rate?