The world is a little less funky today.
Based on the amount of people who have been contacting me today about the news, I must be a known Prince fan.
9 year old me adored the Batman (1989) soundtrack, even though at the time that’s all I knew of him. I still grin ear to ear when I see Joker cue one of his henchmen to throw on some Prince while they deface the museum in that movie. My eventual love for Prince came later.
Prince was pure fucking talent, which came hand in hand with its share of eccentricities. The man was so prolific that I haven’t heard his entire published catalog yet, and I’m sure a substantial amount of what has been released was for his own pure amusement. I swear some of his songs are jokes we just don’t get, but I’m sure they kept Prince giggling behind some purple velvet curtains.
Whole tours where you only perform instrumentals and no hits? Concert venues announced two days in advance? Three shows in one night? Who does that?! Prince.
Due to his YouTube allergies and his on-again-off again relationship with social media, I think the bulk of his fanbase are old fans. Which is a real shame. Maybe the mystery was worth more than the album sales to him, and it’s not like he had trouble selling out venues.
I’ll leave you now with a few photos. You’ll see my Prince costume from 2009 and the Prince/Chappelle pin I currently wear on my winter coat. You’ll also see a grainy photo of the Prince symbol stage from when I saw him in 2011 in Montreal. That concert was drenched in funkiness, and it was an all out dance party. I’ll post a few videos in the comments too, but who knows if I’ll find working clips or ones that will stick around for very long.