I wanted to pay tribute to Prince somehow. I would normally put up a list of his best songs, but his body of work goes back to 1977, and I am just not well-versed enough with his music. Instead, I am going to share 10 things I learned about His Royal Badness you may or may not know.
1. He was an incredible musician, and he could shred on guitar. First and foremost, Prince wasn't just a run-of-the-mill pop star, and there was some true talent behind his sometimes crazy (no pun intended) behavior. He could play guitar, drums, bass and keyboard, and he was good at all of them. He also happened to be a decent vocalist. I actually considered him to be one of the best pop/rock guitarists ever. Not too much of his music featured heavy guitar work, but the music that did was some good stuff, like Let's Go Crazy and Purple Rain (his Super Bowl halftime show had a great performance of this song). The most convincing evidence of his insane guitar skills is on a video that's been viewed a lot since his death - The 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. During this performance of the Beatles classic "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," he shared the stage with some legendary musicians like Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne, and Tom Petty. He managed to blow them all away with his solo. Finally, he, like some of the greatest performers like Michael Jackson and the Beatles, could not be defined by a genre. His music had elements of funk, R&B, rock, pop and even some jazz. He was always willing to reinvent himself and stretch himself musically, right up to his untimely death.
2. He said he was part white to get on MTV. For my younger readers, there was a time when MTV played something called music videos. These were short films that accompanied songs, and brought pop/rock music into a new era in which you had to look good as well as sound good. Well... you had to look good. In the early days of the cable channel, MTV tended to shy away from black artists until Michael Jackson redefined pop music as we know it with the incomparable "Thriller" album. Supposedly, Prince told MTV execs he was half-white (he wasn't), and they started playing his videos. Needless to say, Prince's image and visual look was a huge part of his success.
3. He collaborated with a lot of fellow musicians. Among the songs he wrote for other artists were the Bangles' "Manic Monday," Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U," and "I Feel For You," by Chaka Khan. The best story I heard, and I heard this again on the radio a few days ago, was the story of "Stand Back" by Stevie Nicks. Stevie heard "Little Red Corvette" and wrote "Stand Back" using the same chord progression. Stevie, being the consummate professional, was courteous enough to call Prince and tell him what she did. Prince's reaction was to come to the recording studio when she cut the song and play the synthesizer track. Stevie and Prince were friends from then on, and she was, according to an interview, very saddened by Prince's death. I really appreciate Stevie Nicks' honesty here, because, until I heard this story, I had no idea these two songs were similar. Stylistically, they are completely different. There were songs that were much more blatant ripoffs, like "Ice Ice Baby," which sampled the bass line from "Under Pressure," and "Ghostbusters," which, essentially ganked the entire melody and instrumentation of "I Want a New Drug," and changed the lyrics. (Huey Lewis sued Ray Parker Jr. and the case was settled out of court.
4. "Jenny Calendar" danced for Prince. Only Buffy fanatics like me will care about this one. Robia LaMorte played Jenny Calendar on the TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Calendar was a semi-regular on the show until she was shockingly offed by Angelus during the second season. LaMorte was one of two featured dancers on Prince's "Cream" music video. After dancing for Prince and playing a "techno-pagan" on "Buffy," LaMorte became a born-again Christian and minister. LaMorte still has nothing but love and respect for Prince, and was "in shock and disbelief" when she heard about his death.
5. The Vault: Prince's Paisley Park complex in Minnesota supposedly has a vault of thousands of unreleased songs and music videos. Is there anyone who isn't curious to hear them? (unless the report from The Onion is true that they were just covers of Billy Joel songs). Prince did not write a will, so the contents of the vault will remain in limbo for an undisclosed period of time.
6. The Untitled Kevin Smith Documentary: The New Jersey writer-director, on one of his marathon question and answer sessions, was asked about his experience making a documentary with Prince. The not-so-silent Smith then shared a 36-minute-long anecdote about his work with the Purple One. It was interesting, to say the least. Smith was chosen because Prince really liked "Dogma." The doc was meant to accompany his album "The Rainbow Children." He said to Smith, "We are going to change the world," to which Smith replied, "I don't even change my underwear." Smith spoke in detail about Prince's eccentricities, and the collaboration didn't end too well because Prince never expressed any gratitude for Smith's work. Still, Smith wrote a nice Tweet for Prince after his death. This documentary was also tossed in the vault and would never see the light of day.
7. Nobody's perfect... but with Prince, the good definitely outweighed the bad. Nevertheless, he was still responsible for the soundtrack to 1989's "Batman," (the Tim Burton movie, and don't confuse this with Danny Elfman's decent score), and "Under the Cherry Moon." (no links provided for the reader's own good).
8. Diversity: Prince's bands, such as the Revolution and the New Power Generation, were diverse. He especially liked to showcase talented women like drummer/vocalist Sheila E and bassist Rhonda Smith. He claimed his bands were diverse because he wanted to reflect what the world looked like.
9. The Love Symbol: During the 1990s, Prince changed his name to an unprounceable symbol. At first I dismissed this as him being pretentious and weird, but I found out he had a real reason for doing this. Apparently record execs, being the geniuses they are, told Prince he was releasing too many albums, and he needed to slow his pace down. He renamed himself the "love" symbol to screw with his record company, leading to the media referring to him as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince," or simply, "The Artist."
10. "When Doves Cry:" Prince made the decision at the last minute to cut the bass line from this song. It worked perfectly, because it gave the song an ethereal feel, and brought out one of Prince's best and most emotional vocal performances.
Bonus: His Legacy: After Prince's death, tributes were performed by Adam Levine, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Sir Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin, who performed in front of the President.
And last, but not least: There's this.
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