5 years since Prince died on this very day. Of all the artist I like, he has to be my favorite. Talk about a High-Powered Mutant. Prince was one of the highest power, and walked through every aspect of his life being one. He addresses it some in his on his album/song titled Controversy in 1981:
I just can't believe all the things people say (Controversy) Am I black or white, am I straight or gay? (Controversy)
Do I believe in God? Do I believe in me?(Controversy)
I can't understand human curiosity (Controversy) Was it good for you, was I what you wanted me to be? (Controversy)
Prince for me was always the most contemporary of the artist I grew up with. I grew up during the beckoning of hip-hop culture, but was not really of it to be honest. Sure I listened to the music, but lifestyle was I was never the coolest kid, with the fly ass moves, or threads, with the lyrical vernacular to MC. I was neither a extremely talented musician, composer, and singer also but something about Prince was always welcoming even with salacious lyrics clashing with nerdified virginity back in those days. Prince was who I imagined I wanted to be, which was a person who seemed indifferent to what people thought of him, and seemed to thrive in that environment of cultures clashing.
I still remembering sneaking to downtown Cleveland to go to see Purple Rain when it was released at definitely the dirtiest theatre I have ever been to. There was a 3 foot hole that went to god knows where in front of my seat. The movie serving as a dehazing of
Prince's image, and a peek into his complicated history even though it was not meant to be biographical. Much of Prince's art is very biographical, with maybe a detachedness that you imagine him having a out of body experience witnessing himself as a third person, while maintaining the first person view egging himself own.
Much later in life, I was finally fortunate to experience a live Prince performance while living in Phoenix, and it was all you would expect from him. He covered all his hits, and the sound was as lively as ever along with what I believed then was his current album Emancipation. Emancipation being the title to signify what he felt was his own personal slavery to his record label, Warner Bros. where he buried the name, and assumed a signature of male and female symbolism as his identity. The Artist Formerly Known As Prince as he later was known during this middle period, was still ever the mutant.
Some fans that I know was very critical of his musical output. It didn't have the same vibe and a different intensity to it. A critique you often hear from any fan over time as the artist ages and maybe is not driven by the same themes that fired them up at the earlier part of their career. My own thoughts are music is often a younger persons arena. Emotions that move the music tend to be a whole lot rawer at this time, and so I wouldn't expect no different with any artist to develop other tastes and motivations. The video below should dissuade some of that criticism that maybe Prince had slowed down as a musician as he seems just as powerful on the guitar as ever:
Much have been made of rappers being invited on to another rapper's song and being allowed to go in the clean-up role of a song, and just murdering the song and effectively putting their stamp on a production not even their own. That's what Prince did here. Just murder the song with his guitar solo, that you barely are cognizant of any other musician being on stage this performance, and the legendary Tom Petty and Steve Winwood are reduced to a backup role.
This is Prince in a nutshell. Never one to play second fiddle. There has been groups that have played with Prince, but Baby, I Am A Star is what I can see him bragging to any and every bandmate, who wants to deny him the lead.