This post has been a while coming, though I can never write all the things I want to about Prince. For me to have bought anything on vinyl in the early to mid-1980s was rare because I was on such a tight budget. Buying music would seriously have been a choice not to buy food. Also, the water leak disaster in one of my college-years houses that left most of my albums unplayable meant I got rid of a lot of them. But I could never have let go of Purple Rain. I have it on CD now, but holding the album in my hands evokes so many memories of all the stereos and apartments and cities where I listened to it and the people who listened to it with me.
I feel fortunate to have lived and been young (and old) and a person who danced and sang along in a time when someone as gifted and unique as Prince was creating music. Not just the music he recorded, but all of his songs that other people covered. I don’t remember the first song I heard Prince sing or saw him perform, but I do have another of those “I remember the first time I heard it” stories.
When I was assistant managing a bookstore, one of our employees was a high school student who worked there afternoons and weekends. She kept telling me about her current music obsession, Sinéad O’Connor. I had no idea who that was; I hadn’t heard any of her music, but Alison was always quoting her lyrics to me. One night I was sitting in Pizza Hut–the place where Tom, Lynne, and I often took Jess and his friends when they were growing boys because of the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet–when a song came on the jukebox. I was mesmerized, something clicked, and I thought, That has to be the singer Alison’s always talking about. And that song is amazing.
It was, of course, “Nothing Compares 2 U,” and although Prince didn’t write it for O’Connor, as some people say, she certainly rode it into the stratosphere on her ascent to stardom. I doubt I knew it was a Prince song when I bought her CD I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, I just knew it was a great song.
I also feel fortunate that I live in the days of being able to fall down an Internet hole of online music and video whenever I want to hear or watch a legend like Prince. Nothing compares to him, and I’m sorry for all the unwritten, unrecorded music we’ll never get to hear, but so grateful for the music we have.
I know I told you that Prince’s death hit me harder than Davi Bowie’s because Prince was more my generation. I can remember listening to When Doves Cry – and my friend Tammy would strike a “curious pose” when it came to that part of the song, and it is something that I think of every time I hear that song. He is part of my teenhood, and really I was never sure of anything in my teenhood, except for the music I loved.
Back then Little Red Corvette was my favorite Prince song. I loved it, and I never thought of it of anything but a fun sexy song, because I was a kid when it came to lyrical analysis, I wasnt the best and I didn’t have the life experience at age 16. Now I listen to it and what speaks to me is that there is a certain sadness and insecurity and moral questioning in that song … “It’s Saturday night and I guess that makes it alright.” or “I started to worry – wondered if I had enough class…” I still love that song. It’s still my favorite Prince song, but now I am open to so many more interpretations. I like that his music had a duality …. just like him.
Well said. Those are the best songs–the multi-layered ones–and he was great at writing them.
I have near mint 1999, controvercey and purple rain. All of them are on vynl. I recorded them into CD format with a Grado Gold Pickup T4P cartridge, so they have only been played on the tables once. When Bowie died of cancer, memories of his music and those I’ve lost to cancer came back again. But, I felt the same with Prince and played all those CDs I made along with his Batman (I originally had that in a record when it came out, but I had to replace it with a store bought CD as records above it fell onto thr tonearm of the changer and the stylus carved out a song.)
Treasures!