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R.I.P Prince


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I am hoping this isn't true- but reports are pouring in from all over.

 

Prince has been found dead in his home studio. He was 57 years old.

 

Here is a story we published:

http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/forum/Forums_General/acapella-50/31727190-r-i-p-prince

 

 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/pe...-a6995076.html

 

 

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Prince performs at the Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Sunday, May 19, 2013 in Las Vegas. (Source: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

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This is another particularly difficult death for me -- and obviously for a lot of folks. My then-GF and I bought the first two albums when they came out and played them a lot during our time together (she got custody) since she was into R&B and I was into electric guitar and funk (and maybe looking for the next Jimi, I dunno). After he got big, I didn't follow his career so much -- seemed like the media did it for me -- but I've always had a soft spot for him -- and was always delighted to catch a vid or clip with him strapping on a guitar and throwing out his burning solos so casually...

 

RIP, Prince.

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Man, I hear you. His first hits came in a very prolific time in my musical journey as a drummer. I can remember the first time I heard many of his Purple Rain hits and the impact they had on me. I also remember when I learned he played most of the instruments on his album. It was then that I knew he was a musical genius.

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Photography. Music. Recording engineering. Gardening. Poetry. Writing. Drawing. Painting. Coding.

 

It's all art to me. They're all manifestations of inspiration, of expression, and they are at their greatest when they are at their purest.

 

He truly inspired me to stick to my vision, no matter what people initially thought, both in music and with photography.

 

There are very few musicians or artists that I would apply the word "genius" to. Prince is one of them. Incredibly gifted, talented, creative, innovative, he created music that was all his own, instantly recognizable. When he began his career, he blew away music executives by his beautifully crafted songs and sound, playing all the instruments, writing the songs, and doing all the vocals and background vocals. He is a towering figure in pop, funk, R&B, rock, outsider music...and artists who have the spine to stick to their vision no matter what.

 

I am very lucky to have seen him perform.

 

This has been a horrible year for many well-known musicians. It's only April, and it seems so many legends have passed away already this year. Hopefully somewhere, there is a big ol' greasy, funky jam underway, with Prince, Bowie, Frey, Haggard, Kantner, and White gettin' loose, and Abe Vigoda introducing the band.

 

R.I.P. Prince Nelson. Most anyone who has played pop, rock, funk - or anyone who has ever stuck to their artistic vision despite great obstacles or criticism owes you a giant hug and a thank you. Max respect.

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I always felt that at any given moment, he was one of the best electric guitar soloists that ever picked one up. I always,always felt he was the heir apparent to Hendrix. The Evolved Hendrix if you will.

 

I'm a bit shattered at his early death..RIP

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He truly inspired me to stick to my vision' date=' no matter what people initially thought, both in music and with photography.[/font']

 

Exactly. I remember getting into Prince in the early 90s… my first thought was, "What style of music is this?" It was such a hodgepodge of different genres but it worked. You heard Prince once and you knew you were hearing something completely unique. Let alone everything else he did and just stick to the songs…. its mind blowing.

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You can spot a Prince song in just a few seconds.

 

He had dance songs in which he took out the bass entirely.

 

He sounded like....Prince.

 

Especially with people like Prince or Bowie, they inspire those of us who do things differently. People like us who do art that is sort of strange and outside the norm...when we see people who really stick to their vision, it's extra inspiring. Both these guys created music that straddled the fence between pop and stranger sort of stuff, and that's a more difficult area to occupy.

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What a big loss!

 

I've been a Prince fan since "I Wanna Be Your Lover" was released. We were roughly the same age, and he repeatedly set the bar for our generation—and that's saying something when your competition includes Michael Jackson! I can't think of another musician who was such a great singer, dancer, writer, and multi-instrumentalist. For his rare combination of breadth and depth he was unrivaled.

 

Another great has passed before his time. :(

 

Best,

 

Geoff

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When the "Purple Rain" movie came out, the opening scenes leading into and incorporating "Let's Go Crazy" captured everything that's magical about playing music live. I have "musical periods" where I get into it intensely for a while, then back off for a while. When I saw Purple Rain, I found it incredibly inspiring and it compelled me to want to make music again (as did doing the cover of Mark L's "Black Market Daydreams" more recently...I guess I need references to colors).

 

I learned a lot just by listening to his music, like when I read that "When Doves Cry" didn't have a bass line. I'd never realized that, but listened and yup...no bass. Ever since then I've experimented with pulling bass out judiciously from time to time, and indeed, it can have a huge impact on a song. Thanks, Prince :)

 

Aside from being inspirational Prince never sold out. He put everything out there and followed his own muse. I didn't know him but know people who worked with him, and they said he was an incredibly focused human being. He somehow managed to take making music so seriously and yet there was a playfulness to everything he recorded. Although I often found his work uneven over the course of an album, I didn't care because it was like getting a total, uncensored interaction with Prince. By not holding back on anything, it was almost like you were hanging out with him...not just seeing the "edited" version of who he was.

 

To me David Bowie, Prince, and Trent Reznor are very much cut from the same cloth - inspiring, innovative, and uncompromising.

 

I do have to rant about something, though...the media saying he was treated for a "drug overdose" a few days before he died, conjuring up images of Prince sticking needles into himself in some bathroom. Apparently he was taking Percocet which is a particularly insidious painkiller, but it could have been that he had some kind of health issue yet still wanted to perform. The truth will come out at some point and this kind of speculation (one site quoted a doctor saying Prince was probably "addicted" to painkillers but much later in the article, said "Of course we don't know if Prince died from a drug overdose" - thanks, guys...) is one reason why some people have contempt for the media. I highly doubt Prince was a junkie, but that's what the sleaze media is implying. They're everything Prince was not: pandering, compromising, and dishonest.

 

Prince was a tremendous talent. It's even sadder that it seems he was on the cusp of another very prolific period...we'll never find out what he was going to do next. But we always knew that whatever he was going to come up with next was going to be worth hearing.

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