Music lovers around the world are in shock today at the sad news of Prince’s passing. Here are just a few of the highlights of an amazing career – an artist who single-handedly made it safe for artists to cross and mix genres and to be totally original and humble – not to mention to stand up to the record industry. RIP Prince, the master genre-bender. Influence on indie rock? Immeasurable.
Check out Prince’s guitar solo of George Harrison’s ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ during 2004 RNR Hall of Fame. And don’t miss Sandra Bernhard’s revealing dance video for “Little Red Corvette.”
Rare – Extended Live Performance of ‘Purple Rain’ in Syracuse, NY in 1985
(suitable example of Prince’s stellar guitar playing abilities; audio is much better than video; it was 30 years ago)
Rare video of Prince in 1978 on American Bandstand – six years before Purple Rain.
Full interview of Prince on CNN in 1999
Prince talks to Tavis Smiley in 2011 about his music and other stuff
British Documentary about Prince
(VH1 Behind The Music apparently never did one because Prince wouldn’t let them)
Quote of the Week: Caitlin Jenner, eat your heart out grrl – you could never be half the woman Prince was
Prince would laugh at that because part of what made him so great was that he was not afraid to be outrageous and express himself in such a flamboyant way at a time when it was not OK at all (height of the AIDS epidemic) to dress like he did. Prince, though, made it cool.
NOTE – By the way, YouTube: Please remove the karaoke tracks of Prince’s songs. Let’s have one thing that’s scared. He wanted his music shared, but he didn’t want it bastardized.