I am an ageing punk rocker. However, my musical library has far more non-punk in it these days. I thought Prince was a genius and his passing is a great sadness to me. Sign O' The Times (single and album) transcends musical boundaries as truly great work. He was great live when he was at it. He played all the instruments on his early works. That's talent. Thanks for the good times.
My first favourite singer was David Whitfield.The voice.Then followed Buddy Holly and later Dusty Springfield......then came classical music,enjoying my visits to the Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall........but when it comes to football...only one team.....COYS! Today's stars,whether film or stage,seems to be drugs and musical beds with each other.Too much money and not enough rest,maybe! I wonder what todays footballers are into........?
I wasn't a fan personally, but when you assess his contribution as a performer (selling over 100m albums worldwide!!), musician and producer, it's hard not to place Prince at the forefront of artists of the pop era. He also (successfully) fought the bloated record industry, or at least his own label, to defend the rights of the creative artist. So probably contributed more than many of the shallow, talentless sham that grace the 'charts' currently.
I agree entirely. Not my taste either, but I can appreciate his talent - and like many, he's now immortalised by dying relatively young. He was very prominent in the '80s when I was a kid - and I'd choose his music every time over that loon Jacko.
My thing was to catch the stuff swirling around with punk in my time. I was a Boston punk for a moment, which was the only moment Boston punk had. The Neighborhoods, GG Allen and the Scumfucks. I loved the Ramones and the Clash, but I liked a lot of the better stuff in those times which wasn't really punk at all, like Blondie, Television and Echo. Prince was among the best of a couple of years later, in the early 80s. Hearing he died reminded me of an interview I just saw with Artie Shaw, the old swing band leader. He said success was the worst thing that ever happened to him. Failure wasn't so bad, he said, because everyone's failed 100 times by the age of ten. You're used to it. But nobody ever has a clue what success is until it happens, and by then it's too late. Prince made some great music early on which made him very successful, but being a really successful musician from the eighties on made it more or less impossible to keep making really good music. I largely lost interest in Prince a few years after most people found out who he was. I thought he was fantastic beginning with Dirty Mind and ending with Purple Rain, more or less. Prince the pop idol crowded out Prince the really cool musician. I think success was an even bigger problem for Prince than it was for Shaw. But Prince was both really original and brilliant at his best, and I woulidn't say that about many.
Dusty Springfield, now you're talking. Her version of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song 'This Girl's in Love with You' still gives me goose bumps, it really hits a nerve. Another one taken too young.
Surely if you were in the States you must have been into the Tubes? they were brilliant. Spittin' Image missed a trick there, A leather clad Regan/Thatcher sketch with one of Thatchers nipples being the nuclear button, to the tune of the Tubes 'Don't Touch be There' would have made a sketch to end all sketches.
Interesting post, RWAEB. So did you go to The Rat? U.S punk of that time was good - don't forget The Dickies and Black Flag too. The U.S didn't appreciate the Ramones until much later - although the rest of the world did, especially in South America and Japan. But the U.S's real legacy to punk is the group of Ramonescore bands which sprung up in the 80s and mainly 90s - The Queers, Screeching Weasel, The Lillingtons and the like. Some brilliant bands who have never had commercial success, but make fantastic music.
I hope whoever performed Prince's autopsy realises the weight of expectation upon him, given the playground rumours of him having a couple of ribs removed to perform...certain tasks upon himself.
Oh, yeah. I wish I would have seen them in concert. My buddy said one of the most awesome experiences he had was seeing the Tubes open with.... the Perry Mason theme song (though maybe you've never heard it in the UK). He said a big fat dude chugged, of all things, a quart of apple sauce before yelling, "YEAH TUBES!"
The Dead Boys and the Dead Kennedies especially "Nazi Punks, **** Off!" Yeah, in the states it was only a small group of New York kids who realized the Ramones were geniuses the first few years. I didn't till I went to college. It seemed as if everybody in the rest of the world knew it right away. I misspent some of the favorite moments of my youth at the Rat.
The Plastic Surgery Disasters is one of my top 10 albums of all time. Genius. Loved West Coast punk, especially Flipper. Any Cramps or B52's fans?
Never visited the States, but when I do, I intend to hang out on Second Avenue eating chicken vindaloo and visit Kenmore Square in Boston
