My pal Matt Brownlie began this week by reminding everyone to count their blessings in the wake of Michael Jackson’s death. “It could always be worse,” he said, posting the video below.
I won’t dwell on it, because it’s the end of a long 4th for me and I’m tired. But, before MJ passed away, wouldn’t everyone on earth have said Prince was the coolest diminutive black man to come out of the Midwest and dominate America and the Super Bowl with his virtuoso funk? Pretty sure the answer is yes. Michael owned the 80s pop cultural landscape, but for music snobs and hipsters spanning two or three generations, Prince is the surprising consensus.
I don’t think I’ve ever known any one whose musical taste I respected say anything other than stellar things about the Artist Formerly Known As… His omni-octave vocal range, his multi-instrumental mastery, his willingness to use his monstrous songwriting chops in the service of profane, booty shaking awesomeness.
Of course Prince hasn’t been perfect. But no one who lasts very long can maintain goodwill and focus they commanded at their apex. The challenge for us is to actively remember and seek out our great heroes without having to wait until they die. For Michael, the long slide into weirdness and irrelevance made this kinda difficult. In his own way, Prince has harmed his brand and weirded himself out of the mainstream, but he’s remained much closer to our hearts than Michael.
Perhaps because Prince still gets played at weddings.
It takes more than one hand to count the number of times I’ve seen a bunch of white people in wedding clothes drag all their friends to the dance floor when “Pussy Control” comes on. That song is magical. And as great Jackson’s songbook is, he doesn’t really have a “Pussy Control” or “Hey Ya!” Although there is the recent trend involving couples who choreograph “surprise” Thriller performances as their first dance.
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Speaking of all this, I learned this week that MJ isn’t the only one who changed his appearance from “normal black kid” to “what is he, anyway?” Check out this side-by-side courtesy of 11 Yearbook Photos That Musicians Wish We’d Never Seen. I have to agree: Prince actually looked more badass in high school.
I liked the levity of Purple Rain, the movie, with Morris Day, etc. I also really liked that song Sometimes it Snows in April. Forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder.
Clicked on this because I saw the word Prince, surprised to see myself quoted!
The last time I saw Prince live, a little voice in my head said to me, “You’re in the same room as the single most talented person you’ll ever encounter.” This thought stopped me in its tracks. The little guy on stage down there, the one who might be America’s greatest living songwriter, the guy playing guitar as well as Hendrix ever did, the guy dancing as well as Michael Jackson ever did (and in heels!) was on such a completely different level than anyone else I will ever share a space with that the sensation was almost physically palpable. It was a strange moment.
America’s greatest living songwriter, by the way, judged by his best songs against anyone else’s. Certainly not America’s most consistent songwriter. I’m currently trying to think of who he’d be in competition with. Thoughts?
Indeed. While I know of a few androgynous urban Midwestern black males who have made it to Old Age, they all were born before Crack, HIV and the black/latino take over of the ganglands. Prince’s odds are not good but my hopes are with him (and all the androgynous urban Midwestern black males –with or without musical talent). Thanks for bringing light to this subject.
Don’t forget that Prince has the superior nosejob.
That’s kinda what made this high school photo so remarkable. I wasn’t aware that Prince had undergone an MJ-lite kind of transformation.
Jackson’s transformation was during the time he was popular, while Prince’s happened just before he had any widespread notoriety. Though, it appears that their nose jobs were at approximately the same time. Jackson’s first one appears to have happened sometime between Off The Wall in 1979 and Thriller in 1982. Prince’s nose job happened between his not-very-popular second album, Prince in 1979 and his fairly popular fourth album, Controversy in 1981. It’s hard to tell if he’d already had the surgery on 1980′s Dirty Mind.
If you look at picture from his earliest year and look at his pictures from 1987 Sign of the Times, his nose is the same,
He wore less to hardly any make up during those times
Why do you all think he had a nose job? Both of his parents have long narrow noses so does he. There is no comparison with Michael Jacksons nose width and Prince’s. Anyone who has seen pictures of Prince’s earlier years can see that he was pretty healthy as in a lot more meatier. By the time his first album came out Prince was basically homeless and half eating, which can make a difference in how a person look. Even in my own experiences, what and how much I eat shows up on my face and features, as well as in the Fall/Winter month my nose lips and features are a lot more narrow than in the Spring Summer months