How Prince shaped my life, and how 0(+> pisses me off (just ranting, I guess)
Raevyn_tws
Hey guys,,
Well, I've been avoiding posting much here because of my intense
feelings regarding this guy.
Prince literally changed my life, in an enormous way.
A fan from the Controversy days (I'm 29), it did'nt really click until
'Around the world in a Day'. Even though I was really into 1999, and
PR,, that album blew my mind. It was a cohesive, bizarre and free
statement. "I sort of had an F -you attitude.." Prince has said
regarding this follow up album. Brilliant move, to put out an
introspective psychedelia album instead of PR2..
You hardcore fans all know the story already so I'll try and skip
ahead. From this point on, my friends and I studied Prince, we altered
our clothes, our gender viewpoint, and whatever else in honor of this
incredible, uncontainable talent. Prince taught me that it was
possible, that life and creation was more important than just
following what your boss said at work, or your teacher, or even your
parents.
(and nobody has done this since,, maybe Perry Farrel, Hendrix
definitely..)
I'm an artist myself,,,(sound pretentious yet?) I'm a graffiti writer
of 13+ years, a professional comic book artist/writer, etc. etc.. my
whole life is completely centered around my art, or art in general.
Prince was always my model.
He is so blue-collar in his work habits, non stop funk day and night,
constantly changing his whole sound and image each year without fail,
and he has kept this up since the beginning! (One time a girl I was
dating said to me,"your idea of an overhaul and change of yourself is
buying a new pair of boots..."-- she meant it sarcasticlly of course,
but in a way it was true. It was Prince.)
For pure work ethic, Prince is/was unbelievable.
He realized that he was on earth for a particular purpose and he spent
no time screwing around, he just did it and never looked back.
Not to mention inspiring a whole generation of artists, and promoting
lots of good sex.....and religion for that matter.
So, why 10 or so years later after Lovesexy do I end up frowning after
hearing the latest Prince news? I try, I give the guy the benefit of
the doubt as much as possible, as I'm sure you guys do too, but man,
it sucks sometimes. You know what I'm talking about.
Why could'nt he just take a year off and go to Hawaii or something?
Just stop being Prince (or 0(+>) and get some perspective. Another
friend of mine said,"now that's what you call 'no-input'." Meaning
that the dude was just plain out-of-touch. Which is okay, I mean, Tom
Waits does'nt have to be up on the latest MTV crap in order to create
genius work, but see, Prince still tries to impress the high school
girls. Hell, he married one.
The whole Mayte thing is difficult too. As many of you have already
mentioned, maybe she is'nt the most challenging dame he could've
picked. I'm sure she's deep, but she almost seems to be some sort of
artificial-freak girl that Prince bred in his Paisley vats. Okay, I
hate when people get all clever like that in their descriptions, but
it just seems like after all he has been through he might've married
someone that could constantly keep him on his toes. Does anybody doubt
that Mayte does whatever Prince says 24-7? She's most likely exactly
what she seems to be. She's like another Vanity 6 album project.
And then, in the Oprah interview they looked so happy it broke my
heart, I felt like I was all wrong. Who knows?
(((I am truly sorry that they had to go through so much pain with the
death of their child.)))
Prince just does'nt look healthy, point blank. He is sallow looking,
skinny like he does'nt eat beef (jk, here...), and in one of the only
pictures I've seen of the inside of his house it showed a weight bench
with about 3 1/2 lbs of barbells on -- whew, what a workout.
He's taken pictures during the Batman days where you could swear he
was 18..
Speaking of pictures, I'm one of those guys that furiously collected
photos, interviews and everything related to him in hopes of learning
just a little about how he operated. (before the internet took the fun
out of it). I recently put together a massive photo album,, it is so
cool! Really, I love Prince. He's taught me more than any other
artist-figure that I've studied..
It's just that,, he comes to town and charges $150 for seats in the
Purple Circle. I'm working day and night for lunch money, I'm
dedicated to not selling out, but hey--- it's a bitch being creative
right now in America, unless you're into advertising or Disney. Am I
right? So, whereas Prince used to be the black dude that came from the
Minnesota ghetto (lower suburbs) and used street funk and new ideals
to rocket into the spotlight,,,,,, now he is charging $60 for the CB
albums that would only be pressed if there were enough orders... and
then shanks the people that ordered it! (I know, same old argument)
((---while offering CB through BlockBuster??? Um, don't they edit
movies so that they'll be family friendly, refuse to carry anything
near 'porn', and carry 250 freakin' copies of Jerry Maguire? What the
hell are they doing selling music at all?--))
It's just that this does'nt have to happen.
(by the way, thanks for reading this far..)
It does'nt. If you make several million dollars early on, and then
continue to have some astronomical income---- I just don't have a lot
of sympathy for you when you complain... or pull this shit with $50
tickets for regular seats.... or Glam Slam club prices, or etc.....
It's nonsense. Sure Paisley Park is a bitch to maintain, it's all very
expensive.. he's gotta pay a lot of people. But to what end?
So that the hardcore, long time converts can wince when he puts out
the full version of Vanity coming on Chaos and Disorder (I forget the
track name...) but you know that was'nt cool to her.. it was just a
piece of history.
And of course the CB set is full of near-recent stuff.. just to prove
to himself that it's as good as the old. Well guess what? Oh man, they
edited Good Love??? Movie Star? If I know anything about Prince it is
that nothing (at least used to) would leave Paisley Park unless it has
his stamp of approval. So what are we to think, man?
The 'slave' issue: Prince worked with WB (who I admit is a huge money
grubbing evil entity) for a very long time, having the youngest
full-control contract at the time. Each year he put out an album,, the
content was 100% Prince. What the hell else do you want? I don't know,
I'm sure he had his reasons, but once again.... I'm here struggling
working at the fucking video store, or the comic store, and he's
pissed 'cause WB won't let him be 'free'. Oookay.
Brother, just forget everything and make a simple album for us...
please! Don't worry about Puffy Combs,, Bel Biv DeVoe... He even
mentions BBD! Good lord. He is so far above the crowd that he panders
to.
Say what you will about the name change controversy,, it was pretty
calculating to change his name exactly after signing one of the
largest WB contracts in history... but aside from that...
He will go down in history as this crazy artist that Changed His
Name... pretty impressive actually, I've never heard of such a thing.
So, sorry to burst your bubble,, but it depresses the hell out of me.
Like I said, I learned more from him than any other singular artist in
my whole life,, but if this is how you turn out when you follow this
path.... I have to watch myself.
I hate to sound so mean,, I'm still down for the guy believe it or
not, but I won't blindly just buy whatever he puts out (anymore)...
Perfume,, cufflinks,,, 0(+> crap galore...
Where did Prince go?
Maybe it's too much to expect our heroes to healthily deal with all
that money, fame and spotlight. It probably gets pretty lonely,, even
still.. I just had to get it out.
I miss:
Erotic City, Good Love, Shockadelica (including the JJ scandal), If I
was your Girlfriend, oh you know.....(and of course,, Expert Lover aka
CB)
and it does'nt have to be this mess,,
he could just take a year or two in the Bahamas, and come back and do
a funk instrumental--- work into it easy, stop trying so hard.
Work with a current artist that could actually challenge him, and yes
they exist. Not many, but they're out there
sorry man, I love you even though it sounds otherwise, I just miss
you.
Raevyn
Together w/ Style
98
ps: Yeah, I know this reeks of a typical usenet rant,,,whatever, these
are still thoughts that take up a huge part of my cranium...and
straight from my heart so please take them as such..
word...
email: cmc...@slip.net
Together w/ Style
check out my HW Gran Toro site:
http://www.slip.net/~cmcins/
Toe-Knee
I couldn't agree with you more.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Toe-Knee
TCl...@NOSPAMmsn.com
Remove NOSPAM when replying
"I Pardon You"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Raevyn_tws wrote in message <34fdbb37...@news.slip.net>...
Nigel Swan
In article <34fdbb37...@news.slip.net>, Raevyn_tws
<cmc...@slip.net> writes
>ps: Yeah, I know this reeks of a typical usenet rant,,,whatever, these
>are still thoughts that take up a huge part of my cranium...and
>straight from my heart so please take them as such..
>word...
>
>email: cmc...@slip.net
>Together w/ Style
>
>check out my HW Gran Toro site:
>http://www.slip.net/~cmcins/
sadly oh so true
--
Nigel Swan
**** To reply by email please replace SPAM with NPG1 *******
EyeNO
Great post Rav:
Couldn't have said it better. I miss Prince too.
Elek...@webtv.net
Man this was one BEAUTIFULLY SINCERE post. I read the whole thing and it
really struck a chord with me.
But you seem to be missing one important point...Prince is just a man
..a HUman, as we all are. There is no way he or anybody else is going
to be able to keep up the pace, popularity, level of creativity etc.,
that we want them to. Every artist eventually has a burn out point. One
day the lights will go down and it will all be over. And we can't fault
him...you grow up, you change. How many of us are still the same as we
were 10 or 15 years ago. Who knows what his life experiences have taught
him, or what inspired him to persue whatever musical direction. He can
only live his life to please him, his family, and hopefully God. He
can't live for us. I'm an artist too and I for years thought that art
was (almost) everything. But as you grow you find out that you're not
selling out because you're not as creative as before or because you've
changed your creative style. It's all part of growing as an artist. And
it should be said that we all grow in different ways. Though certain
things may seem like failures to others, WE may percieve them as great
accomplishments for ourselves! You gotta remember, we only know him as
Prince the superstar. Though we as fans like to pretend we know him, we
only know what we see of him publicly (and even that's questionable). We
don't know what he thinks about (though it's probably sex) when he's
alone being his real self. Or at night while he's lying in bed
contemplating the direction of his life. I agree, I also felt like Mayte
was a bad choice for him as a wife. But that was only from what I
thought of him to be. While we were all looking for someone to spark and
inspire him creatively, he was probably looking for someone who could
really be a WIFE to him. Perhaps Mayte possesed a certain quality that
complimented the real prince...Prince Rogers Nelson...the normal human
being.
Remember my friend music and art are just gifts. Something to be
enjoyed. You can't take it too seriously. Once you start mixing it with
fanaticism/worshiping, business, popularity, recognition etc. you screw
it up. Then you become a true sellout. Maybe this ain't the forum to say
it, but you seem like a very intelligent, interesting human being. Man
you're an artist! Theres no need for you to model yourself after Prince.
You should be out there finding your own individuality! If Prince does
something interesting, great. If not, who cares. You're content in your
own self not to look for contentment through someone else's life. Who
knows, maybe you, in your true self, could inspire some other young,
soon to be artist out there!
(spooky) Elektric…
The friendly (a.m.p) Ghost :)
Elek...@webtv.net
M@
Awesome Post!!!!!!!!!!
KScottC1
Beautiful, man. Couldn't have said it any better.
Mchl88
I don't get it. What does taking two years off in the Bahamas have anything to
do with The Man's music?
We share a similiar history with Prince and it seems we are both creative
types. I for one can't question another artist's judgement calls when they are
inspired by his art. We all bitch and moan that O)+> is a horrible business
man and I agree with that. I wish he'd hire a manager not to overview the
music but to run the biz.
I ordered CB in June and still haven't gotten it in the mail although I've
already played the shit out of the copy I bought at Sam Goody. Like I said,
bad business. But, Great music. Felt the same way about E. Unbelievable. 3
hours of phat music. But he stumbed his toe promoting the damn thing and that
proved again that he's a brilliant artist whose NOT driven to have a "hit." He
wants his music out there and he wants to be compensated as much as he possibly
can be for that music. I've got two manuscripts on my shelves and if my agent
can ever sell one you better believe I'm gonna squeeze every penny I can get
out of a publisher. Doesn't make me a worse author, man, just makes me hungry.
I've always believed when you devote yourself to an artist you follow him. You
listen. You allow him freedoms. I didn't love Come. I didn't even like it.
But I bought the next CD he put out the day it was released and I think I'll
always do that with O)+> because 90% of the time his music blows me away and
for a couple of minutes I can be 18 again and wear tight jeans and chicks will
make a little room for me on the dance floor cause I got that kinda style . . .
All in all, not a bad trip for my $39.99.
SONIA MAE
GIVE YOURSELF PROPS TOO. GREAT PIECE!!!!!!!!
MUCH LOVE!!!!!!!!!!
SONIA
SONIA MAE
WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!>Prince literally changed my life, in an enormous way.
>A fan from the Controversy days (I'm 29
>
Josh Chasin
Raevyn_tws wrote deep in his message <34fdbb37...@news.slip.net>...
>Like I said, I learned more from him than any other singular artist in
>my whole life,, but if this is how you turn out when you follow this
>path.... I have to watch myself.
>I hate to sound so mean,, I'm still down for the guy believe it or
>not, but I won't blindly just buy whatever he puts out (anymore)...
Hey man... maybe you haven't learned as much as you think... why are you
following his path? He is a musician, not a role model. Or as you yourself
said better than I could:
>Prince taught me that it was
>possible, that life and creation was more important than just
>following what your boss said at work, or your teacher, or even your
>parents.
Here's a tip, my friend. reread that sentence of yours above, but at the
end add this clause:
"or the guy who puts out those records you dig."
Peace
Asmodan21
VERY COOL POST.....I MISS PRINCE 2...IWONDER WHAT O(+>'s "99" ALBLUM WILL
SOUND LIKE....
Jonathon D.
<He is so blue-collar in his work habits, non stop funk day and night,
Boy, I sure am glad I am not blue collar otherwise I would have to want to
work hard. Dodged a bullet there didn't I?