Natalie Cole Discography Torrent Torrent
Keena Wiegert
Perhaps the first shocking "rock star" fatality was that of country pioneer Hank Williams, who suffered a heart attack in the back seat of his Cadillac at age 29 in the early hours of Jan. 1, 1953, while being driven to his next gig. The news sent sales of Williams' final single, the ironically titled "I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive," to No. 1 on Billboard's Country Singles chart less than a week later.
Some 63 years later, on Jan. 10, 2016, David Bowie died after a lengthy bout with cancer that had been kept from all but his closest family members and friends, just two days after the release of his new album, Blackstar. On Jan. 7, a mere 24 hours before the album's release, Bowie debuted the appearance of the eerie, fatalistic music video for "Lazarus," which made clear the chameleon performer was readying to shuffle off not just his latest guise, but the mortal coil itself. Like Williams, Bowie's death spurred his own first-ever chart-topping album, and unleashed a torrent of tributes and memorials to the fallen glam icon.
Meanwhile, for the massive recording and live concert industries, which have been built on the back of these all-too-mortal stars and the legacies (not to mention the music) they leave behind, is there life after death?
Jeff Jampol's JAM Inc. has forged a successful business from handling the estates of deceased artists, including pioneers such as Muddy Waters and Otis Redding, '60s stalwarts the Doors and Janis Joplin, reggae star Peter Tosh and funkmeister Rick James, all the way to grunge-punk icons Kurt Cobain and the Ramones. In Jampol's world, brands will always outlive bands, just as John Branca and John McClain have managed to turn the Michael Jackson estate into a lucrative property by maximizing assets, including selling its share of Sony/ATV Music Publishing for $750 million earlier this year, with estimates of its post-death earnings at $2 billion.
For Jampol, preserving these legacies for future generations is his primary goal. "Who knew rock and roll would even last long enough to create estates?" he asks. "The younger audience is who we're after, and not just their ears, but their eyes, hearts, minds, and souls. That's why I want to expose my clients' art and brand to them in a way that's authentic and credible."
Similarly, reacting to the void in the concert business created by the potential death of some of its most lucrative attractions, industry veteran Abbey Konowitch, who has worked his marketing magic at Arista Records, MTV, Maverick Records, and Disney, has developed, with GRAMMY-winning producer Rob Cavallo, among others, a concept dubbed RockmaniaLive! The live event offers state-of-the-art theatrical recreations of classic rock albums by a band with a symphony orchestra, resulting in a combination of Cirque du Soleil, the Boston Pops and the Fab Faux.
"Albums like Houses Of The Holy, The Dark Side Of The Moon and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road have become global cultural brands, have built the largest touring business in history, have generated billions of dollars in merchandise, ticket and album sales," says Konowitch. "[RockmaniaLive!] is an opportunity for classic rock fans to continue to experience the 'soundtrack of their lives' and share it with their whole family in a unique, multimedia way."
But not all legacy artists are whistling past their graves, nor are they mourning the past. In his March 2014 article "Stay Forever Young: Deconstructing The Rock Star Myth," Psychology Today's Dr. Michael Friedman wrote: "Far from life being over at 30, aging rockers are having an absolute blast into their 40s, 50s, 60s, and even 70s, finding ongoing success in their music."
Some artists, such as 74-year-old Paul Simon, are arguably producing their best work at this advanced age. The GRAMMY winner's new album, Stranger To Stranger, has more than its fair share of meditations on mortality: "The fact is most obits are mixed reviews," he sings in "The Werewolf," a song about a mythical angel of death. ("Life is a lottery/A lot of people lose.")
"I do think about retirement," he confessed to Rolling Stone. "But I just don't know. Philip Glass is one of my role models and he just keeps going. He said to me, 'If you don't do it, who will write a Paul Simon song?'"
(Roy Trakin is currently a senior news editor at All Access, a past contributor to a number of legendary rock magazines [remember those?] and a die-hard Cantonese Chinese food fanatic [love crispy noodles, duck sauce and hot mustard].)
It was an inherently risky career strategy that could have derailed the Purple One's remarkable rise to greatness in one fell swoop. Instead, Purple Rain enjoyed blockbuster success at both the box office and on the charts, with the film grossing more than $68 million worldwide and the album topping the Billboard 200 for a remarkable 24 weeks.
Initially conceived as a double album featuring protege girl group Apollonia 6 and funk rock associates the Time, the Purple Rain OST worked as an entirely separate entity, too. In fact, it had already sold 2.5 million copies in the States before the movie hit theaters, largely thanks to the immediacy of lead single "When Doves Cry," Prince's first ever Billboard Hot 100 No. 1.
While the streaming age has encouraged artists and listeners to embrace multiple genres, back in the 1980s, "stay in your lane" was the common mindset. Of course, a musician as versatile and innovative as Prince was never going to adhere to such a restriction.
The Purple One had already melded pop, soul, R&B, and dance to perfection on predecessor 1999. But on his magnum opus, the star took his sonic adventurism even further, flirting with neo-psychedelia, heavy metal and gospel on nine tracks which completely eschewed any form of predictability. Even its most mainstream number refused to play by the rules: despite its inherent funkiness, "When Doves Cry" is a rare chart-topper without any bass!
Although the likes of Jill Jones, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman had contributed to previous Prince albums, Purple Rain was the first time the Purple One pushed his female musical proteges to the forefront. On "Take Me With U," he shares lead vocals with one of his most famous, Apollonia. On its accompanying tour, he invited Sheila E. to be his opening act. And in something of a rarity even still today, two of the soundtrack's engineers, Susan Rogers and Peggy McCreary, were women.
Melvoin and Coleman would go on to become artists in their own right as Wendy and Lisa, of course. And Prince would also help to radically transform Sheena Easton from a demure balladeer into a pop vixen; compose hits by the Bangles ("Manic Monday"), Martika ("Love Thy Will Be Done"), and Sinead O'Connor ("Nothing Compares 2 U"); and provide career launchpads for Bria Valente and 3RDEYEGIRL.
As well as pushing all kinds of boundaries, Purple Rain also broke all kinds of records, including one at the music industry's most prestigious night of the year. At the 1985 GRAMMY Awards, Prince became the first Black artist ever to win Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, beating the likes of the Cars, Genesis, Van Halen, and Yes in the process. Purple Rain also picked up Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media at the same ceremony, and was nominated in the night's most coveted Category, Album Of The Year.
Another impressive feat was the one that had only previously been achieved by the Beatles and Elvis Presley. With the same-named movie also hitting the top of the box office chart, Prince became only the third artist in history to score a No. 1 album, film and song in the same calendar year.
Although it seems positively chaste compared to the likes of "WAP," "Anaconda," and "My Neck, My Back (Lick It)," Purple Rain's tale of a "sex fiend" who enjoys pleasuring herself in hotel lobbies was deemed so provocative at the time of release that it inadvertently instigated a political taskforce.
Appalled by the sexual lyrical content of "Darling Nikki," a track she caught her 11-year-old daughter Karenna listening to, future Second Lady Tipper Gore decided to set up the Parents Music Resource Centre with three other "Washington Wives." The organization subsequently persuaded the record industry and retailers to issue any album containing child-unfriendly material with Parental Advisory stickers. (Another Prince-penned hit, Sheena Easton's "Sugar Walls," was also included alongside "Darling Nikki" in the "Filthy 15" list of songs the PMRC deemed to be the most offensive examples.)
Prince was the first pop superstar from the 1980s holy trinity to bridge the gap between Hollywood and MTV, with Purple Rain arriving eight months before Madonna's star turn in Desperately Seeking Susan and four years before Michael Jackson's fantastical anthology Moonwalker. And it spawned a whole host of similar vanity projects, too.
From the apocalyptic rockabilly of "Let's Go Crazy" ("We're all excited/ But we don't know why/ Maybe it's 'cause/ We're all gonna die") and messianic new wave of "I Would Die 4 U," to the experimental rock of "Computer Blue" and self-fulfilling prophecy of "Baby, I'm A Star," Purple Rain delights at every musical turn. But it's the title track that continues to resonate the most.
Have we really been living in a Princeless world for eight years? It doesn't feel like it. With every passing year, Planet Earth feels more of the magnitude of the Purple One's unbelievable accomplishments. Which includes the sheer body of work he left behind: his rumored mountain of unreleased material aside, have you heard all 39 of the albums he did release?
Yes, Prince Rogers Nelson was an impressive triple threat, and we'll likely never see his like again. In pop and rock history, some were wizards in the studio, but lacked charisma onstage, or vice versa: Prince was equally as mindblowing in both frameworks.
Feast your eyes on Prince, the year Purple Rain came out. With guitarist Wendy Melvoin, keyboardist Dr. Fink, drummer Bobby Z., flanking him, even suboptimal YouTube resolution can't smother the magic and beauty. Check out this killing performance of Purple Rain's "I Would Die 4 U," where Prince's moves burn up the stage, with Sheila E. as much a percussion juggernaut as ever.
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