Thoughts About Prince After His Passing

I had just written and posted last Thursday morning a second blog article about David Bowie, who had passed away back in January, when the TV cable news channel I was tuned in to broke in to announce the passing of American pop/rock legend Prince.  It's still unclear what caused his death...the autopsy has already been performed but toxicology results may be much slower in coming.  Regardless, it is a tragedy that he died...and (at least for me) at such a young age: 57.  Over his career, Prince produced an phenomenal number of studio albums...39...but like many other artists he is best known for his earlier works: with him it was in the 1980s...

As was the case with Bowie after his death, I find myself relatively ignorant of Prince's music other than the singles he released that became such big hits.  I generally liked his songs, Raspberry Beret being my favorite of his with Let's Go Crazy and Kiss close behind.  Prince was a product of the newly burgeoning music video industry in the early eighties...I first saw his videos (Little Red Corvette and 1999) on the Turner Broadcasting System music video show that, in mid-1983, would go on for hours on the weekend.  So it's not surprising that this showy performer would make a semi-autobiographical film...Purple Rain...in 1984.  I've tried watching it lately and I'm sorry to say that it's just a little too difficult to digest.  But, hey, I'm happy for him for being so successful with it back then...

I'm hearing all of these accolades for Prince with people commonly referring to him as a musical genius.  It makes me want to do what I'm currently doing with Bowie's discography: investigating this artist's body of work over his career.  But 39 albums? Whew, that'll be some task if I decide to do it...

At one point in his career, Prince had a conflict with his recording label and changed his name to a symbol...the designation he would allow himself to be referred to was "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince".  When he decided to go back to "Prince", I would jokingly call him "The Artist Formerly Known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince".  Maybe that sounds disrespectful of him considering his passing, but it did strike me that he had a tremendous sense of humor and would have understood...

Maybe I'm just getting old and all of these "elders" in pop, rock, and country are just finally succumbing to the same afflictions when they age as the population at large, but it still feels as if there are way too many people dying recently.  What do you think?