Remembering Prince

PHOTO BY NICOLAS KHAYAT/ABACA PRESS

By Martine Ehrenclou

The late, great, Prince Rogers Nelson remains a superstar one year after his sudden death on April 21, 2016. A master musician who played 27 instruments, Prince also wrote and produced all of his music as well as music for other famous artists. To most, he was considered extraordinary, multi- talented. A genius really. He released 39 studio albums, five soundtrack albums, four live albums, and five compilation albums. He won an Academy Award, seven Grammy Awards, an American Music Award, a Golden Globe Award, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He had too many accomplishments to list here. Prolific is an understatement.

One year later I still mourn the loss of Prince. His music brought me years of bliss, delight, whatever you want to call it. I used to burn CDs of his lesser-known tracks with great groove for one of my dance teachers and he’d play them in my hip-hop dance classes. My dance friends loved it. I loved it that they relished Prince songs they’d not heard on top 40 radio.

Prince was a brilliant musician and performer. Such a loss. Such a loss of a great talent. Sometimes, I think about what might have been had he lived. I saw him in concert twice and was blown away both times. I remember him most for his truly magnificent guitar playing, his remarkable dancing, his range of musicality.

What compounds the sorrow for many us was his sudden death at age 57–how it happened, the mess of his estate and the money grabbing that accompanied it, and the release of new, previously unreleased songs on the anniversary of his death. All confusing, disturbing issues.

I’m not going to go into the cause of his death because I don’t have enough credible information. The media claims it was an accidental overdose. From all accounts, Prince dealt with chronic hip pain for the last decade of his life, caused by years of performing. Not unlike James Brown, Prince integrated some pretty amazing dance moves into many of his performances, including jumping from tall speakers.

I will say that if someone lives with chronic pain, no judgment should be made about how they cope with it, because the reality of it is that there’s just no good magic bullet. Those who live with chronic pain, limp along with what they can find to ease it so it doesn’t destroy their lives.

Another troubling issue is Prince’s unreleased music, which also involves money grabbing. Two days ago, lawyers for Prince’s estate and Paisley Park Enterprises filed a lawsuit to prevent sound engineer, George Ian Boxill in conjunction with Rogue Music Alliance, from releasing six unpublished Prince tracks as an EP, titled Deliverance. Boxhill never had permission to release any of the tracks. The suit claims that Boxill signed an agreement in 2004, which stated that all of Prince’s recordings were sole and exclusive property of Prince and that Boxill would not use them in any way. Boxill also had refused to return the recordings. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to block Boxill and Rogue Music Alliance from releasing Deliverance on Friday April 21, 2017.

From the information I researched, Prince did not want these tracks released. Even though they can be found on the internet, I’m not going to include them here.

In addition, according to Variety, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group are fighting over who owns the publishing, merchandising and performing rights to Prince’s last 19 years of performing. More money grabbing.

But today, in honor of Prince, I want to celebrate his enormous talent and music that we all loved for decades. He taught himself to play the piano at age seven, the guitar at age 13, and drums at 14. He sold over 100 million albums world wide and brought millions of people great joy. He may have been mysterious but no one can deny the brilliance of this artist.

Paisley Park, located in Chanhassen, Minnesota, is a 65,000 sq. foot creative sanctuary and recording/production complex that Prince created and worked in. It is now open to the public. There is a celebration of the life and legacy of Prince on April 20^th-23^rd, 2017. For more information, click here https://officialpaisleypark.com

Below are some of my very favorite musical performances of Prince. Enjoy

Prince Live, “Dear Mr. Man”