Prince Defied Conventional Notions of Race and Gender - The New York Times
He did?
Not meaning to sound mean spirited; and not meaning to detract from the sadness felt by his fans; and perhaps showing my musical and cultural ignorance to an embarrassing degree: but I "grokked" Prince to an even lesser degree than Bowie.
Bowie in interviews could come across as a knowing performance artist who was witty and pretty normal beneath it all: I'm not sure that Prince ever seemed to be more than an embodied performance. (Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with that, people. You could say that about quite a few eccentric but talented artists. And, of course, it is not as if I - or many people, it seems - knows what he was like in private.)
I should stop writing now, as it's generally not wise to be going against the popular flow so soon after an artist's death.
Steve, Prince was one hell of a guitarist as well. Check out Youtube.
ReplyDeleteYeah, well. I have never cared about guitar playing.
ReplyDeleteI'm just a "general vibe" sort of person about music, and some songs of Prince were OK, but I never got the whole dandy-ish persona and sexual stuff.
you never cared for guitar playing??
ReplyDeleteI banish you to living in Catallaxy land for the rest of your life!
It's quite possibly a feeling influenced by noticing painful 10 minute late 60's, early 70's electric guitar solos on Ross D Wylie's Uptight, or Happening 70, when I were but a lad.
ReplyDeleteBut even acoustic guitar: yeah, people can have talent about with it, but I don't go out of my way to listen to it. If you aspire to play an instrument yourself, I think it may make talented playing more inspiring; but for a person like me - it's not that interesting, and would prefer a less talented player with talent in composition.
shakes head in disbelief.
ReplyDeleteBloomfield, bishop, Clapton, Beck, Lee, Walsh et all couldl isten to their solos all night.
Prince was right up there with them.
Had conservative christian ( yes a tautology)views
Homer, you're just a hip dude in a way I'm not...
ReplyDelete