I am stunned. The world is stunned. Prince. Dead at 57.
From Elton himself (on Instagram):
“This is truly devastating news.
The greatest performer I have ever seen. A true genius. Musically way ahead of any of us. Sang with him twice on stage. What an honour.
Rest in peace you purple warrior.”
Alas, I was never fortunate enough to see Prince perform live. The closest I came was his Super Bowl halftime performance (in Miami, not very far from me)…which imho was the best Super Bowl halftime ever. And leave it to South Florida, it rained one of those infamous and torrential downpours during his performance, but that did not faze Prince…Honestly, he was so magical one might have thought he made the rain happen himself.
Now, I don’t know every Prince album and song like I know a certain someone else’s. Not even close. But his music was a big part of my life in the 1980s, and I can honestly say that I never turned off a Prince song when it came on the radio.
My favorite song of his is “When Doves Cry” (and I have a fondness for “Raspberry Beret”). And in the coming weeks, I hope to discover more. I suspect there’s a lot out there that I will love.
From the beginning, it was clear the Prince was not only unabashedly unique, but he made it cool for anyone to be different, to be whoever you are, no apologies necessary; he was a true ground breaker in every sense of the words; and he was oh so very sexy. Plus he rocked – no, he owned – the color purple.
So pardon me, Bernie, as I borrow some of your recent words to make sense of Prince’s untimely and way too early passing. As always, thank you for the inspiration.
You were a light for the living
And you spoke of peace and love
With two wings and your old Gibson
You brought blessings from above
You were here and you were gone
Just a heartbeat from the past
But you went from purple wings
To the real thing at last
RIP Prince Rogers Nelson.
The Captain and the Kim 