Sonic Youth Gossip - RIP Prince Rogers Nelson

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- - RIP Prince Rogers Nelson (http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/showthread.php?t=113432)

since I found it. "She's always in my Hair"... the extended mix, just might be my favorite Prince b-side.

"Moonbeam Levels" is also an excellent unreleased song.

Quote:

Originally Posted by graun

He went directly to the airport to board a jet home – the same jet that would make an emergency landing two hours later with Prince apparently overdosed on an opiate painkiller and requiring a lifesaving safe shot of Narcan.

Within a week, he would be dead – from an overdose, investigators seem to believe, of the painkiller it now appears he had been taking for years to combat crippling arthritic hip pain, a condition he would not correct owing to strong religious-based resistance to medical intervention.

fuck this guy

Been listening to Purple Rain, 1999 and Parade today.

I think "I Would Die 4 U" might be my all time favorite Prince song. Haven't heard it in a while, and I bumped that Bitch today and it's just out of this world. It has the urgency of Springsteen, or peak Arcade Fire, but it's not whitewashed bullshite, so it's better than either of those things. Plus that synth!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Severian

Been listening to Purple Rain, 1999 and Parade today.

I think "I Would Die 4 U" might be my all time favorite Prince song.

The night after Prince died, Spike Lee organized a "block party" in Brooklyn to celebrate the man's music. Some CNN reporter on the scene called that hit song "I'll Die For You". Earlier that day, Wolf Blitzer called Prince's hugest hit "Purple Haze". Multiply that for the whole amount of news they report on and, potentially, in the worst case scenario, every goddamn thing they say could be incorrect. And, relatively speaking, CNN (well, CNN International, which is the one I watch) is one of the less fucked-up major networks there is!

In Memoriam
'1999' to Infinity: Robert Christgau Remembers Prince

Quote:

The only way to begin any tribute to Prince is by belaboring the obvious, which is an implausible hyperbole. Prince Rogers Nelson was the most gifted artist of the rock era. Not the greatest genius—just the most musical in the broadest sense. Singing, playing, songwriting, dancing, putting on a show—he was fabulous at all these things and fabulous at stardom itself, a provocateur with few equals who after major reversals proved himself a profiteer with few equals as well. His shifting trans-genre amalgam of funk and rock and pop and R&B was so original that he long pretended he was biracial even though both his hard-working failed-singer mother and his scuffling pianist father were African-American. His fanatical fanbase was and remains as ecumenical as his great rival Michael Jackson's, and more discerning.

With all that on the record, however, let me mention how much he owed both bizzers and rock critics. In 1977 Warner gave a black 19-year-old Minneapolis unknown an unprecedented complete-control contract only partly justified by 1979's "I Wanna Be Your Lover": three hooky minutes of shy-boy synth-guitar disco-funk that went 11 pop and No. 1 R&B. So it helped that soon Rolling Stone's Stephen Holden was creaming over the accompanying album's "blatant sexuality" as my sister Georgia Christgau's Village Voice review ventured prophetically: "He may not know how he feels, only that his feelings are strong enough to sing about." And while sales dipped with 1980's Dirty Mind, half an hour of audaciously radio-unfriendly rock demos including the three-in-a-bed "When You Were Mine," the incestuous "Sister," and the truly dirty-minded "Head," Prince's critical star kept rising.

Like 1981's Controversy and 1982's 1999, Dirty Mind earned a Rolling Stone rave and finished top 10 in the Voice's Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll, and by 1999 there were finally more hits. But the historic breakthrough wasn't "1999" itself. It was "Little Red Corvette." It's hard to grasp now, but in 1982 the "death of disco" was still fueling hit radio's racist fear of offending its core demo with "urban" programming—not even a damn rock song about a woman too damn hot for the blatantly sexual Prince. When NYC's WPLJ finally put it in rotation, Warners A&R goddess Karin Berg phoned me just to crow about it. Beat steady and imposing, noisy guitar nailing synthed-up lyric, "Little Red Corvette" was Prince's trans-genre genius in action—without it, MJ's "Beat It" might never have cracked MTV. This kind of stage-tested, studio-documented proof that "rock" and "R&B" weren't mutually exclusive—funk patterns blunted by arena scale, soulful singing intensified by virtuosic shredding—will remain his greatest achievement.

All this action predated the summer 1984 launch of the Prince legend as we know it: the two-pronged release of the seriously gorgeous Purple Rain LP and the surprisingly enjoyable Purple Rain flick. For the next decade Prince would be the pop demigod the world mourns today, a prolific, hard-touring, reclusive cash machine who spent every spare minute laying down tracks in his Paisley Park compound—when he wasn't dreaming up movie concepts or bringing the gift of orgasm to bevies of darling Nikkis in his erotic city. The eros is fantasy, of course—his private life was well-guarded. But something not just soulful in his lithe falsetto, gruff baritone, and warm midrange made the fantasy irresistible. Lubricious, solicitous, insinuating, polymorphous, sometimes ungendered, his singing was confident without cock-rock aggression—friendly, good-humored, there for you.

But although the 1987 double-LP Sign 'O' the Times was his greatest album by acclamation, his obsessive overproduction led to musical dilution, his cinematic dreams were barely pretensions, and his sales never again approached Purple Rain levels. He was still creating some exceptional music. But with Paisley Park badly overextended by his rock-star extravagance, Prince blamed Warner for his commercial shortfall. Thus ensued his Artist Masquerading as a Rune phase and his insistence that his contract rendered him a "slave." Exploited? Always arguable. Slave? Show some respect.

As I once put it whilst praising Prince's exceptional 1992 rune album, I am neither smart nor stupid enough to parse this African-American's racial politics. But I am arrogant enough to insist that chattel slavery is too huge a blot on humanity to exploit as a metaphor, and to observe that the political smarts my critical clan sensed in the most gifted artist of the rock era were a fantasy. Sure he dubbed his band the Revolution and wrote one called "Ronnie Talk to Russia," but that was about the bomb just like "1999" was about the bomb—our most exhilarating bomb song ever. By temperament, Prince always believed the end times were coming. It was this innate belief that inspired his scattershot God-mongering and made his sexual extremism feel so urgent. And it's why the horror of his only child's infant death in 1996 ultimately drove him from the Seventh Day Adventism of his raising to the Jehovah's Witness millenarianism he espoused throughout this millennium. That didn't wreck his music either—because his feelings were always strong enough to sing about, nothing could. But it did put a crimp in his sexual extremism.

Yet it's a tribute to his musicality, his intelligence, his will power, and his capacity for change that in the wake of his '90s traumas he proved he'd been right about Warner all along. Marketing directly to his fanatical fanbase via an internet he saw early was made for the job, he earned a far bigger return packaging some of the many unreleased masters he owned than he would have with the most generous label deal. Yet as the decade wore on he further refurbished his legend by wangling one-offs from Columbia, Universal, and even eventually Warner. And he rebuilt his touring career as well—in 2004 alone, he sold a million concert tickets.

Prince had always told us he just wanted to get through this thing called life. But now that his own physical life has ended, his artistic life will continue. Who knows how many unreleased masters remain—dozens if not hundreds. And find the viral video where he destroys the Eric Clapton solo on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Reflect that he's never released a full-fledged live album. Pray his last will and testament makes that possible now.

http://noisey.vice.com/blog/1999-to-...members-prince

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

Holy fuck, are you fucking serious?

That is utterly shameful for SO many reasons. First of all, "Purple Rain" wasn't even a #1 single, so there's no way it qualifies as one of his hugest hits in the technical sense. If Wolfy was talking about the album, then yes, of course, but he still got the name wrong. Not to mention the fact that you'd have to be a goddamn mummified corpse to not know the immediately that "Purple Haze" is Hendrix. This displays not only a lack of knowledge about Prince, but a lack of knowledge about pop culture in general that is frankly disturbing for someone Blitzer's age.

And it's just a crime against art to leave out the "4 U," but I'd forgive it if that was the only part of the song's title they got wrong.

How fucking absurd.

another fav unreleased beautiful sad trip of a track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99s6eXivM_Y

and this, it takes a couple of listens to it to get better but its tight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHg8B-Xwhtw

real talk:

It's weird. Y'all know Tribe has been my favorite hip hop group since I was like 13. When Phife died, all I wanted to do was listen to Tribe. Celebrate that music.

When Prince died, I wanted the world to go away. I wanted everyone to stop talking. I wanted to stop thinking about it.

The only Prince music I've subjected myself to since was watching the SNL special. And I was teared up during the first performance. Ugh.

Quote:

Originally Posted by noisereductions

It's been emotional for me, certainly, especially certain songs, like "Sometimes it snows in April" and "IWD4U." But I've been banging the hell out of Prince since his passing. I've always played Sign "O" pretty regularly, but I've been going back to Parade, 1999, Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day, and others just to celebrate the fuck out of the man's music, rather than taking to Facebook to post half assed tributes like the rest of the world seems to be doing.

I ain't been bummed out about it, i been enjoying all the great memories growing up and renewing my appreciation and respect for his art listening to his music again.

don't take pain killers from the doctor

everyone took Prince for granted.

My wife was watching an interview that Prince did with Oprah and he was at a piano and she asked him what the first song he learned on the piano was, and he smiled and started playing the Batman TV show theme song....

Quote:

Originally Posted by themawt71

don't take pain killers from the doctor

You should only take them from a doctor, but I get your point.

Of course, it is possible to take pain medication, sedatives and other dependency causing and potentially addictive medications without killing oneself, or even taking them to excess.

And it's yet to be proven that pk's had anything to do with his passing. But apparently he was about to undergo some kind of medical intervention for opioid addiction on the day he died (yeah, I read pitchfork more than I wish I did).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Rob Instigator again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Severian

definitely true.

i gotta friend who is now fucked on the pills from various surgery's and his step pop is in the same situation. just gotta be careful i guess.

good ol pitchfork...

Quote:

Originally Posted by themawt71

definitely true.

i gotta friend who is now fucked on the pills from various surgery's and his step pop is in the same situation. just gotta be careful i guess.

good ol pitchfork...

Yeah, careful indeed. In fact I believe there should be age limits and/or educational courses to accompany the long term prescribing of addictive medications. Maybe it sounds silly, but I truly believe that a lot of people get into situations like this without knowingly doing anything "wrong." There's a pretty common misconception even among some doctors that taking opioid based medications "as prescribed" and "for their prescribed use" can somehow protect people from addiction, but nothing could be further from the truth, and I actually would like doctors to start giving people a realistic description of what can and will happen to their bodies if they take the medications for any period longer than a couple of days (e.g. dependency, tolerance, mood and judgement impairments, etc.)

I myself have an ongoing prescription for pain medications that I was given after a car accident and several surgeries, and I have never taken more than the prescribed amount. I have insisted on taking the lowest dose possible and still, I have to be ever-vigilant about monitoring my pain levels realistically, because life is hard, euphoria feels nice, and I could decide at any moment to double up on my dose because of a pain "flare up" or a really bad day.

It can happen to anyone, and I don't think most people have the knowledge or maturity going in to understand what's at stake if they pursue that euphoria. Just taking the almost ridiculously low dose I do take makes my body dependent on the medications, so I've been working with a doctor to find other, safer, ways to help my pain issues.

In fact, I think one of the only reasons I'm able to self-monitor as I do is because in my first couple years of college, I did just about every drug under the sun, so I know what it feels like to go through the nasty end of this. And I value my life enough that I'm not willing to put it in jeopardy (again). But the only reason I see things that way is because I've kind of already been there.

Many people who find themselves with scripts for morphine, methadone, dilaudid, even Percocet and vicodin don't understand what they're getting into, and that's why I'd rather see these drugs prescribed in concert with multifaceted informational/educational workshops that are required for taking the medication for any period longer than 5 days.

It's just not worth it. I'm actually starting physical therapy again... even started taking yoga... just to see if that helps with my pain, and will allow me to stop taking this shit.

I think about this a lot, to be honest. It breaks my heart to think that opioids were involved in Prince's death. I've lost several friends to drugs, and it's just crushing. I didn't know Prince, but I don't want anyone to go through that kind of suffering.

We have the technology and knowledge of neurochemistry to handle long term chronic pain without the use of narcotics, by using microscopic brain and spine implants that use minor electronic pulses to do the same thing painkillers do without any risk of dependsncy, addiction, overdose or diversion/sale of controlled substances.

It's what our top scientists should be spending their time on — instead of developing new variations on the same opiate based chemical drugs, with this tweak or that tweak to make them sound safer.