Deadman31

Where did the guitar go?

astrochimp

Heaven.

B5Erik

Phenomenal playing.

For me, personally, I wish he had done a straightforward bluesy/funky Rock album where he played like that throughout. The guy could flat out play, and his playing would have been perfect for that kind of album.

Even so, he did what he wanted to do and he did it well. It wasn't my kind of thing, but he was immensely talented.

B5Erik

Where did the guitar go?

He's playing it now!

The Infidel

The tributes are officially coming from everywhere:

Alan Smithee

Are they gonna make "Purple Rain: A Porn Parody"?

VHS?

The U.S. Grant San Diego

story

This was a tough one for my wife. She loved Prince and Bowie. They were her go-to musicians in her pretty tough childhood. Their music and what she knows of them are pretty connected to some specific memories for her. She was in tears today, for a while.

I volunteered to spent the night with the kids and she went to downtown Minneapolis for a street concert outside First Avenue, the venue where he cut his teeth and filmed big sections of Purple Rain. Streets were packed, the vibe was positive energy, and the music was great. She was right up front by the stage and had a good night. Lots of photos and video of the night at http://thecurrent.org.

Draven or other Minnesotans can weigh in, too, but from what I can tell there were a lot of intense emotions throughout Minnesota today.

spoon81

I'm bummed, this news has hit me hard. As a teen in the 80s, his music was such an important part of my life. I saw him live twice, the first time at the infamous Rolling Stones concert at LA Coloseum in 81. I believe I owned the Controversy album at that time, loved it, and just could not believe he was booed off stage. In retrospect, I can kind of understand it, the massive crowd was ready for George Thorogood & the Destroyers. Just goes to show you how ahead of the time he was. A great talent. Prince, you will be missed. RIP.

Draven

First Avenue (iconic Twin Cities music venue where Prince got his start) is hosting an all-night Prince dance party tonight.

Spoilered for size


And they turned the 35W Bridge purple in tribute




Town is going all out tonight. Whenever I tell someone I live Minnesota, 3/4 of the time their next question is something about Prince. Such a sad day.

EDIT: I just saw story's post. It's a big big deal here. Losing "one of our own" and all that. Especially since he did still legitimately live here part of the time. Every few months someone would see him or Paisley Park would host a show. Lots of Minnesotans have a "and one time I saw Prince" stories.

cdollaz

Prince has the top 19 best-selling cds on Amazon right now, and they are out of stock on all of his releases, even the crappy ones.

The Time even got a boost and has a top 50 selling cd.

Ringmaster

I've loved Prince ever since I accidentally found his music when I bought the Batman album as a kid. I thought I was getting Danny Elfman's score, but what I found was a funky, dark, and sexy album!

I saw him live 4 years ago at the L.A. Forum. The moment that stood out the most was when Prince started to play the opening chords to "Darling Nikki" and the crowd went ape shit. He upruptly stopped and said, "oh, no no no, we don't play that anymore". The crowd moaned but I laughed.

He was one of the greatest

DVD Josh

Just imagine how disappointed all those people buying the hits packages will be when they find out Batdance isn't on any of them!

Sonny Corinthos

I can't remember a celebrity death hitting me this hard. His music is the soundtrack of my life. Anytime I hear a song from Prince, I can tell you what I was doing in my life at the time the song was popular.

I know the term musical genius gets thrown around a lot these days but Prince was one and we may never see a artist as talented as he was ever again.

hdnmickey

Or Arms of Orion, or Partyman, or Trust. That album had some great songs that belong any best of collection.

DVD Josh

I love Trust. Arms of Orion is a very very underrated song.

milo bloom

It's surprising, but gladdening, to see such comments.

For a while there, it felt like some fans pushed off the Batman soundtrack as a red-headed stepchild of the Prince canon.

kenbuzz

Where does everybody (Minnesota DOT, San Diego hotel, etc) get purple light bulbs from, and get them installed so quickly, on such incredibly short notice?

JeremyM

The Woodmen Tower here in Omaha was purple. In this case, it was apparently because the "take your kids to work" kids that were there yesterday had voted for purple earlier in the day, so it was just a coincidence. (Or was it?)

They'll light it different colors throughout the year for various events, so I assume they have just about everything on hand already. I assume that's the case with these bridges and other buildings as well.

DVD Josh

Well the profiteers are out in full force. eBay prices on Prince CDs skyrocketing.

hdnmickey

LED lights are easy to change to any color you want. Many building/structure lighting rigs have been switch to LED's. It's not unusual for those rigs to switch colors on a regular basis. Century Link in Seattle actually has had them on a randomizer at times. Rotating rainbow colors.

Sonny Corinthos

Draven

That bridge can be any color. On the day marriage equality became legal it was rainbow colored. It's always neat to see what they come up with.

slop101

Turns out he had serious hip/joint issues (years of dancing and doing the splits like him will do that to you), and had hip surgery (not a replacement) back in 2010. There are photos of him walking around with a walker, and he had started wearing flats lately due to the pain. His surgery lead to some complications and great pain, which led to a dependency on pain relievers, which escalated. So basically, he ended up overdosing on Percocet.

Early reports are that he has close to 2,000 songs in his "vault". Some just written, some demos, some full recordings.

DRG

63 of the top 100 songs on iTunes right now are Prince or Prince-related.
http://www.doipod.com/itunes-charts/...100-songs-usa/

Billboard Hot 100 chart next week should be interesting.