Prince

This just can't be/ There's got to be some kind of answer

Cause everywhere I look/ he's not around

No / This just can't be

How come didn't anyone ever tell me now / I wake up one morning and I realize

No / This just can't be

And who could be foolin' me? / Come, come. come on

Come on and help me now / Please can't you hear me cry?

Lord / This can't be

-- Janis Joplin

My Top 5 favorite Prince songs:

1. anotherloverholeinyohead - Parade

2. Forever in My Life - Sign O' the Times

3. Starfish and Coffee - Sign O' the Times

4. Erotic City - The Hits/The B-Sides

5. Another Lonely Christmas - The Hits/The B-Sides

Favorite Album: Parade. 

Most Fascinating & Intriguing Album: Around the World in a Day

I was a fan from Day One. 

Prince was always too grown for anyone younger than twenty-five. In 1978 the first time I heard "Soft and Wet" I was six years old. Ya'll know I no idea what he was talking about. But I knew a hit when I heard one, even as a child. And that @$%! was the jam. 

I could say a lot. I am surprised at how hard I am taking Prince's passing. I'll leave it at four things:

1. Who knows what R&B would sound like without Prince. Not only that, we lost a whole genre of music in one person.

2. We all are blessed to be alive in the same time and space as him.

3. He was not from this Earth. I heard somewhere, and I paraphrase, "he had the masculinity of Teddy Pendergrass, the dancing of James Brown, and the showmanship of Michael Jackson." He mastered 27 instruments, wrote, produced, arranged, and composed music. He created groups who were simply an extension of his personality: The Time, Vanity Six, Maserati, The Family (who btw had one of the best albums EVER. I'd buy that on vinyl again even though I don't own a record player. "Nothing Compares 2U?" The Family sang it first as a duet though Sinead O'Connor made it a megahit.) He created 39 albums, changed the way music is distributed and how artists get paid, and his music career lasted 38 years. Anyone know another human being like that?

4. He was fearless. Dude played basketball in high heels. He wore puffy shirts, sequins, and wore mascara. I don't even wear mascara. During his Super Bowl Halftime show, he wore a doo-rag. A doo-rag people. Doo-rags on grown black men are reserved for brothers nicknamed "Pretty Ricky" or "Delicious." Yet, everybody accepted him. There's women. There's men. There's Prince. The lesson is to be a loving, fearless, limitless human being. Honor your gift.

Lawd, I just can't.

Good night, Sweet Prince.

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Prince