CNN Link
Rest in Peace Prince.
Not much time to write up an extensive memorial/thoughts/homages etc. But the intiail below recollection tells a lot. I'll never forget those 2 minutes or whatever I exchanges words with him that afternoon at Cheapo back in 2009.
Very sudden and his music and legacy will live on.
Beyond CNN and the globe though, it is all over the media here in Minnesota.
Another icon gone in 2016, and especially from my childhood. With Michael Jackson and even Whitney Houston to a point, it leaves only Madonna left of the pop icons of my childhood. Aside from some I found later of course like Sting and Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, etc.
I never did get to see him live unfortunately, but this brush with him from 7 years ago is still rather significant.
2/23/10 10:09PM
He's debuting a new song "Cause and Effect" on 89.3 on Friday Morning
likely around 8AM. Thankfully, that's not the day I am going to Aspen (I don't believe).
Of course 89.3 is mentioning it like they won the lottery or something. I mean sure, it's cool of him. But as I posted there, it was pretty fucking cool of 93X to DEBUT "Musical Chairs" last October from Fair to Midland.
The ass-kissing of testimonials for that station has probably contributed to my health issues over the last couple of weeks. All I wanted to do is hear a Local Natives song live, a band I ORIGINALLY REQUESTED on that station going BACK to NOVEMBER (when their debut album "Gorilla Manor" was released originally) and frankly, could be given some due for knowing about them far ahead of so many others including pukefork and 89.3
But I swear to god, people are acting like their lives depend on 89.3, and their redundant and mostly tripe-filled playlist. Jeezus. And ya know, had they at least given me an interview back before they launched or heck, even some due for Local Natives or something else, I wouldn't loathe them as much. There are a few cool people there, but their listenorship are a bunch of lemmings. I'm sorry, but they are. Radio K does the same thing, and a lot better. And they're college kids. Radio K actually will play Death Metal or Post Rock. And Radio K actually answers their fucking studio-phone line, lol. Not answering the studio-line, among other things, is what 89.3 shares with KQRS.
No, I'd consider pledging to 89.3:
if they gave me my own weekly radio show.
I'll repeat. 89.3, GIVE ME MY OWN WEEKLY SPECIALTY RADIO SHOW WHERE I CAN PLAY PROG EPICS, FULL-ALBUM PLAYBACKS, TECHNICAL DEATH METAL, AND THE LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF ARTISTS YOUR STATION IGNORES, and then I may give you some money back.
I might even *think* about it if I was able to
a) attend 1 of the "meetings" and voice my interest in their playlist changing.
b) actually noticing it happening.
Sorry, but I may (consider) pledging to Radio K soon, but 89.3 ain't getting a penny of my $ as long as it's set up how it is, along with my past lack of receiving a deserving interview to dj there.
11/17/09 11:37PM
brush with stardom of a sort. As I posted on some of the forums. My schedule this afternoon/evening
4:30pm leave work
5:00pm go to the Hennepin Library
5:30pm: Dinner at Davannis
5:45pm: I hit Cheapo up quickly, with the intention of leaving by 6:15pm for the Edina Theater for "Untitled."
5:50pm: see Prince looking at the "Recent Arrivals" bin, which includes 2 or 3 of his cds, at least 1 was marked "$5.95 SKUF"
I saw him and and 1st didn't believe it was him. He had some girl with him browsing. So I figured, why not go up and ask him 1 quick question. The 1st thing that came to mind was Jellybean Johnson.
background: I saw Jellybean Johnson I wanna say September 2004 sit-in for a 1-hour jam with Paul Peterson of "The Family" as well, with Victor Wooten unmatchable live band. Jelly threw it down on GUITAR.
I knew he had played with Prince, okay, but I had no idea when I asked Prince, that he played DRUMS and not the guitar I saw him on with Victor. Looking back on that, I feel kind of stupid, but I explained to Prince that I knew JBJ from his guitar performance with Victor.
The rest of the time I spent at Cheapo, I was trying to cram-in my memory, many of the titles I had looked for at the St.Paul Cheapo within the last couple of weeks, with no luck (I just remembered now, Hammock was 1 in fact). But Prince ended up heading over to the Classic Rock section soon after that, and I was going back and forth in the Modern Rock and Metal sections which are near the Classic Rock section. But to say I was distracted would be accurate.
So, that was it. It probably would have been dumb to ask him, but if I had my druthers I'd have wanted to ask him about any or all of the following.
a) Apes and Androids
b) Kevin Gilbert..the Chris Cornell attempt didn't do much though, and CC was actually a bit more relevant given the Jeff Buckley relationship, King's X/Doug Pinnick and timing of his career and Kevin's/age etc. I also happened to be wearing a KG t-shirt today.
c) Dean Magraw..this might have been a more obvious 1. Dean actually is probably pretty close in age to Prince, thus came up around the same time. They both have a love and influence for Jimi Hendrix. And chances are, Prince knows Dean. With Dean's recent cancer, it would have been all the more fitting. But who knows.
d) Jeff Buckley..mainly the fact Jeff's birthday was today. It's too bad Cheapo didn't have some JB on the intercom. They had the Rolling Stones though, which it might have been interesting to ask Prince, what his opinion on was.
but no, I really didn't want to bug him, as his personality is kind of *touchy* I guess I might say, just from things I've read and heard. Maybe he's more laid back, mellow, and has more of a sense of humor than I realize. But most things with him seem serious. Who knows about tonight. But he said "thanks" when I told him I'd leave him alone after that question. He sounded serious enough, so it was probably wise of me to not appear anymore starstruck or fanboy-ish than i did. But I can't deny, trying to browse with him there after that was weird. Like, I almost felt as if I shouldn't be browsing near him or something, lol.
I was just thinking..damn, a guy like him, whose worth millions of dollars. I dunno, at least 10's if not 100's of millions if he never overspent, invested well, etc. he could bail Cheapo out. Seriously, it's pretty sad. I don't think he cares enough though. He'd feel it's like pity $ or something. Cheapo should struggle and survive on their own.
But it does sort of break my heart, knowing that. I dunno, maybe if it ever becomes bad enough, which I sure hope it won't, he and maybe others like Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis, they would prevent it from dying. But maybe they also see the whole cd sales as a dying industry, too much so, that it's not worth it, as a business decision it's almost a certain, big loss. But vinyl?
That was the other thing that surprised me. I figure Prince would be looking for VINYL, so he should have been downstairs. maybe he had been, or was going to go down there. Or maybe he was at Cheapo only for his friends. Who knows, questions that'll I'll never know, but are kind of fun to think about I suppose.
John, you missed out. Hopefully another time.
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