Prince passed away yesterday.
I’m still unable to understand that fully. As a huge fan after seeing Purple Rain when it came out, I have every album he made and 50+ “unreleased albums,” and have followed each his career phases and transformations with a combination of fascination, confusion, frustration, bemusement, bewilderment, joy, surprise, enrapturement, and awe. I realized last night, after ruminating sadly all day on his death, that Prince had provided the soundtrack to much of my life. With a new album of music nearly every year, his songs provided the backdrop (and backbeat) to most of the phases of my lived experience over the last 30+ years. I don’t know who is up to the task of replacing him in providing the soundtrack the second half of my life. Maybe Jack White (although I’ll miss the funk).
Not really knowing how to put these discordant feelings into prose, I had thought about serving up a list of my favorite albums and songs, but honestly, it feels like work, and I don’t feel like working through this particular loss, so I’ll just post a few of my favorite Prince guitar solos from youtube without comment.
