Monday, April 25, 2016

Prince


Obviously, this is not one of my usual posts.  I'll get back to that tomorrow.

The world of music has certainly been taking some hits lately.  David Bowie.  Glenn Frye. And now Minnesota's own Prince.

We all know a little about the singer, the songwriter, the performer, and the musicianship.  In fact, there's a story that often gets repeated.  I saw it on Facebook over the weekend, in fact.  A reporter is said to have asked Eric Clapton what it's like to be the world's greatest guitar player.  Clapton's reply was, "I don't know.  Ask Prince."

A nice story, and certainly a nice tribute.  Only one problem:  Clapton never said it.  The story is completely false.  Still, whoever made the story up clearly had a high regard for Prince's talent, and the fact that the story still circulates shows that others did, too  There is no denying his musical ability and genius.  You could go anywhere in the world, to a small town in any country, and it wouldn't be unusual to suddenly hear a Prince song coming out over somebody's radio--and people singing along.

In fact, we here in Minnesota think of him so much as our hometown icon, we tend to forget that he toured the World and was known world-wide.  We all mourned here in Minnesota at the news of his passing--Target Field, where the Minnesota Twins play baseball, was bathed in purple lights as a tribute, as were many other buildings and bridges.  But the rest of the country mourned with us, and so did the rest of the World.  Here are just a few examples, beginning with Niagra Falls --



London --


Paris --



....and many other buildings and monuments in cities around the World.

Prince's most famous song, probably, was "Purple Rain".  He also wrote a song called, "Sometimes It Snows In April".  Oddly enough, the day after Prince died, it did both--there were flakes of snow seen in the morning, and as the temperature rose, it turned into rain--not purple rain, but it may as well have been.  Even Mother Nature, I guess, couldn't resist paying a little tribute.

Music touches everybody.  Music is a universal language--and Prince spoke it well.

R.I.P., Prince.

4 comments:

Eric51Amy49 said...

I glance at your site every week... but this is by far my favorite post. Well done Doc. Amy (from Red Wing)

Anonymous said...

I'm so sad about Prince! I always thought I would meet him someday and now I'll never get the chance. I had to come back to share in the mourning with fellow Minnesotans. Hugs to you Dr. Ken. Hope all is well and spankin! Love, Radha

Dr. Ken said...

Amy -- Gee, all the great posts on spanking that I've done, and THIS is your favorite post? :-) Seriously, thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you liked it. And thanks for checking in on the blog every week. It's always good to hear from someone in Minnesota!

Dr. Ken said...

Radha -- !!!!! Oh, my goodness--what a welcome voice from the past! It's so good to hear from you, even under such sad circumstances! What's up with you? How have you been? Big hugs to you, and I hope everything is spanking good where you are! Love, Dr. Ken