Life Soundtrack by Prince

If you are wondering why a middle aged mother of 7 is writing about Prince, you don't know very much about me. You and I are not on a first name basis.

True story. Today at my daily morning meeting with my employees, they asked me what was the holiday today. I found a great website, Holidays 2011 Each morning we come up with a holiday to celebrate. Such as, June 1st is "Say something nice" day. June 4th "Do Dah Day" (Salute to silliness). June 17th is "National Flip Flop" day.Love this one- June 27th "Please take my chldren to work" Day. Read that one carefully. We have celebrated "National Duran Duran Appreciation" Day. Gotta know '80s music for that one. And everybody's favorite, "Mike the headless chicken" Day. Yes, that is a link to the official website, and yes, you do want to check that out.

I announce that today is Prince's birthday. She asks, "Prince William?" I just stared at her and burst into laughter. I said "Prince-the artist!" The group almost died laughing.

I have been a fan since I was 15 years old. I used to trade services with a neughbor when I was in high school. She would cut and perm my hair and I would clean her apartment. One day, instead of doing my hair she gave me 2 albums. Michael Jackson's "Off The Wall" and Prince's "1999" I had only hear a little of a couple of Prince's songs before. I was instantly crazy for this double LP (children, that is an actual record) of highly sexually charged, funky and danceable music.

The summer between my freshman and sophomore year in high school, "Purple Rain", the movie, came out. It was my first blind date. I was so excited because the evening movie showtime had sold out and we were going to see my first midnight movie. I had never attended any music concert before. Try to remember, MTV came on in 1981. This is 1984. I could not believe how amazing the musical performances were. 'Darling Nikki" was SO nasty. And I loved it. That fall our homecoming theme was "Purple Reign" (Our school colors are Purple and White) I danced with the Pep Squad to "Let's Go Crazy". Tell me that wasn't perfect timing at a perfect age!

Everybody knows who Prince is. Most think of the 1980s Prince- Purple Rain, Little Red Corvette, Kiss, etc. They whine about how he couldn't make hit after that. He is washed up. He went weird when he changed his name to a symbol. Wow, what they do not know. That's OK. Keep thinking that. There are enough fans for me to compete with for his attention. LOL!

Ask a real musician what they think of Prince and they would probably say he is a genius. How many albums has he realeaseds? 48
26 studio albums
5 soundtracks
2 live albums
5 compilation albums
10 internet albums
How many instruments does he play? Over 25 variations of guitar, bass guitar, piano, keyboards, drums, percussion and don't forget his voice.

Over and over he has been celebrated as the best live performers today. I agree. I saw my first concert in May. How many songs has he written? I read that there are over 1,000 know songs written by him. Many are unreleased. He covers many genres.

This is why I love him. He changed what I liked in music. I was like most people. When I saw a live performance from an artist, I expected it to sound just like it does on the radio. If it didn't, I didn't like it and ended up not liking the artist or band anymore. The more I listened to the extended and live versions of song from Prince, the more I loved them. He is more a musician and artist than a performer. I was told that if I didn't like a song when I first heard it, wait and play it every so often. When I stopped expecting every song or album to sound like each other, I fell in love with more and more songs.

I do get a lot of crap because people think he is girly and weird. Fine. He is. But he is also brilliant and has a song for every mood I have or situation I am in. I am in awe of the talent and his willingness to keep taking new paths. I may be wrong, but I doubt he cares about making a radio hit today. Today's top of the charts artists rarely play an instrument or write there own songs. Or have any talent, for that matter. His lyric "My only competition is, well, me in the past."

Would I leave my husband for Prince? Um...well...hell no. I love his music, but I am in love with Keenon. Prince will always be married to his music first. No one can compete with it. My husband may very well be as eccentric as he is anyway.

My husband and I used a quote from our first dance song at our wedding as a quote for the top of out invitations. The song is 'Adore" by Prince. "Love is 2 weak 2 define just what U mean 2 me." And in our vows, without anyone knowing, we used additional lyrics from that song-
"I'll give U my heart,
I'll give U my time,
I'll give U my body,
I'll give U my mind.
4 all time I am with U and U R with me"

Prince music is the soundtrack of my life.