Prince has died

[bigbadbrother]

Iconic musician Prince died Thursday morning at his Paisley Park estate in suburban Minneapolis, his publicist confirms. He was 57. A cause of death has not been revealed. More to ccome

[bigbadbrother]

Prince, a dizzylingly prolific multi-instrumentalist and virtuosic performer, was found dead at his home and recording studio in Minnesota early on Thursday, his publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 57.

Deputies are on scene at Paisley Park in Chanhassen conducting a death investigation currently, authorities said. No further details were immediately available and the cause of death is not being released at this time.

The performer was born Prince Rogers Nelson June 7, 1958, in Minneapolis, Minn.

He released his debut album, For You, in 1978, followed by Prince (1979), Dirty Mind (1980) and Controversy (1981). All of them traded in his trademark sound - deep synth funk grooves with provocatively sexual lyrics and heart-piercing ballads sung in pure falsetto.

His mainstream breakthrough came with back-to-back albums with his backing band the Revolution: In 1982, 1999 launched several pop and dance floor hits onto the charts, including “Little Red Corvette” and the title song, a post-apocalyptic party anthem.

Two years later he released the album - a soundtrack, actually, to his movie-starring debut - that would launch him into the same superstar stratosphere of other 1980s pop titans like Michael Jackson and Madonna.

The soundtrack was 1984’s Purple Rain, a searing musical backdrop to a semi-autobiographical tale of “The Kid,” a Minneapolis rocker from an abusive family. The album launched five singles, two of which - “When Doves Cry” and Let’s Go Crazy" - went to Number 1 on the Billboard chart. The title ballad reached Number 2 and has gone on to become one of the most recognizable rock anthems in history. The soundtrack itself is frequently cited on music critics’ polls as being one of the best of all time, and Prince won an Oscar for original score in 1985.

Subsequent releases grew more experimental in nature, including the psychedelic Around the World in a Day (1985) and Sign “O” the Times (1987), a double-album recorded partly before a live audience in Paris that dispensed with the Revolution and which is widely considered to have been produced at Prince’s creative peak. (Among the compositions on it are “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker,” “If I was Your Girlfriend,” and “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man.”)

In between he starred in one more film, 1986’s Under the Cherry Moon, in which he played a gigolo wooing Kristin Scott Thomas in the south of France. The movie bombed, but produced a successful soundtrack album: Parade, which featured the hits “Kiss” and “Mountains.”

Throughout the 1990s, Prince was later backed by a large band known as The New Power Generation, and his sound moved away from synth and heavy rock guitars and into one of brassier R&B. In 1993, he famously changed his name to that of an unpronounceable glyph that melded the symbols for male and female.

The move was one of protest against his label, Warner Bros., leading him to shave the word “Slave” into his face at one point. Between 1994 and 1996 he churned out the five remaining records due on his contract and signed with Arista Records in 1998.

By the 2000s, the glyph was retired and he was once again referring to himself as Prince. In 2001, Prince became a Jehovah’s Witness and moved to Los Angeles to “better understand the music industry.” In a 2008 interview with the New Yorker, he compared his religious conversion to “a realization … like Neo in The Matrix.”

In that same interview he grew uncharacteristically political, saying, “So here’s how it is: you’ve got the Republicans, and basically they want to live according to this.” (He gestured at a Bible.) “But there’s the problem of interpretation, and you’ve got some churches, some people, basically doing things and saying it comes from here, but it doesn’t.”

“And then on the opposite end of the spectrum you’ve got blue, you’ve got the Democrats, and they’re, like, ‘You can do whatever you want.’ Gay marriage, whatever. But neither of them is right,” Prince said. The comments drew criticism from gay rights groups and fans, many of whom felt the musician had turned his back on them since the days of Controversy, when he toyed with ideas of gender and sexuality and sang on the title song, “Am I black or white, am I straight or gay?”

[abouttosnap]

Like so many others that are still with us and that have passed on...thanks for music of the 80's Prince. You maybe gone but your music will live on...be nice to go back to the 80's and we could all party once again like it's 1999.

[swanner]

RIP... I'm devastated... I took my high school sweetheart to your concert..... We fell in love afterwards, got married and had children... I think things would have been different if it wasn't for your artistic talent and love of music That Drove us to You..... Thank You For That... Rest Well Mr. Prince.....

[The Cobra]

Never got around to seeing him live as I only cared for a very little bit of his music.....no denying the incredible talent he shared with us all. RIP Prince.

[swanner]

RIP... I'm devastated... I took my high school sweetheart to your concert..... We fell in love afterwards, got married and had children... I think things would have been different if it wasn't for your artistic talent and love of music That Drove us to You..... Thank You For That... Rest Well Mr. Prince.....

Oh ya, it was just around the time Milli Vanilli got busted for lip sinking......boy that was a long time ago...whew

[The Noof]

Like so many others that are still with us and that have passed on...thanks for music of the 80's Prince. You maybe gone but your music will live on...be nice to go back to the 80's and we could all party once again like it's 1999.


Amen to that brother.

[The Noof]

Love OR hate his music, the man made his mark.I don't subscribe to that genre at all, but millions do.The movie "purple rain" was interesting though...thanks to Apollonia.

[skywalker999]

Rest in peace
PS one less drug addict

[zombola]

Love OR hate his music, the man made his mark.I don't subscribe to that genre at all, but millions do.The movie "purple rain" was interesting though...thanks to Apollonia.

RIP Prince
speaking of Apollonia yes thanks Apollonia very much