Thursday, April 21, 2016

The Former Artist Formerly Known as Prince

The big item dominating the news this afternoon was the untimely death of Prince Rogers Nelson at the age of 57. For a good eulogy, check out Tengrain's place. My favorite comment regarding the passing of Prince comes from guitarist Butch Walker:


Wow. I don't even know how to fucking process this day. You were an anomaly. You were a genre-defying, badass little purple wizard. You shaped my guitar playing, my confidence, and most importantly, taught me how to be a performer. From 14yrs old, all the way to today, you were always BETTER THAN ANYONE. Thanks for getting me through puberty and helping me discover sexuality in pop, soul, hard rock, and psychedelia. Let this be future advice to all young, outcast nerds that are sitting in their parent's basements, learning music. A beautiful swan can rise from those basements and rule the world. Just like Prince did. Practice hard and get as good as you can at all things music because.. We have BIG shoes to fill from such a little guy. I love you, Prince.... Thanks again for everything...


Throughout the news coverage, a lot of commentary revolved in a joking fashion about his decision to change his name to a symbol, but none of the corporate media wags mentioned that he engineered that name change in an effort to push back against record company dickery. Besides being a talented songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, the guy was a fighter, and the industry he was in a cesspool in which too many artists drown.

Mr Nelson did take things a bit far, being notably litigious regarding intellectual property and 'fair use', even sending a takedown notice to a fan who'd uploaded a 29-second clip with Let's Go Crazy playing in the background to Youtube. While that might seem like a bit of a dick move, it was an act of self-preservation in a cutthroat industry.

Now, how about an awesome performance from the man who was once a symbol?




Rest in peace, badass little purple wizard.

UPDATE: Ruh-roh, looks like the Illuminati got him because he knew too much:





I bet he was going to release a song warning us about what the queers are doing to the soil.

7 comments:

mikey said...

While that might seem like a bit of a dick move, it was an act of self-preservation in a cutthroat industry.

Was it? Was it really? Or was it another backward looking self-destructive rear guard action against an inevitable change in the technological economy, similar to the record labels suing their customers for millions of dollars?

As a result, you can't pay to stream Prince's songs, but it's effortless to simply steal them. How is that self-preservation?

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

The lizard people will get us all, in the end.
~

Vid Digger said...

Hopefully the industry has matured enough to give quality artists their fair share. Crazy that Prince is gone.

Juan said...

"a takedown notice to a fan who'd uploaded a 29-second clip"
Before this post I did not know Prince was such a miserable person.

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