Prince (1958-2016)

Prince Rogers Nelson aka Prince aka the Artist Formerly Known as Prince. What is there to say about him? The man was a genius. Not just as a songwriter, a producer, a performer, and a musician. He was a lot of things and more. The man was essentially it. In a decade that was defined by superstars and icons, it can be debated on who was the bigger star yet Prince was undoubtedly a man in his own world in terms of his showmanship and the fact that he could play like a motherfucker. Some said he was a bit like James Brown in terms of being a performer. Some said he was like Stevie Wonder for the fact that he could play so many instruments and be so gifted. Some said he was like Little Richard in terms of flamboyance and showmanship. Some said that he was a bit like Jimi Hendrix in terms of his skills as a guitarist. Yet, he’s all of those things but he is Prince.

For anyone born in the 1980s such as myself as there was always one or maybe more that people loved. Though for me as a kid, it depended on who I was into at the time in the age of MTV. Whether it was David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Talking Heads, the Clash, Bruce Springsteen, and the Cars. Prince was also part of that circle as songs like When Doves Cry, Let’s Go Crazy, Little Red Corvette, 1999, and Raspberry Beret were part of that soundtrack of songs I was listening to at age of three to five. Once I would grow up as so many things were happening and I was in elementary school, Prince was still around though the kids were more into hip-hop and hair metal but I still thought Prince was cool. Once I became a teenager and the music I was listening to and would become part of the soundtrack of my life were Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, Metallica, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers but Prince was still around as he had songs I liked at the time like 7 and Cream.

I think once I got into my 20s where it was around the time where I had fully immersed myself into the music of Bowie and other older acts like the Beatles, Pink Floyd, New Order/Joy Division, the Clash, and several other acts along with NIN and Radiohead. Prince was someone I was also starting to re-discover but also go into deep into his work as I believe his work from Dirty Mind in 1980 to the original bootleg release of The Black Album in 1987 are his most defining work and a must for any fan of music. Though much of his output after that would have some great moments, they were also moments that were spotty as it’s hard to say if any of the albums he made after that were as good as classics like Dirty Mind, 1999, Purple Rain, and Sign “O” the Times. Albums like Controversy, Around the World in a Day, Parade, and The Black Album had other things to offer as it showed that Prince, like Bowie, wouldn’t be confined to one genre.

While it is obvious that Prince and Bowie are similar and probably were admirers to each other, for anyone that know that a couple of Prince’s songs like Cream and Peach are based on the work of Marc Bolan as it seems like Prince is more of a Bolan fan than of Bowie’s. This is just one of the aspects of Prince that is unique where he can do straight-up 70s glam but also do soul in a song like Money Don’t Matter 2 Night. There was no boundaries in the man while the persona he created was probably more eccentric than Bowie’s from his first appearance on American Bandstand where he didn’t say a word during his interview with Dick Clark to the time he opened for the Rolling Stones during their 1981 U.S. tour where he was wear black underwear, stiletto boots, ass-less chaps, and all sorts of crazy shit during the tour for Dirty Mind where he withstood the boos and catcalls he received.

During that time where I was learning more about him, I realized how way ahead of his time he was while also being very dangerous which is lacking severely in pop music. The line “am I black or white?/Am I straight or gay?” in the title track to Controversy was quite racy for its time while a song as catchy as Little Red Corvette was just as shocking with that line “she’s got a pocket full of Trojans, some of them used”. As a kid, I thought the song was about a car but once I grew up into my 20s and realized what it was about. I was like “Oh!” as I couldn’t believe that got played on the radio and MTV. Once the years went by where Prince’s eccentricities tended to sort of overwhelm the music. I had become a casual admirer of his work while accepting his eccentricities since geniuses are allowed to be eccentric. Still, that didn’t deter me from enjoying his music or his performances such as the one he gave at the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 where he basically gave one of the best guitar solos on the Beatles' While My Guitar Gently Weeps where he performed the song with Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne in celebration of George Harrison.


Then in February of 2007, he gave what I think is the definitive Super Bowl halftime show performance as he pretty much took every performer before and since to school. There’s great shows but Prince just goes all out in not just doing the hits but also a medley of covers and did something that can be defined as Godlike. Very few can do that. Freddie Mercury did that in Live Aid back in 1985. Prince did that in February 2007. There will never be the likes of that ever. Plus, for someone as serious as Prince is as it comes to his music. There was a man who also had a sense of humor.


One of my favorite thing that related to Prince is a skit from In Living Color which was an add for Prince’s butt-out jeans where Jamie Foxx is Prince and said some of the funniest shit that I have ever heard. It’s a skit that I constantly watch and it never gets old. Then of course, there’s the legendary Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Story on Prince on the Chappelle Show in which Dave Chappelle played Prince. It is a must-see as it all revolves around a basketball game between Charlie Murphy’s boys vs. Prince and his boys where it was shirts vs. blouses.


There’s a lot of songs of Prince that I’m sure many love aside from the hits. My favorite album is Sign “O” the Times as it is just nuts in terms of what he was able to do musically in different genres where it also had so much to say. It’s an album that belongs in that list of great double-albums such as The White Album, Exile on Main St., Quadrophenia, The Wall, London Calling, and The Fragile. It’s not just the songs on the album that are so special but the way it flows and talks about elements of spirituality, social issues, love, and other things that can be serious as well as humorous. The fact that he no longer exists nor will be doing any shows or make any albums is unthinkable. Especially as it just adds more sadness to a year that isn’t very good at all. I guess the only thing to say to Prince is thank you for the music and the memories.

R.I.P. Prince Rogers Nelson

© thevoid99 2016

Bowie February: 29 Days of David Bowie Announcement

In honor of the life and career one of the greatest artists ever. February will be devoted entirely to the works of David Bowie from his first self-titled release in 1967 to his final album * which came out on his 69th birthday earlier this month. The project will feature one or more Bowie albums a day as the project came from the idea of fellow Echoing the Sounds member fillow in this tribute to Bowie. Here are the following records that will be profiled:

David Bowie (1967 album/2010 Deluxe Edition)

David Bowie (1969 album/40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

The Man Who Sold the World

Hunky Dory

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

Aladdin Sane (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

Pin Ups

Diamond Dogs (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

David Live (2005 Expanded Edition)

Young Americans (2007 Remastered Edition)

Station to Station (2010 Remastered/Deluxe Edition)

Low

"Heroes"

Peter and the Wolf

Stage (2005 Expanded Edition)

Lodger

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

Christiane F. Soundtrack

Baal EP

Let's Dance

Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture (2003 Remastered Edition)

Tonight

Labyrinth Soundtrack

Never Let Me Down

Tin Machine

Sound + Vision (2003 Expanded Edition)

Tin Machine II

Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby

Black Tie White Noise (10th Anniversary Edition)

The Buddha of Suburbia Soundtrack

Outside (2007 Deluxe Edition from 2007 Box Set)

Earthling (2007 Deluxe Edition from 2007 Box Set)

'Hours...' (2007 Deluxe Edition from 2007 Box Set)

Bowie at the Beeb (3-CD Edition)

All Saints

Heathen (2007 Deluxe Edition from 2007 Box Set)

Reality (2007 Deluxe Edition from 2007 Box Set)

Live EP (at Fashion Rocks w/ Arcade Fire)

Live Santa Monica '72

Glass Spider Live

VH1 Storytellers

A Reality Tour

Toy

The Next Day (w/ The Next Day Extra)

*

The project will also include compilations to feature not just rarities and material that preceded Bowie's career before his 1967 debut album as different editions of studio albums that featured B-sides and rarities. It's a project that is to cover as many songs that Bowie has put out and had a hand in in a career that is really unparalleled with anyone else.

© thevoid99 2016

Lou Reed: A Tribute

At the Big Apple that is also known as the City that Never Sleeps, New York City just got quieter as on October 27, 2013. The city lost one of its great treasures in Lou Reed who died from liver disease at the age of 71. If Frank Sinatra was considered the King of New York back in the 1940s and 1950s. Reed would take on that mantle since the 1970s and do it with such class and danger making the city just as exciting. A young Jewish kid from Brooklyn who grew up in Long Island, Reed personified the city in its ugliness and at its most dangerous. Yet, that is one of the reasons why the city was so fun as he was their king though he acted like one of them by walking on the city and such.

There is no question that Lou Reed’s contribution to popular music is important with his work with the Velvet Underground to his amazing solo career. Brian Eno said it best that for those that had bought Velvet Underground and Nico when it first came out started a band afterwards. The four studio albums the Velvet Underground made from that debut w/ Nico as well as White Light White Heat, the third self-titled release, and Loaded are all quintessential in the world of rock n’ roll. Though they never sold a lot of records from 1967 to 1970, there wouldn’t be punk rock in the 1970s if it wasn’t for the Velvets as there also wouldn’t be post-punk, alternative rock, indie, or anything that was daring if it wasn’t for Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker, Doug Yule, and Nico being part of that entity.



All of those albums that Reed did as a member of the Velvets as well as compilations and box sets of outtakes and unreleased material showcase a wealth of music that wasn’t just ahead of its time. It was also dangerous not just in the subject matters such as drugs, sex, and things that were considered taboo and adult in the late 1960s. While Reed may have not had the kind of vocals that was considered fantastic in comparison to a lot of the mainstream music that was playing on the radio. It did appeal to those who weren’t comfortable with their vocal ranges as Reed was also someone who didn’t know many chords in playing the guitar. Yet he did said that even if you knew only one or two chords, there are a million things than can be done with so little which definitely appealed to the world of punk.



After leaving the Velvets in 1970, Reed would begin what would be an outstanding solo career that began in 1971. Though it got off to a rough start with his self-titled debut released in that year. It would a young up-and-coming artist in David Bowie who would help Lou Reed get success as a solo artist with the help of Bowie’s Spiders from Mars guitarist Mick Ronson as they produced what many consider to be his greatest solo achievement in Transformer. If there’s one solo record of his that anyone should start with, it’s this one. It’s an album from start to finish that is a joy to listen to as it features such classic tracks as the ballad Perfect Day, the love song Satellite of Love, the crunchy rocker Vicious, and of course, his only hit single in his entire career in Walk on the Wild Side.



While Reed maybe famous to the public at large for that one song and introduce him to a wide audience, he was still a cult artist of sorts with a devoted following that would grow in the decades to come. Albums such as Berlin (my favorite), Rock N’ Roll Animal, Blue Mask, New York, Songs for Drella with John Cale, Magic & Loss, and The Raven showcase an artist who was willing to be daring, dangerous but also filled with a craftsmanship and care as a songwriter that is unique. He was also someone who made record that were quite questionable such as his last studio release in a very strange collaboration with the metal band Metallica in the album Lulu. While it wasn’t a total disaster, it was still an album that didn’t have anything great to offer though it showed that Reed could still keep up with guys who were younger than him.

Throughout Reed’s solo career that also featured stories about his notorious drug use that had him competing with the likes of Keith Richards of who was the most notorious rock drug user. Like Richards, Reed would eventually clean up his act while maintaining that air of danger as Reed also created one of the most daring artistic statements with a double album in 1975 called Metal Machine Music which was a record of feedback that is all over the place that just goes on in four different sides. It’s a record that either was loved or hated as there was no question that it would help pave the way for genres such as noise-pop, shoe gaze, industrial, and all sorts of crazy-ass avant-garde music. Lester Bangs was right in calling the album genius as he was known for having a love-hate relationship with Reed.



Reed definitely earned his title as the King of New York while maintaining his status as a regular guy who loved rock n’ roll and doo-wop as one of his great contributions in the 1990s was a blistering cover of Doc Pomus’ This Magic Moment in tribute to the man that helped learn how to write songs. It appeared in David Lynch’s 1997 film Lost Highway where it was used in an effective moment in the film proving that Reed could do wonders to a great song.



One of my favorite Lou Reed moments was in an appearance in the Nine Inch Nails touring documentary Self Destruct from their 1997 Closure home video release where Reed was backstage talking to Trent Reznor praising him for rocking very smart as they had a beer together. It’s a moment where one of the coolest guys in rock gave a thumbs up to one of my favorite artists in the world.



Lou Reed definitely was a class act as another moment that I think plays into his legendary status is a rare duet with longtime friend David Bowie at Bowie’s 50th birthday concert in 1997 at Madison Square Garden in the song Queen Bitch that was Bowie’s tribute to Reed and the Velvets.



New York City will never be the same as does the world as Reed’s influence in music was also important to the world of social and cultural changes in Czechoslovakia where Vaclav Havel cited Reed and the Velvet Underground as a profound influence for the Velvet Revolution to occur in the late 1980s during the Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. It’s not just these changes that Reed inspired as he was also influential to many musicians as Cowboy Junkies created an amazing cover of the Velvets’ Sweet Jane while Duran Duran did a cover of Reed’s Perfect Day that Reed himself loved. There will never be another Lou Reed. Yet, right now. He’s probably rocking out w/ Nico, Sterling Morrison, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Mick Ronson, and Doc Pomus while going to the bar where Dimebag Darrell Abbott is the bartender. We will miss you Lou. Thank you for the music.

R.I.P. Lewis Allan “Lou” Reed (1942-2013)

© thevoid99 2013