There is a lovely, moving TED Talk by Elizabeth Gilbert, about dealing with creative pressure.

After seeing this, it seems to me that Prince's songs like 'act of god' and 'how can i live for love' and really a big huge lot of otheres are about finding and keeping inspiration for his work, and reaching the "Olé" moment sometimes, and not reaching it other times (olé is ethymologically related to "Allah").

Isn't that the struggle we all have?

1,5 years ago I've seen Prince have a really long Olé moment in Belgium. The concert had made me giggly for about a week.

You can watch it here

[Edited 3/17/12 5:08am]

HEY! Wow, thanks for sharing this! It is, indeed, lovely and moving, and it helps me understand PRINCE better, not just his lyrics, and helps me understand the creative process and the artist! She puts together ideas and historical facts that I've known before and makes a case of viewing creativity in a "new" way for modern societies. I think also, that this idea of thinking of creative brilliance as something outside of you, as "god" if you will, is one of the keys to his resilience too - it keeps you resilient in the face of failure AS WELL AS success. I think lacking this steadfast view of the "gift" coming from "god," and lack of resilience in the face of failure and success, these things have contributed to the demise of many of our best artists - most recently Ms. Whitney Houston too.

I have a balanced view of people generally, I don't jump to conclusions, judge, or assume things too much about people, so my opinion of our man P as a person is relatively blank (since I don't know him!) and I do believe that he's done bad things as well as good things over the years - as we all have. But I must say that he has some pretty harsh detractors and like a couple of other org'ers (like Bluefish) I find it a bit ugly sometimes and I wish we'd all have a less personal view of P's "genius" - this video is a MUST for anyone who is a creative artist or a critic; that is, it's for everyone.

[Edited 4/23/12 13:11pm]

Wow...good stuff! My guess is this thread will soon fade...I'm so happy that I caught it..Thanks!

As long as the music sounds good, I could care less what his lyrics mean. If he wants to make lyrics in riddles to where you have to figure out what they mean, I'll just believe whatever the hell I want to about them if he doesn't like it, he should make them more clear in the first place. I refuse to sit and try to study the lyrics as if they were bible verses. Hell, that would just make Prince think he's God.

This is just so beautiful! One of the most inspiring things as of YET! This gives a better understanding and appreciation for Prince so much!

More coming..Soon..I have to rant..lol

How cool...I like the idea of having a Divine Cockeyed Genius! even thinking about kinda makes me feel like I can get on with my writing! Like what she says about being there to 'do your part', for me, it is if I'm not writing at all how can I get anything out, or if I'm not writing I should be reading hoping that something will bite.

So maybe for Prince, if you view on that light these days he channels most when he's playing live, and in the studio, its just that he just isn't hitting or we just ain't getting it. I think we expect too much from P anyway, so long as he's happy (and I really hope he is), spreading love and not harming anyone where's the bad?

To all you creative people - happy writing, singing, dancing, playing - whatever may be!!

that was an entertaining & interesting talk. it's kind of what i suspected anyway, that creative people especially songwriters & musicians can tap into an energy that they themselves have a job to understand. it must be absolutely mindblowing to create something that is universally adored.. i think it's easy to see why some artists appear to be off their rockers!!.. & bad tempered diva attitudes, having to deal with such weirdness would make anyone irritable

& also i remember something about MJ where he said about 'hearing songs from a higher place' which he would immediately snatch up else the ideas would be given to prince.. something along those lines

great speech!

excited said:

that was an entertaining & interesting talk. it's kind of what i suspected anyway, that creative people especially songwriters & musicians can tap into an energy that they themselves have a job to understand. it must be absolutely mindblowing to create something that is universally adored.. i think it's easy to see why some artists appear to be off their rockers!!.. & bad tempered diva attitudes, having to deal with such weirdness would make anyone irritable

& also i remember something about MJ where he said about 'hearing songs from a higher place' which he would immediately snatch up else the ideas would be given to prince.. something along those lines

Yes, I thought of that same bit about MJ - it was in some documentary. He didn't want to go to sleep, and when asked why not, he said if he wasn't ready when god gave him an idea, he'd give them to prince (something like that). This quote from him was brought up by posters in those long threads on the Conrad Murray trial. It's the same idea as the train rushing through the poet, and if she couldn't catch it at that moment, it would continue on, looking for another poet. Or Tom Waite saying "go bother someone else, can't you see I'm driving!"

If you externalize the genius, it saves you from depression (when you fail) and narcissism (when you succeed) and from performance anxiety. You don't feel you have to "swallow the sun" every time. You just show up and keep doing your thing, and maybe the genius will visit you, maybe it won't, but it's not entirely up to you to keep meeting everyone's expectations - you are a mere human vessel for this divine thing.

That Liz Gilbert interview is fascinating and so true, I think Prince has often maintained he is a vessel for the gifts that he has received, it's just perhaps God/a higher force saw Prince's work ethic and ability to listen to the ethereal and ability to act on it that enabled the channel to get stronger and stronger. When and if he lost touch with it that could have been when things changed but then again as Liz was saying these things aren't always consistent and don't come when you always expect them and can appear at seemingly random and strange moments.

I'm reading a book at the moment called 'The Artist's Way' by Julia Cameron, it's fascinating and she believes something similar that the creativity comes from outside and we have to try to make ourselves open to it and confident enough to act on it.

[Edited 5/13/12 3:29am]

From recent interview with Carlos Santana (thanks to soulalive for posting in the Non-Prince music forum, "Santana's new instrumental album thread (pt 2)"), which I thought was relevant here:

It seems most of your energy and focus is on performing and being Carlos Santana. Would you have a hard time adjusting to life without that?
Well, thank God I have a celestial amnesia. If it wasn’t for the fact that people ask me to sign autographs or take pictures with them, I can forget really, really quick that I’m Carlos Santana.

Can you really?
Yeah, and that’s a real gift from God. I’m not into Carlos Santana—I’m into what he does and why he does it. God gave me a whole other incentive, and a crystal clear perception of reality where I don’t get carried away. I know when to get the heck off the stage. A lot of these guys never get off the stage, you know what I mean? When you get into the persona then the same thing that happened to Michael Jackson or Whitney Houston happens to you. Because you start carrying baggage that’s very heavy with illusion and false expectations, and you start feeling like, “Nobody understands my pain.” Then you start hiring psychiatrists, analysts, therapists, and doctors to give you medicine that you really don’t need because your body can actually heal itself if you just give it time.

artist76 said:

From recent interview with Carlos Santana (thanks to soulalive for posting in the Non-Prince music forum, "Santana's new instrumental album thread (pt 2)"), which I thought was relevant here:

It seems most of your energy and focus is on performing and being Carlos Santana. Would you have a hard time adjusting to life without that?
Well, thank God I have a celestial amnesia. If it wasn’t for the fact that people ask me to sign autographs or take pictures with them, I can forget really, really quick that I’m Carlos Santana.

Can you really?
Yeah, and that’s a real gift from God. I’m not into Carlos Santana—I’m into what he does and why he does it. God gave me a whole other incentive, and a crystal clear perception of reality where I don’t get carried away. I know when to get the heck off the stage. A lot of these guys never get off the stage, you know what I mean? When you get into the persona then the same thing that happened to Michael Jackson or Whitney Houston happens to you. Because you start carrying baggage that’s very heavy with illusion and false expectations, and you start feeling like, “Nobody understands my pain.” Then you start hiring psychiatrists, analysts, therapists, and doctors to give you medicine that you really don’t need because your body can actually heal itself if you just give it time.

Thanks for posting. Cool article.

@ bolded part. Very powerful words and he makes sense. I suppose one could get caught up in their success (on stage persona) and get distracted, and lose themselves in the fame they achieve. It was like what Sheila E. talked about when she realized, at one point during her career, she allowed the glamorization of the image she displayed on stage, and the fame that surrounded it, affect and take control of her ‘off-stage’ personality, and her communication/way she treated people around her. When reality finally sank in, she knew she had to change, and bring herself ‘back-down-to-earth’ so-to-speak. It was like she lost that ‘spiritual side’ or ‘grounded part’ of herself for a moment, and became her glamorized ‘on-stage persona’ off stage. I do think some who achieve fame/success, tend to forget that just as fast as they gain success, they could lose it as quickly, and so it is important to remain humble, no matter how successful you become in life.

On the other hand, in regards to some famous musicians, often times, many fans confuse a musician’s/artist’s ‘on stage’ persona to be their ‘off-stage’ personalities and have those expectations of them. So it isn’t surprising, that if some musicians/artists are not spiritually or mentally grounded, they could find themselves caught up or lost in the glamorization of their ‘on-stage persona’, and fame of the image they create(d) and present to their fans, It seems that for some, the pressures and demands of living up to that stage persona, can cause some devastating experiences to a musicians/artist’s personal life, as we’ve seen with MJ and others.

2elijah said:

Thanks for posting. Cool article.

@ bolded part. Very powerful words and he makes sense. I suppose one could get caught up in their success (on stage persona) and get distracted, and lose themselves in the fame they achieve. It was like what Sheila E. talked about when she realized, at one point during her career, she allowed the glamorization of the image she displayed on stage, and the fame that surrounded it, affect and take control of her ‘off-stage’ personality, and her communication/way she treated people around her. When reality finally sank in, she knew she had to change, and bring herself ‘back-down-to-earth’ so-to-speak. It was like she lost that ‘spiritual side’ or ‘grounded part’ of herself for a moment, and became her glamorized ‘on-stage persona’ off stage. I do think some who achieve fame/success, tend to forget that just as fast as they gain success, they could lose it as quickly, and so it is important to remain humble, no matter how successful you become in life.

On the other hand, in regards to some famous musicians, often times, many fans confuse a musician’s/artist’s ‘on stage’ persona to be their ‘off-stage’ personalities and have those expectations of them. So it isn’t surprising, that if some musicians/artists are not spiritually or mentally grounded, they could find themselves caught up or lost in the glamorization of their ‘on-stage persona’, and fame of the image they create(d) and present to their fans, It seems that for some, the pressures and demands of living up to that stage persona, can cause some devastating experiences to a musicians/artist’s personal life, as we’ve seen with MJ and others.

^^