I can remember 2009 when MJ died. Yes I was sad because MJ music was the 2nd most played soundtrack to my life. But the other reason was that I thought that now , ppl would not remember MJ who had a sell out show at the O2 and showed the world that he was still the 'king of Pop' instead they would reember the accussed paedophile and plastic surgery addict who died of a drug overdose

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If Prince passed in the late 70's/early 80's he would have been rememerd as a star. A quirky talent that never reached his full potential Amy Winehouse or James Dean esque

If Prince went in the early 80's (post dirty mind) he would have been remembered like lead singer from Thin Lizzy, Phil Lynott or Kurt Kobain kinda figure. You know a star, a powerhouse who had so much more to give.

If he passed in the late 80's (Post PR, SOTT, Batman) he would have been up there as an icon like Freddie mecury or Marilyn Monroe

If Prince went in the early 90's after the symbol album he ould have been up there with the rock god's, the likes of Elvis & Jimi Hendrix

After the whole hoo hah with the name change, Emancipation & other run of the mill albums I'd say P rince who passed in the early 2000's would have been rememerd as a cult figure, weirdo who changed his name and lost his way. The music would have taken 2nd place to the controversy.

So now how would he be remembered? A respected musical icon genius like Ray charles or a Count Basie bandleader or maybe as a modern day tragic Mozart figure who's brilliance and gift was often met with obstacles of ego and personal drama..

For me I will (If I outlive him) remember Prince as the greatest performer, most electrifying musician and most daring/captivating composer I have ever heard or seen. I wonder how the world will remember him.

One day people will see...

It also depends on how the Vault is handled.

udo said:

It also depends on how the Vault is handled.

Good answer.

I forgot about the vault legacy. thing is is that it is as likely to be a vault full of poo as it is a vault full of gems

I am not wishing death on anyone but if Prince passed in some motorcycle accident back in 85' today kids would be wearing his image on their t-shirts just like they do with other stars b4 their time like Jimi H. & revolutionary Che' from Cuba .

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Just sayin'

A funny kinda fellow who made some of the most brilliant music of his time. Sadly, he'll also be remembered as a sex freak, but, at the end of the day, he has asked for it.

How will he be remembered? Overall:

PURPLE RAIN

LET'S GO CRAZY

DARLING NIKKI

DARLING NIKKI

THE BEAUTIFUL ONES

PURPLE RAIN

DARLING NIKKI

LET'S GO CRAZY

LET'S GO CRAZY

BOOTY PANTS

PURPLE RAIN

PURPLE RAIN

PURPLE RAIN

PURPLE RAIN

PURPLE RAIN

CONTROVERSY

RASPBERRY BERET

DIAMONDS AND PEARLS

KISS

KISS

SEXY MF

SLAVE

80'S, 80'S, 80'S, 80'S, 80'S, 80'S

I'll personally remember him for much, much, more.

blacknote said:

How will he be remembered? Overall:

PURPLE RAIN

LET'S GO CRAZY

DARLING NIKKI

DARLING NIKKI

THE BEAUTIFUL ONES

PURPLE RAIN

DARLING NIKKI

LET'S GO CRAZY

LET'S GO CRAZY

BOOTY PANTS

PURPLE RAIN

PURPLE RAIN

PURPLE RAIN

PURPLE RAIN

PURPLE RAIN

CONTROVERSY

RASPBERRY BERET

DIAMONDS AND PEARLS

KISS

KISS

SEXY MF

SLAVE

80'S, 80'S, 80'S, 80'S, 80'S, 80'S

I'll personally remember him for much, much, more.

You say that now but how many great songs did Elvis have in his day that ppl have now forgotten about..loads. Time has a way of obscuring greatness, ppl and music and fame move on and shift to others. Even the greatest performers become little more than a cult or quirky little past time for some nostalgic outcast geek who found their granpapi's old CD.

http://zackwoo.com/gregtozian/?page_id=572

My partner is 34 & she commented the other day that I am weird for being into old time music like Prince. She says her 56 year old mother is more likely to be into P.

He is already being remembered as outdated. Largely due to his 90's music i think when he took on rap and made a bunch of terrible easy to forget even easier to age rapidly, generic, uninspiring silly 'hey i am hip' songs.. like jughead yh i said it

As fans, he will never be portrayed in a way that meets our expectations.

It's good to see the very positive coverage he's had, and it is widely acknowledged his genius both in the studio and on tour.

It's gonna be a sad day when he goes....hopefully not soon

Mandingo said:

My partner is 34 & she commented the other day that I am weird for being into old time music like Prince. She says her 56 year old mother is more likely to be into P.

He is already being remembered as outdated. Largely due to his 90's music i think when he took on rap and made a bunch of terrible easy to forget even easier to age rapidly, generic, uninspiring silly 'hey i am hip' songs.. like jughead yh i said it

your parters a nitwit and if you listen to here thennnnnnnnnnnnn

Why does it always result to personal attacks towards me? If I said that ^ Langebleu or Luv4U would be fightin' over who gets to ban me for the 7th time...just sayin'

GoldenParachute said:

Can we lock this?

Seems you go into ppl's thread's asking for them to be locked?

http://prince.org/msg/7/405796#msg_9080104

Get out much?

unkleg said:

As fans, he will never be portrayed in a way that meets our expectations.

It's good to see the very positive coverage he's had, and it is widely acknowledged his genius both in the studio and on tour.

It's gonna be a sad day when he goes....hopefully not soon

Amen. Hopefully not for decades yet.

He is doing well with the concerts n interviews that make him look human. The Awards show appearences & Arsenio are also positive. He will be remebered as a friendly ole' freak

udo said:

It also depends on how the Vault is handled.

What does this mean?

Mandingo said:

udo said:

It also depends on how the Vault is handled.

Good answer.

I forgot about the vault legacy. thing is is that it is as likely to be a vault full of poo as it is a vault full of gems

Well more than just the music, I suspect video/concert/shows footage will be released as well, and a freedom of posting his rel videos on places like YouTube, will take his legacy to another level.

blacknote said:

How will he be remembered? Overall:

PURPLE RAIN

LET'S GO CRAZY

DARLING NIKKI

DARLING NIKKI

THE BEAUTIFUL ONES

PURPLE RAIN

DARLING NIKKI

LET'S GO CRAZY

LET'S GO CRAZY

BOOTY PANTS

PURPLE RAIN

PURPLE RAIN

PURPLE RAIN

PURPLE RAIN

PURPLE RAIN

CONTROVERSY

RASPBERRY BERET

DIAMONDS AND PEARLS

KISS

KISS

SEXY MF

SLAVE

80'S, 80'S, 80'S, 80'S, 80'S, 80'S

I'll personally remember him for much, much, more.

Gotta add 1999 & Little Red Corvette as well, those are huge in radio still

I think when he does leave this realm he will be remembered for the explosion of music he brought into existence. The average person doesn't realize the extent of what he has accomplished musically, and I don't know that that will ever permeate the general perception of him, but musicians and music historians will be aware of the sheer breadth and depth of his compositions. I hope his Vault material is released before he departs this world, and definitely before I depart this world! I hope he has many more years to make music. And of course he will be remembered for his overall sexiness, and adventurous fashion sense.

OldFriends4Sale said:

Mandingo said:

Good answer.

I forgot about the vault legacy. thing is is that it is as likely to be a vault full of poo as it is a vault full of gems

Well more than just the music, I suspect video/concert/shows footage will be released as well, and a freedom of posting his rel videos on places like YouTube, will take his legacy to another level.

I am convinced that Prince, being the control freak he is, has made arrangements long time ago for this.

He might even have written a requiem, ready to be released immediately after his passing away. Though the lyrics do not match, I always looked at The Grand Progression as such a song.

I imagine that Prince has a perfect script for the first many years after his death, systematically emptying the vault and posthumously maintaining, as a sort of musical auto-hagiography, his legacy.

I think he'll be partly remembered for challenging the music industry on issues like ownership of master recordings, redistribution of wealth, restrictive recording agreements between artist and label and things like that. Prince has spent half of his career taking steps of preserving his intellectual property from the industry and even fans. He has counseled many artists about these issues i.e. Najee's latest interview for example.

Mandingo said:

This question becomes more relevant every year, much as we don't like to contemplate it. The handling of his vault is certainly a factor, but not as much as... the handling of his catalogue!

As I see it, he's in grave danger of being remembered as the sex-crazed 'squiggle' who recorded Purple Rain and Kiss. It would be nice if more of the general public could be introduced to good-sounding copies of things like DMSR, Another Lonely Christmas, Paisley Park, Mountains, Strange Relationship, Le Grind, I Wish U Heaven, etc...

pray4rain said:

I am convinced that Prince, being the control freak he is, has made arrangements long time ago for this.

He might even have written a requiem, ready to be released immediately after his passing away. Though the lyrics do not match, I always looked at The Grand Progression as such a song.

I imagine that Prince has a perfect script for the first many years after his death, systematically emptying the vault and posthumously maintaining, as a sort of musical auto-hagiography, his legacy.

Engaging armchair psychologist mode -

Personally, I would be very surprised if he has made any in depth arrangements regarding the fate/ preservation of his vault in the event of his demise. He knows that outside the small hardcore fanbase (ie. us), few people know or care he has a large unreleased archive of songs.

He has always seemed far less interested in looking back than in looking forward to the next project and in his public persona seems to do his utmost to deny the passage of time, ageing and so on. So I doubt he much cares what happens to his vault after he's gone, perhaps feeling that fate or God decreed that the unreleased material wasn't meant to be released for a reason beyond even his understanding, and as it is unfinished by himself the artist, should never be released and perhaps be destroyed after his death. He has no obvious heirs as things stand, to inherit and benefit from his fortune, no kids to think about 'looking after' financially in the long term after his time comes.

I'm sure he's observed the fate of Jimi Hendrix and Michael Jackson's unreleased recordings following their demises and would never in a million years want to see that happen to his vault songs, especially as he is something of a 'control freak' and a major 'one man band' artist. The last thing Prince would want IMO would be to have other musicians 'complete' his unfinished/ unreleased works after he has departed this earth.

He also seems to chiefly regard his unreleased songs as a repository of 'unfinished raw material', from which he can draw and alter as he pleases, eg. finally releasing an official version of Extralovable a few years back, or digging out an old song from 1995 like A Million Days (I think it was) and finishing it up for Musicology (as emerged in later years).

I would hope that he has made detailed plans for the safe storage, preservation and release of selected material from his archives for some future releases, either when he feels like releasing some (as with Crystal Ball), or perhaps when he is much older or incapacitated by age/ illness or even after his passing, but, unless his apparent views have changed recently or change in the foreseeable future, I would say a very big question mark hangs over the fate of his unreleased songs, be they good, bad or indifferent .

Of course Prince being as unpredictable as he is, he may get up one morning and decree that a website be created immediately and just slam his whole unreleased archive online in one fell swoop for free, and then be seen as a pioneer once again , or out of the blue do a deal with Warners and release multi-disc remastered editions of his entire back catalogue with hundreds of bonus unreleased tracks and live performances . One can dream ...

GoldenParachute said:

This is not a good subject Prince is going to out live us all.

RosesRred said:

At the end of the day,all that matters is How will your creator remember you? I lost a friend yesterday ....chasing after the wind.

soz

Mandingo said:

My partner is 34 & she commented the other day that I am weird for being into old time music like Prince. She says her 56 year old mother is more likely to be into P.

He is already being remembered as outdated. Largely due to his 90's music i think when he took on rap and made a bunch of terrible easy to forget even easier to age rapidly, generic, uninspiring silly 'hey i am hip' songs.. like jughead yh i said it

Well your partner is wrong. My preference is for 60s, 70s and 80s soul, funk and RnB. Though i'll listen to lots of different music too. I'm not weird, much of this music was made before i was born or old enough to appreciate it. In my opinion that's when music peaked. I enjoy it more than anything that's out today.

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Older people who like what's current or on modern radio are odd to me. What business does someone in their mid 40s have listening to music aimed at tweens? THAT'S what's weird. You're not supposed to listen to what the youth are listening to. Same goes the other way. Where's the rebellion?! Ugh.

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I don't think i should be listening to Beiber, Miley or One Direction for inspiration. Bruno Mars too for that matter! Same with Dance music. If you're in your mid-thirties or above and waving your glow-sticks with the kids in a club, you need your head testing. I experimented briefly with Acid House back in the late 80s when i was 18, when it was appropriate. At least it was a mild revolution, not on a punk scale maybe, but it went against the grain a bit.

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I have friends still going to raves to this day. They listen to nothing but house/electronica and baulk at the idea of a band playing guitars.

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What's weird again?

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Oh, i forgot. Prince is known now as an absolute living legend. His legacy is secure. Prince was one of those at the forefront of shaping modern music. So much of his old stuff rings true today. Just listen to 'Controversy'. That song sounds like an early form of House music to me. Strange old world as i'm not keen on that genre really, but i sure love that song. Maybe it's the circle of life or something.

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[Edited 3/12/14 18:57pm]

I think he will be remembered the we Van Goh , Picasso, and Miles Davis are remembered.