purplerabbithole said:

I loved this article and it was much longer than the one in the actual magazine.. It completely humanized him without demonizing him. Yes, he could be damned difficult but but I think he emotionally evolved. He did compartimentalize his feelings in order to protect himself but I never sensed he lacked a longing to connect (either through music, grand and not-so grand gestures, suprisingly deep conversations, humor and just hanging out). He was shy (I believe he does fit my definition of a shy person. A shy person doesn't necessarily talk soft or look down. They can be very extroverted when they know what they are talking about or are in a situation in which they feel trustful or in control. Prince's inability to just completely let down his guard is a form of shyness in my opinion.)

Favorite bits--

--his paying into his own swear jar--

--Everything Morris Hays said (insightful, funny, sad and sensitive stuff).

--sunsets, bikes, rented out movie theaters.

--his inability to parallel park..

--Everything Chaka Khan said..

--anything about his humor

Perplexing bits--his freaking out over labels being sewn into his clothes at the cleaners. I drove home from work wandering what the hell his chain of thought was. Then I remembered that his clothes were custom made for him and didn't have labels. I wonder why they decided to sew labels into his clothes. Maybe he thought people were sewing those labels (with "bar codes" in to keep tabs of his shopping habits. I am glad Maya Washington talked him down a bit. I wonder if maybe drugs were involved in this freakout.

It does not sound like a freak out. It sounds like he had custom made clothes and did not like the tags being attached. I also think he had no idea that dry cleaners send those clothes out to be cleaned and the bar codes are for tracking. I doubt he spent much time taking his own clothes to the dry cleaner to know this. The paranoiad seems to go back to the beginng of his carreer. He came from a broken home so I think it has more to do with that then drugs but people said he had lighten up as he got older.

Don't worry. I am not saying that P's paranoia was all drugs. But drugs can sometimes heighten one's paranoia. In the article, it stated that Prince was more hands-on in the last 6 years of his life. But I think this could have also exposed him to stuff he was unaccustomed to.

He may not have liked how the tags looked or affected his custom-made clothes. He may have disapproved of his stuff being sent out. BUt the account by Washington said that he did come off paranoid and like he felt he had been tricked. And remember Chaka Khan also said P had gotten more paranoid (but thankfully also more loving and empathetic.) I really think he worried that they weren't doing his clothes privately or discretely and started to imagine them showing his clothes off to others etc.

Back to the dry cleaning story, he was literally asking her if he should fire his assistant? and when she said No, he said "Well, then should I sue the cleaners?" She also answered "Oh, no".

Sounds a bit paranoid to me. Oh well, he calmed down and cooler heads prevailed.

laurarichardson said:

purplerabbithole said:

I loved this article and it was much longer than the one in the actual magazine.. It completely humanized him without demonizing him. Yes, he could be damned difficult but but I think he emotionally evolved. He did compartimentalize his feelings in order to protect himself but I never sensed he lacked a longing to connect (either through music, grand and not-so grand gestures, suprisingly deep conversations, humor and just hanging out). He was shy (I believe he does fit my definition of a shy person. A shy person doesn't necessarily talk soft or look down. They can be very extroverted when they know what they are talking about or are in a situation in which they feel trustful or in control. Prince's inability to just completely let down his guard is a form of shyness in my opinion.)

Favorite bits--

--his paying into his own swear jar--

--Everything Morris Hays said (insightful, funny, sad and sensitive stuff).

--sunsets, bikes, rented out movie theaters.

--his inability to parallel park..

--Everything Chaka Khan said..

--anything about his humor

Perplexing bits--his freaking out over labels being sewn into his clothes at the cleaners. I drove home from work wandering what the hell his chain of thought was. Then I remembered that his clothes were custom made for him and didn't have labels. I wonder why they decided to sew labels into his clothes. Maybe he thought people were sewing those labels (with "bar codes" in to keep tabs of his shopping habits. I am glad Maya Washington talked him down a bit. I wonder if maybe drugs were involved in this freakout.

It does not sound like a freak out. It sounds like he had custom made clothes and did not like the tags being attached. I also think he had no idea that dry cleaners send those clothes out to be cleaned and the bar codes are for tracking. I doubt he spent much time taking his own clothes to the dry cleaner to know this. The paranoiad seems to go back to the beginng of his carreer. He came from a broken home so I think it has more to do with that then drugs but people said he had lighten up as he got older.

purplerabbithole said:

I loved this article and it was much longer than the one in the actual magazine.. It completely humanized him without demonizing him. Yes, he could be damned difficult but but I think he emotionally evolved. He did compartimentalize his feelings in order to protect himself but I never sensed he lacked a longing to connect (either through music, grand and not-so grand gestures, suprisingly deep conversations, humor and just hanging out). He was shy (I believe he does fit my definition of a shy person. A shy person doesn't necessarily talk soft or look down. They can be very extroverted when they know what they are talking about or are in a situation in which they feel trustful or in control. Prince's inability to just completely let down his guard is a form of shyness in my opinion.)

Favorite bits--

--his paying into his own swear jar--

--Everything Morris Hays said (insightful, funny, sad and sensitive stuff).

--sunsets, bikes, rented out movie theaters.

--his inability to parallel park..

--Everything Chaka Khan said..

--anything about his humor

Perplexing bits--his freaking out over labels being sewn into his clothes at the cleaners. I drove home from work wandering what the hell his chain of thought was. Then I remembered that his clothes were custom made for him and didn't have labels. I wonder why they decided to sew labels into his clothes. Maybe he thought people were sewing those labels (with "bar codes" in to keep tabs of his shopping habits. I am glad Maya Washington talked him down a bit. I wonder if maybe drugs were involved in this freakout.

Haha I guess that blind item that I read awhile back was on point that Prince was still swearing even after he publicly sworned off cursing.

I love reading it it shows a human side of Prince. I really wished he revealed his funny side publicly because a lot of bandmembers and associates said he was very funny.

this is the best group of Prince stories ever!

.

I am reading them & smiling & laughing. this has really made my day.

.

my favorite story so far is the infamous basketball game with Charlie & Eddie Murphy..

Eddie starts playing his music & Prince says:

.

"Let me ask you a question: Do you see me stop my show to do comedy?"

.

TOO cold. & TOO FUNNY!

COMPUTERBLUE1984 said:

That was a really insightful article. Probably one of the best accounts of the man's personality that I have ever read. Reading this does pull at the heartstrings and make his absence even MORE noticeable.

Man do I miss him!

You beat me to it! I was going to say the same thing. So many things about his personality make sense after reading this article. I am with you still missing Prince too!

I agree with everything said so far. The most touching part, and there were many touching parts, was when the Minneapolis reporter, Neal Karlen, talked about when P would call him in the wee hours of the morning because he couldn't sleep. This memory really gutted me.

We'd really communicate over the phone. Over 31 years. From often to regular to irregular to nothing at all. Several times a year, on average. A few years, I'd say from four to ten times a year. And some years none, some years 20. I always teased him that we weren't really friends. That he knew I'd be up, because I stay up late. In the beginning, he'd call between three and five. On my phone, it would either be a friend or it would say "Unknown"—if it was "Unknown," I knew it was him. I mean, no one else called me at four in the morning. He'd say, "Did I wake you up?" I truly am an incompetent person—the only thing I can do is have a 4:48-in-the-morning conversation with friends about life, death, and loneliness, because I have enough Jewish angst to discuss that at 4:48 in the morning. It wasn't just sexist, macho bullshit—he wanted kids and a wife and a family, you know. And we talked about death a lot. From the age of 25, he was always talking about heaven and what it would look like. And would he get there?

[Edited 12/9/16 3:03am]

Wow! They really put together a great article about Prince.

Just realized one negative thing about this article...the accounts are being cherrypicked too death for other articles.

I just looked up Prince on google and other writers are pulling random (mostly the "insults" or shade that Prince threw) and reporting them and then leaving out the more positive or endearing parts of the accounts. Too bad.

purplerabbithole said:

Just realized one negative thing about this article...the accounts are being cherrypicked too death for other articles.

I just looked up Prince on google and other writers are pulling random (mostly the "insults" or shade that Prince threw) and reporting them and then leaving out the more positive or endearing parts of the accounts. Too bad.

Oddly enough, it was one of those articles that lead me to this post. The article was something regarding the "shade" Prince threw out to rival artists, ignoring the context (as you stated) of the entire article. If I were a non-fan, I would think Prince was a "jerk" based on those snippets, but once again, the big picture paints a more comprehensive picture of an icon who had his quirks, but was just a regular guy underneath it all.

Great read with some interesting funny little stories.

.

Interesting to read Carmen Electra confirm I Hate U was about her. It's been a bit of an urban myth on the org for years it was about her after P supposedly found out she slept with Tony M but I never knew where that rumour come from.

this reported dupe

Already posted here http://prince.org/msg/7/435581