Prince, Without A Net (redeux) since he seems to have disappeared and scoffed at www., a redeux of sorts
Do you remember being a fan before you entered the world of the world wide web and the Prince world on it? I’m not sure if the net has been a Gift or a Curse (Jay-Z: Blueprint 2).
Do you remember (Jill Scott) when you only knew about the official releases? And The Black Album was the boot that was king? Or going to a “real” indie record store and seeing the boots Prince In Rock and others thinking, “What the hell is going on here? How did these songs get on here? What are these songs? How can I be down? ( Brandy )?
Remember not knowing the behind the scenes shenanigans…when Dave Hill’s A Pop Life was THE revelation and the info giant?
Remember the time before the net erased the enigma from the chalkboard? Hell even Prince had a hand in doing that. He chopped down his own own personal Joshua Tree by stating that the Rain was fake…. damn near. It was Universal Studios rain. There was no Nikki, no gf who died on the 25th day of December.
Ignorance is bliss but so is being outside of the matrix, and with having the knowledge, not just power, comes great responsibility. There was no primer for anyone once the net hit…the purple was lived as a continuum.
I guess the net was the next practical step and his efforts on it prove so. I remember an interview he gave ( Prince Talks: The 1985 RS one) where he stated that it would be cool to materialize in “people’s cribs”. Well with the net he kind of got his wish. Now after a decade or so involved with the net, he has allegedly turned his back on it. Maybe the hologram issue was too much for too little?
Remember thinking he could damn near do no wrong? With the net I found that there was a lot of criticism and even balanced my own views…maybe influenced it too much at times, for the good and the bad. I never knew how bad NPS was until I heard that it was on the net and on mailing lists ..Im not sure if that influence has kept me from blastin’ that release…I mean I remember Mad Sex, Wasted Kisses and a few more being jams to me…but that’s where the net and the unreleased song finds took over…
Thank god for the net I proclaimed once I got the nerve to give my addy to someone to help me out with some unreleased material. It was like a bizarro Prince career of releases. ANYONE REMEMBER CYBERSEEKERS LOL? Man I bought Return Of The Bump Squad soundboard for $60.00 and For Those Of U On Valium for like $40.00. But dayum if I didn’t feel as if I didn’t find me a goldmine…even though being burnt by bad deals and rip off artist…hey..ya play ya gonna pay a lil, so overall the good in unreleased waaaayyy outweighs the bad.
I came after the Purple community was built. 98 era, after the CB drama but knee deep in the NPS aftermath and smack dab into the sue the fansites hoopla. Wow, what a baptism. My last pre-net release was Crystal Ball and NewPowerSoul. Late, I know but I always arrive late. I had no chance of being disappointed in CB because I didn’t know better….didn’t know what was out there that could have been on there …but so I can still at least appreciate CB because it was Prince without a (the) net.
Finding other people who were purple was a trip and a half though as well. I remember entering a Prince related chat as a virgin and thinking.. “why are these people discussing everyday things and not concentrating on my question about Purple Rain?” Hehe. Then it got too deep and I got mixed in it like quicksand.
Remember before the empire took over and all the personal Prince websites out there in internet space? It was great seeing and knowing that there were other fans…it took the net to see the other fans like you were out there because in real time the other fan you know is not as Deep Purple as you are. The people, oh the lonely purple people. Where do they all come from? You get all kinds. The freak, the punk, the metal, the popster, the hip hopper, the easy listener…they all meet at the same place and then go back to their respective genres, homes,friends, and family…but everyone meets at the same purple place for a few minutes…like a "Cheers" bizarro Prince universe…its like everyone knows your name even if they may not always be glad ya came…
Before the net, on release day, it was a special day for only you…you went to purchase the new release...but damn if everyone else didn’t either spread out about the land because he would go top ten…where were these others in line? And what if there was no net or you were not on it? I think a lot of the info on Prince and his doings are largely due to being aware of the net and his place in it. Without a net would you or I know about The Rebels, Hard Life, June 1984 release, Charade,…or the High material and other NPGMC releases…
Before the net times were simpler. You didn’t have all the baggage of the net. Website wars etc and not every move was reported etc...some of the Prince enigma remained...but its also like Pleasantville, and who the hell wants that? Without a net there’s pretty houses all in a row but like the beginning of Lynch’s Blue Velvet, the underbelly of that peaceful pre net bliss are the worms and slugs and beetles in the yards battling it out.
Prince without the net was innocence. Was cherry. All one did was hear about what Nik did and how pretty the Diamonds n Pearls were. All the while thinking that everyone was everyday people and that it was safe to walk at night in Uptown…and before the net it was safe to walk at night in Uptown because everything was about something else…before He even had his net cherry popped. Now we know Uptown is dilapidated(sp?), run down, buildings burned out, and full of boulevards of broken dreams that never came to fruition.
We all had to graduate someday though…we could not be Dewayne from What's Happenin? hey hey hey hangin around Dee…or Dylan and Kelly hanging around the Peact Pit forever...for better or worse before the net we were actually more united as fans but now we ate from the net tree of knowledge so to speak. There are some who still are living with Prince without a net and they are the ones we get upset with at times…maybe we should actually envy them perhaps. I realize that when each one graduates, or does it in the back seat so to speak, or however you want to call it…we have to both be glad and sad…it will never be the same for them and they can never go back to how it was…once you lose it you can never get it back. Membership to the net has its rewards: proximity to the stage, his house in some cases, better seats at concerts, unheard material, faster information, set list info etc etc.
Times were simpler for a fan and an artist. But hasn’t the net/sex cleared up your skin and made you feel good/sexier? "Climb in my fur." | 
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