chrisslope9 said:
1) He is always striving to be a better musician and his playing has greatly improved over the past 20 years. He could have coasted by on his God given talent and the lessons he learned up to say '84 or '86. He didn't. He kept learning. This is one thing that I've found all of the artists I greatly admire have in common. In this respect, you could compare him to many great artists such as Van Gogh or Hemmingway.
2) He's produced an immense amount of beautiful music of all varities since his so called 'peak years.' I'm grateful for it. So many albums. So much great music. Sure, he misses once and a while but when he hits the target ....... WOW.
3) You will never be able to use the words 'Prince' and 'quitter' in the same sentence. Like any human being , Prince has been though his ups and downs, his good times and his bad. Some, like family deaths and bad hips, we know about. I'm sure there's much more we don't know about. Yet, year after year the guy gave us great records, great live shows, great boots, and things to get excited about.
4) I was 13 when Purple Rain came out. Of all the pop stars of that era , Prince was definietly the one called weird, eccentric, freaky, or strange, the most. But when you look back, the guy has lived a pretty clean, scandle free life. He's never been arrested. He's never been caught masturbating in a movie theatre or having sex in a public bathroom. You've never read the headline; HIS ROYAL BADNESS CAUGHT IN OPIUM DEN WITH TWO DARLING NIKI'S and you likely never will. All said and done, the guy turned out to be somewhat of a role model. He dedicated himeself to something he loved and then he worked his ass off.
5) Prince has never phoned it in. EVER. I really believe that the guy gives us his best everytime.
I utterly agree with this, When Prince did all the sex thing in the 1980's that's all people could see. However, particularly in terms of the American dream and its related disciplins and faith, Prince is actually a phenomenol role model. He has no real dark side and just works and works.