So I read an Associated Press interview with Eric Clapton earlier this week - and this stood out...

I think if he had openly said that he needed a longer break to heal, relax and find some new inspiration than the fans would have respected it a bit more than long stretches of silence with a few random singles and concerts in between. Not that I had a problem with that....on the contrary, even if I didn´t like some things he released or tours he did, I was still happy that he was able to do what he wanted to do but I think in hindsight, we know it would´ve been better for him, and I remember many fans here on the org suggesting that he should take a much needed break and travel the world and do non-music related stuff for a while.

Another thing that your thread made me think about is how musicians hear their own music after performing it for the umpteenth time. I mean, I know from close friends of mine who happen to be musicians that at some point they start listening to their own music differently, and lose the feel for their music, and that the fans often have a different understanding or different way of absorbing the music, if that makes any sense.

Yes it makes sense. Our boy wrote and recorded music so quickly..by the time we had it, he was already 3 albums ahead. Sometimes (I guess) he had to find new ways to play the songs to keep them fresh in his mind.

KoolEaze said:

I think if he had openly said that he needed a longer break to heal, relax and find some new inspiration than the fans would have respected it a bit more than long stretches of silence with a few random singles and concerts in between. Not that I had a problem with that....on the contrary, even if I didn´t like some things he released or tours he did, I was still happy that he was able to do what he wanted to do but I think in hindsight, we know it would´ve been better for him, and I remember many fans here on the org suggesting that he should take a much needed break and travel the world and do non-music related stuff for a while.

Another thing that your thread made me think about is how musicians hear their own music after performing it for the umpteenth time. I mean, I know from close friends of mine who happen to be musicians that at some point they start listening to their own music differently, and lose the feel for their music, and that the fans often have a different understanding or different way of absorbing the music, if that makes any sense.

Makes total sense. It's like actors needing to make "discoveries" continually. It's the only way to keep yourself from going nuts through the run of a play.

The only difference is that very few of us do a 30-year run in the same play. (I can't even imagine.)

clapton is 71 and thinking of retiring.

and Prince is dead @ 57............ makes me sick and sad.

Life's a bastard!

Good thread Genesia, very interesting reading the responses so far. I've wondered where he was heading at this point but didn't really pursue the thought.

when the music is really in you like that you'll never stop. Duke ellington performed with cancer, emphysema right up to the end. it's what they do. I do remember, the rs interview in 85 with prince saying that the love for music just gets greater and greater and that he had a friend who worried that he'd find him slumped over from work. The one thing I do wonder though, is if Prince just was so incapable of switching gears that he'd have rather died than become elderly, I do wonder that. He was a vain and prideful man after all.

theartistirl said:

I know the book was big news but most autobios aren't very good, and we're talking about one of the most private, chameleonlike celebrities ever. i don't think he'd have given up much.

Genesia said:

So I read an Associated Press interview with Eric Clapton earlier this week - and this stood out...

Can he still conjure the days when he was the young gunslinger, when his fiery playing led to “Clapton is God” graffiti in London?

“I can’t go to that place anymore,” he said. “I have to work hard now to get to the place where it’s absolutely free. The days you’re referring to I was doing it non-stop all day long and it was all I ever thought about. I was a young man with a passion. I don’t know that guy anymore at all. But I know where the music came from and I can tap into a point where I think it’s OK.”

Now, I know (duh) that Prince was not Eric Clapton. But...it made me think about what all performing artists put themselves through physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I mean...I know myself (as an actor), how exhausting it is just to do a 2-1/2 hour play. There are weeks of rehearsal before the play opens, hours of preparation before every single performance, and time spent trying to "come down" afterward so you can finally go to sleep. And that doesn't even touch the performance itself, which requires intense concentration and focus, and (very often) difficult physical work. (Which is why you can't sleep afterward.)

I can't even imagine what it would be like to do two - or sometimes three - shows a night, plus traveling, plus recording - and doing that for over 30 years. (I've done two show days and they are no picnic.) Yes, I know Prince wasn't always on tour. But he was always working. Writing, recording, rehearsing.

Did he ever take a vacation? "It's been so long since Prince released an album?" "Why no new music?" "Where is Prince now?" "What is he doing?"

Eric Clapton is 71 and is thinking about retiring. Could Prince ever have done that? Would we have let him?

I have a sneaking suspension he was trying to do that, get to a place where HE felt he could "retire", closing the bookend of sorts. I'd of had no problem, but too many want what's in the Vault I'm afraid so no I don't think the hounding would have stopped.

Whatever was the cause for his passing, I feel he was where he would want to go. He was there in his studio, close to what he loved to do. He thought of his songs like they were his children, so he was with his "family" when he went. Retirement wasn't in the cards for this guy. He was creatively-driven, and was compelled to be almost constantly creating music. His job was doing what he loved to do, and most of us don't know what that feels like. In his own way, he was always on vacation.

art is physical emotional spiritual technical - i think the jw conversion gave him another way - set of restrictions for him to work around/under/over/through to extend his creativity and passion...

after a while as one ages - chasing the opposite (or same) sex isn't so thrilling anymore because you've been there done it, over and over and over...much of his inspiration he mined from relationships of all types.

that vault was a failsafe for when inspiriation and passion were harder to come by.

he was ON all day everyday. he was never going to retire - we dont believe that do we? i do believe inspiration was becoming harer to come by - the piano and a microphone tour was a wonderful technical challenge and it was giving him life by giving him a new challenge....

once you've climbed the mountaintop - theres only one direction left and thats down....prince simply used up everythig he had, and poof - gone.

i cant get through a whole song yet, still...it all sounds SO ALIVE, SO INTENSE AND SO REAL. its left a huge vacuum on this earth. huge.

brokenhearted1972 said:

Whatever was the cause for his passing, I feel he was where he would want to go. He was there in his studio, close to what he loved to do. He thought of his songs like they were his children, so he was with his "family" when he went. Retirement wasn't in the cards for this guy. He was creatively-driven, and was compelled to be almost constantly creating music. His job was doing what he loved to do, and most of us don't know what that feels like. In his own way, he was always on vacation.

Good point. Let's remember that Prince kept looking for new avenues of sound, new ways to remain fresh and challenged. I know some of us have problems with 3rd Eye Girl, but I think they were good for him in many ways. If you watch the videos or were lucky enough to have seen them live, you can sense the chemistry between them. Honestly, he had no "need" for them, as in he didn't need a new band to save his career or anything like that. One of the greatest gifts Prince left us was his fascination with new and different sounds and genres. Aside from Alt-Country, he tried a bit of everthing. He never bored me!

terrig said:

art is physical emotional spiritual technical - i think the jw conversion gave him another way - set of restrictions for him to work around/under/over/through to extend his creativity and passion...

after a while as one ages - chasing the opposite (or same) sex isn't so thrilling anymore because you've been there done it, over and over and over...much of his inspiration he mined from relationships of all types.

that vault was a failsafe for when inspiriation and passion were harder to come by.

he was ON all day everyday. he was never going to retire - we dont believe that do we? i do believe inspiration was becoming harer to come by - the piano and a microphone tour was a wonderful technical challenge and it was giving him life by giving him a new challenge....

once you've climbed the mountaintop - theres only one direction left and thats down....prince simply used up everythig he had, and poof - gone.

i cant get through a whole song yet, still...it all sounds SO ALIVE, SO INTENSE AND SO REAL. its left a huge vacuum on this earth. huge.

there is no true mastery for anyone, like Bruce Lee once said, "I'll only be a 'master' when they put the nails in my coffin". Prince could have done a million things to further his growth, he could have studied and learned to use more and different scales than he did use, he could have learned to read and write, he could have learned more about jazz and classical. No one can do it all, Ray Charles said it once "there is no way you can get all the music out of a piano'. Prince always surprised me and i'm sure he would have kept right on surprising me.

I think that part of the grief that Prince fans feel is that we never really thought about him aging or slowing down or retiring, which means that we never really thought about him dying. There was something about him that signified that he would always defy time, even though we all know that Father Time is undefeated. His need and ability to constantly reinvent himself, physically and musically, seemed to signify to us that he would always be able to do that. We seemed to suspend our notions of reality, in many aspects of life, when it came to Prince. Sports writer Bomani Jones stated that for him the most depressing thing is never having the answer to "What's next after the Piano and Microphone Tour?" Jones continued, "That was the genius of Prince. He was so multifaceted that his fans were already thinking about what he would do next even while enjoying what he was currently doing." And, I think that the question of the thread speaks to that notion, that we just assumed that Prince would always be bringing us something new, different, even if we didn't like it. So, I don't know if I can fathom that Prince would have retired. I tend to think, and this just may be me buying too deeply into the myth that was Prince, that Prince would have died like he died, in the middle of some project. In that manner, I think that Prince's life is complete by being so-called incomplete because it seems that he would always be trying to do something, to finish something, new. Maybe his death came about twenty years too early, but I could fathom Prince dying in the studio or at the piano or on stage somewhere. Now, again, whether or not that means that Prince would have still been pushing himself to make new music or simply playing the hits twenty years from now, I don't know. But, if history can be a preface for the future, then I'd bet a small sum that Prince would have slowed but never stopped reaching for something new because that seemed to be his psyche. Yet, there is also the question of despite the physical pain how much emotional or psychological peace had he found and if finally finding inner peace would have pushed him to share that wonderful feeling through his music or pushed him to share it in other ways while spending less time with the music. I guess, then, one solace for me is that, even though he's gone, he departed this life while he was still able to do what he loved how he loved doing it. I know that's a small solace, but it helps me realize how blessed he was to do what he loved doing and how blessed we were for being touched by his art.