His complexity – he was such a study in contrasts. So beautiful on the outside - and so dirty on the inside. Sang devilish lyrics with the voice of an angel. I'm a writer - so his words grabbed me and never let go.

Out of the box life, coloring outside of the lines, beauty in mistakes,

homesquid said:

Not a damn thing. Nothing he did was original. He was amalgum of all his heroes.

What Prince offered me was a breat body of music in an exciting blend of all his influences.

This exactly

Seahorsie said:

He was the best total package, so why not gravitate to the best? Hardest worker, best lyrics, funky beats, expert stylist, best live performer, easy on the eyes, best at the splits, crazy costumes, most perfect beauty mark, good messages, mixed his own stuff, best semi-bio performance on film, promoted women in music, an innovator, and finally.....he owned his masters. (A rebel that would not bow to pressure.) There is lots more, but I gotta go to work tomorrow.

Yeah, I know he had his faults too, like all of us, but W O W.

Best lyrics?

Prince was swag.

Probably the smallest guy in the room in stature, but the biggest swag in the room, including Presidents and other elites.

Whether walking into a room or performing in a stadium - absolute confidence - again, although usually the tiniest person there, in stature.

For full disclosure he had a couple of early years mishaps, James Brown/MJ/Prince stage share incident and Dick Clark American bandstand come to mind, but other than that, all icon, all the time.

He owned his look. Acted like it was completely normal. Never appeared embarrased once. Not once.

For me it was a mix of a lot of things others have mentioned already.

What got me first was the music, the songs 1999 and WDC sounded revolutionary (no pun intended) to me! Then I found out about the man himself and I was mesmerized. He looked so cool to me, with his purple trenchcoats and the big hair, surrounded by the most beautiful scantily clad women.

Both his music and persona were electrifying to me as a 12 year old teenage boy trying to find my own identity. My parents were very religious (pentecostalism) at that time, but my sexuality was starting to develop ("Am I straight or gay?") and Prince's sexual wildness combined with his deep spirituality really spoke to me. I loved the inclusive hippie vibes (Uptown/ Paisley Park) and his mysterious persona (Controversy).

My parents (especially my dad) hated Prince and called him the 'Prince of Darkness'. I was quite the rebellious teen, so my parents hating him made Prince all the more interesting to me. I got even more into Prince because of that.

What also struck me was the fact he mastered so many instruments and was able to create entire albums on his own. This was something I really admired and Prince became a role model for me because of this. But he was also a role model for me in many other ways. He was a small guy like me, but was a giant in his field. He was shy like me, but nevertheless able to get it on with some of the most gorgeous women in the world. These were all things I wanted for myself, so as a boy I could really relate to Prince very well.

All this combined Prince offered me a lot and I became a huge fan, and still am. As of today I am mostly still into Pricnce because of the music, as it was the soundtrack to my life.

herb4 said:

Yeah, but other artists did that stuff too, surrounding the "doing everything" posts. Peter Gabriel comes to immediately to mind. Frank Zappa. Stevie Wonder. Maybe not at such a young age though which obviously separates him there. When I heard the 1999 album and learned it was executed almost entirely by one person, overdub by overdub and one track at a time it was hard to believe.

Not shitting on any of your posts at all, mind, just trying to look at the thing that really separated Prince from the rest. Thanks for the feedback and interest in the thread though. I have more that I'll touch on when I get some more time.

You could argue this with your stylistic diversity sentiment, though. Funkadelic were doing rock guitar with the absolute very best of them via Eddie Hazel (who I'd argue was Prince's main guitar influence over say a Hendrix), and still incorporating those elements around a paradigm that most people categorize as funk and soul...

Anyway, although again there are others in history who did similar, how prolific Prince was is what really makes him a cut above.... It's been stated Prince felt he was put on this earth to create music, and when you pair that belief next to how much material he has both known and unknown, he truly lived that sentiment to the fullest of his abilities.

Just imagine if after Purple Rain he did like some of his contemporaries and took a 2-3-4 even 5 year hiatus. Purple Rain then, say, to Batman... All that music he did while another artist might spend years belaboring 45 minutes.

WhisperingDandelions said:

Anyway, although again there are others in history who did similar, how prolific Prince was is what really makes him a cut above.... It's been stated Prince felt he was put on this earth to create music, and when you pair that belief next to how much material he has both known and unknown, he truly lived that sentiment to the fullest of his abilities.

Just imagine if after Purple Rain he did like some of his contemporaries and took a 2-3-4 even 5 year hiatus. Purple Rain then, say, to Batman... All that music he did while another artist might spend years belaboring 45 minutes.

Imagine him being like other artists. After a monster hit album, did he keep recreating Purple Rain in his following releases? Hell, no. He stepped as far away from that as was possible, for years.

OldFriends4Sale said:

Out of the box life, coloring outside of the lines, beauty in mistakes,

Beautifully worded.

Every artist has a unique sound that is novel to them, I just think that Prince's melody crafting, arranging, and instrument performances all resonate with me. His melodies in my opinion are insanely well written and they seemingly came so naturally and effortless to him once he got to the late '70s


Prince offered a mix of pure joyful pop melody, funk sensibilities, sex, rock, and blues all wrapped up together

His lyrics and the passion and vulnerability in them. Songs like When Doves Cry, The Beautiful Ones, , I Wish U Heaven and I Would Die 4 U, the uplifting messages in songs like Mountains , The Good Life, Free, Uptown...the mystery, the music, the yearning and sense of isolation , rejection and loneliness in Something in the Water, Lady Cab Driver and Condition of the Heart.

His ecclectic music. His courage to follow his inner voice against all odds. His rebellious attitude and ideals and drive. His charisma.

pdiddy2011 said:

Prince was swag.

Probably the smallest guy in the room in stature, but the biggest swag in the room, including Presidents and other elites.

Whether walking into a room or performing in a stadium - absolute confidence - again, although usually the tiniest person there, in stature.

For full disclosure he had a couple of early years mishaps, James Brown/MJ/Prince stage share incident and Dick Clark American bandstand come to mind, but other than that, all icon, all the time.

He owned his look. Acted like it was completely normal. Never appeared embarrased once. Not once.

Absolutely agree.

Great post.

His charisma and mystique, his energy...he was something special and almost even beyond celebrity status in the sense that he made the biggest celebrities starstruck. And he absolutely owned his look. Other stars had flamboyant looks and outfits at some point in their career but with Prince it was different. Only he could dress and act like that.He created his own little universe he lived in.

His artistry, affection for music, sexiness, confidence, everything...

I can't found a male can be feminine and yet masculine at the same time like Prince.

For me, what Prince offered me that no one else did was just pure unadulterated FUN. Everything about him was FUN for me. The music - in the '80s there was nothing more fun than getting a new Prince album and listening to it from beginning to end in one sitting. The videos -seeing him on television was always fun, watching his sexy self sing and dance. His style - seeing his swag evolve through the years, absolute fun.

The concerts - OMG, the concerts were so much fun, from sleeping out on the sidewalk to get good tickets in the dead of winter or the midst of summer, with strangers that would become lifelong friends, to picking out the perfect outfit, to never sitting in the seat once Prince took the stage was just blissful fun. The award shows when he'd just show up and show out would tickle me to no end. Even being here for the good, bad and the ugly...still fun.

Yeah, he was a whole lot of fun and I miss that so very much.

[Edited 9/18/20 17:42pm]

Uncensored. Unfiltered. Raw. Sex.

Do Me Baby.

So vulnerable.

I thought Michael Jackson was the greatest singer... until I discovered Prince.

Prince to me is/was sexy.

Michael Jackson could never do what Prince did convincingly in terms of sexy songs.

"...there in only one Prince."

-Alicia Keys

Prince also gave me a sense of 'danger' or 'suspense' in his music, in a way I never received from anyone else. And that says a lot for artists during the 70s and 80s. There was a lot of great music back then. But Prince music had a tinge of foreboding the resonated with me. I love mystery.

Maybe that's why I had such a strong emotional reaction when I heard Power Fantastic for the first time.

Prince was the first artist I ever loved I was a little scared to tell other people I was obsessed with. There was something dangerous and a little too personal about his music for anyone else to know about, at least in my life. So I lived in a secret world for years obsessed with him, and no one else knew. Gradually I found others who got him, but by then, I realized that is precisely why he is the most important: he teaches you that being fearless about being yourself is the answer. He's unclassifiable, uncategorizable. Because he's himself. At his best, he was combining sounds and ideas together in ways no one else would ever quite think to do. With Prince, it always sounds like he's hiding nothing from you. He's putting himself out there. His sense of adventure and his fearlessness are half of it, the other half is his nearly religious devotion to what music does for the body and soul. There are other pop artists of as great a stature, but no one as inspiring.