Happy Birthday Prince!

It’s been 31 years since Prince let us know that he is the heir apparent to James, Little Richard, Sly, Jimi and George. The son of jazz musicians Prince grew-up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He started playing at a young age and by the time he was a teen he was living in Andre Cymone’s basement because of trouble at home. They played together in their band Grand Central. By the time Prince was 19 he had a deal with Warner Brothers. For You produced the delicious synth funk single “Soft And Wet” and introduced the public to his trademark falsetto. Through the years he took pop music captive and released it in his Purple androgynous vision of multi-racial, co-ed, funky R&B and managed to do what Jimi never did; he was able to be heard on Black radio and white radio in limited doses. The multi-instrumentalist created songs like “Sugar Walls,” “Manic Monday” and “Yo Mista” for Sheena Easton, The Bangles and Patti Labelle. He was the mastermind behind The Time, Vanity Six and Apollonia Six. At the height of his career he received the blessing from Miles Davis that Wynton Marsalis would never get for being the freshest thing in music. Few artists can command the need to buy all of their music for the first ten years of their career. Prince really didn’t fall off hard until the uneveness of Emancipation. The thiness was beginning to show on Graffiti Bridge but later albums had a lot of unsung songs that most people refused to pick through the confusion to find. The current Lotusflow3r release is a bad joke he won’t stop telling but his live shows are still the best the industry has to offer. In gratitude that he did not get caught-up in drugs or a scandal despite his dubious stature as a Jehvoah’s Witness we will always love him. We are forever grateful for his contributions and the magic he gives it live on stage. By now any writer who claims that so and so is the next Prince should have their pen revoked. Here’s to Prince Rogers Nelson
and 3 decades of D.M.S.R.