Prince... RIP?!

[bayonetbrant]

we were chatting with Bayonet Jr about what an artist he was and then started talking about all the songs he wrote for other people, and at least 4 of them became the biggest hits in those artists' careers

Jungle Love - The Time
I Feel For You - Chaka Khan
Nothing Compares to U - Sinead O'Connor
The Glamorous Life - Sheila E

Oh yeah, and
Manic Monday - The Bangles (not technically their biggest hit b/c of Walk Like an Egyptian, but more enduring b/c it's not seen as a gimmick song)
Stand Back - Stevie Nicks
Sugar Walls - Sheena Easton
How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore - Alicia Keys

now a few of those he recorded himself, too (I Feel For You / How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore) but other people made them famous

I'm not sure it's possible to overstate how awesome that dude was, and unlike damn near everyone else who's dies lately, it's pretty hard to find something personally unlikeable about him - no drug habits, no pedophilia... etc etc

[Gusington]

And he surrounded himself with the hottest women. I see no issues there.

FWIW the NY Daily News states that the Revolution came together for Purple Rain and then broke up right before Sign o The Times, so that makes it about a 5 year stint. Take it as you will from the NY Daily News, though.

[bayonetbrant]

Pre-Revolution, IIRC. The Revolution came together for The Purple Rain album and movie and tour.

They did at least 1 album before Purple Rain, b/c 1999 was right before that one.  Dunno about before 1999, but I'm sure Wikipedia is all it...

Per Wikipedia

From 1982–1983, when the band was almost identified as The Revolution, it consisted of:

Prince on lead vocals, guitar, and piano
Dez Dickerson on guitar
Brown Mark on bass
Bobby Z. on drums & percussion
Lisa Coleman on keyboards and piano
Matt Fink on keyboards
The words "and the Revolution" can be seen printed backwards on the cover of his fifth album 1999. The band members were curious as to if they were getting a real name, but Prince had held back from fully calling the group The Revolution partly because of Dez Dickerson's wishes to leave the band. When the 1999 Tour ended, Dez Dickerson finally left the band for religious reasons and was replaced by Lisa's childhood friend Wendy Melvoin. Prince told Dickerson that he needed three years from him, and Dickerson wasn't willing to commit. Prince told Dickerson he'd leave him on payroll and honor his contract, which Prince did. Dickerson went on to eventually work for independent Christian record label Star Song. The Melvoin-Coleman tandem shortly thereafter formed a special bond with Prince and greatly influenced his output during the rest of their tenure in the band. Prince's former mostly R&B/funk offerings would be more diversified with rock, pop and classical music elements.

So they were "sort of" The Revolution on the 1999 album.

[Toonces]

George RR Martin is writing 2016

Ok, this was pretty good.

[JasonPratt]

I'm not sure it's possible to overstate how awesome that dude was, and unlike damn near everyone else who's dies lately, it's pretty hard to find something personally unlikeable about him - no drug habits, no pedophilia... etc etc

He had some serious moral problems; people are just being nice and not talking about them. 6 days before he died, he was in the hospital for a drug overdose. That wasn't new: he would find young women to promote, get them horribly hooked on drugs and wild sex as part of his own lifestyle, and then move along to the next new thing when he got bored or they escaped him.

One of the first, and the most public such case, was Denise Matthews, whom Prince renamed as "Vanity", as part of an ego trip to make her into the female version of himself. After nearly dying of a crack overdose in the mid-90s, she renounced her life in music and Hollywood and became a Christian evangelist (marrying Oakland Raider Anthony Smith soon afterward). But the drugs had ruined her body, especially her kidneys -- she had to spend 20 minutes five times a day each day for the rest of her life on dialysis.

She died this February of renal failure, age 57 -- the illness that nearly killed her the first time, a lingering delay of about 20 years.


Was he a talented and creative artist? No doubt. Should the moral judgment of his life be confined to things like this? I don't think so; anyone who knows me knows I firmly believe God will allow no good in what we do in life to be lost, and I'm willing to recognize and remember any charity and other true love he gave to anyone no matter how large or small it might seem to other people.

But I remember his victims, too. And that includes everyone he led to live, to whatever degree, the shattered and shattering way he lived.

He could have been just as good an artist, or even a better one, without living the life he insisted on living. And that's a damned shame.

[bayonetbrant]

He had some serious moral problems; people are just being nice and not talking about them. 6 days before he died, he was in the hospital for a drug overdose. That wasn't new: he would find young women to promote, get them horribly hooked on drugs and wild sex as part of his own lifestyle, and then move along to the next new thing when he got bored or they escaped him.

Where was it documented as a drug overdose?

[JasonPratt]

I saw it on news outlets last night.

The overdose was 6 (now 7) days ago. The post-mortem won't happen until Monday. He was still recovering when he gave his last performance, shortly before his death -- he introduced the crowd to his doctor.

[bayonetbrant]

I saw it on news outlets last night.

The overdose was 6 (now 7) days ago. The post-mortem won't happen until Monday. He was still recovering when he gave his last performance, shortly before his death -- he introduced the crowd to his doctor.

Everything I saw about the emergency landing/hospitalization was flu-related / possible TB.  There was nothing about a drug overdose in any of the legit media coverage.

[JasonPratt]

Well, maybe CNN and Fox aren't legit. ;) But neither have I heard more about it since then, so it's entirely possible they were passing on speculation.


In his favor, I'll add that he took his religion seriously enough to take his turn among the Jehovah's Witnesses doing evangelization.  O:-)

[bayonetbrant]

Well, maybe CNN and Fox aren't legit. ;) But neither have I heard more about it since then, so it's entirely possible they were passing on speculation.


In his favor, I'll add that he took his religion seriously enough to take his turn among the Jehovah's Witnesses doing evangelization.  O:-)

I never saw it from them, either - the only actual reports I saw were related to some sort of respiratory issue like the flu.  Not saying there was never a report of an OD, just that it wasn't widespread enough that it being reported as fact on every outlet.

[Barthheart]

[Sir Slash]

The guy from TMZ was reporting last night on Megan Kelly's show that the emergency landing and treatment involved a drug overdose and he was administered an anti-opiate IM at the hospital but left there refusing to stay against their advice because they could not provide him a private room.

[JasonPratt]

Several other news outlet reports along the same line are still archived on a "prince drug overdose" search; although I didn't find anything from AP or Reuters or one of the news networks this morning.

How much of that was just reposting the TMZ source, I don't know -- probably a lot.

[Gusington]

^I've read in some online gossip magazines that it may have been percocet. The rumor is also flying around that Prince had HIV and contracted it in the 1990s.

[bayonetbrant]

Today's NYT, courtesy of Chevrolet