Genius and madness

How do we remember Prince

On April 21, the great American musician Prince died in his studio in Minnesota. The artist, who determined the sound of pop music for years to come, was 57 years old. The author of dozens of hits, a virtuoso guitarist; The sexual, sensual and strange singer - it seemed that Prince would always surprise and go against the current.

It is difficult to underestimate the influence that Prince had on modern music. The Funk Pop invented and designed by him in the 1980s-along with the albums of Michael Jackson-set the vector of development of all pop music. Jackson was a king; Prince Rogers Nelson was a prince - not only by name, but also by status and merit. He was an icon invented by himself - sexual and sensual. Man in a crazy outfit; In this outfit, any would look stupid, except for Prince.

He will be remembered as one of the most eccentric musicians in the history of pop music, and there are a lot of reasons: it is enough to remember how he changed his name to the unpronounceable symbol or unleashed a holy war with the spread of his music on the Internet-so it is now impossible to find a decent clip on Yetube. However, the prince will remain in the history of music not therefore.

First of all, he was an incredibly talented multi -instrumentalist. In addition to a rich voice, the main instrument of Prince is a guitar; He is rightfully considered one of the most underestimated guitarists in the world. The prince did not need to hire Joe Satriani for Jackson for the sake of a virtuoso solo - Prince himself played no worse. His solo in the lively performance of “While my guitar Gently Weeps” with Tom Petty is the best illustration of the talent of a prince-performer. In general, the prince owned a dozen more instruments; No wonder he calmly recorded albums alone.

Secondly, Prince wrote a lot of outstanding songs. The most famous Purple Rain is the standard of the perfect composition; It can perhaps listen forever. But there were others: “Kiss”, “Cream”, “My Name Is Prince”, “Black Sweat”, “I WOULD DIE 4 U” ( “I am not a woman, I am not a man, I will never understand” ), “Nothing Compares 2 U”, Captured Shineid O'Connor, and dozens of others. Prince released 39 studio albums and wrote a mountain of hits for other artists. On his account is the seven Grammy and Oscar for Purple Rain, written for the film of the same name.

Prince frantically struggled with a record label. The famous name shift in the early 1990s, when he demanded to call himself the invented symbol (journalists, nevertheless, preferred to call him a “artist previously known as Prince”), occurred precisely due to the conflict with Warner. Prince tied a long contract, according to which he, like most other musicians, was not a full owner of his records. Prince explained that his mother gave his name, and Warner turned him into her property and sells him at her discretion. During the trial with the label, he appeared at meetings with the word “slave” written on his face.

Freed from Warner, the prince began to zealously monitor who exactly earns on his records, and in the end he achieved that it is impossible to hear him anywhere except the Tidal service. It reached the ridiculous: at the request of the musician, his photos from fan sites were deleted, and the Creep cover, which Prince performed in 2008 at the Coachella festival, managed to return to UTUB only thanks to the intervention of Radiohead.

In 2015, he returned to Warner with one condition: the label will give him the master capacity of the old albums.

Finally, Prince proved: to be strange - normal. He was not afraid to look differently as it is customary, playing Funk is not the same as accepted; It was not worth it to demand anything that all the windows were curtained in the hairdresser, while he is cut, explain to incoherent phrases, live under an unpronounceable name, and just behave extremely eccentrically. Prince can be considered Black David Bowie: the Great Briton allowed many white teenagers to cease to be afraid of their dissimilarity to others; Prince did the same for several generations of blacks.

In early April 2016, the prince felt unwell that looked like a cold, and canceled several concerts, and on April 15 ended up in the hospital. A day later, Prince was photographed in his native Minneapolis on a bicycle, then he arranged a party. It seemed that there was no threat to the health of the musician. On April 21, Prince was found dead in his Paisley Park Studio residence. The cause of his death is unknown.

Pavel Borisov

Riga