Pioneering musician Prince dies at 57 – tributes and reactions

As hundreds of Prince fans gathered outside his Paisley Park home on Thursday to mourn the loss of the music icon, local resident Julie Reid recalled her surprise sighting of the superstar just this week.

Reid, 48, was quietly getting a haircut on Sunday when a receptionist came back and exclaimed: “Oh my gosh, Prince is outside riding his bike.”

“I loved him – oh, I loved him when I was growing up. So I ran out there – with foils in my hair.”

Outside, Prince politely waved at her, Reid said, but when she held up her camera he firmly wagged his finger back, a testament to his penchant for privacy. Still, she snapped a quick photo, which revealed a short figure appearing to be Prince, casually riding his bike along the road.

Spike Lee’s public celebration of Prince, publicised on Instagram, is underway in Brooklyn.

The party is at the headquarters for Lee’s film production company, 40 Acres and a Mule, in Fort Greene. CNN media reporter Frank Pallotta is there.

The Current, the public radio station in Minnesota, is remembering Prince with an all-night street party at the legendary venue First Avenue – as well as a very purple playlist.

As office workers attempting to mourn Prince discreetly with headphones on will be finding today, it’s no easy feat to listen to his music online. He has no official station on YouTube or Vevo, and his catalogue on Spotify and Apple Music is sparse. Obviously he wasn’t short of fans, but emerging artists jump at the chance to make it big on the platform; often they will use services like those on upyourbeats.com in order to kickstart their careers in the industry by increasing their plays and followers.

Last summer, Prince withdrew his music from all streaming services except Jay-Z’s initiative Tidal, in what the Daily Beast describes as “his final middle finger to an exploitative record industry and last act of badassery in a career devoted to championing artists’ rights”.

He’d also expressed support for Taylor Swift’s stand against Apple Music when the service was not paying artists for streams during its three-month free trial period.

His interview with Dorian Lynskey for the Guardian in 2011 revealed the extent of his distaste for the internet (though his subsequent embrace of Twitter and Instagram suggests he might’ve come round a bit in more recent years).

“The industry changed,” he says. “We made money [online] before piracy was real crazy. Nobody’s making money now except phone companies, Apple and Google. I’m supposed to go to the White House to talk about copyright protection. It’s like the gold rush out there. Or a carjacking. There’s no boundaries. I’ve been in meetings and they’ll tell you, Prince, you don’t understand, it’s dog-eat-dog out there. So I’ll just hold off on recording.”

His management’s pre-interview list of guidelines insisted, “Please do not discuss his views on the internet,” but perhaps Prince hasn’t read them. “I personally can’t stand digital music,” he says. “You’re getting sound in bits. It affects a different place in your brain. When you play it back, you can’t feel anything. We’re analogue people, not digital.” He’s warming to his theme. “Ringtones!” he exclaims. “Have you ever been in a room where there’s 17 ringtones going off at once?”

Does he have a ringtone?

“No,” he says, looking as offended as if I’d asked him if he drove a clown car. “I don’t have a phone.”

The Current – the public radio station for Minneapolis, the city near Prince’s residence in Minnesota – is live-streaming his music here today without interruptions.

Google’s remembered Prince with an animated logo on its US homepage, redirecting to the search result for “Prince Music”. It’s thought to be the first time Google has commemorated someone’s death with a Doodle.

And of course there’s the associated spike in search terms.

Tweets from musicians and celebrities remembering Prince are testament to the diversity of his fanbase.

Bob Staake’s Purple Rain: simple, and elegant.

My colleague Ryan Felton is reporting from Minneapolis, where tributes for Prince are being left in Paisley Park.

And in Brixton:

Michael Hann has pointed me in the direction of his piece about research – carried out by Dianna Theodora Kenny, professor of psychology and music at the University of Sydney – into the most likely age musicians die at. It’s actually 56 …

In her second piece, Kenny looked at the myth – and it is a myth – of the “27 Club”, the name given to the group of musicians who have died aged 27, including Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix, which has driven the belief that somehow the age of 27 is imbued with a mystical horror for those who make music. In fact, Kenny shows, more musicians have died aged 28 than 27 – and the commonest age for them to die is 56. It’s just there were more famous people among the 27 cohort, and their deaths were particularly notable in manner.

So there you go.

I forgot to mention Sasha Frere-Jones New Yorker piece from 2007, which has another brilliant intro that really sums up how much people would put up with to see Prince.

Permit me to plan your dream weekend. You’re going to see a musician, a great one, play at a small club in Las Vegas. For a hundred and seventy-five dollars, you could stand on the dance floor in front of the stage. But, if you want to sit down, house policy requires that you buy at least two tickets and pay an additional three hundred and seventy-five dollars, which entitles you to a bottle of alcohol and seats at a VIP table at the edge of the dance floor. At midnight, the performer will begin a hundred-minute set. Afterward, as you wait half an hour in a queue for a taxi to drive you to a hotel that is roughly three blocks away but inaccessible by foot, you will see adults throwing up into garbage cans and waving plastic necklaces above their heads. You will get to bed at approximately 3am.

Why would you do this? Because the musician you are seeing is Prince …

Kurt Loder’s Rolling Stone piece from 1984 is well worth revisiting, if only for this story about Prince’s approach to photo shoots:

It is decided to wheel in the purple Honda, a perfect prop. The motorcycle is a central visual ornament of Purple Rain, Prince’s custom-tailored movie debut – a picture with so much prerelease “top spin,” as they say in Hollywood, that the media, anticipating a major sleeper, have been abasing themselves for weeks in the hope of wangling interviews with the recalcitrant star. But Prince does not do interviews anymore. He is, however, full of advice about camera angles and poses, and the photographer fights back a gathering urge to whack him with a light meter. Quickly, he snaps off some preliminary test shots with a Polaroid. Prince seems to approve of the results, then slips away while the photographer makes some final lighting adjustments. An assistant appears and carefully confiscates the seven Polaroids. When Prince returns, he seems restless and even more remote. He’s decided he doesn’t like the original setup, so they do another Polaroid, a full-length shot. Prince disappears again. The photographer hears the sound of drums and cymbals being bashed in another room. Then silence. After half an hour, the assistant reappears and announces that he’s just driven his employer home. Prince, he says, is extremely sensitive: “He actually gets physically ill at having his picture taken.”

Here’s a quick selection of appreciations and tributes from the likes of Carrie Brownstein and the New Yorker’s Jelani Cobb:

Carrie Brownstein

Running out of living musical heroes, those we measure everything against, emulate, know we won’t surpass but inspire us to try. #prince

And there was this slightly sobering piece of data journalism on when musicians are most likely to die. The 57 club could become a thing.

Andrew Harrison has picked ten of the best Prince tracks. Not enough room to mention them all here but here’s my favourite.

Controversy (1981)

By the time of his third album, Prince had announced himself as something both unprecedented in pop – the sex-drenched, post-male, polymorphous Imp of the Perverse – and weirdly familiar; a new, lubricious Little Richard. Meanwhile his new wave-funk hybrid Minneapolis sound was beginning to set the agenda of black music rather than following it. The sizzling disco of this title track, with its squelching Funkadelic electronics and cheeky, childlike arpeggios, carries the first real Prince manifesto of self: “Am I black or white? Am I straight or gay?” Sex, God, the funk and the filth: it’s all here, right in time to outrage the Reagan era.

Alexis has written about the importance of Prince and his unknownableness. Here’s a snippet:

As it turned out, Prince knew exactly what he was doing, even when it looked like he had no idea. The way he behaved as his career began in the late 70s would set a pattern for the rest of his life.

He was, if anything, even more lavishly talented than the credit that claimed he’d played 27 different instruments on For You suggested. He went on to make umpteen albums in a myriad of music styles: he could, it appeared, do everything from rock to funk to jazz to psychedelia.

Some of the albums were better than others – his output was so torrential that not even he could completely maintain his quality control – but whatever they sounded like, they always sounded like Prince. And he was infinitely more obstinate than that first recording contract made him appear. For the best part of forty years, he conducted his career according to a whimsical internal logic that seemed to baffle even his closest collaborators.

The Roots drummer shared an anecdote about Prince, a monumental ticket cock up and Fela Kuti over on Okayplayer. Here’s the video:

While appearing on MSNBC this afternoon, Aretha Franklin suggested Prince’s death may have been caused by the Zika virus.

Host Brian Williams didn’t elaborate on the Zika comments but did say his death was so shocking because he was known to look after his health and stay fit.

She also talked about his mystic and work ethic. She said: “Prince is gone, but the music will go on … as I said, was just one of those artists that go into the studio and stayed in the studio. And he would even slept in the studio.”

A lot of Twitter chat this afternoon has focused on Prince’s guitar skills and in particular the way he showed some of rock’s royalty how to make a guitar weep at the 2004 rock’n’roll hall of fame induction ceremony.

Surely the MTA will allow this piece of creative vandalism to stand, at least for today:

Surely, there’s nowhere more fitting to spend tonight than the First Avenue club in Minneapolis, where the live footage for Purple Rain was recorded.

It’s billed as an “All Night Dance Party”, there’s no cover charge and DJ Mike 2600 is playing – what more could you want?

Last year under a veil of secrecy Prince played the White House for a select group of showbiz attendees … and Jon Bon Jovi. Here’s Rolling Stone’s article on the event:

The event taking place in the East Room was a performance by Prince for about 500 A-list friends, supporters, and entertainment-world pals of President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama. Pop and rock acts playing the White House isn’t news; what set the Prince event apart was its secrecy. Called a “private party for friends and family” by one White House official, the bash featured a lengthy set by Prince and a cameo by Stevie Wonder, and it was kept so under the wraps – before and after – that it quickly became one of the year’s most talked-about pop shows.

LA producer Dam Funk has released a statement on Prince:

Prince not only changed my life, but saved my life. My hero. He is the Funk.

I interviewed him last year and he spoke about how Prince’s brand of funk was overlooked as being too black:

“Stuff like Zapp, P-Funk All-Stars and Prince …” he says; “Independent labels were into this other type of funk because ours was too black for them, so they were starting to big up a certain Get On The Good Foot type of vibe. It felt like those people were turning funk into something else.”

Amid a lot of people expressing their shock and sadness at the death of Prince there have been some nice anecdotes and musings about the purple one:

ExuroPythonissam

21 April 2016 8:50pm

Back in the 80’s I worked for a recording studio complex in London. Prince had some gigs in London and booked one of our sister studios in Barnes for a few days, not because he had any recording work planned but in case his muse visited him and he needed to record something in a hurry.

The first day or two he didn’t show up, but then, late at night after his show had finished he turned up with his entourage in several limousines, complete with security staff.

The normally blas̩ staff at the studio were very impressed by the attire of one of the young ladies with him Рshe was wearing a see-through plastic raincoat and nothing else (apart from shoes).

Rock’n’roll!

Carlb1501

21 April 2016 8:25pm

Can’t believe this at all, remembering back to when my brother played me I wanna be your lover way back in 1979. I was at that point listening to punk but something about that track grabbed me. Went onto buy a couple of early Prince albums that my friends laughed at, by the time 1999 was played on MTV they weren’t laughing anymore. A really sad loss to music and the world in general.

johan1974

21 April 2016 8:19pm

Dearly beloved. We are gathered here today. To get through this thing called life…

This reminds me of the (brilliant!) transition between ‘Let’s go Crazy’ and ‘I would die 4 U’, don’t even remember what album that was on. I have a photo of me and my best friend rocking out on this on a beach in Riccione, Italy, when we were on our first holiday without the parents, aged 16. Strange isn’t it how music is like a theme tune to your life. Well great music like Prince’s anyway.

LongDanSweeney

21 April 2016 7:56pm

Absolutely devastated. Prince was my first big musical influence, he made the mid 80’s seem like a time of musical innovation. He was a genius, introverted in private extrovert on stage. I went to see him play at Maine Road and security were turning people away with valid tickets because they weren’t wearing purple. Nobody complained, it was his show, his rules. A lot of bartering went on outside to get some purple on.

twosocks

21 April 2016 7:41pm

Completely stunned about this. I knew he had been supposedly suffering from flu but i didn’t think in a million years it would be this bad.

It is said about a lot of people when they pass but Prince truly was a genius and the world will never see anyone quite like him again. Just blasting some of his hits out just now, man, he could play! I remember sitting outside a stadium to listen to one of his sets with my friends because we couldn’t get tickets to see him play, it is still one of the most memorable night son my life. RIP.

Savellator

21 April 2016 7:39pm

The one time in my life I’ve been nearer to true pop glory was when I was credited as a backing vocalist on a Prince album. Not any Prince album, mid you, but nothing less than “Sign ‘O The Times’!! Yes, I was one of the ‘6.000 Wonderful Parisians’ singing along to “It’s Gonna Be a Beautiful Night”.

Incredible concert, incredible song, incredible record, incredible memory, incredible artist.

So here’s to you, Prince:

Oh-we-oh-oooh
Oh-we-oh-oooh
Oh-we-oh-oooh
Oh-we-oh-oooh

…and thanks again: Life it ain’t real funky unless it’s got that pop, dig it?

Keep them coming, please.

A couple of tweets have highlighted the continued interest Prince took on civil rights issues.

There was also his Grammy appearance when he said this:

Mick Jagger’s statement read:

“I am so saddened to hear the news. Prince was a revolutionary artist wonderful musician, and composer an original lyricist and a startling guitar player. His talent was limitless. He was one of the most unique and exciting artists of the last 30 years.”

The R&B star took to his tumblr to share his thoughts on the death of Prince (apologies if you hate caps):

I’M NOT EVEN GONNA SAY REST IN PEACE BECAUSE IT’S BIGGER THAN DEATH. I NEVER MET THE MAN (I WAS TOO NERVOUS THE ONE TIME I SAW HIM) AND I NEVER SAW HIM PLAY LIVE, REGRETTABLY. I ONLY KNOW THE LEGENDS I’VE HEARD FROM FOLKS AND WHAT I’VE HEARD AND SEEN FROM HIS DEEP CATALOG OF PROPELLANT, FEARLESS, VIRTUOSIC WORK. MY ASSESSMENT IS THAT HE LEARNED EARLY ON HOW LITTLE VALUE TO ASSIGN TO SOMEONE ELSE’S OPINION OF YOU.. AN INFECTIOUS SENTIMENT THAT SEEMED SOAKED INTO HIS CLOTHES, HIS HAIR, HIS WALK, HIS GUITAR AND HIS PRIMAL SCREAM. HE WROTE MY FAVORITE SONG OF ALL TIME, ‘WHEN YOU WERE MINE’. IT’S A SIMPLE SONG WITH A SIMPLE MELODY THAT MAKES YOU WISH YOU THOUGHT OF IT FIRST, EVEN THOUGH YOU NEVER WOULD HAVE – A FLIRTATIOUS BRAND OF GENIUS THAT FEELS APPROACHABLE. HE WAS A STRAIGHT BLACK MAN WHO PLAYED HIS FIRST TELEVISED SET IN BIKINI BOTTOMS AND KNEE HIGH HEELED BOOTS, EPIC. HE MADE ME FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE WITH HOW I IDENTIFY SEXUALLY SIMPLY BY HIS DISPLAY OF FREEDOM FROM AND IRREVERENCE FOR OBVIOUSLY ARCHAIC IDEAS LIKE GENDER CONFORMITY ETC. HE MOVED ME TO BE MORE DARING AND INTUITIVE WITH MY OWN WORK BY HIS DEMONSTRATION – HIS DENIAL OF THE PREVAILING MODEL…HIS FIGHT FOR HIS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY – ‘SLAVE’ WRITTEN ACROSS THE FOREHEAD, NAME CHANGED TO A SYMBOL… AN ALL OUT REBELLION AGAINST EXPLOITATION. A VANGUARD AND GENIUS BY EVERY METRIC I KNOW OF WHO AFFECTED MANY IN A WAY THAT WILL OUTRUN OBLIVION FOR A LONG WHILE. I’M PROUD TO BE A PRINCE FAN(STAN) FOR LIFE.

Harriet Gibsone has written about Prince’s 2015/15 tour which was a meandering, sprawling jaunt that not many any people saw coming.

For a musician so shrouded in secrecy and mystery, Prince’s final series of live dates established the funk icon as a familiar and frequent face in venues across the world. As familiar as a 5 foot 2 world-class guitar virtuoso and showman ever can be. His series of Hit N Run tour dates wrecked havoc across 15 cities for 39 gigs in a little over a year, from February 2014 to June 2015. Flanked by his inimitable band 3rdeyegirl, the Purple One’s guerrilla gigs would be confirmed sometimes no sooner than a few hours before the gig via Twitter. Stopping in at locations from London to Louisville, Paris to Montreal, his epic sets would take place in a litany of shapes and sizes, stopping in at jazz clubs and arenas – and even a set at King Place, a venue set beneath London’s Guardian offices.

Those who witnessed his most intimate performances would have been rewarded, after hours stood in snaking queues, with a greatest hits funk extravaganza, the likes of Let’s Go Crazy, 1999, Little Red Corvette performed so close you could stare into the whites of his eyes. As a result, thousands of fans were given the opportunity to watch the great musician perform a career spanning set for one last time.

One of the biggest regrets of my life is not going back to work at Kings Place when he played his surprise gig there. Instead I chose to stay in on Valentine’s Day and order a pizza which took three hours to turn up.

Following on from his best interviews, here’s a roundup of some of his best quotes.

My personal favourite is this one:

On himself

“I’m no different to anyone. Yes, I have fame and wealth and talent, but I certainly don’t consider myself any better than anyone who has no fame, wealth or talent. People fascinate me. They’re amazing! Life fascinates me! And I’m no more fascinated by my own life than by anyone else’s.” To Sylvia Patterson, NME, 1996

Here’s a statement from the Carver County Sheriff’s department about the death of Prince.

Prince’s long-time collaborator Sheena Easton has commented on his death. She released this statement:

“It is impossible to imagine him not being here. The world of music was forever changed the day he picked up his guitar. His talent was breathtaking, his heart was kind, and all of us have been blessed to have had a glimpse into this sweet and magical soul. Sheena”

His protege Sheila E also tweeted:

Caroline Bannock has compiled some stories from readers around the world who have been sharing their photos and memories of Prince with the Guardian.
Prince at Glasgow SSE Hydro in 2014

liemanielaw saw Prince play live at Paisley Park at a secret gig with about 100 other people in the 90’s: “He was immense, played all night 10ft in front of us till he ran out of songs. Rockers loved Prince. Pop kids loved Prince. Hip-Hop heads loved Prince. Soul boys loved Prince. DJ’s loved Prince. Mums loved Prince. Gays loved Prince. Straights loved Prince. Everyone loved Prince. He wrote big songs that could win you the X-Factor and delicate songs that felt like they belonged to only you …

John Brindle saw him at Wembley Arena in London in 1995, when Prince was in dispute with his record company and he was only performing new songs. Brindle says “Even the encores featured none of the previous hits. Wembley danced for over two hours and the highlight Most Beautiful Girl in the World’ had a capacity crowd totally captured by the man. He stayed true to himself throughout”

Charles Irving from Manchester was visiting Las Vegas and encountered Prince at McCarren airport; “We’d been at a pretty draining conference and had waited for about 2 hours in Las Vegas’s McCarran airport. Round and around the vast building and for what seemed like miles we queued to get through security … after a few minutes of more waiting, there was a mild kerfuffle and a security guard came through from the back of the queue, with someone behind them, that they were escorting. The security guard brushed past me, followed immediately by Prince. He was beautifully dressed and immaculately made up just like he was about to go onstage. He brushed past me too, and was about 2 metres further on before I recovered enough from my shock to shout after him, “I love your stuff man!!”. He stopped and turned, looked me in the eye and gave me one of those famous coy smiles that he does. “Thank you”, he mouthed at me. Then he was gone.”

Prince at Manchester Academy in 2014

You can share your memories and tributes by clicking on the blue contribute button on this article.

If you want to share stories in the comments I’ll pull some of those out too.

In the UK BBC 1Xtra are playing non-stop Prince curated by Mistajam; in Minnesota public radio is doing the same; and if you’re in New York Questlove’s weekly party is going to be very purple tonight.

Many outlets are rolling out their Prince interviews. We’ve already mentioned Alexis Petridis’s very recent visit to Paisley Park, but it’d be a shame not to revisit Dorian Lynskey’s interview with Prince in 2011 where he produced such lines as:

“It’s fun being in Islamic countries, to know there’s only one religion. There’s order. You wear a burqa. There’s no choice. People are happy with that.” But what about women who are unhappy about having to wearing burqas? “There are people who are unhappy with everything,” he says shruggingly. “There’s a dark side to everything.”

The whole thing is definitely worth a read.

The New York Times reminded everyone of Jon Pareles’s 1996 profile of the purple one, which begins with this scene-setting intro:

Paisley Park, the studio complex Prince built in this Minneapolis suburb, is abuzz. On a 10,000-square-foot sound stage, workmen are rolling white paint onto a huge runway of a set, preparing it for a video shoot later in the day. In a mirrored studio down the hall, two dozen dancers are rehearsing. Upstairs, an Olympic gymnast, Dominique Dawes, is trying on a wispy lavender costume. A sound engineer is editing a promotional CD; a graphics artist is putting the final touches on a logo. Through it all strolls the man in charge, attentive to every detail. A hole in the gymnast’s leotard? A bit of choreography that needs broadening? As songwriter, video director and record-company head, he takes responsibility for everything, makes all the final decisions and couldn’t be happier about it.

That’s got everything you want from an intro about Prince: 10,000-square-foot sound stage (check); Olympic gymnast, Dominique Dawes (check); Prince operating as omnipresent overlord (check).

The New York Times also went back to its 1981 profile by Robert Palmer which had this prescient section:

Prince, the 21-year-old singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who is performing tonight at the Palladium, is the most controversial contemporary rock star precisely because he challenges sexual and racial stereotypes. The songs on his four Warner Bros. albums explore adolescent sexuality in language explicit enough to require warning stickers (‘’contains language which may be unsuitable for some listeners”), but the stickers haven’t kept his records off the best-seller charts. And his music confounds racial categories by combining elements of white pop and rock with black dance rhythms.

Many people pointed to Hilton Als’s essay on the power of Prince in Harper’s, which includes this incredible section where Jamie Foxx tries to explain his universal sex appeal:

He looked like a deer or something, or a fawn . . . I shouldn’t even be telling you this shit.” More laughter from the audience, more abashment from Foxx. Being enthralled – or, more accurately, frightened and turned on by Prince and what his various looks said about an aspect of black male sexuality – was that something only comedians could talk about? And when they did, did Prince’s weirdness have to be the butt of the joke, so to speak, along with colored queerness? For the most part, I wasn’t interested in the Prince who produced 1999 and Purple Rain and Around the World in a Day and at least half of Sign “O” the Times (all released between 1982 and 1987). Those felt like self-consciously “white” pop albums to me, a craven desire on The Artist’s part to belong to the world outside the colored queens I had known growing up, who called Prince “Miss.” Why did he want to leave us for that non-world of convention he seemed to aspire to, where “she” got married to a woman who looked like her, then, to make matters worse, dressed as Miles Davis had while on tour promoting his rock-jazz fusion album Bitches Brew? Why did he want to betray the colored queer in himself?

It’s quite the read.

Hello all,

Lanre Bakare here in New York taking over from Damien.

On this side of the Atlantic there’s been a particular type of tribute that’s began popping up on social media: the political kind. Here is a selection:

Former Republican presidential candidate, Scott Walker:

Minnesota congressman, Erik Paulsen

Governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper

Ohio congresswoman, Joyce Beatty

South Carolina senator, Tim Scott

Prince’s publicist has now issued an official statement:

It is with profound sadness that I am confirming that the legendary, iconic performer, Prince Rogers Nelson, has died at his Paisley Park residence this morning at the age of 57.

There are no further details as to the cause of death at this time.

Prince Rogers Nelson, one of the most successful musical artists of all time, has died aged 57, according to the Associated Press.

Known by his mononym Prince, the Purple Rain singer died at his Paisley Park studio in Minnesota, the state where he was born and raised, according to the AP.

The singer was briefly hospitalized in Illinois last week for a flu emergency, according to TMZ. He cancelled two shows in Atlanta because of the illness.

Police said on Thursday morning that they were investigating a death at Prince’s estate, but would not confirm the deceased’s identity until the next of kin had been notified.