Prince

Today, as I sat with my blank screen in front of me, tuning into what I would write about, my Spirit said Prince.… how can I not write about Prince....  not that I was his greatest fan.. and not that he was my favorite musician.. but MAN was he talented… and so it is… I’ll write about Prince.
I can still remember the first time I heard Little Red Corvette. I was 12 years old, sitting on my bed in the basement, listening to the radio on my really cool stereo I had gotten recently for my birthday. It looked something like this… 8 track and all. I can literally see me in my room, listening to this song that was just unlike any other song I had heard. I loved it… and I was hooked. I asked my parents to take me to the mall, so that I could go and purchase the 8track…
I listened to it all the time.It was different and cool and exciting. His music was a soundtrack to my life for those early teenage years. When Doves Cry, Purple Rain, 1999, Let’s Go Crazy, Little Red Corvette, Kiss, You got the Look… But, when my 13 year old naive ears heard darling Nikki, I wasn’t sure what to think. I didn’t even know what masturbation was. I looked it up in the dictionary, which that only led to more questions. It took a few years for this innocent Utah girl to learn what it all meant. It certainly wasn’t taught in health class… that I recall anyway:) I guess Prince was a teacher in many ways 🙂
Over the years, I would go in and out of Prince mode, buying his albums, but not necessarily loving them like i did the first couple. In 2004 my brothers surprised me with a concert of a lifetime. Prince rocked it out… He was AMAZING. He was ECCENTRIC. He was SEXUAL. He was PRINCE…and made no apologies for any of it. I LOVED his Spirit during that concert. And man, was he a showman. 3 encores later, he finally ended his concert in Arizona. It was the best concert I have ever seen… and I have been to a lot of concerts! I am so grateful that I got to see him LIVE… and ALIVE
I had always wanted to see the BeeGees in concert. When Maurice died I made a mental note… go to their concert the next time they are around. I didn’t 🙁 I guess i just figured, I’d catch them next time. Then Robin died. Now, there is only 1 BeeGee left. There are no more BeeGees concerts to attend.

I am reminded, with the passing of so many musicians this year…and the changes in life in general… it is time to LIVE. DO what you want to do, SEE what you want to see, GO where you want to go, and VISIT the people you want to visit. You may never get another chance… And, I am not being negative… just offering a reminder… Those things you want to do.. if you wait too long, you may not be able to. Those things you want to see, they may not be there any longer. Those places.. they can change.. sometimes even disappear or shut down. And, those people, they can die.
CHANGE is the constant.. and it is HAPPENING NOW!
The moment we have is NOW! Lets remember, we have this amazing life to LIVE.. Lets LIVE it! I am making a commitment to myself, maybe you will join me… to DO IT!!!!!!!! Those things that are in my heart. No more waiting til this or that. I will do it! How about you? Anything you have missed out on because you were waiting too long?
Thank you Prince, for the music, the teachings, and the reminder! – SDJ
PS: I do…. not so Secretly… hope there is a vault somewhere with unreleased music that we can all hear, with maybe greater appreciation now.

Did you know…

• Prince played over 20 instruments?
• He became a Jehovah witness as an adult
• He had Epilepsy, which apparently caused him to be moire internal, and use his time creatively through music and expression. One day he told his mother he wasn’t going to have them anymore. She asked why, and he responded, “Because an angel told me so.”
• His real name was Prince
• Born to two musical parents on June 7, 1958, Prince Rogers Nelson was named after his father’s jazz combo.
• Prince wrote more songs than The Beatles, with a back catalogue that expands to over 600 tracks.
  Prince wrote some BIG HITS for artists, notably ‘Manic Monday’ by The Bangles and ‘I Feel for You’ by Chaka Khan. Then of course there was ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, covered by Sinead O’Connor.