I wanted to give myself some time before I put down on my blog my feelings on the passing of Prince. I started writing this blog post about a week after his death. I got distracted and then totally forgot about it until I came to LJ just now to do another post and the site said it had a saved draft. So...below is a somewhat incomplete post about Prince's impact in my life.

********************************

One of the first things to come in mind was David Bowie's recent death. In that aftermath, I shared how he affected me. When I looked back at what I wrote on FB about him, much of what I said about Bowie goes a thousandfold for Prince. Maybe if I was 10 or 15 years older, Bowie would get the essential credit for influencing me. But as a guy who's formative years were in the 80's, Prince was my pop culture reference to a star who was androgynous, alien-like, and demonstrated musical genius on many albums with a sound that was both authentic to the artist and evolving into something new and different from the previous releases.

I first became aware of Prince with "I Wanna Be Your Lover" in the early 80's when I was 7-9 years old. I caught it on the radio a couple of times and liked it. A year or two later, Chaka Khan released "I Feel For You" and I somehow became aware of the Prince connection and that this meant I liked two of his songs (an important stat to keep in the olden days when singles were fine, but knowing you could get a bunch of songs you like for $8 or whatever was actually priceless). It was with the release of the various singles from 1999 - especially the exposure via Solid Gold - that I started to consider myself a Prince fan. (I may have also heard "Party Up" at some point during this period of my life. When I later bought a Dirty Mind/Controversy double-album cassette, "Party Up" sounded very familiar.

But I knew as a 10 year old, that I wasn't supposed to be part of Prince's fan base and that I probably shouldn't own any of his albums. I could enjoy "Little Red Corvette" as the Solid Gold dancers pranced around the stage or sing along with "1999" on the radio, but it never crossed my mind that I could buy the album and not get into some level of hassle or trouble with my parents for the purchase.

When Purple Rain came out, the push and pull on whether or not to buy an album became a practical concern and not just a passing dismissive thought. I enjoyed every song I heard. I wouldn't be shocked if I did buy a 45 of "When Doves Cry" but can't recall for certain and considering the 45s I've kept, I would expect that song to still be in my collection. If I didn't get a 45 of "When Doves Cry," I don't think I got up to buy my first Prince album until 1987 when Sign O the Times came out and I started 8th grade. I either got Sign or Purple Rain on cassette first at that age. From that point on, I started buying up previous and future releases.

Prince was my primary musical influence during high school. He quickly became the musical act of which I had the most albums and who I would most readily identify as my favorite. I never owned Purple Rain on vinyl, so when I broke one of my Walkmen so it wouldn't flip sides any more - instead merely playing the top side in reverse, the first thing I wanted to do was to put my cassette copy in and listen to the end of "Darling Nikki". I would recite the monologue from the end of "If I Was Your Girlfriend" to girls I was interested in. I dreamed of a woman who would be a combination of the females in "Starfish and Coffee" and "Raspberry Beret", as well as "Delirious" and "Do Me, Baby".

When I hiked the Appalachian Trail between my junior and senior year in high school, I took my Walkman and two cassettes. One of those cassettes was my Prince Dirty Mind/Controversy double album tapes. It was shortly after that trip, that Prince's influence really started to wane. Diamonds and Pearls was the album that I realized that Prince and I were parting ways; the headscratching I did with Graffiti Bridge wasn't just with that one project.

I did buy Emancipation and Crystal Ball. But didn't buy another Prince album until 3121.

There have been two albums that have kept me quite distracted over the past few of months. First was the release of Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience in March. I was curious about the new music, but was disappointed with my first impressions of "Suit & Tie." One day while mowing grass, I decided to put the album on Rhapsody. I fell in love with the overall sound of the album and with the majority of the songs. There was a timelessness about how he blended the influences and instrumentation. Repeat listens kept revealing little changes or flourishes that made me appreciate the songs the more I listened. It wasn't "brilliant;" it was tremendously interesting for me, though.

The obvious trait of the new collection of songs from Justin is the length. These are songs that aren't here for a quickie - each song is going to woo you, spank you, and cuddle with you afterward. "Pusher Love Girl" can easily be cut down to 3-4 minutes for the radio, but -for the album, honey- it lounges next to you on the couch and stretches around your shoulders for an eight minute grope session. "Strawberry Bubble Gum" follows the same romantic techniques...but, you know, it pushes all the right buttons for me and I'm hooked despite my singing along with "And it all started when she said/ Hey hey hey, smacking that strawberry bubblegum." TO TOP IT OFF, you know what Justin did? He closed the album with a soft, slow jam. *gets the vapors*

My adoration for The 20/20 Experience was then blown away by the release of "Get Lucky" and Random Access Memories by Daft Punk. I had been waiting for the new release even more eagerly after enjoying the Tron: Legacy soundtrack. When the first single had the magic words "Ft. Pharrell," I jumped to hear it when the song was released. The song was a dream come true and I'm thrilled that it is a song that the entire family enjoys, so most of our trips around town have that song (sometimes on repeat or going from single edit to album cut) as the soundtrack.

What I love most about Random Access Memories is the nostalgic feel of the album and how much it coincides with my own musical nostalgia. There are some real quirky aspects to the influences, but they are a good fit for me. (many words could be wasted going on and on about the peculiarities of Paul Williams' writing and performing contributions to "Touch") I feel comfortable getting emotional while Paul's conversational singing style expresses the emotional plea of a robot desiring to experience touch over music saturated with squeaky synths, wah-wah pedals, and a choir. My second favorite track on the album is "Fragments of Time." It is so far from what I think most anyone would readily identify as being a "Daft Punk song." The influence of 70's and early 80's pop and soft rock is overwhelming. The song sounds like it could have easily been the b-side to Al Stewart's "Time Passages" single. Someone I read online stated that the song sounded like Phoenix covering Steely Dan.

Collaborations definitely stand out on the album. Not only does Pharrell Williams sing on "Get Lucky," but he's also on "Lose Yourself to Dance." The Stroke's Julian Casablancas worked with Daft Punk on "Instant Crush." Niles Rodgers worked on three different songs on the album. While some of the collaborations focus on exploiting nostalgic sounds, Panda Bear's work on "Doin It Right" gave the song a contemporary sound more along the lines of M83 and Matt & Kim.

Really, my only real criticism is that I wish it had a better Side1/Song1. "Give Life Back to Music" is a perfectly fine song, however, I yearn for a greater anthemic song or maybe some sort of intro or overture when I think of this collection as an "album."

I really can't wait for someone to come up with a way to store and replay dreams. Last night I had a humdinger.

At some point overnight, I ended up hanging out with my subconscious's version of Fiona Apple. It was similar to when reporters spend a few days of hanging out with their subjects, but I didn't take notes or record any of it. We were on a large university campus talking. I did typical interview conversations, but it became more and more friendly as the dream went along. The Fiona in my dreams exemplified the overly-emotional artist that puts their feelings into their art and then have to deal with the public's opinions of those emotions and the celebrity of that artist. As we moved about campus, there were times where we may have caught some folks' eyes and there were times we were swamped with people. I got to see this interaction of the public with the artist as celebrity and the human aspect of dealing with celebrity.

One part of the dream has really stuck with me. At one point we ended up in a salon. The women there started out really sweet and talking about how Fiona's lyrics really touched them. The longer we were there, the more crowded the salon became. The people that interacted with Fiona went from respectful and deeply touched to a frenzy of superficial fandom. Fiona was in a babydoll dress and agreed to let some of the women take pictures of her. We had been sitting on the floor, so she just crouched there and allowed pictures to be taken. As flashes went off, the demands of the ladies grow more demanding and louder. Women were shouting directions on how they wanted her to pose. I just looked in Fiona's eyes and saw a sadness and desperation that crushed me. Things built up with women finally starting to yell that Fiona wasn't posing edgy enough and demanding that she do something outrageous. It is at this point that we all notice that Fiona started to pee. For much of the crowd, this was a joyous act of rebellion that matched their demands for her to do something edgy. However, as I looked at her, I only saw a woman paralyzed by demands and the peeing was NOT what she wanted to do, her body just essentially let loose from the stress. She feigned a smirk and left. I gave her some time alone and found her a little while later. The remainder of the dream was more low-key, but our conversations became more intimate despite my backing off on the intimacy of the questions I asked. I awoke with the "chorus" from Fiona's latest single going in a loop in my head - "I just wanna feel everything."

It's Bob Dylan's version of country! Um, well, other than some instrumentation, I didn't find it all that different from what I'm familiar with of Dylan's work. I certainly did not listen to his album in the way people did when it originally came out. There is no transition I'm having to make from the electric sound of Blonde on Blonde to John Wesley Harding. To me, a Dylan newb, it is just a slightly twangier version of him...and includes noticeable Biblical references.

I have to say that the album wasn't as painful as I feared. One thing about Dylan that I don't care for did jump out to me. Previously, I've listened to latter-day Dylan for this list. In the later recordings, Dylan wasn't partnered with a harmonica. The mouth harp is on full display here...and I hate it so much. I've cheered John Popper's complaints about the praise that Dylan has received for his harmonica playing. I don't doubt that Dylan followed some sort of folk tradition of sloppy harp playing, but it is not a method of playing the instrument that I care for. Replacing the sloppy harp with psychedelic guitars is definitely the way to go. The only thing worse than the original version of "All Along the Watchtower" is XTC's cover of it.

Songs I knew I liked: None

Songs I didn't know but now like: "As I Went Out One Morning" and "Dear Landlord"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: "The Ballad of Frankie Lee" - OH, all of the alliterative word play! *cringe*

The only full album ever recorded by Jeff Buckley, Grace, is one of those albums that whets the listener's appetite for what he might have released had he not died during the recording of his sophomore effort. Grace seals in amber Jeff's dramatic (but not baroque) musical style, taking many of the songs from a softness (that makes the listener strain to hear) to bombastic climaxes of drums, guitars, and vocal wails.

And it is Jeff's voice that was his greatest blessing. I feel that it is impossible to understand Jeff's vocal style without spending some time listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn, the greatest qawwal (a Sufi singer). Jeff became fascinated with him and frequently covered his songs at cafes in NYC in his early years. The swirling, weaving sound of this style of vocalizing seems very obvious to me when listening to Grace.

I absolutely love many of the songs on this album. The moodiness of the album is its power but also a dangerous weapon when played to a depressed, drunk man with a broken heart. "Lover, You Should Have Come Over" starts off with an introspective whisper and builds to a shirt-ripping plea for another try. "Last Goodbye" is another lover's lament that contains one of my favorite lyrics:

Kiss me, please kiss me,
Kiss me out of desire, babe, not consolation.

Where the album struggles is that it can get a bit too precious. I play individual songs from Grace a lot, but the solemness of "Hallelujah" and "Corpus Christi Carol" really drags down the middle of the album for me. Shoot, I guess I've got to say something about "Hallelujah." Sure, Leonard Cohen wrote the song, but Jeff's version of it is what you hear people singing. Go to YouTube and compare the covers to Leonard's original and then Jeff's and you'll hear it yourself. Jeff's version is that powerful and moving.

Songs I knew I liked: "Mojo Pin," "Grace," "Last Goodbye" (actually, one of my top 5 all time favorite songs...and will be played at my wake), "So Real," and "Lover, You Should Have Come Over"

Songs I didn't know but now like: None

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: None...although I'm really sick of "Hallelujah" at this time.

Beck is a rock/folk dadaist and Odelay captures the breadth of sounds and music that inspires him. Each song is a collage of samples, riffs, and bizarre lyrics. On top of that, the tone and genre of each song can differ greatly. This quilt with screeching guitars, funk samples, distorted vocals, and nonsensical lyrics is somehow able to remain cohesive as the listener goes from quirky raps to slack blues to somber reflection. Beck and the Dust Brothers are able to take all of these potentially disjointed sounds and songs and put them together in a way it all seems to fit in some sort of audio flea market sort of way with a crooning Don Ho one second and a scratched up Cameo bursts in next.

All of this is possible because of Beck's ear for music and hooks. Ween could get 1001 influences and ideas in their songs, but they were rarely as catchy and melodic as Beck did here. It is also why Paleface is full of hot air when he complains of Beck stealing "his" musical style - Beck is just a better songwriter than most people will admit outside of a passing Dylan-like comment.

Songs I knew I liked: "Devil's Haircut," "The New Pollution," and "Where It's At"

Songs I didn't know but now like: I had forgotten completely about "Jack-ass." For starters, there was no way my brain retained that a song named "Jack-ass" sounds so mellow and (almost) sweet.

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: "Novacane"

The is a 3 CD collection of music. I understand there is also a 7 disc collection and a single disc collection of Sun Records music. I'm going to state that I think this is a Goldilocks situation where 3 CDs is actually just right.

For those of you that may not know, Sun Records was opened in Memphis, TN by Sam Phillips. He started off interested in recording black R&B artists that may appeal to a white audience. That focus evolved into a group of artists that emerged from blues and country to become rock and roll. Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and others were part of the Sun Record crew.

The first part of the box set seems like a history lesson on the stage just before rock and roll. There are blues and boogie songs from B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Rufus Thomas, and Joe Hill Lewis. You'll hear humorous country from Harmonica Frank Floyd. All kinds of music of the common Southern man is captured here. But the "history lesson" didn't labor my ears. Most of these songs seemed like lost gems that were gladly welcomed upon listening.

The second and third disc is where much of the artists and music people associate with Sun Records can be found. The blues acts segue to Elvis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. It was a bit surprising how much my ears perked up when Elvis tracks came along. Although there are several songs done by Carl Perkins and Charlie Feathers that were or sounded very much like Elvis songs, the smoothness of The King's voice really grabbed my attention.

I wasn't thrilled about a 3 disc collection being on the list, but must say that I was happier with this box set than I would have thought. It seems that 3 discs is just right for capturing the historical musical collection that Sam Phillips was able to get into his Memphis studios.

Songs I knew I liked: Jeepers, there are just too many songs for me to want to document here.

Songs I didn't know but now like: I enjoyed many songs I don't think I had heard previously, but not were liked enough for me to make note of the song.

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: None in particular...other than the novelty of "Swamp Root" wearing thin on repeat listens.

Nothing's Shocking captures an "alternative" band that loves guitar acrobatics, funk rhythms, and manipulating the hell out of Perry Farrell's voice. There are songs about hookers, peeing in the shower, summer, and the existence of God. Often, the music (more than most bands, Perry's altered vocals mimic a musical instrument) comes at the listener in waves that swoop and crash.

The album is certainly not one note. There are rockers, ballads, jazzy interludes, and epic songs that softly build to a sonic climax. Nothing's Shocking manages to entertain, shock, protest, and inform without being disjointed.

Songs I knew I liked: "Ocean Size," "Had a Dad," "Ted, Just Admit It...," "Standing in the Shower...Thinking," "Summertime Rolls," "Mountain Song," and "Jane Says"

Songs I didn't know but now like: I've had and loved this album since it came out. No new discoveries this time.

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: None