It was Prince’s birthday yesterday. As you may or may not know, my most recent book was about Dickens and Prince, two gifted and wildly productive superstars; they were both criticised for being over-productive. A critic famously took Dickens to task for writing “too often and too fast…he has risen like a rocket, and he will come down like the stick” - and that was after his first book. (Mate, you ain’t seen nothing yet.) Brutally hard work and no sleep killed both of them. Dickens died from a stroke, and Prince died from an overdose of opioids, needed because of the chronic pain he endured from all those hyper-kinetic shows. (On tour, he frequently used to play two a night, one in a stadium, and then afterwards a secret gig in a club, sometimes until five or six in the morning.) Selfishly, I’m glad they churned it out. I still haven’t read everything Dickens wrote, and it would be impossible to get through everything Prince recorded: some estimate that there are eight thousand unreleased songs in his vault. New albums are still being released every year.
Maybe even those who love him haven’t seen this video. It’s not even a Prince video, really. At a show in Las Vegas, he invited the great Maceo Parker, the sax player in James Brown’s band, to perform Pass The Peas, an insanely funky instrumental from 1972. The groove is irresistible, but what I love here is Prince’s joy, like he can’t believe he gets to play this song with that guy. Prince loved music more than he loved anything or anybody, I suspect, so moments like this were what he lived for. We got and still get to feel the benefit. Happy birthday, wherever you are. I miss you.
A great way to wake up this morning. Thank you!
We were fortunate enough to see a concert in a small Toronto venue. I'll never forget his request that we refrain taking pictures. " Don't put anything between me and you " he said.
Those that raised a phone camera were asked by security to stop. One warning. Sometimes two. You were escorted out after that, if caught.
Funniest was a couple directly in front of us. Wife kept taking pictures. Security kept asking her not to. When she was being escorted out, she looked back at her husband still at his seat, enjoying the show.
" See you after the show " he shouted down the aisle, at her and the guards.