I've watched so many amazing video clips and read so many tributes to Prince since his passing on April 21, that I thought I would start archiving them here. These links are focused on the less heard, less known music and thoughts. I invite anyone to add to this mini-archive. And to enjoy. More to come!
April 29 update: Prince has been gone for a week and a day. And we fans and mourners have been treated to a flood of never before seen videos of live performances over the years. Prince never allowed these on the Internet, and my guess is they will slowly be removed from the Internet (I think the process has already begun). But I'd like to believe that allowing them to stay up for this last week is a gift from him, to us. Today I added my last link to this tribute post - thanks to all who contributed to this collection. Though our collective sadness will linger for a long time to come, there was so much joy in watching these - for me, and I'm sure for you, too. Rest in peace and power, Purple One.
Dear Mr Man (live)
Stevie Wonder performs Purple Rain tribute
Stevie Wonder interview, remembering Prince
Prince and Miles Davis (live)
Prince and Sheryl Crow (live)
Prince It's Gonna be a Beautiful Night, 1987 (live)
Purple Rain live at First Ave, 1985
Prince soundcheck in Osaka Japan, 1990
Women of the Revolution (article)
My Queer Erotic City (my musings)
Prince performing Purple Rain at the Superbowl
Prince A Case of You
Prince performing A Case of You live at First Ave, 1983
Prince and Chaka Khan live at Cafe du Paris London
Prince Art of Musicology - MTV Unplugged
My guitar gently weeps solo
Prince interviewed by Dick Clark at 19
Prince - An Appreciation (CBS Sunday Morning tribute)
Tavis Smiley - The Prince I knew (remembrance)
Van Jones on Prince the Humanitarian
Hamilton cast tribute to Prince
Color Purple cast tribute to Prince
Prince broke all the rules about what Black American men should be (reflection)
MN Daily 1977 story about 19-year-old Prince
I Wanna Be Your Lover, live, 1982
Prince Honky Tonk Woman live
The 20 best Prince songs you've never heard
Prince SNL 40th anniversary after party
Prince A question of U - Tokyo 1990
Damien Escobar Purple Rain Tribute to Prince (gorgeous)
Prince and Beyonce at 2004 Grammys
dem Atlas covers Let's Go Crazy at First Ave Tribute Block Party
Alicia Keys inducts Prince into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2004
Prince Little Red Corvette and Montreauz Jazz Festival
How Prince helped me be black genderqueer in America's bible belt capital
If you grew up in Mpls the rain was always purple and Prince was your North Star - remembrance.
Prince studio session clip - wow!
Prince at the AMA's Purple Rain 1985
Prince and Little Weird Black Boys Gods - remembrance
Prince stayed home in Mpls and it made him special
Photos - Prince's fans mourn the loss of a hometown legend
Prince and Lenny Kravitz - American Woman
Amazing live Prince vintage clip - Motherless Child - in Spain?
Prince - I hate you
Jimmy Fallon and Questlove trade Prince stories on SNL
SNL Goodnight Sweet Prince tribute show
Prince live on Ellen performing Kiss
Prince the Secret Philanthropist
Questlove remembers Prince
Ellen DeGeneres pays tribute to Prince
Jimmy Fallon talks about playing ping pong with Prince (hilarious)
Prince, Time and others in an excellent jam
Prince, Motherless Child (amazing)
Prince on Oprah
Prince 1991 MTV awards show (wow!)
Prince live on Lovesexy tour 1988 - piano!
Paisley Park pilgrimages (photos)
D'Angelo Prince tribute - Sometimes it Snows in April
Remembering Prince - Four Decades of City Pages Stories
10 Examples of Prince's Guitar Heroism
Prince and Larry Graham - Thank you for letting me be myself
Prince remembered by Andre Cymone
Prince Mutiny with New Power Generation
Prince Lovesexy Tour 1988
Prince Emancipation (from Paisley Park) 1996
Prince and the Revolution Irresistible Bitch and Possessed medley, 1985
Prince Live at the Alladin Las Vegas
Prince Bambi 2013
Amazing vocal tribute to Prince by L. Young
Amazing photos of Paisley Park tributes on the fence by Sepia Queen Photography
1999 people sing When Doves Cry - haunting and gorgeous
I was at lunch with a friend yesterday when we heard the news - people started calling, texting, messaging. The first text was from my ride or die - "Prince is dead. Check your Twitter." The first call was from my 30 year old daughter to see if I had heard the news and was okay (she checked on me on and off all day). I'll remember that moment forever. Shock, disbelief, sorrow - and then the beginning of a day of stories - all of our stories, told to each other and over social media - of how Prince shaped our lives, was in our skin, and that we could viscerally feel the doves crying.
Worldwide mourning unfolding, with its epicenter in Prince's hometown and mine, Minneapolis. You can't have lived here over the past decades and not have Prince stories. He was among us and in us. This early morning after, I choose to share my Prince stories as part of our collective story. My stories are mostly on the sidelines, but they are deep and true and lodged inside my broken heart.
Prince was born in 1958 and I was born in 1956. I considered him an age peer and always looked to him as my shining star of how to keep doing you, keep reinventing yourself while never losing your inner core.
I remember the early Prince, who went from Bryant Jr High just blocks from where I then lived to superstar - who was "weird" but making amazing music that only could have been born from here - a mix of rock, pop, R&B and funk. He played very early at the Way, an old North Minneapolis organization that was housed where the 4th Police Precinct now exists. Then he blew up, mostly thanks to Purple Rain.
I remember standing in line at the old Varsity movie theater in Dinkytown to see the world premiere of the movie (is that even right, the world premiere, memory is a hazy thing). That foggy memory says it might have been raining.
During most of the 80s, I was a working, married mom with little kids. I missed all the concerts, the First Ave jams, Paisley Park. But between Raffi and other kid music, I'd play Prince, not shielding my kids' ears from those nasty lyrics and funky, funky dance beats. And we'd all see Prince everywhere - in clubs out to hear local live music, and about town doing his everyday thing. You couldn't live in Mpls and not experience that. We were all so proud of our hometown kid made good. That he launched a sound from Minneapolis that was of us - and it seemed, for us (even if the world loved it too).
Later, in the 90s, Prince became something else for me. I had all his albums and was still listening all the time. His sassy gender fluid self and music that celebrated sex in all its raunchiness stirred something that was just beginning to awaken in me. I was in my 30s and had a good husband and a good life, but something was missing - a thing that shimmered and quaked in songs like Cream, Get Off, and Sexy MF - my queerness. I knew I needed to find a place - the erotic city - where that music and that gender fluidity lived in me and those who surrounded me. And I did, finally, in 1995.
I spent the next decade dancing my heart out in queer clubs two or three nights a week. Prince was part of our soundscape, our love and our sex. Of course straight people had this same experience, but to be inside Mpls's queer erotic city and have those experiences with the people who made me want to "turn your big ass around so I can work on that zipper" was a homecoming. And life giving.
I only saw him live once - his Musicology tour. My new girlfriend - who is now my spouse of almost 13 years - took me to see the man I referred to as "my husband" because, well, he was my husband. It was one of my first moments of cognitive disconnect with aging. The arena - Xcel Energy Center - was full of middle aged people like us. I think in our hearts we all were still somewhere in the 80s, but it was 2004. Yet there he was, on fire, in heels and fabulous, playing the hits and the new stuff, seemingly ageless and timeless, and reminding us you are never too old to get your funk on.
For years I was part of a group of friends who threw an annual "HalloQueen" house party, a gay affair where we dragged the night away in amazing, hilarious routines. One year my dear friend Erin and I did a Prince/Madonna medley to Little Red Corvette and Like a Virgin (she was Prince, I was Madonna). It was hysterical and epic. There is video evidence that I'll keep private. My friend passed away from cancer several years ago and I watch that video on occasion when I'm missing her.
Over these last few years we all started seeing more of Prince out and around town again. At concerts here and there - he even had a table at the Dakota. More parties at Paisley Park. I was now free to go, but I still didn't. Most of my friends were wanting to stay in more, stay out late less, and if I'm brutally honest, I was right there, too. But reflecting back, I wish I had found my small crew of Prince peeps who would on occasion be willing to stay up all night for a chance to see his royal purple highness and eat pancakes.
I almost pressed "purchase" for his one of his three surprise gigs at the Dakota a couple years back, and recently, for his Piano and a Microphone Tour. But I didn't. Mostly I don't believe in regrets, yet this morning I regret those choices - or regret not working harder at calling friends who surely would have gone.
And finally, we are back to last night. After work, I was compelled to hop on the light rail, go downtown to First Ave and pay my respects with fellow fans. I wore the Prince jacket I made years ago and even had someone snap a photo of me in it in front of his star. I watched the crew setting up for the street party going down a couple hours later, but ended up going home. Looking at photos and videos this morning from that street party and the all night dance party inside First Ave (that is just winding down as I type this), I have this feeling of missing out, again. I have no one to blame but myself.
I have to catch myself from falling too far into the melancholic nostalgia that has been washing through me on this week of turning 60 - of knowing that what's ahead is uncertain and certainly too short. Most of my decades with Prince were intimate - in my home listening to music, or dancing at clubs or house parties. So my pilgrimage to First Ave alone and heading home before dark was perhaps my perfect goodbye to Prince the person. There is comfort in knowing his legacy and music lives on for all of us. Just last week I made a playlist (once we called them mixtapes) to celebrate my six decades of living, and the first song on it? Sexy MF. Of course. And Erotic City is there too, right in the middle, just as it was in my life. That Prince died just a few days later is unbelievable to me. And a reminder to us all - say yes more than no, hit purchase if you really want to go, or be okay chilling at home. Do whatever is in your heart. And most of all, do you.
Thank you, Prince.
Prince covering Joni Mitchell's A Case of You
You're in my blood like holy wine/you taste so bitter and so sweet/I could drink a case of you, darling, and still be on my feet/still be on my feet.
Celebrating the soundtrack of my life.
1. Sexy M.F., Prince
2. Free Your Mind, En Vogue
3. Happy, Pharrell Williams
4. Got to Give It Up. Marvin Gaye
5. Family Affair, Sly & The Family Stone
6. Now That We Found Love, Heavy D & The Boyz
7. Q.U.E.E.N. (feat. Erykah Badu), Janelle Monáe
8. Shame (feat. Eve & The A Group), Jill Scott
7. Mas Que Nada (feat. The Black Eyed Peas), Sergio Mendes
8. Funkin' for Jamaica, Tom Browne
9. Boogie on Reggae Woman, Stevie Wonder
10. Boogie Oogie Oogie, A Taste of Honey
11. Blame It On The Boogie, The Jacksons
12. Sexual Healing, Max A Million
13. Erotic City, Prince
14. I Love the Nightlife (Disco 'Round), Alicia Bridges
15. Dancing Machine, Jackson 5
16. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing), Michael Jackson
17. Love And Happiness, Al Green
18. Let's Stay Together, Al Green
19. We Trying to Stay Alive, Wyclef Jean
18. If You Want Me to Stay, Sly & The Family Stone
19. Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, The 5th Dimension
20. Supermoon, Zap Mama
21. Safiatou (f/Santana and Angelique Kidjo)
22. Say Hey (I Love You), Michael Franti & Spearhead
23. Golden, Jill Scott
24. Green Garden, Laura Mvula
25. The Rain, Jill Scott & Will Smith
26. As, Stevie Wonder
27. Overjoyed, Stevie Wonder
28. Simply Beautiful, Queen Latifah
29. Everybody Loves the Sunshine, Roy Ayers
30. Up Above My Head (I Hear Music In the Air), Ruthie Foster
31. In The Morning, Nina Simone
32. Three Little Birds, Bob Marley & The Wailers
33. Lovely Day, Bill Withers
34. Seasons of Love, Rent
35. Don't Worry Be Happy, Bobby McFerrin
36. Happy Birthday, Stevie Wonder
37. Dance Me to the End of Love, Leonard Cohen
