Prince.

    I was shocked when I heard that Prince had died on Thursday. Someone told me in school and I thought it was a hoax. My mom always told me he was one of the greats; knowing how to play countless instruments and how to command a whole room when he was on stage. When I came home from school, we put on MTV and they played Prince videos and we even watched "Purple Rain". I didn't realize how many songs of his I knew. My mom always wanted to take my sister and I to see him, but we never got tickets. She told me about when she got to see him perform at the MTV 10 Year Anniversary party. Here's what she said:

"It was a very hot night and I had tickets to see an unusual concert line up of  Alice In Chains, 3rd base, LL Cool J and Fishbone at The Academy theater in NYC (which is no longer there). Unfortunately that was also the night of the MTV 10th Anniversary party which was for employees only.  Prince was putting on a private concert for our party.  The concert at the Academy was being taped for a concert series called ABC In Concert.  I went to the show.  It was awesome.  All 4 acts were amazing.  You wouldn't think the audience for such different performers would mesh, but it was a great show  and everybody had a great time. Shows like that don't happen anymore.  I got out late and I was sweaty and exhausted but I decided to head over to the MTV party  to see if I could still catch the Prince performance. I was a huge fan of Prince's earlier work and of course Purple Rain, but wasn't crazy about the new stuff he had put out at that time.  Still, I had always heard about what an amazing performer he was and didn't want to miss out on seeing him perform in such a small intimate environment.  All I have to say is thank god I went.  I got there just in time to see his set.  He performed for about an hour and he was nothing short of amazing.  To this day I have never seen an artist perform the way he did.  The only way I can describe it is as a religious experience. And a corny as that sounds that's the only way to describe someone who's been truly blessed by God with so many amazing gifts.  Years later I was supposed to work on an MTV Prince project at Paisley Park but had the flu.  The MTV party was the only opportunity I ever had to see Prince perform"

*The link to that concert my mom was at is at the end of the blog post. There is no video to Prince's performance at the MTV party.*
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   These past few days I've watched so many videos and clips of him, and he was really such a respectable man. They said he wrote enough songs that there's enough to put out an album every year for the next 100 years, and more after that. It blows my mind that someone could have so many original thoughts and ideas while being an extraordinary performer at the same time. Prince gave us everything he had, and it makes me happy to know that people everywhere are cherishing his talent. I only hope one day to have a fraction of his talent.

Thank you Prince.
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​If you haven't seen anything from Prince or want to watch more of him, here are some of my favorite performances of his:

Here's Prince performing with the word "slave" written on his face in the midst of a battle with his record company.

Don't mind the drunk "celebrities" around him.

If you want to see what real concerts used to be like. 👆

     
     
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