After listening to an absolutely obscene amount of Prince in the past few days, I think I can say with a good deal of certainty that my favorite all time song is Take Me With You. It’s charming piece, a sweet love song, and the way Prince and Appolonia’s voices harmonize make it so sexy and with a sense of yearning and desire and potential. It makes you feel good and makes you think about the freshness and intensity of young love.
Every day since his death I’ve woken up with this song in my head. It’s just a perfect little song. It’s beautiful and bright and sunny and upbeat and just makes me feel good. In a sense, this simple song triggers more complex emotions than many. I love it.
Robin G.
I was so glad to see the NFL posted his 2007 halftime show. He’s just out there, a couple of dancers and the band, in pouring rain, and he absolutely kills it with nothing but raw presence and talent. I still remember my jaw dropping as I watched.
debbie
@Robin G.:
Unbelievable that no one slipped on the rain-slicked stage.
rikyrah
@Robin G.:
The thing that always cracks me up about that show is that Prince went out in front of a crowd of 100,000 in the stadium, and another 100 million watching on tv – in a do-rag. And, did the concert to perfection. Always cracks me up.
geg6
I have numerous favorite Prince songs, but like this one does for you, “Raspberry Beret” does for me. It’s sweet and fun and bouncy and has been running through my head from the minute I heard he was gone. I am still very sad over this and I, too, have been gorging on Prince since Thursdsy. Every song I can find.
rikyrah
Current radio station in Minneapolis was wonderful. Being able to listen to his songs as I drifted off to sleep and as I woke up for those couple of mornings, really helped.
JCJ
I read an article from Rolling Stone thar listed songs that Prince wrote for other performers. The one that surprised me completely was rhe Bangles song “Manic Monday.” Loved listening to Sheila E singing “Love Bazaar ” from that list.
Emma
@rikyrah: I don’t watch football,so I missed it, but the next Monday at work this AA co-worker was whooping about the do-rag. Learned a new word and got a new appreciation for the guy.
rikyrah
Struggling single mother jailed over accidental fire finds outpouring of help
Jeannetta Maclin, 23, of St Louis, was at work trying to make ends meet when her children played with a lighter. When her neighbors learned the details of her case, they called for lenience from the court: ‘The system failed this mom’
Sunday 24 April 2016 11.30 EDT
The scene that confronted firefighters was harrowing. Two young boys who had been left home alone and found a lighter to play with had accidentally set the apartment on fire and now were unconscious due to smoke inhalation.
They managed to revive the children, and their mother was soon in jail, her police mugshot doing the rounds on local media in St Louis, Missouri, where the near-tragedy occurred in February.
But then something unusual happened.
When people in the city heard the young woman was a single mother, with no criminal record, who had left her sons at home in desperation so she could go to her low-paid job and make rent before the landlord evicted them, they took action.
Thomas Payton, an emergency medical technician who was on duty at the hospital when the boys were brought in, was just one of a number of concerned citizens who went to court on her behalf and begged for leniency for the mother, Jeannetta Maclin, 23.
“I told the judge I thought the system had failed this mom and I had come to plead for her, that she and her kids deserved a chance and this bad decision she had made should not be the one that defines the rest of her life,” Payton said.
“They are stuck between a rock and a hard place and they need help, not punishment”
cleek
it’s Kiss for me.
rikyrah
I truly believe that Purple Rain is a modern hymn. I can’t even begin to express what that song meant to me as an awkward Black youth that didn’t fit into any stereotypes.
EriktheRed
Personally, my fave song if his is Controversy.
rikyrah
Oh, you mean the man who won his elections and isn’t on the ballot in 2016?
LOL
McConnell tries to rally GOP without mentioning Republicans
Associated Press April 23, 2016
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is urging Republican delegates to focus on a single politician: Barack Obama.
McConnell focused nearly all of his speech during Saturday’s Kentucky Republican Convention on opposing the outgoing Democratic president. Not mentioned were any of the potential Republican alternatives, who are embroiled in a nasty fight over delegates heading into a possible chaotic national convention this summer.
“What is the fundamental argument our nominee will make? I think it is pretty much like this: ‘If you are happy with where we are, if you think this is as good as America can do, then Hillary is your candidate. But if you think we can do better, by taking an entirely different path, you should be for me,'” McConnell said, speaking in the voice of the future GOP nominee without saying who that person would be.
Major Major Major Major
Reposted from below (I know, I know, I’m just sad):
Just wanted to share the wiki article for my friend that passed this weekend. Maybe his audio engineering graced some of your viewing and gaming. RIP.
rikyrah
Listening to Obama makes me want to be American for a day
Saturday 23 April 2016 19.05 EDT
One university summer, I was thrilled to get an internship on Capitol Hill. It was way back in the early Dubya years. I was interning in a Democrat office full of liberal staffers from Massachusetts and everyone was obsessed with The West Wing. “President Bartlet is my President” T-shirts were all the rage and the hottest office gossip was whether the fictional president would re-run despite just having announced to the country that he had MS.
I loved The West Wing then and having just finished a mammoth rewatch of all seven series, I still love it. What is so brilliant about the show? It wasn’t just the liberal fantasy policies – the Israel-Palestine peace agreement, social security reform, tax-deductible college tuition. It was also the way President Josiah Bartlet (as played by Martin Sheen) practised politics: he was not always perfect; sometimes disappointing his staff; sometimes making the wrong call – but somehow managing to combine a scary intellectualism with deeply held values and a warmth and ability to connect with people. He was a character who inspired a small group of staff, then his party, then a nation to back him against the odds.
Easy (or at least easier) to script for a TV programme, much harder to pull off in the real world. I remember having conversations round the Congressional water cooler that went along the lines of: “Yeah, but you’d never actually get a guy like that as president of the United States.”
But watching Barack Obama charm his way into our hearts here in Britain has reminded me of how brilliant he is at – well, just talking to people. Whether addressing a nation on TV, getting a grilling from journalists or rolling up his sleeves and taking a Q&A in a roomful of young people, he knows how to connect in a way no other present-day politician can.
rikyrah
Syria conflict: Obama rules out ground troops for Syria
34 minutes ago
From the section Middle East
President Barack Obama has ruled out deploying US ground troops in Syria and says military efforts alone cannot solve the country’s problems. “It would be a mistake for the United States, or Great Britain… to send in ground troops and overthrow the Assad regime,” he told the BBC.
He also said he did not think so-called Islamic State would be defeated in his last nine months of office. But he said: “We can slowly shrink the environment in which they operate.”
Mr Obama, who has been on a three-day visit to the UK, also warned that Britain could take up to 10 years to negotiate trade deals with the US if it votes to leave the EU in a June referendum.
(snip)
Mr Obama told the BBC that Syria was a “heart-breaking situation of enormous complexity”.
“I don’t think there are any simple solutions,” he said. “In order for us to solve the long-term problems in Syria, a military solution alone – and certainly us deploying ground troops – is not going to bring that about.”
(snip)
John Revolta
“Somebody take my picture!!”
Mr Stagger Lee
@EriktheRed: Controversy was my favorite too.
PEOPLE CALL ME RUDE.
I WISH WE ALL WERE NUDE!
I WISH THAT THERE’S NO BLACK OR WHITE!
I WISH THAT THERE’S NO RULES!
Then there is his later hit Money doesn’t Matter 2night.
Hey now, maybe we can find a good reason
2 send a child off 2 war
So what if we’re controllin’ all the oil,
Is it worth a child dying 4? (is it worth it?)
If long life is what we all live 4
Then long life will come 2 pass
Anything is better than the picture of the child
In a cloud of gas
And u think u got it bad
I will miss him.
rikyrah
The absolutely incredible blue city that came straight out of a dream
Tucked in the north of Morocco, there is a small town called Chefchaouen. This unusual place can be safely called a ’blue dream,’ since the old part of it is filled with buildings painted in all shades of blue — from baby blue to aquamarine.
This unusual coloring was introduced by Jewish refugees, who believed that the more you look at anything blue, the more often you think about heaven and God. The tradition caught on, becoming a signature feature of the old part of town.
Bright Side invites you to take a walk down the narrow streets of this otherworldly place.
Germy Shoemangler
Erykah Badu “Hotline Bling” produced by Zach Witness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YQLzxmRzYE
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@rikyrah:
Mitch promises to make Obama a 2 term Prisdent, no more for Barak!
TaMara (HFG)
@Major Major Major Major: I saw that earlier. I am so sorry.
I am still surprised how emotional I am about Prince. I’m not usually one to get all gushy about a celeb passing. But there is a chord somewhere deep for me that has been struck. And I’m just sad. And like with Robin Williams, I hope Prince understood how many people he gave so much joy to.
Mnemosyne
“Sign O’ The Times.” Its very restraint is what makes it so powerful.
TaMara (HFG)
I thought Bill Flanigan’s commentary on CBS Sunday Morning was spot on. There are some good videos at the link, too.
ETA to fix wrong commentator name.
A Ghost To Most
This just in – fuck the Penguins!
CarolDuhart2
@rikyrah: Which is why when i heard about the soda tax in Philadelphia, I was all for it-and Bernie Sanders is against it because it’s supposedly regressive. Would he be against a soda tax if it went towards free tuition?
Child care may be (oh hell, is) a more pressing issue than free tuition. Good child care can make the difference in a child even living to get to grade school, let alone college.
Also, think of the money raised from willing participants. People will give up cigarettes (bad for you and expensive), cut down on liquor or buy a big bottle of the good stuff and sip off it, but give up pop? Nooo…
Looking back on the lottery, don’t you wish that money was put into child care? Even the losers would have won or felt better about losing once they saw how happy and healthy the kids were, how well fed, how it reduced the crime rate.
Major Major Major Major
@TaMara (HFG): Robin Williams made me really sad. He wasn’t a giant portion of my life, but I have fond memories from childhood, and I used to live in Marin so he was sort of a fixture around town. I knew he suffered from depression, real bad, but… well, you never think they’ll actually do it.
MomDoc
@rikyrah: It helped me too. There were so many songs that I didn’t remember or had not heard since Prince was releasing albums every year and I missed some of them. I joined Tidal so I could listen to the ones that I did not own yet — then Beyonce dropped her music so I might have to actually join long-term.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Mnemosyne:
My favorite too, by far.
Far right party wins in Austria.
This is also a sign o’ the times. The right is rising all over Europe now, which will test their social democracies and their willingness to keep funding their safety nets for their “those people”. This is an object lesson for all those Sanders supporters who seem to think that a revolution that doesn’t change the way people think about who they want to share scarce resources with, could possibly succeed.
ETA: Freedom Party seems to be the go to name for white supremacists. Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose except racial superiority apparently.
Mnemosyne
Just when I think I couldn’t have a bigger crush on Daveed Diggs, I discover that he put on a tiger-striped coat to play Hobbes in a series of live-action re-enactments of the comic strips.
Roger Moore
@CarolDuhart2:
An interesting point. One thing to think about is that better child care might also help the schools in a variety of ways. One of the practical functions of schools, though not their intended purpose, is to serve as a surrogate child care. Making real child care available would free up schools to focus more on teaching and less on warehousing children while their parents are at work. And, of course, children in well-run child care would have a calm, structured environment where they could do stuff like homework.
lol chikinburd
“Purple Rain” will be stuck in my head until about this time next year. Beyond that, “When You Were Mine” has stood out for me in the retrospectives, as has a reminder of the wonderful sparseness of the production of the first verse and chorus of “Doves”. There’s enough later catalogue of his I haven’t heard that I need to — this career move’s probably going to work on me.
The regret is of now never hearing his (improbable and ludicrous-to-contemplate) cover of John Linnell’s “Oregon” that exists only in my imagination.
Brachiator
I was watching the news about Prince’s funeral. It was very reasonably a private function, but I was touched and amazed that the family gave those gift boxes to the fans. To thank them. To just acknowledge them. To include them. I don’t know. Words fail.
I’ve read that a public memorial will be scheduled later. I hope it’s glorious.
Major Major Major Major
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Well, at least they aren’t anti-Semitic…
CarolDuhart2
So many songs, so little time. Thanks to everyon’se for posting Prince songs. I never realized that there were so many-and so many I never really heard before. I stopped really buying musing sometime back in the early 90’s so I didn’t get to hear a lot of the B sides and album cuts.
I spent Friday grieving as if I lost a good friend-and in many ways I had. Prince always seemed the stable, eternal genius who would probably live to at least 70 or 80, creating and performing all the way.
I never thought I would outlive him by very much.
MikefromArlington
Some good links from the last 24 hrs
Purple Rain recording
Story behind Super Bowl half time
Chapelle show based off a true story
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
Prince also wore a do-rag on one of his SNL appearances showcased last night.
And the clip of his appearance at the SNL after party was nothing short of amazing.
Origuy
Someone posted a clip from the 1985 Grammys, with Prince doing Baby, I’m a Star. It turns into a rave, with people coming onstage from the audience to start dancing.
scav
Sudden thought. Free College education won’t really up-end things until we put a substantial effort and long-term cash into providing equal and better opportunities at the the elementary and HS level. That and child care and better general living infrastructure for those foundational years. Yeah, I’m entirely somewhat slow. So as a banner-plank for socialism, college is really catering to a fairly comfortable tranche and moreover where the actual benefits are going to fall might even work to further entrench the already comfortable. Certainly a lot more pure pandering than I would have ideally hoped for. Plowing money into public infractructure for the general wellbeing of all children just isn’t sexy enough. I really am slow sometimes, at best all I can claim is a gut discomfort with it being any sort of magic bullet.
Brachiator
@geg6: One of the joke/observations about Prince posted here and there was this
Made me think of a little bit of “When you were mine,”
Oh when you were mine
I use to let you wear all my clothes
glory b
@rikyrah: I know! like my mother says about those of us at “events” with do rags, “What, exactly, is he/she saving that do for?”
Maybe my favorite is “Kiss,” because it’s a nice ode to the average girl, you don’t have to be beautiful, rich, cool, etc. for him to be with you. The nerdy black girl that I was loved that song.
“Nothing Compares 2 U” sstill makes me tear up a little about a broken relationship that happened when the song was out.
“U Got the Look” is bouncy and fun, female sex positive, and I danced my ass off to it in the day:)
Jeffro
John, great call on “Take Me With U”. Also excellent non-mega-hit frequent earworms from the Purple One: “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” and “Baby I’m a Star”.
Anyway, on a side note, I remember when Katy Perry came out with “Birthday” a year or two ago…I was with my kids and couldn’t wait until we got home, to play them “Uptown” by Prince. They were astounded that the O so original Ms. Perry had copied Prince like that. It was like 3 life lessons in one. (And they like “Uptown” better, to boot)
bluehill
@CarolDuhart2: If you haven’t seen his solo during “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at a George Harrison tribute show, it’s amazing. I know he is a great guitarist, but this made me realize that he is one of the greatest ever. He stays within the song but makes it his own. At the end he throws his guitar in air and it doesn’t appear to come down. The joke is that it disintegrated after his solo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SFNW5F8K9Y
glory b
@rikyrah: Someone said that Prince gave black kids permission to weird, to be geeks.
BTW, for those who have BET Soul, they are playing just about every song he had a part in, including the Time, Lisa and Wendy, Melissa Morgan, Sheena Easton, Sheila E., etc.
I keep trying to turn it off or change the channel, but I can’t bring myself to do so.
CarolDuhart2
@scav: True, so many kids start off with deficits that are hard to overcome. College may be too late for some. But if we put our money into early childhood education and day care, then the kids would come to school ready to learn and more emotionally balanced. Think of the parents too, who would be able to function better as parents free from constant fear.
For one thing, paid for care would include meals-healthy ones, someone who could read to them and play with them. Early childhood education would help kids at their most malleable-to learn colors, words, numbers. They could learn basic concepts about the world, and just feel free to play in peace. Another-it could prove an economic lifeline to some people who want to care for children but can’t afford to stay in the profession long because of the low pay. People who love kids need to be able to keep loving kids and helping them without having to take a vow of poverty.
As far as the funding I mentioned before-I’m pretty radical here. Let’s slap a 2 cents “snack tax” on all of it-cookies, packaged cakes, popcorn, chips and other stuff. Would we really miss the extra money? Probably not, no more than the liquor tax is noticed by drinkers, or the pot tax by pot smokers. It beats begging Congress, putting levies on the ballot or begging sometimes racist/classist legislatures for more money. Only people who indulge pay. And by the way, how about repurposing that lottery money?
Mnemosyne
@bluehill:
I love that grin he shares with Tom Petty and Dhani Harrison after a bit of showmanship (no spoilers for those who haven’t watched it yet). Like, hey, watch this!
bluehill
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, I forgot to add that’s he’s on stage with Tom Petty, Jeff Lynn, Steve Winwood and other really talented musicians. Prince leaves them in awe, which shows you how good he is.
rikyrah
@MikefromArlington:
I watched the Chappelle show skit again last night, and it had me in tears again. Hilarious!
MikefromArlington
Oh how many hours of Prince videos have played in the last 48 hours globally.
glory b
@MikefromArlington: the Capelle show story is hilarious. I saw it when it came on his show.
I read that Prince got a real kick out of that. Dave Zirin (I know you guys know him, right/) said Prince liked it because he was a skilled basketball player and the high school he went to was a b=ball powerhouse. Zirin said at 5’2″, Prince would have to have been great to make the team.
Prince also used a picture of Chappelle dressed up like him holding a plate of pancakes as the cover shot for one of his singles.
I’m feeling like I lost a friend too, and surprised by how sad I am. One of my African American clerks said shew as tempted to ask for a bereavement day.
And the comments at the awesomelyluvvie.com posts on Prince will have you laughing and crying.
glory b
And OMG, the party/orgy video for “Get Off”!!
rikyrah
@glory b:
Prince also used a picture of Chappelle dressed up like him holding a plate of pancakes as the cover shot for one of his singles.
HILARIOUS!!
aimai
@CarolDuhart2: Agreed.
ThresherK (GPad)
You Got the Look, duet with Sheena Easton. When You were Mine, which I first knew from Cyndi Lauper’s debut album.
That endless creativity; no wonder he was so generous with it.
Betty Cracker
@cleek: Me too! That guitar riff!
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
The gift boxes thing makes me wonder again if it was more of a David Bowie situation where he had a terminal illness that he didn’t want to reveal publicly. I know he was kind of a control freak and super organized, but that seems like way too high a level of preparation for a random or accidental death.
AndoChronic
In the spirit of Prince. Peace and love to all BJers from North Minneapolis!
debbie
I just watched the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame video again. It is really like watching Hendrix again.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
It’s a beautiful arrangement. The melody and sharp counter melody. The change in beat. The blending of the strings with the synthesizer. changing the vocals from each channel.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Try this one: “Erotic City”
It’s rarely on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrOMt3Frn54
Meg
Hey, I actually have this same song in my head as well.
Bailey
@Major Major Major Major:
I think it’s worth pointing out that he actually suffered from Lewy Body Dementia. According to his wife, depression was actually a very small part of his issues.
The Prince song I’ve been listening to over and over again is “Paisley Park.” I think it doesn’t normally turn up on many “greatest” lists of his songs, but to me it’s just about perfect.
oldster
Great song, John.
Part of what is great about it is how it encapsulates the desperate loneliness of being young.
That’s part of why the song is so much better than the film-clips behind it. Prince in the film is trying to be too cool for school. It’s an act, and it’s bullshit. Prince in the song will do anything to be with someone who can rescue him from himself. That’s the truth for everybody that age (and many of us older).
(Of course–it’s also true that part of that age, and part of that desperation, is the constant attempt to act too cool for school. But I don’t see Prince the actor having that distance from himself as an image on screen, the way he does as a singer.)
The best young love songs are desperately sad, whether it’s Morrissey singing “there is a light,” or the Beach Boys wailing “fun all summer long”.