WWW.MICHAELWILLIAMS.CO.UK: April 2016

Thursday, 21 April 2016

Prince Rogers Nelson. June 7, 1958 - April 21, 2016

The news that Prince has passed away has really hit me. After Bowie that is now two of my all time favourite artists gone. I was lucky enough to see Prince in concert a number of times and I can say he was the greatest solo artist I've ever seen live. Every show was incredible. I've been a fan since I was a teenager, and still love his music now.
The greatest of his generation.

It's strange how the loss of a musician can affect us - some people don't get it, they say ‘but you didn’t know them’. But if you’ve truly loved music and it has mattered in your life you still feel a loss because you felt a connection to that artist through their music, and that music ’spoke to you’, this artist could somehow put into words and music how you were feeling, and of course you connected to that. There are, I think for most people, key periods in your life when music has a big impact; when we love someone, when we lose someone, and for everyone there are the teenage years - music is literally the soundtrack to your teenage life. Prince and Bowie were a part of mine. I saw Bowie for the first time when i was 16 years old, I think if I remember correctly I was 19 when I saw Prince first. Prince albums really did seem to soundtrack my teenage years. ‘1999' at school discos, listening to 'When Doves Cry' on my Sony Walkman, and 'Raspberry Beret' still reminding me of a girl I had a huge crush on one summer and yet never even knew her name - I used to see her in town every now and then; the song connection? She really did wear a raspberry beret every time I saw her :)

Music is one of those things we connect to, becomes part of our memories, and can even help shape us I think. I has me anyway. It would take a much longer piece to really write about what music has meant to me, it even became central to my work, but I’m not writing that piece today.

Sorry, I can't resist posting these lyrics... :)

'In the beginning God made the sea

But on the 7th day he made me

He was tryin' to rest y'all when He heard the sound

Sound like a guitar cold gettin' down

I tried to bust a high note, but I bust a string

My God was worried 'til he heard me sing

My name is Prince and I am funky

My name is Prince the one and only'

Prince - 'My Name Is Prince'