Goodnight, Sweet Prince

Resplendent Prince

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan 

Prince in his Little Red Corvette.

Growing up in California in a fairly poor family and a run down area I had to find entertainment which cost nothing. A favourite past time was walking to the Boulevard and watching cars go by. There was a well to do neighborhood nearby and I could always tell which cars came from there. One in particular which I loved. A Little Red Corvette.

The man pushed boundaries
but he sure could dress

We moved to another area where white girls were in the minority at school. Looking back it may be that this was where both music and fashion came into my life. The mixed race kids knew all the best songs and dance moves. They had little money and yet they oozed style. Although young, the girls wore a lot of make up, and the boys dressed. I think all their money, whatever that they had, was spent on clothes and records.

Life was hard and childhood was short. Even before a lot of them left school they had children to feed and too many bills to pay. Most of the kids who attended this school did not dream of other lives, or doing great things. They knew their reality and they just wanted to survive the best that they could. And have some fun. They lived life fast, as if they were scared that it would run out before they had used it all up. They taught me so much and imparted the most important lesson upon me - You have to dance, and love hard, while you can.

"What's missing from pop music is danger."
~ Prince

By the time that Prince came onto the scene I had been grown up for a very long time and was living in a different country. Listening to him brought back memories of those early days, how free it was when we danced. And when I first heard Little Red Corvette I was mesmerised. Those lyrics, at once risky and liberating. He was the Prince of one night stands. The love child of 'Will you still love me tomorrow' and Little Richard.

Prince and his magic wardrobe

Surely a boy was never better named than he. Who was this man with the magical wardrobe as fascinating as the one in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe?
 

All gold leaf, with serpent eyeliner, like a Jackie Morris painting

For such a small man, at just five foot 2 inches, he sure had a LOT of swagger. Like something out of Grimms he flaunted and teased and he delivered. Here was one who dreamed, and knew that he had other lives to live. He got out. I wonder if he knew that he played for those other people who could not and did not? I am pretty sure that he did.

bedecked, bejewelled, embellished

As news of his death was released shocked fans began to pay tribute. City Halls lit up with purple lights and twitter sang his story.

San Francisco City Hall illuminated for Prince

Hard Rock Cafe, New York

New York's Hard Rock cafe paid tribute to him by featuring his lyrics on the front of its restaurant in the heart of Times Square - in the city where he announced just last month that he would be writing a memoir.

Projected on a purple background the sign read:

I never meant to cause you any sorrow

I never meant to cause you any pain

I only wanted to one time to see you laughing

I only wanted to see you

Laughing in the purple rain

RIP Prince

 "And just like that ... the world lost a lot of magic."

 Katy Perry on twitter

MY NOTES: 

Tori Amos in concert in 2014. I love how she has combined her version of Little Red Corvette with Stay With Me, the torch song by Shakespeare's Sister.  The sound quality is not great, but close your eyes and listen. If only Prince could have stayed a little longer.

Tori Here:

Prince here

The idea to turn City Hall in San Francisco purple came from local writer Eve Batey, who made her request on Twitter.


READ MORE:

Jack Hamilton writes

The story behind Little Red Corvette