Prince's relationship with money was convoluted, to say the least. His secret and private nature didn't help to understand the reasons behind some controversial decisions he made during his lifetime. In this article, these topics will be analyzed in the light of revelations made since April 21st, 2016.
As an icon of not just music but popular culture in general, when you mention Prince to anyone who isn’t necessarily a fan, they will more than likely conjure up a very specific image of him in their mind. It will relate to a particular period, and be linked to a particular color.
Since April 21st 2016, I have often felt the need to write something about his death, and what it meant for the many hardcore fans around the world. But very soon I realised it was very sensitive material to me: the superstar, the music genius living in an ivory tower for decades… was actually someone I felt very, very close to me.
While it’s comforting to think we, as longtime fans, knew the real Prince, the reality is he was a deeply complex and contradictory character.
The late careers of many music superstars share certain features: compilations of hits (sometimes in new versions); albums in collaboration with other musicians, often selected from younger generations; tours every few years where they play pretty much the same old hits all nights; and releases of remastered albums from their heyday, including outtakes, to please old fans and re-sell old material.
After shamelessly taking over the 80s with masterpieces of the size of Sign O the times (1987), Prince’s career started to get in troubles in the 90s, despite major albums as The Gold Experience (1995) and Emancipation (1996).
A personal view on the current status of Prince’s career. For longtime fans of Prince’s music, as me, this is a weird time in his career. The figure of Prince holds a status of legend which is unreachable for most musicians, from any period. His track record is nothing short of astonishing because of many reasons: he demonstrated his talent to Warner Brothers executives when he was still very...
