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Legendary Music Icon Prince Dead At 57

Now it looks like Billy "Me and Mrs Jones" Paul has died. He was kind of a one-hit wonder, but I remember his hit song well on the AM radio as a kid in the '70's.

They come in three's, as the saying goes. I wonder whose next?:

http://www.tmz.com/2016/04/24/billy-paul-dead/

ETA: This part in the TMZ article cracked me up:

His 1975 hit, "Let's Make a Baby" became controversial as Rev. Jesse Jackson called for radio stations to boycott the song due to its sexuality.

Oddly enough, that coulda been Jesse's theme song with his mistress just a few years later. :)
 
a genius--great original music in his heyday and great performer and musician to the end. I'll miss him. Too bad about the JW thing and the surgery--to quote another singer/ songwriter he admired, Joni Mitchell, "Where some have found their Paradise/ Others just come to harm".
 
A conservative critic gets his ass handed to him about Prince

http://alicublog.blogspot.com/

But French just keeps finding new ways to be wrong. Take his Prince column. Yes, seriously, this horrible wingnut Jesus freak wrote one.

"Prince died last week, and America overreacted. No, I’m not diminishing Prince’s talent. He was one of pop music’s most gifted songwriters and musicians. As millions shared his more memorable performances, I realized I’d forgotten what a great guitar player and showman he was. He could write hit songs like few others, and he shared his talent freely, “gifting” songs to other artists. In short, he was one of the few pop stars whose fame was fully justified."

You can really feel his pleasure at Prince's work, can't you? You can't? Well, of course not; this is exactly the sort of thing I would write about a NASCAR driver ("I had forgotten what a great NASCAR driver he was... he could turn left like no other") if I were trying to pretend I liked him as a way to win the confidence of someone whose intelligence I didn't respect.

"But to spend time on the mainstream and left-wing Internet last week — or to listen to some of the web’s more popular podcasts — you would have thought America lost a national hero, and not merely an immensely gifted artist."

You heathens didn't cry like this when Andrew Breitbart died!

"...In our post-virtue culture, we worship celebrity and talent not for its own sake but for ourselves. Their talent is all about us. Their fame is for our amusement. Pop music fills the hymnals in the temple of the self. We are the stars of our own biopic, and we just lost someone who wrote part of the score."

Can't you see how selfish, how narcissistic it is to enjoy music? I mean, music that isn't hymns?

"The sentimentality is understandable, given the millions of people who could remember some significant moment in their lives that happened to the sounds of “Lets Go Crazy” or “When Doves Cry.”"

(You know he had to look them up.)

"...Our country doesn’t lack for heroes, but our true heroes certainly lack for fame. Even on the Left’s terms, valorizing Prince for his transient activism disrespects those who spent their lives in the trenches, fighting for their vision of “social justice.”"

Hmmm -- I don't remember "the Left" telling me not to mourn Prince; maybe I missed a meeting... but hold on, brother French has taken up a snake:

"For conservatives, Prince was ultimately just another talented and decadent voice in a hedonistic culture. He was notable mainly because he was particularly effective at communicating that decadence to an eager and willing audience."

GLORY HALLELUJAH THIS "PRINCE" WAS A VILLAIN IN A CHICK TRACT, MAKING THE KIDS GO A-FRIGGIN' AND A-FRUGIN' WHEN WHAT THEY NEED IS CHEESUS!

"...I don’t say any of this to denigrate Prince or his talents."

Fuck you.

"And I don’t say this to shame people out of listening to music they enjoy, though not all music is worth hearing."

You heathens ever hear Three Doors Down?

"Rather, it’s time for a dose of perspective. Music has its place..."

!!!!

"...and gifted musicians undeniably enhance our lives..."

You know, like air conditioning or wall-to-wall carpeting.

"...but if our hearts are given to these songs and those who make them, then our lives are unnecessarily impoverished."

And then it hits you -- French isn't just ignorant of Prince, or even just of music -- this poor, twisted freak literally doesn't know what art is. He doesn't know its place in human history, or why human beings invented it, or why it persists even when it doesn't make money or is suppressed. He thinks it's upholstery. He thinks it's some sort of trivial comfort. And he thinks so because he's been taught that all you need are Jesus and Bill Buckley and the pleasure you can take from the suffering of your inferiors, and anything else that has a claim on the human soul, whether it's justice or sex or art, must be crushed lest it steal their thunder.

These are the monsters that monsters bred. You think Trump is bad? You have no idea.
 
Just as a note, there is a commentator's commentary in between the quotes up above. I was having a hard time parsing that myself and was very confused... much more so than usual.

And thanks to the Internet anyone can say anything. Really a bunch of stupid things. 'Prince was awesome, but we shouldn't worship him.' Since when did mourning become idolizing?
 
Attorney: Prince Arranged to Meet Addiction Doctor - ABC News
The day before Prince died, his representatives reached out to a California doctor who specializes in addiction treatment to arrange a meeting, a Minneapolis lawyer for the doctor said Wednesday.

...
A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation has told The Associated Press that investigators are looking into whether Prince died from an overdose. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk about the investigation. The same official also said investigators are looking at whether Prince had suffered an overdose when his plane made an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, less than a week before he died.

...
Prince had a reputation for clean living, and some friends said they never saw any sign of drug use. But longtime friend and collaborator Sheila E. has told the AP that Prince had physical issues from performing, citing hip and knee problems that she said came from years of jumping off risers and stage speakers in heels.
So he may have been addicted to painkillers.

That would explain both his apparent overdoses and his reputation for clean living -- those painkillers would not count as "bad" drugs.
 
Okay, so the religion says you can't get the surgery, but pain killer addiction is alright?
 
Okay, so the religion says you can't get the surgery, but pain killer addiction is alright?

Who says religion is ever reasonable?

Religious people have sometimes concluded that murdering someone is better than divorcing them.
 
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