Rainmaker, R.I.P.

RAINMAKER, R.I.P. I had early Prince albums. You know the early ones, but it was 1999 that really blew me away and I obsessed over it in a different way. I used to lie alone on my floor playing it all night. I loved the album cover. In some ways it was the album cover that made it different than his earlier albums to me. I wa so into the artwork. I was so into the color purple and the cartoony drawings that were on the front cover. And I must have starred dreaming at Prince in bed forever. When I went out dancing and anything tfrom this album came on I was so excited. Look at Princes ROOM. Look at him in bed! His room as so cool! I am an artist and there he is with his watercolours!!! I didn't write an obit yet for Prince. I usually write something when someone I care about dies, in fact, I'm actually kind of good at writing tributes for an obit. I have a section on my blog. But I just didn't know where to start for Prince and I would cry when I did start. Last week I heard "Little Red Corvette" on the radio and I really lost my shit. Of all the Prince songs, why this one? I didn't even list it as one of my favorites of his. But hearing that song tore me apart. The hope, the freedom, the desire in those lyrics. Somehow Prince took the great American car anthem and made it so special and unique and young again: he locked swords with all those youthful greaser songs and made it so deep and tragic. When he sings with a screeched forced high cry "And I say the ride is so smooth" it felt like my heart would break. I didn't know that this week it would really break. I am so sad. It was the autopsy report that got me focused to write this obit finally....I had been putting it off. To think of Prince all alone, in his elevator dying from an overdose....not safe, not with anyone I think of how Prince kept me company when I was all alone. I think of the tragedy of him losing his wife, his baby and just being so alone and vulnerable. I know people say he had a lot of pain. The rumour is he had blown out his hips, his knees and feet from dancing and jumps. If he didn't opt for surgery he chose pain relief. I guess. But you know, I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist. And I am with Dick Gregory on this one...I think someone turned away and let Prince die. He had got his music rights back. He had stuck it to the man. And any news reports coming from TMZ have to be taken with caution seeing as who owns TMZ? Time Warner. I am so sad that for whatever reason, Prince was alone and taking opiates. And I am sad we live in a world where art and evil are institutionalized.I am sad we live in a world where the news agencies are owned by the people who oppress us and produce art. And I am so inconsolably sad tat Prince was so strong and smart yet still so vulnerable. What if god was one of us, just a slave like one of us?