Fifty-seven, man, what the fuck? But you know, you don't really appreciate a musician, or anyone, if he or she lives a long life. Merle Haggard, for example, is the oldest of the musicians who have died so far this year (plus three days), but he lived a long life (and lived every single minute of that long life). It is quite sad that he passed, but he died at 79, a time when many good men and women finally pass over. (It sucks that he died on his 79th birthday, though.). Meanwhile, even though his hit-making days were behind him, it didn't look as though Prince was slowing down. He played back-to-back shows in Atlanta last week. He was at The Electric Fetus on Record Store Day (I was there, too; did I miss him?), and he was seen at the Dakota Tuesday night. He had many years of being an eccentric genius ahead of him. So when he was found dead in his Paisley Park elevator Thursday morning, he was robbed of life. And the world was robbed of him.
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Prince. Haggard. David Bowie. Phife Dawg. Glenn Frey. I'll add Natalie Cole, who died New Year's Eve, and Lemmy Kilmister, who died December 28, and say that 2016 has been an absolutely fucked-up year for musicians to die, especially ones that died before their time.
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A guy by the name of Jake Nyberg had a very insightful tweet Thursday afternoon:
A theory: While Prince is revered and loved in Minnesota, it's possible Minnesotans don't realize how HUGE he is globally.— jake nyberg (@jakenyberg) April 21, 2016
I don't think we ever took Prince for granted. But it's possible that our provincialism, the One Of Us obsession Minnesota has with people from here, has blinded us to how other people see him. We loved him; he may be revered around the country and the planet. I punched in "monuments building in purple prince" in Google Images, and even though it didn't filter out everything, the results pull up so many places on Earth bathed in purple Thursday in tribute to Prince that I was, frankly, shocked. (And not just edifices. There were many TV shows that lit their sets in or changed their graphics to purple -- Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Inside The NBA and, I swear, Washington Week. Rolling Stone's logo on their webpage is in purple, at least as I write this. And Google created this quick Doodle. Good on you, Google.) He was that popular?? And I know other Minnesotans were astonished by the worldwide outpouring of grief, even though they might not admit it.
And that brings me to my own theory: Prince was the greatest representative Minnesota had. This state and its native peoples have (or at least I believe we have) this image of being nice, smart, hard-working, modest, progressive ... and a bit weird. We are proud of a lot of things that are from and of here -- hockey, the Minnesota State Fair, A Prairie Home Companion, the Jucy Lucy, and Duck, Duck, Grey Duck. But I think people associate those things with Minnesota and go, "Yeah, that's nice ... I respect what you like, that's cool, but ... it ain't really my thing." In fact, I believe we Minnesotans love things that are acquired tastes to many others. We're passive-aggressive like that.
But there's no equivocation when it comes to Prince. Everybody knows who he is, and everybody recognizes him as a badass. Because he is. People have been mourning him by playing his music, but I swear, when we do, we're all dancing and smiling instead of mourning because, above all else, Prince wrote so many goddamn good songs. My Top 5 changes by the day: When Doves Cry (lately I've been digging on his line, "Animals strike curious poses" -- I mean, has Justin Bieber written a line like that? It's fucking poetry!), Let's Go Crazy, Purple Rain, I Would Die For U, Take Me With U. And that's all from Purple Rain!!! How about his songs before and after that: Raspberry Beret, I Wanna Be Your Lover, 7, Pop Life, Sexy Motherfucker, Cream, Thieves In The Temple.
And how about Pussy Control?! Oh my God, I've been trying to think of all the Prince songs I love, and some guy in Facebook commented yesterday about Pussy Control -- AND I TOTALLY FORGOT PUSSY CONTROL!!! It was never released as a single, but when you can write hit after hit, you get so much latitude to be an absolute fucking pervert. God Bless him!
See what I mean? The most popular musicians will forever be remembered for his or her songs, the feelings those songs make you feel, and the moments and childhood memories those songs trigger. That is a human emotion, and that is why the whole globe was shaken when Prince died. That is why this Minnesotan, this Minnesotan product, is so universally commemorated now.
I saw Kim Johnson, an anchor on Channel 4, say that "Prince was Minnesota, and a piece of Minnesota died today." That felt dramatic and even glib when I heard it Thursday night. But you know what? She's right. She knows because she is also One Of Us.
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I'll go one step further. This is #hotttakes territory, so buckle your seatbelt. It matters greatly that Prince lived here, at least part of the time. He was, by all accounts, a good neighbor and a solid, if quiet, citizen. You could see him around town. He loved local sports teams (I didn't know he was such a sports fan; that's why I feel so bad that I initially thought him doing the Super Bowl Halftime Show was a mistake. It wasn't.) It matters, however grimly, that he died in his Chanhassen home. And even though I have no idea where his cremated remains will lie, he has done so much holding on for his city that it doesn't matter.
Bob Dylan may be more important to music than Prince, and he is One Of Us -- technically. But after spending a quarter at the University of Minnesota he hightailed it to New York and never looked back. His physical intellectual property (manuscripts, recordings, notes, letters, photos) is being sold to, of all places, the University of Tulsa. Why? The university or the city holds the archives of Woody Guthrie, Dylan's idol, and the university also houses an extensive collection of Native American art, which is one of Dylan's interests.
I have no idea if the University of Minnesota, or any state entity, even had a chance at the archives of the man born in the Iron Range. If anyone did, I'm not sure if Dylan even wanted to give those efforts from the state a shot. In other words, since he became a young man, he hasn't really been a Minnesotan. That's cool -- the state stayed upright after he left, and leaving Minnesota didn't hurt Dylan none. But even if he Dylan dies and his body comes home to Minnesota, and if Prince's ashes will be taken to a place far away from Minnesota, the actions of the two best musicians from this state are clear.
Therefore, I can conclude this as fact: Minnesota's favorite son is not Bob Dylan -- it is Prince. And that should be known throughout the world, and more importantly, that fact should be realized amongst us. Prince Rogers Nelson is Minnesota, and that is why his death hits us so hard.
OK, so a writer and Hastings native named Matt Hendrickson surmised as such. He agrees with me.
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One final thing: TMZ is a dirty journalism rag, but dirty journalism rags are usually right when it comes to sordid facts. They have been saying that Prince has been using drugs, specifically opioids like heroin. If that is true it's ironic in one sense: Last week, Minnesota Public Radio (the local arm of National Public Radio) had a week-long series about the opioid epidemic ravaging our state.
If Prince overdosed, that series ended with these drugs taking the life of the state's most favorite son. And so, the narrative can go one of two ways. Either people will see this as another rocker dying because of drugs, or yet another person who was ensnared and finally claimed by painkillers. People will do nothing if it's seen as the former; Prince's end will only be an extension of the rock god myth. But if it's seen as the latter, maybe this country will start doing something about an addiction that is crippling this country. And maybe that could be Prince's final legacy.
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