Prince should be on the $20 bill

[SuperDemocrat]

Here are my reasons why

1) He is black so that should make the PC crowd happy

2) He is relevant to today since he made music

3) No one in high school knows who harriet tubman was

4) Prince didn't sound like a dick

 

[waltky]

#5 - And he's no longer alive...

Why so many celebrities have died in 2016
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 - The deaths of Prince and Victoria Wood this week come off the back of a number of other celebrity deaths this year: so are more celebrities dying?

We are only four months in, but it's already been a dark, dark 2016. It now seems rare for a week to pass without a significant celebrity death being reported - from David Bowie in the second week of January, to actor Alan Rickman a week later, to comedian Victoria Wood and Prince this week. "Enough, 2016" and a more vulgar alternative are phrases people are uttering more and more regularly. So is this wave of celebrity deaths the new normal? The answer is yes, according BBC's obituary editor Nick Serpell, who ought to know about such things. He says the number of significant deaths this year has been "phenomenal".

Looking at the basic statistics, there's a very clear upward trend. Nick prepares obituaries for BBC television, radio and online, that run once a notable person's death is confirmed. The number of his obituaries used across BBC outlets in recent years has leaped considerably. It's a jump from only five between January and late March 2012 to a staggering 24 in the same period this year - an almost five-fold increase. And that's before counting some of the notable deaths in April, including American singer Merle Haggard, the former drug smuggler Howard Marks and this week's two notable departures. But might it just be that the BBC has increased its store of obituaries to such an extent it means plenty more are being used?

Prince performs at the Apollo Theater in New York.​

There are indeed more obituaries in the BBC's files - some 1,500 in total - than when Nick started 10 years ago, he says. He adds a few more every week. But look elsewhere and the picture bears out. Here in the UK, the Daily Telegraph maintains a gallery of famous people who have died, and updates it throughout the year. Up to this time in 2014, the number of those in the gallery was 38. By this time last year, the number of people in the gallery was 30. This year, the number is already 75. At the beginning of every year, the (rather morbid) website deathlist.net lists 50 celebrities it believes may pass away that year. In six of the last 10 years, two or fewer of its predictions had come true by this time - this year, five names have died so far. This all invites the question: why?

There are a few reasons, Nick Serpell says. "People who started becoming famous in the 1960s are now entering their 70s and are starting to die," he says. "There are also more famous people than there used to be," he says. "In my father or grandfather's generation, the only famous people really were from cinema - there was no television. "Then, if anybody wasn't on TV, they weren't famous."

The baby-boom factor

[/CENTER]

 

[waltky]

Why did Prince change his name?

Why did Prince change his name to a symbol?
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 - When Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, it was treated as nothing more than a bizarre stunt. But some say it reveals more about his legacy as a business innovator.

When Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, it was regarded as both rebellious and foolhardy. Why did he do it? For a generation too young to remember his debut in the late 1970s or the impact of Purple Rain in 1984, Prince - who died yesterday - was perhaps best known as the musician who changed his name to a symbol. In 1993, Prince announced that he would no longer go by the name Prince, but rather by a "Love Symbol" which was a mash-up of the gender symbols for man and woman. "It is an unpronounceable symbol whose meaning has not been identified. It's all about thinking in new ways, tuning in 2 a new free-quency," he wrote in a statement at the time.

According to Neal Karlen, a former Rolling Stone writer who was one of the few journalists the late musician gave access to, together they wrote up a full explanation for the name change to bury in a time capsule at Prince's Paisley Park estate in Minnesota. "So he said," cautions Karlen. "I never went for any ground break." The controversial decision was derided as "crazy" and "ridiculous". Record sales declined. It presented all kinds of logistical challenges for the media, resulting in the clumsy title, "Artist Formerly Known As Prince". So why did he do it?

Prince holds a guitar shaped like the symbol that he took as his name in 1993​

The symbol was a rebellion against Prince's record label, Warner Bros. He first signed with the company back in 1977 when he was still a teenager, and together they produced some of his most famous titles, including Purple Rain and Sign O the Times. But after inking a new deal in the early 1990s, Prince chafed under the company's rigid production schedule. A prolific songwriter, he wanted to release material as soon as it was ready - he had 500 unreleased songs in his famous studio vault. But Warner Bros refused, believing it would saturate the market and dilute demand for the artist's music. "He felt the contracts at the time were onerous and burdensome," says John Kellogg, assistant chair of the music business management department at Berklee College of Music. "He rebelled against that."

Prince compared his contractual obligations to slavery, and began performing with the word "SLAVE" on his cheek. He saw his own name as a part of his contractual entrapment. "Warner Bros took the name, trademarked it, and used it as the main marketing took to promote all of the music I wrote," Prince once said in a press release. "The company owns the name Prince and all related music marketed under Prince. I became merely a pawn used to produce more money for Warner Bros." In 2000, after the contract expired, Prince went back to using his old name, which Kellogg says also freed him to innovate new ways of making money as an independent artist. "What a lot of people don't understand is that Prince was not only one of the greatest creative musical talents of the 20th Century, but he was also one of the greatest music business innovators of the last century," he says.

Prince produced music on his own independent label, he bundled exclusive LPs with concert tickets and newspapers. He became one of the first artists to sell an album online, and won a Webby Lifetime Achievement award for "visionary use of the Internet to distribute music". In 2015, when he announced that he would be releasing new music exclusively with Jay Z's streaming service Tidal, he repeated the same "slavery" comparison that he'd used back in the early 1990s. "Record contracts are just like - I'm gonna say the word - slavery," he said, according to Rolling Stone. "I would tell any young artist...don't sign."

Why did Prince change his name to a symbol? - BBC News

See also:

Five strange stories about mysterious Prince
Thu, 21 Apr 2016 - Was it true that Prince didn't believe in time?

Prince, who has died at his home in Minnesota, was known for his cross-genre pop music and multiple reinventions - but it was also the sense of mystery around the man that delighted his fans. As he rarely gave interviews, rumours about Prince flourished, and the star even admitted to teasing journalists because he wanted them to concentrate on his music. But the myths that arose also added to the enigma generated by his sexual ambiguity, outlandish performances and eccentric name changes. Perhaps most surprising was that some of the most outrageous stories about him were actually true.

1) He went without sleep

Prince was famous for being a workaholic and tireless music-obsessive, who produced nearly 40 studio albums and dozens of other recordings over a period of nearly 40 years. He was so dedicated that he is reported to have often stayed awake for days when in the studio working on early albums. The artist appeared to confirm the rumours in an interview in 1985, when he said: "There's not a person around who can stay awake as long as I can. "Music is what keeps me awake."

VERDICT: True

2) He knocked on doors for Jehovah's Witnesses

His friend and mentor Larry Graham, former bassist with the band Sly and the Family Stone, introduced Prince to the Jehovah's Witnesses in around 2001. "I don't see it really as a conversion. More, you know, it's a realisation," Prince told the New Yorker magazine in 2008. "It's like Morpheus and Neo in 'The Matrix.'" He began attending meetings at a local Kingdom Hall and, like his fellow Witnesses, knocked on doors from time to time to preach the religion's beliefs, according to the report. "Sometimes people act surprised, but mostly they're really cool about it," he said.

VERDICT: True

3) He did not believe in time

It might seem like a myth, but Prince long spoke about his view that time was a trick. In an interview with Dutch television in 1999, he said he had begun exploring that idea when he recorded his apocalyptic song 1999 in 1984. His views almost meant he did not believe in birthdays. "I don't celebrate birthdays" he said. "It stops me from counting days, which stops me from counting time, which allows me to still look the same as I did 10 years ago." It is a belief he came back to in later interviews, telling the Guardian in 2011 that he did not age because "time is a mind construct... It's not real."

VERDICT: True

4) He needed hip surgery

Along with high heels and flamboyant shirts, walking sticks were a feature of Prince's wardrobe from the early 1990s, but reports of hip problems emerged around 2005. He was said to have been planning secret surgery, but in 2009 the showbiz journalist Roger Friedman wrote that the star had refused a double hip replacement because his faith as a Jehovah's Witness did not allow blood transfusions. Another journalist said after a 2010 interview that it was clear from the singer's "agility" on the dancefloor that the rumours that he needed double hip surgery were "unfounded". But in the absence of official comment from the artist or his representatives, and Prince continuing to carry canes in public appearances, the story re-emerged in media reports as recently as this year.

VERDICT: Unclear

5) He painted his house purple

Fan sites are full of weird and wonderful stories, including claims Prince decorated his room as a teenager with mirrors and rabbit fur. Who knows? More widely documented were allegations he painted his rented home in Los Angeles purple in 2006. His landlord at the time, basketball star Carlos Boozer, sued the singer for unauthorised work, claiming he had painted the exterior of the house with purple stripes and his "Love Symbol", and installed monogrammed carpeting. Lawyers for the star argued that Boozer had collected his rent without complaint, and the lawsuit was dismissed.

VERDICT: Probably true

Prince death: Five strange stories about mysterious US musician - BBC News

 

[Steve_McGarrett]

Here are my reasons why

1) He is black so that should make the PC crowd happy

2) He is relevant to today since he made music

3) No one in high school knows who harriet tubman was

4) Prince didn't sound like a dick

David Duke or Neil Armstrong should grace the $20 bill. Why not John Wayne?

 

[sealybobo]

Here are my reasons why

1) He is black so that should make the PC crowd happy

2) He is relevant to today since he made music

3) No one in high school knows who harriet tubman was

4) Prince didn't sound like a dick

David Duke or Neil Armstrong should grace the $20 bill. Why not John Wayne?

David Duke can grace the $2 bill.

I couldn't sing along to one prince song he sang in the last ten or more years. Everything they play on the radio is from 30 years ago.

 

[Katzndogz]

Here are my reasons why

1) He is black so that should make the PC crowd happy

2) He is relevant to today since he made music

3) No one in high school knows who harriet tubman was

4) Prince didn't sound like a dick

David Duke or Neil Armstrong should grace the $20 bill. Why not John Wayne?

David Duke can grace the $2 bill.

I couldn't sing along to one prince song he sang in the last ten or more years. Everything they play on the radio is from 30 years ago.

There's no music today.

 

[waltky]

Suicide ruled out in Prince's death...

Police rule out suicide in pop icon Prince’s death, claim no signs of trauma found
Saturday 23rd April, 2016 - Revealing details of an investigation in to the death of pop icon Prince, Sheriff Jim Olsen has issued a statement claiming that there were no signs of trauma on the musicians’ body.

Addressing a press conference in Carver County, Minnesota, Olsen further added that there was no reason to believe that Prince’s death was a suicide. Reports had revealed that flamboyant pop musician Prince was found dead at his Paisley Park elevator in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen on April 21 Olsen reportedly stated that the fire, rescue and ambulance responded to the 911 call and found Prince unresponsive at his residence. He was later announced dead roughly 30 minutes later. Olsen reiterated that three staff members made the call after they weren't able to get a hold of Prince and went to Paisley Park to check on him. Deputies went through the building to make sure no one else inside.

In his statement, Olsen said, “This incident happened about 29 hours ago and it is still under investigation." Reports stated that Olsen claimed to have no information regarding a possible drug overdose. He however said, “We will be talking to people close to him, gathering medical records and working from there here.” Olsen added that a search warrant will be filed to further investigate the premises, while also revealing that somebody dropped Prince off at home about 8 pm the night prior to being found. He also added that since Prince was “a very private person,” it was not unusual for him to be by himself.

Reports stated that Prince's autopsy was completed at the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office by Chief Medical Examiner Dr A Quinn Strobl. His body would now be released to the family. Olson is said to have stated that his office will be working with three or four other police agencies on the case.

Police rule out suicide in pop icon Prince’s death claim no signs of trauma found

See also:

Prince cremated in private ceremony
Sun, 24 Apr 2016 - Prince has been cremated with a small, private service for family, friends and musicians, his publicist confirms.

The cause of his death is still unknown and the results of Friday's autopsy could take at least four weeks. Prince, 57, was found dead in a lift on his Paisley Park estate on Thursday, where fans are still paying tributes. Officials said there was no sign of trauma on the body and no indication the death was suicide. Publicist Anna Meacham said the singer's "final storage" would be kept private. "A few hours ago, Prince was celebrated by a small group of his most beloved: family, friends and his musicians, in a private, beautiful ceremony to say a loving goodbye," she said.

A woman writes on memorial sheet adorned with the symbol Prince once used to identify himself outside Paisley Park​

Among the people who attended the ceremony were percussionist Sheila E, bassist Larry Graham and Prince's sister Tyka Nelson. Prince's innovative music spanned rock, funk and jazz. He was at his peak in the 1980s with albums like Dirty Mind, 1999 and Sign O' The Times. He sold more than 100m records. The singer was last seen at about 20:00 on Wednesday night (01:00 GMT on Thursday) and was found unconscious by some of his staff at about 09:30 the next morning. Prince had been rushed to hospital in Illinois six days earlier, while flying home from a concert in Georgia, but was treated and released a few hours later. Quoting unnamed sources, US entertainment news site TMZ reported that Prince was treated in Illinois for an overdose of the painkiller drug Percocet.

Born Prince Rogers Nelson in 1958, he was a prolific writer and performer from a young age - reportedly writing his first song when he was seven. He was also an arranger and multi-instrumentalist, and recorded more than 30 albums. Hits included Let's Go Crazy and When Doves Cry. In 1984, he won an Oscar for the score to Purple Rain, a film in which he also starred. Throughout his career he had a reputation for secrecy and eccentricity, once changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol. Prince's latest album, HITnRUN Phase Two, was released last year and he had been touring as recently as this month.

Prince death: Singer cremated in private ceremony - BBC News

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Here are my reasons why

1) He is black so that should make the PC crowd happy

2) He is relevant to today since he made music

3) No one in high school knows who harriet tubman was

4) Prince didn't sound like a dick

David Duke or Neil Armstrong should grace the $20 bill. Why not John Wayne?

David Duke can grace the $2 bill.

I couldn't sing along to one prince song he sang in the last ten or more years. Everything they play on the radio is from 30 years ago.

I don't even hear anything on the radio from whatever year by that guy. Guess it depends on what radio stations you listen to. I could never understand the adoration of him.

It's too bad these guys kill themselves on drugs, but to look on the brighter side, at least now you can say he REALLY IS the artist formerly known as Prince.

 

[TheOldSchool]

Damn the internet really does have it all:

 

[my2¢]

I'll say the former Spokane NAACP president should be put on Monopoly's $20 play money.

 

[Markle]

Here are my reasons why

1) He is black so that should make the PC crowd happy

2) He is relevant to today since he made music

3) No one in high school knows who harriet tubman was

4) Prince didn't sound like a dick

5) Prescription Drug Addict

Probably not the best roll model.

 

[Auld Phart]

Damn the internet really does have it all:

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

I'll say the former Spokane NAACP president should be put on Monopoly's $20 play money.

As long as we don't have to provide a special restroom for her........

 

[Pop23]

Here are my reasons why

1) He is black so that should make the PC crowd happy

2) He is relevant to today since he made music

3) No one in high school knows who harriet tubman was

4) Prince didn't sound like a dick

OK, but to be completely PC

Caitlyn on the front

The Tidy Bowl man in the back

 

[NYcarbineer]

Here are my reasons why

1) He is black so that should make the PC crowd happy

2) He is relevant to today since he made music

3) No one in high school knows who harriet tubman was

4) Prince didn't sound like a dick

David Duke or Neil Armstrong should grace the $20 bill. Why not John Wayne?

I'm surprised you forgot about Dylann Roof.

 

[Hossfly]

Damn the internet really does have it all:

Well I just found this little tidbit,