A musical chameleon and flamboyant showman who never stopped evolving, Prince was one of the music world’s most enigmatic superstars. He celebrated unabashed hedonism, sang of broken hearts and spiritual longing, and had a mysterious personal identity that defied easy definition.
In such hit songs as “1999,” “Little Red Corvette,” “I Would Die 4 U,” “When Doves Cry” and “Purple Rain,” Prince produced a musical legacy and a provocative stage presence that set him apart from most other entertainers of the 1980s and ’90s.
He won seven Grammy Awards and in 2004 was named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He had performed this month but canceled an April 7 appearance in Atlanta because of what a representative called the flu.
His death Thursday at his home in a Minneapolis suburb was a devastating shock to the entertainment world and beyond. He was 57.
A cause of death wasn’t determined immediately. An autopsy was scheduled for Friday.
Prince was a songwriter, musician, producer, choreographer and performer, seemingly in equal measure. He crossed musical genres, from classic rhythm-and-blues to hard rock, funk and jazz, seeking a vision of originality with each incarnation. His primary canvas was, in effect, the studio, where he produced his music with a meticulous eye toward pop perfection.
“Few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly or touched quite so many people with their talent,” President Barack Obama said in a statement. “As one of the most gifted and prolific musicians of our time, Prince did it all. Funk. R&B. Rock and roll. He was a virtuoso instrumentalist, a brilliant bandleader and an electrifying performer.”
Onstage, he projected both an urgent masculinity and an androgynous vulnerability, as falsetto squeals yielded to deep baritone growls. He stood only 5-foot-2, but few had a more commanding presence. He wore leather and lace, sometimes at the same time. He strutted the stage in a long coat like a Regency dandy, only to throw it open and reveal scanty briefs underneath.
In the early years, his theatrical concerts featured cars, backup singers and dancers, elaborate lighting and sometimes raunchy, frankly sensual dramatizations. He linked sexual obsession with a sense of spiritual yearning, drawing comparisons with one of his early musical models, Marvin Gaye. As he played his guitar with a frenzied intensity, a geyser of liquid would spew forth from the guitar’s neck.
“Do you want to take a bath with me?” he said, as he tore off his shirt in concerts in the mid-1980s. He then stepped into a bathtub under a spotlight and let the audience’s imagination roam.
Prince’s music was full of bounce and drive, with memorable musical and verbal hooks. “Tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1999,” he sang in his 1982 hit “1999,” coining a phrase that would survive long past its expiration date into the new millennium.
In 2007, Prince gave what was widely regarded as one of the greatest Super Bowl halftime performances ever, singing “Purple Rain” and other songs in a downpour in Miami. As a songwriter, he penned songs recorded by Chaka Khan (“I Feel for You”), the Bangles (“Manic Monday”) and Sinead O’Connor (“Nothing Compares 2 U”), among other performers.
In 1988, Village Voice critic Robert Christgau declared that Prince’s varied talents made him “the greatest rock-and-roll musician of the era — as singer-guitarist-hooksmith-beatmaster, he has no peer.”
When “Little Red Corvette” became a major hit in 1982, it was one of the first songs by a black artist to be in regular rotation on MTV. It was one of the grand party songs of its era, celebrating youthful libido. His crowd-pleasing 1984 song “Let’s Go Crazy” began with a call to prayer — “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life” — before becoming a hard-driving dance tune.
His 1984 album “Purple Rain” sold more than 13 million copies in the United States and won two Grammy Awards. He also won an Academy Award for best original song score for the semiautobiographical film of the same name and in which Prince was the central character.
Six of Prince’s songs rank in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the top 500 songs in rock history, including “When Doves Cry” from “Purple Rain.” The song was simultaneously No. 1 on the pop, dance and soul charts in 1984.
The musically innovative tune had no bass line. Instead, Prince’s keening voice and an insistent rhythm track contributed to the mood of emotional desolation:
How can you just leave me standing?
Alone in a world that’s so cold? (So cold)
Maybe I’m just too demanding
Maybe I’m just like my father too bold
Beyond the erotic indulgences of some songs, Prince also created music of surprising subtlety and depth, showing that rock music could evolve from its adolescent impulses to a more wistful sense of maturity. He challenged Michael Jackson for pop supremacy and acknowledged the influence of such masters as Gaye, James Brown and Jimi Hendrix.
Drummer Ahmir Thompson, known as Questlove, of the group the Roots, wrote in Rolling Stone that “Purple Rain” was “a crowning achievement, not only in Prince’s career but for black life — or how blacks were perceived — in the Eighties. It’s the equivalent of Michael Jordan’s 1997 championship games: He was absolutely just in the zone, every shot was going in.”
But the depth, sweep and dynamism of Prince’s music also evoked comparisons with such disparate artists as John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Madonna. The kaleidoscopic quality of his talent — torn between stardom and artistry — was sometimes vexing. One of his managers told him, “You can’t be both Elvis Presley and Miles Davis.”
From an early age, Prince cultivated a certain sexual and racial ambiguity.
He deepened the mystery when he officially dropped the name Prince in 1993 and asked to be identified by a visual symbol that could not be pronounced.
His goal, he said, was to create a fresh artistic start.
Prince’s father, John Nelson, was a pianist in the jazz group Prince Rogers Trio, which would give the future superstar his name. His mother, the former Mattie Shaw, was a singer in the group.
Prince began playing piano at age 7 and soon became proficient on other instruments, including guitar, saxophone and drums. When he was 10, he saw James Brown in concert and was transfixed. He determined that he would try to emulate the soul star’s captivating style. He formed his first group in junior high school, began writing music and made a demo tape that attracted interest from Warner Bros. He wrote, produced and performed all the music on his debut album, “For You,” in 1978.
More than 30 other albums would follow.
About prince
• He was born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958, in Minneapolis.
• His father was John Nelson, a jazz pianist, and his mother, Mattie Shaw, was a social worker and singer.
• He was married twice — to Manuela Testolini Nelson and Mayte Garcia — and twice divorced. His only child, a baby boy with Mayte Garcia, died shortly after birth.
• In 1993, he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol during a dispute with Warner Bros. Many called him the “Artist Formerly Known as Prince.” In 2000, when the Warner contract expired, he went back to his original name.
• Prince earned 30 Grammy nominations and won seven awards. Five of his singles topped the charts, and 14 other songs hit the Top 10.
• In 1985, he won the Oscar for best original song score for “Purple Rain.”
• He became a Jehovah’s Witness in 2001. • In 2004, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• His Super Bowl halftime show in 2007 is considered one of the best of all time.
