More people need to listen to Prince…
“1999” – as described by alex cheng
Harrowing music video, pretty good dancing, one of the greatest songs of all time. Prince still manages to look cool while performing with the vampires from What We Do In the Shadows in a high school gymnasium.
“Sometimes It Snows in April” – as described by tyler dunston
Possibly the saddest song he ever wrote. Prince’s falsetto in the second “I-I-I used to cry for Tracy…” gets me every time. (Not to mention D’Angelo covered this song after Prince’s death: “I often dream of heaven and I know that…Prince is there” — rip my heart out why don’t you, D’Angelo?), so this song is heavily tied to grief in my mind. Those haunting piano chords and that haunting voice. He will be missed.
“Darling Nikki” — as described by katie lan
My friend told me that she was pretty sure “Darling Nikki” is what made Al Gore’s wife want to create the “parent advisory” label. Apparently Tipper Gore found her teenage daughter listening to this song and was horrified by the sexual content. “The lights went out // And Nikki started to grind”. Prince, in this sense, will always be iconic to me, the purple prince who scared suburban mothers into parent advisory labels.
“When You Were Mine” – as described by anthony milki
I didn’t listen to Prince growing up, but I had enough exposure to be taken away by the idea of Prince. I recently discovered this track, via Frank Ocean’s Tumblr, and you can hear its influence in Blonde’s “Ivy.” It’s a sweet, beautiful little track.
“I Would Die 4 U” – as described by alejandra salazar
“I am something that you’ll never understand,” he sings, wearing that that iconic ruffled white top. My god, just look at it; he’s fucking ethereal, clad in a peasant shirt and glowing in purple. “I would die for you,” he sings, doing things with his hips that the 80s weren’t ready for, stirring up feelings so long dormant people had forgotten that emotional range existed. With a lesser artist at the helm, a song like this would be chalked up as hyperbole, but with that top, those dance moves, that voice? Never. Prince meant every word.
“Raspberry Beret” – as described by katie nesser
In high school, I had a red beret I wore a lot because I wanted to look like Max Fischer from Rushmore, and my US History teacher would sing this song to me, which would have been immensely disturbing if she hadn’t been a 60 year old woman.
Image from here.
(20', Undeclared) is from Mountain View and loves 90's hip hop. She's interested in mycology and petting every dog she sees.
('17, Human Biology/Creative Writing) is from Palo Alto and listens to a lot of Kanye.
(‘17, Communication, Music Editor) is a contributor from San Antonio, TX. She believes in making playlists for every occasion and chronically overthinks everything.
('18, Art History, Editor-in-Chief) is a cautionary tale from Texas. She loves true crime, sweet tea, and Candy Crush Saga.
hellifiknow
February 24, 2017 at 11:15 am (4 months ago)Awww, y’all millenials so cute for this. But I’m a need you to go a lil deeper - the man made 39 albums, although they are sadly not all on Spotify. (Tidal does, for now, have the most complete list.)