I received an interesting email yesterday from Ross Raihala, pop music critic for St. Paul’s Pioneer Press. It read as follows:

“To celebrate 7/7/07 and Prince’s three shows on Saturday night, I’m doing a special project for the paper. I asked seven local musicians for their favorite Prince song and a quick explanation of why…But I’m also asking a bunch more local musicans/fans/bloggers the same question, and then putting those responses on my blog on Saturday… So, you up for contributing? All I need is the name of your favorite Prince song and quick explanation of why — right around 100 words is great, although feel free to go shorter or longer as you see fit.”

I’ve never really been much of a fan of Prince’s, but despite that I still found myself traversing the recommended word count as I wrote down what eventually became a recollection of almost every single Prince memory I have; all three of them.

In my reply I wrote, “I believe I will find myself in the minority in this situation, but the only Prince song that I’ve really spent any amount of time with is “Musicology.” Having not been born, raised, or nurtured in Minnesota my musical tastes were developed with different circumstances of favoritism and bias than that associated with Minnesotans and Prince. My first positive memories of Prince surround his lashing out at Warner Bros. because, being the young impressionable person I was, I thought it was cool how he was sticking it to the man (so to speak). While I’m still sort of young, and still quite impressionable, it is a tad ironic that my one favorable Prince single comes from his first major label release since his mid 1990s emancipation.

The most important Prince memory for me isn’t a song however, but a moment I witnessed on TV. During the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in which Prince himself was inducted, he joined Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood and Tom Petty on stage in celebration and remembrance of George Harrison. Along side the remaining Traveling Wilburys Prince delivered one of the most amazing guitar solos I have ever before inconspicuously leaving the stage.

Prince is one of the most talented, entertaining and eccentric performers in the history of rock and roll, and his three shows this upcoming Saturday serve simply as another page of his story to prove it.”

I think that the lengths with which Prince has gone to in the sake of his craft are awe inspiring, a fine example would be the recent free release of his album in the UK. One could say a lot of things about Prince, and as a matter of fact I’d like to hear what other people think about him in the comments.

Prince “Guitar”

Additional Prince Audio Here

Prince – Official Site
Prince – MySpace Site