On Thursday, I tweeted out the simple headline: “Prince dies on Queen’s birthday. Purple tears today. #RIPPrince.”
I still can’t believe it, but his death has given me a chance to rediscover the man who was a one-man diversity force.
As we mourn publicly and await results of his autopsy, you may have “Purple Rain” on repeat, but the one song that I think encapsulates Prince is “Controversy,” from the album of the same name.
I’m playing it over and over.
In 1981, “Controversy” was his third album, and well before the full blown stardom of “Purple Rain.” But it was a real harbinger of the greatness of Prince to come.
As far as music goes, Prince was the Mozart of our time. Young, prolific, revolutionary and sexy. He had a unique funk rhythm that was unmistakably his own.
And he was in-your-face with all of his uniqueness in “Controversy.”
