Farewell Sweet Prince.

So, we're sat on the Tube on my way to chemotherapy and I'm pretty fed up. Yesterday I saw Dr Feelgood and it looks like my chemo drug turned out to be a bit of a wimp when it needed to be a Mike Tyson - it's not going so well.

Then, as we got ready,  we'd listened to the breakfast show and they didn't play a single Prince song.

Prince died yesterday, a real musical genius.

So, to cheer me up Robyn shared her headphones with me and we both listened to 'Lets Go Crazy' on the underground;
 

"Dearly beloved
We are gathered here today
To get through this thing called life

Electric word life
It means forever and that's a mighty long time
But I'm here to tell you
There's something else
The after world

A world of never ending happiness
You can always see the sun, day or night

So when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills
You know the one, Dr. Everything'll Be Alright
Instead of asking him how much of your time is left
Ask him how much of your mind, baby

'Cause in this life
Things are much harder than in the after world
In this life
You're on your own

And if the elevator tries to bring you down
Go crazy, punch a higher floor

If you don't like the world you're living in
Take a look around you
At least you got friends

You see I called my old lady
For a friendly word
She picked up the phone
Dropped it on the floor
(Ah, ah) is all I heard

Are we gonna let the elevator
Bring us down
Oh, no let's go!

Let's go crazy
Let's get nuts
Let's look for the purple banana
'Til they put us in the truck, let's go!

We're all excited
But we don't know why
Maybe it's 'cause
We're all gonna die

And when we do (When we do)
What's it all for (What's it all for)
You better live now
Before the grim reaper come knocking on your door

Tell me, are we gonna let the elevator bring us down
Oh, no let's go!

Let's go crazy
Let's get nuts
Look for the purple banana
'Til they put us in the truck, let's go!

C'mon baby
Let's get nuts
Yeah
Crazy

Let's go crazy

Are we gonna let the elevator bring us down
Oh, no let's go!
Go crazy

I said let's go crazy (Go crazy)
Let's go, let's go
Go
Let's go

Dr. Everything'll be alright
Will make everything go wrong
Pills and thrills and daffodils will kill
Hang tough children

He's coming
He's coming
Coming

Take me away!

I don't agree with Prince to this extent - I'm not in any hurry to 'Punch a higher floor' and I don't have any faith in an 'afterlife'.

Anyway half the lifts at Charing Cross are broken as is the escalator.

But if I wasn't in so much pain I'd have quite liked to have danced up and down the carriage.

 I have two fond memories of the 'Purple one'; I was working in a record shop when 'Purple Rain' came out at a time when I had no knowledge of Minnesota, let alone 'Paisley Park'.

I remember that at a time when an new L.P. from an unknown came out, the buyer would normally send us no more than about 5 copies, even if it was already in the charts.

This time we got about four boxes full - we didn't know where to put them.

He knew something we didn't.

We had a listen and it seemed to come from an alien world - almost like the first time I heard 'Grandmaster Flash'.

Prince had that ability to stun and that's why when he was first signed up he recorded an album and played every instrument on it himself.

And when it bombed they still let him release another one.....and another.

My second memory was commuting back from London in the 1980's one of those old trains where you could sit in a long compartment but no one would know whether there was anyone else there or not.

It was late at night and at the other end of the carriage there was a group of schoolgirls singing Prince songs 'Accapella' all the way home.

Unforgettable.

What was so great about Prince was his ability to paint a picture in very few words like; "She came in through the out door" in 'Raspberry Beret'.

Farewell sweet Prince.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
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