Chris DeLine

“Musicology” (2004): 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 Saturday serve simply as another page of his story to prove it.

[This post first appeared in the Pioneer Press.]