There aren’t many musicians who can overshadow Stevie Wonder onstage.
But there was Prince stealing the crowd’s adulation as he jammed out the funky lead guitar work on Wonder’s “Superstition” during Tiger Woods’ “Tiger Jam VIII” benefit concert in May, 2005, in Las Vegas.
The Purple One’s flurry of improvised riffs shocked the well-worn radio staple into life, as Wonder, freshly energized by what was then a rare live performance, stood on the opposite side of the stage and worked over the familiar funked-out keyboard notes.
But the magic all but vanished minutes later as Wonder cut short another jammed-out classic, leaving Prince befuddled and perhaps irritated by the severe swerve in musical direction.
The guitarist gave up on the jam and with not so much as a wave to the audience quietly left the stage.
It’s not how I expected him to go out. And neither was the stunning news first reported Thursday afternoon by TMZ and then confirmed by the artist’s publicist: Prince was dead at the age of 57. He had been found in his home in a Minneapolis suburb.
In a year that’s been miserable for music fans with the deaths of David Bowie, Glenn Frey, and Merle Haggard, the loss of Prince makes 2016 all the more heartless.
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“It’s a huge loss for the music industry and the music world,” said Matt Donahue, lecturer in the department of popular culture at Bowling Green State University. “He really did a lot to bridge a variety of music styles and bringing people together.”
Rock, funk, electropop, psychedelic — Prince stubbornly refused categorization as does Bob Dylan and Bowie.
He broke big with funk-and-grind Dirty Mind in 1980 and 1981’s Controversy, and 1982’s party-on anthem 1999. He also played the Toledo Sports Arena in 1980, 1981, and 1983 to support those albums.
It was his 1984 pop masterpiece Purple Rain, the soundtrack to Prince’s semi-autobiographical film of the same name, that made him an icon that transcended music.
Rather than anchoring in the safe harbors of mainstream success, though, Prince struck out in a new direction and two years later delivered the ambitious Around the World in a Day, a Warhol pop art meets Peter Max psychedelic painting put to music.
Two years later and it was the sprawling Sign ‘O’ the Times, the sexed-up Lovesexy, the kitschy Batman, the good soundtrack to a not-so-good film Graffiti Bridge, and the bootlegged and near urban legend-come to life The Black Album, that was finally released in 1994, seven years after it was recorded.
He made stars of Morris Day, Vanity, Wendy & Lisa (Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman), and Sheila E.
He laid down the pulsing keyboards to Stevie Nicks’ “Stand Back,” and wrote hits for Cyndi Lauper (“When You Were Mine”), the Bangles (“Manic Monday”), and most famously Sinead O’Connor, (“Nothing Compares 2 U”).
Prince was the “second coming of [Jimi] Hendrix,” Donahue said, not just as a guitar wizard, but as “a multitalented and multifaceted artist who worked with a variety of artists and crossed musical genres.”
Like Michael Jackson, Prince used MTV in the early 1980s to create a persona, only to toy with that music video image and even his own gender, including adopting an unpronounceable symbol representing men and women, dubbed the “The Love Symbol” in 1993.
“I have so much respect for everything that he has done,” said Ellie Decker, an employee at Culture Clash Records, 4020 Secor Rd. “He just completely changed the rules in regard to music. Race, the gender bending that he has done, and a black man that has such influence on white people, especially for that time.”
“Even now, people still come in for new albums” by Prince, she said. “He’s managed to remain this relevant and prominent artist in music.”
After all, it always comes back to the music — even for a musician who made three movies, challenged the music industry, and was played by Dave Chappelle as part of a legendary skit on the comedian’s Comedy Central show.
“It’s the music that matters,” Donahue said. “That’s the part that people will remember. That’s the part that people will have the connection with the most.”
Contact Kirk Baird at kbaird@theblade.com or 419-724-6734.
First Published April 22, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
