Head Tale

Prince was against his music being available on most streaming services (except artist-friendly Tidal) and even YouTube so it’s hard to find clips to help celebrate the man and his music after his untimely passing yesterday.

Still, there are spots where some clips exist online – none more historic than his first-ever live performance of his signature song, “Purple Rain”.

Although I always admired his talent, showmanship and musicianship, I was never a massive fan of Prince (I traded a college dorm mate my copy of Prince’s “Diamonds & Pearls” for his copy of Blue Rodeo’s “Casino” and I think we were both very happy with that trade.)

At the same time, “Purple Rain” is one of the first cassettes I ever bought in my life (that or “Born in the USA” – can’t remember which I got first) so it obviously has a sweet spot in my heart (and 15 million other Gen-Xer’s too!)  And of course, like most people with ears, I am a huge fan of all his best known songs – from “When Doves Cry” to, yes, “Diamonds & Pearls” from that album I traded away back in 1992.

So anyhow, that’s my quick post on Prince.  Oh, and a cool tip – I started by saying that his music isn’t available on most streaming services.  But a librarian I know in Edmonton pointed out that much of his catalogue *is* available on Hoopla, a streaming service targeted at public libraries!  How cool is that?