Tag Archives: prince

July 10, 2026 · 12:23 pm

5 Albums I Can’t Live Without: Album 5

I know some of you are wondering, no album from Prince? Well, the wait is over. There are two rules that made this choice so difficult. One album per artist. Prince released over 40 studio albums. Because of the rule I only get to choose one. ONE!

After hours of debating with myself I got it down to two albums. Again the rules I set for myself helped. Even as a fan, there are songs I will skip on an album. Especially if I am in a particular mood, so that rule helped a lot.

Then the last rule that allowed me to finally choose the album. No soundtracks with various artists. Now, that rule eliminated some great sound tracks. But I thought the rule was fair because there are soundtracks by single artists, like The Jazz Singer by Neil Diamond, that are powerful albums.

So, that brings me to my fifth album I can’t live without… no it is not Purple Rain. It is Parade.

Everyone knows the song “Kiss” but as a whole album Parade encompasses Prince’s personality the best at that time of his life. Meaning, artists grow as people and their art reflects that. As fans I think we forget that sometimes and want them to produce the same kind of art they did when we became fans. Anyway, back to the album.

The opening track, “Christopher Tracy’s Parade,” sets a wonderful, joyful tone, while touching on some of the themes to come in the other songs / movie.

“I Wonder U” switches things up with a slowed down musical trip. In its own way, it is a cool love song.

“Under the Cherry Moon” continues with the slower vibe. Prince ponders life and love through the lyrics. The song feels like a walk at night, under a full moon.

The sixth track never fails to make me move or lift my spirits. “Life Can Be So Nice” picks up the tempo and has lyrics that hit you with their clever examples that you can’t help but sing along with.

As Prince is known to do, the next track seems to come out of nowhere. It makes you stop and just feel. “Venus De Milo” is a wonderful instrumental piece. It is on a number of my playlists.

“Mountains” was released as a single. It reached number 23 on the charts. It is one of my favorite songs of all time by Prince. “Mountains” delves into the idea of the power of love and how it can be a force in life.

And maybe the saddest song ever, “Sometimes It Snows in April.” Of course it connects to the story line of the movie, but listeners can easily follow the plot line and get lost in the theme of the song. The song touches on our shared hurt and questioning of why bad things happen, especially when we lose someone we love.

So, here are my 5 albums I can’t live without… or is it????

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April 14, 2024 · 8:29 pm

My Top 5 Songs

For my regular readers you know that my best friend and I have been counting down our top 100 songs of all time. We finished last week. My best friend proposed our top 25 albums of all time, which we will start sharing in June.

 Here are my top 5 songs.

Number 5: 

“Welcome to the Boomtown” by David & David. 

A group that only produced one album.  The album is a look at the gritty truth about life. “Welcome to the Boomtown” is pretty clear about how drugs affect a town. There are two main story lines, both look at people that should be successful but drugs and money take them down. It was a song I loved as soon as I heard it, way back in high school… and it is still on lots of my playlists.

Number 4:

“I Don’t Wanna” by The Call. 

There is so much here about this song. This was an important song for me as I was trying to change everything and understand what my choice would lead to. I connected and still connect with the loneliness of feeling love. The song is complex and certain parts connect with life as I’ve grown. But at the heart is just the desire to be loved in the moment. Yet, life takes it away and you have to live without it.

Number 3:

“Alive and Kicking” by Simple Minds. 

There are some levels to this song, one level is about how love makes you feel. But there is a sad aspect with it, what if it goes away? The chorus asks those questions. The question that gets me is ‘who’s going to save you?’  I love the build up to that question (second time), the music and the lyrics. Alive and Kicking is a cool idiom to express the energy Love gives you, but also takes from you. This song lifts my spirit every time I hear it. 

Number 2:

“Up Where We Belong” by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes.

 I wanted this to be the song my wife and I danced to at our wedding reception. My sappy side is on full display in this song.  But honestly, I believe in it… in Love, real love. I don’t know how or why but that belief kept me holding on in so many different ways throughout my years. It is why I didn’t have relationships like I saw my parents have. Why I fought to make my life better. Love can change everything.

Number 1:

“I Would Die 4 U” by Prince. 

First it is a groovy song. You want to dance to it as soon as it starts. When I was young I thought it was a great love song, a little weird with the lyrics but the feeling of being in love so much you would die for them is universal and that’s why many people still see it as a love song.  But it is more spiritual than that. This is a first person perspective from Jesus. People don’t know that. If you read the lyrics as you listen you will understand the perspective.  Even with that, there is a line that gets to me personally, third verse when Prince rapid fires the “I-I-I’ really need is to know that you believe”. I guess I have always been searching for that… to know someone believes in me. 

So, they say you can learn a lot about a person by the music they listen to… this is part of who I am through by my top 5 songs.

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March 10, 2024 · 8:25 pm

Random Life

I usually use Spotify on my walks. Not 100 percent of the time, but mostly. By now you may have seen the AI DJ option. I’m sure you know that the “shuffle” option is not actually random for a playlist. Heck it is not random if you shuffle an artist. Even if you are a true fan, you usually just get the top songs…

AI is telling me what my own musical taste is… and it’s wrong.

Let’s stay with the music first. Jake Peterson in his article “The Reason Spotify Shuffles Aren’t Really Random (and How to Fix It)” says it best, “But most of us use the shuffle feature because we want random songs to play. Intentionally picking only songs that match each other means there are plenty of tracks that never see the light of day, and other songs that play much more frequently.” 

I have over a 1000 CDs, hundreds of cassettes, and my “Just Some Good Songs” playlist on Spotify is 49 hours long. 

Do I remember every song I ever heard? No.

Do I own CDs I haven’t listened to for awhile? Yes.  But I have listened to every one of them at least once.

My musical taste is mine. So, when I hit shuffle on a playlist, or an artist, like Prince. I am expecting to hear songs I haven’t heard in awhile. I want to be taken back in time, to remember moments I hadn’t thought of in awhile. I want to be reminded of how great a song is, or to appreciate a song now that I have experienced more in life and the song hits differently.

By default the algorithm is designed to play songs that match together. Joe Fedewa explains how this works in his article, “Why Spotify Shuffle is Not Truly Random”. Basically, Spotify curates the songs in a playlist, trying to keep songs by the same artist spread out and to have songs flow together. So, as Jake Peterson said, you may never hear a song you put on a playlist. A song you like.

The beauty of life is the randomness that happens.

Seeing a bird take flight on my walk.

Trying a new drink at the coffee shop, or the crazy new chip flavor Lay’s comes up with.

Or having a DMX song play after Phil Collins on my walk. That’s who I am, at least musically. AI will never understand that.

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November 2, 2018 · 8:57 am

Good People in the World

It was 7:20 this morning on the way to preschool when my 5 year-old daughter asked me one of those questions that challenged me on whether I should tell the truth or not…

“Are robbers real?” she ask.

I decided to tell the truth.

“Yes, robbers are real,” I said.

“Do they rob money?” she asked.

“Yes, they rob money,” I said.

“Have you seen a robber?” she asked.

At this point, I decided to say no, even though I have caught shoplifters at various retail stores I worked at while in college.

My daughter was quiet for a few seconds. I wondered where these questions were coming from and I was debating whether I should ask her about them.

“Are police real?” she asked.

“Yes, police are real. There are more of them than there are robbers.”

Again, she was quiet but then asked, “Do robbers rob houses?”

As a dad this question challenged me again. How much truth of this world do I share with her. “No, house can’t be taken. Home is a place we are safe.”

“Robbers are in jail, right?”

“Yes, the police catch them and they are grounded or put in jail.” I explained.

“What happens if the robber says, ‘sorry’?”

They do not teach you how to handle the question stage. I replied that robbers can say that they are sorry, but they still have to stay in jail or be grounded for awhile as punishment.

“Policeman catch robbers? And robbers can say sorry?” she asked.

“Yes, they can. But there are more policemen than robbers,” I started, “there are more good people in the world than bad.”

But something in my heart fell when I said that. I started to have my own questions run through my head. The main question was centered on if what I just said was really true… The guy behind me was tailgating me. The news is nothing but how divided we are and how hateful we are to anyone that has a different view than us. At the store the other night a little boy was being yelled at by his mom and his big sister for every little thing he was doing. My girl’s elementary school had to use security camera footage to deal with a situation this week.

Is there more good people in the world than bad?

We arrived at school, I kissed my daughter on the forehead while telling her to have a good day. And I let her go… I so hope I told her the truth…

 

 

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