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So long, Prince

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Prince never quit turning out the albums.  He released the two-phase Hit n Run last year on Tidal.  It may have seemed like a vanity project, as he re-explored his 80s music that had made him so immensely popular, but then so  many recording artists return again and again to the same themes, finding new ways to interpret their music.

His prodigious outpouring over the last three-and-a-half decades will leave a legacy like few other recording artists.  One can imagine there is much more stashed away in the vaults of Paisley Park where he was found dead yesterday.

Prince was truly an original.  He not only had a distinctive sound but a presence that belied his gentle nature.  Many persons are recounting the the ways he touched their lives, as he rarely called attention to it himself.  Like his attempt in the 90s to shed his name, Prince seemed to want to be anonymous.

Reclusion didn't really suit him, however, and he could be found teaming up with an astonishing variety of musicians for special performances like this one at the 2004 Rock Hall of Fame induction ceremony, showing off his stellar guitar playing.

He also liked putting on impromptu performances like one last year for the Minnesota Lynx, his hometown's WNBA team, after winning its third title in five years.  He was an avid basketball fan, which Charlie Murphy and Dave Chappelle humorously noted in this "True Hollywood Story."  Prince loved that sketch so much that he wrote a single for Murphy and Chappelle and put Chappelle as himself on the cover of the EP.

The sports world probably best remembers him for his halftime performance in the otherwise forgettable Super Bowl XLI.  It proved he could still bring down the house, if any proof was necessary.

These and many other videos are making the rounds on social media, as fans remember a great one.  Of course, most of us remember him best for Purple Rain, his signature album and movie that introduced us to Prince all those years ago.  The New Yorker even made a special cover.   He will most definitely be missed.

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