I found out Prince had passed away today in a tweet from reverb DSP guru Sean Costello.
It was the sexual content of his songs, particularly “Darling Nikki”, that inspired the PMRC, resulting in those stickers on albums warning buyers of explicit content. One of the recording engineers who was recording live tracks for his Purple Rain album tells the story of an attractive woman wearing nothing but a trenchcoat flashing to Prince after the recording. To say Prince had access to more tail than a toilet seat at a sorority house would be a vast understatement.
Despite this, he was led to a deep faith in God and a belief that sex is only appropriate to have in a lifetime monogamous commitment. All that promiscuous sex he undoubtedly had during the peak of his career in the 1980s did not satisfy him in the long run, but a faith in God and in monogamy did.
George Martin, who died on March 8, will be remembered for his contributions to the Beatles’ music, but another great album he produced was 1982’s Quartet by Ultravox. This album shows that not only could he produce some of the finest classic Rock and Roll ever made, he was also able to make a really great electronic music album when tasked to do so.
Even though this album is very much electronic, it sounds very orchestral and epic. It would have been interesting to hear how Quartet would have sounded with the live orchestra used in the Beatles’ recordings, instead of the layered analog synthesizers it ended up using, but this album’s amazingly orchestral sounding textures show that Martin was an effective producer and arranger, regardless of the instruments he used. This is a monumental feat when taking in to account that this album was made before digital samplers sounded realistic (an Emulator I or Fairlight in 1982 was a very interesting artistic tool, but a very ineffective “orchestra in a box”); making electronic music sound like in an orchestra in 1982 as well as Martin did is an amazing accomplishment.
Hillary Clinton is still on track to securing the Democratic nomination; things are much more interesting on the Republican side. Ever since the New York primary on Tuesday, Donald Trump is the only candidate who can secure enough pledged delegates to win the nomination. Whether or not he can is up in the air. How the Republican party will handle things if no one gets enough delegates before the convention in July is an interesting question.
The Republicans are in a difficult situation. If they make Trump the nominee, they will get soundly defeated in the presidential election and the “blue wave” voters who show up to vote against Trump will also make the Republican party lose the senate this November. If they do not make Trump the nominee, Republican Trump supporters will stay at home this election, resulting in the same “blue wave.”
Either way, Hillary Clinton will win this fall. And, yes, I have bet money on her winning.
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