An electrifying tribute to Prince

I write my blog for many reasons, but at the bottom of it all I like having a place to go with a story like this one. It will be gone in the morning unless I capture it now, so here goes. Chicago, very early Sunday Morning I had picked up my teenager from a

The sky was all purple

Springfield, Illinois–the town where I grew up–doesn’t have very many suburbs, but I lived in one of them. And for this suburban child of the 80s, the electric guitar reigned supreme. Led Zeppelin was my favorite, of course, but any record would either rise or fall in my estimation of it, based solely upon the level

I spent the 80s in purple

Prince died today, at the age of 57. Coming on the heels of the deaths of David Bowie and Glenn Frey already this year, I didn’t think there would be any more meaningful musical deaths for some time. Apparently I was wrong in that belief. This one really left me stunned. The high school I attended

Ridin’ the Storm Out

There’s been a lot of great music written about rain though the years. There’s Purple Rain. Riders on the Storm. Let it rain. “Rain keeps fallin’ down….down…down” But tonight it’s not so cool for me. Rain pouring in buckets have caused the drains in my basement to back up, and the water is rising as

Purple Reign

In anticipation of this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, Rolling Stone put together a list of the Top Halftime shows from years gone by. The top show, at least in my opinion, was Prince’s turn at Super Bowl XLI in Miami. In case you’ve blocked it out over what happened to the Bears on

Ain’t no particular sign I’m more compatible with

Driving around town this afternoon, I heard Prince’s Kiss on the radio. And I thought about how his halftime show in Miami is–and will probably always be–the standard against which all other halftime shows will be measured, at least as far as I’m concerned. It was Purple Rain, played in the rain. Amazing isn’t a strong

Only want to to see you in the Purple Rain

A couple of decades ago, when I was in high school, I had a job bagging groceries in a supermarket. One of the duties of this job was clearing the lot, which meant bringing in all of the shopping carts from out in the parking lot. There was a certain trick to being able to

F/U/S/G

Of all the many seasons I’ve been a Cubs fan, 1984 ranks as my favorite one. The year 1984, all by itself, was an important year in my life. It was the year that I learned how to drive a car and, when my birthday came around, I got my license to drive. And whoever