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‘Prince: An Artist’s Life’, Time Special Edition With ‘Weeper’s Solo’ And Remarks By Seal, Sheila E.

By Nancy Bailey
Published on: 03:18 PST, May 3, 2016

Prince is featured in a new memorial edition of Time.

Prince: An Artist’s Life extolls the musician’s years in a 96-page paperback, which the publisher describes on Amazon.com as “lavishly illustrated.”

“This commemorative edition combines classic and rarely seen photographs and text from the Time Inc. archives, as well as the story behind the movie Purple Rain; a look inside Prince’s famed home and studio, Paisley Park; his unprecedented approach to the ‘business of Prince’; exclusive tributes from Sheila E., Seal and Lenny Kravitz; and a rundown of 25 essential Prince songs plus a handful of lesser-known gems.”

Another tribute included in the new edition are some remarks by Seal, who is quoted in an excerpt on Time.com.

“I can recall so clearly the night I met Prince.. I was at a studio in Los Angeles, and he was recording there too, and I saw him walking down the corridor. He had gone out without his bodyguard—I guess he knew I would follow him. He was a master at manipulating a situation.”

“Backstage, we watched Prince walk out to a rapturous reception, and then we were exposed to two hours of sublime musical genius.

“Everything he did—every single movement, every gesture, every step that he took, from the time he left that dressing room and walked onto the stage, was in absolute, total immaculate rhythm. And the band was in total rhythm with him.

“Nobody’s eyes left him. They were in perfect sync and perfect rhythm with everything. I have never seen anything like it, nor will I ever see anything like it again.”

“Prince wasn’t just an artist. Prince was a lifestyle. Prince was the person that everyone said was weird, and yet he was so committed to how different he was. He was so committed to his sexuality. He was so committed to his flamboyance. He made it OK for you to be you. He did it with unquestionable conviction. He was so masterful and so brilliant at it that he became a part of you.”

Time.com published an excerpt by Daniel Ralston called, “While His Guitar Gently Weeps.”

“I invite you to witness two minutes and 50 seconds of Prince’s life from 2004, when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”

“You can see the moment I’m talking about on YouTube, where more than 24 million people have watched him perform the Beatles’ ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ in honor of George Harrison, who was also being inducted, posthumously. Prince’s appearance alongside Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood and George’s son, Dhani, achieves the kind of alchemy producers dream of when assembling a one-off supergroup. It is electric.”

The “Weeper’s Solo” also received accolades recently from Rolling Stone.

“It almost didn’t happen: George Harrison’s widow, Olivia, wanted the performance of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ to be limited to people who knew George — unlike Prince, who later claimed he had never even heard the song before it was sent to him to learn for the performance.”

For Prince, the article states, the motivation was to play with Tim Petty.

“It was an honor to play with him. ‘Free Fallin’ is one of my favorite songs.”

It was likely a nod to Petty, then, that Prince falls backward off the stage into the arms of his bodyguard, who pushes him back up.

Rolling Stone reports that later when backstage, Dhani Harrison said, “I want to be friends with him. We’re the same height.”

Time points the following out.

“It’s hard to know when we’re living in the good times. It’s hard to know what you’re going to look back on and wish you could have been more present for… There’s no question that Prince was fully there that night.”

Prince: An Artist’s Life is available on Amazon.com.

[Image via Northfoto/Shutterstock]

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