Dead Souls

[thevoid99]

I just got home after running around with friends for a while, and spent most of the night around first ave. So fucking cool and sad and beautiful.

We were gonna go over to Paisley Park but we heard it was all blocked off over there, so we just stayed downtown. Kinda wish we would have made it over there though. I heard at one point there was a rainbow over Paisley Park and everyone was like "Oh my god, it's Prince!!" lol

We drove through Uptown blasting "Uptown" out the windows. We went driving over the purple 35W while the "The Cross" was blasting at max volume. First Ave was pretty nuts. We saw Dem Atlas doing a cover of Let's Go Crazy. I saw this dude singing along to Conditions of the Heart with earplugs in and I swear that dude had the best voice ever, damn near broke my heart. I would have given anything to stay out there all night, but I have to work tomorrow and I have appointments and shit so I can't really call in sick. Supposedly they're gonna go till dawn.

It's a sad day for Minneapolis because, when it comes to pop culture, we really don't have much going for us. We've had some indie shit over the years, like The Replacements, Low, Atmosphere, etc, but nothing even remotely on Prince's god-like level. He was our only legend, really. It's not like in New York or LA, where they've had tons of superstars over the years. Prince was all we had, and now it feels like this place will never be same.

What about Bob Dylan since he is a Minnesotan?

[Mantra]

What about Bob Dylan since he is a Minnesotan?

Nah, it's just not the same. Dylan didn't give a shit about this place. He got out of here as soon as he could and never looked back, except for that time when he randomly decided to record half of Blood on the Tracks here. He mostly made his name out in New York. To me, it's always felt like a stretch to try and claim Dylan as "one of us."

Prince was totally different. This was his home. He built his whole Paisley Park empire here. A huge amount of the musicians and engineers he worked with over the years were local people. Throw a rock in this town and you're guaranteed to hit some former Prince collaborator, just because he had a tendency to burn through people so fast. Seems like everyone has a Prince story. To be honest, the stories are usually kinda negative, just because Prince was a bit of a fascist when it came to the people who worked for him. I've heard so many crazy stories about the shit that happens in Paisley Park. The dude definitely had mental issues.

But still, in spite of his somewhat infamous reputation around here, I think most people were quite proud to have him. I know I was. He was one of the only awesome things we had in this dreary city.