Happy Birthday Prince, you would have been 58 today
He’s been gone since April 21st, but it’s still hard to believe that we now live in a world that doesn’t include Prince. It’s been recently reported that his death was caused by an accidental overdose of the painkiller fentanyl, a fact that broke our hearts even more. But today, June 7th, the world remembers Prince, his music, and his genius on his birthday. He would have been 58 years old.
As a birthday gift to the world, the popular music streaming service Tidal has made 15 Prince albums available to their listeners. For anyone who knows Prince and the way he wrote music knows how exciting this is. As famous and well-known as his hit songs were, they only began to scratch at the surface of his vast musical creations. He was always in the studio writing and recording new songs and albums.
One of the albums Tidal now offers is the Black Album, which Prince planned to release in 1994 as the follow-up to Sign O’ the Times. It was originally named the Funk Bible. A week before it was put on shelves, though, he recalled the copies and shut down the whole project. Sounds like the kind of mystery move only Prince could pull off. Bootleg copies were made available soon after, but the fact that it can now be listened to in this way is a big deal.
You’ll also get to hear a lot of the stuff he wrote after his contract with Warner Bros came to an end in 1996, such as The Rainbow Children and Indigo Nights. Additionally, there’s now access to The Gold Experience, which features “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World,” his only number one hit in the UK.
Prince has been vocal about his support for Tidal in the past. He once said, “Tidal have [honored] Us with a non-restrictive arrangement that once again allows Us to continue making art in the fashion We’ve grown accustomed 2 and We’re Extremely grateful 4 their generous support.” He removed his music from all other streaming services and made his works exclusively available on Tidal. For someone who spent years fighting for musicians and their rights to produce music the way they want, it said a lot about Tidal that Prince would publicly support it.
His music now being on Tidal doesn’t take the sting away from his untimely death, but knowing that his magic is that much more accessible to us certainly allows us to heal a little more.
