Prince Tribute

Hi there, it's Astrid here with you today sharing a special blogpost.

As some of you maybe know, I am a huge dedicated Prince fan since 1984. I was 14 years old at the time that Purple Rain became a big hit. I bought the LP and played it out loud in my room, then I watched the  Purple Rain movie and I totally fell in love! My room was full of posters which were kissed goodnight every night.

I must confess that the past years I didn't listen to his music and also didn't had any cd's, but if someone would ask me who was my favorite artist, I always would say; Prince.  So the news that he died last April hit me right in the heart, more than I would have ever known.
I cried cried and cried many "purple" tears, I just couldn't stop. I loved this man, his music and his personality since I was a teenager , I was totally surprised about my own reaction to it. I guess he had more influence during my teenage years than I probably knew.

To handle my grief, I started to make scrapbooking layouts about him, using songtitles of my favorite songs as title for my pages, ofcourse I will keep them together in a purple album. Well I guess it will take some time before I finish all my pages with favorite songs, lol, there are so many. So starting with the first layout I wanted to share with you and song;"Sometimes it snows in April"

This song has a special meaning since April ;

"Sometimes it snows in April,
  Sometimes I feel so bad, so bad
 Sometimes I wish, life was never ending
 And all good things, they say, never last..............."

There were two kind of people in the 80's (and there still are) , or you was totally in love with this man, or you we're thinking that he was weird. Well as a dedicated fan, I would love to share a little about his life with you and maybe, at least I hope,  some of you will change their mind of him being weird.

He was born on June 7th 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA, he started playing music at a very young age, he teached himself how to play the piano at the age of 7, as an escape from a turbulant household. The first music he could play at 7 years, was the themesong from Batman. His parents divorced when he was 10 years old, after that he was moving from his mother, to his father and finally to a schoolfriend.
He became most famous in the 80's during Purple Rain. After having several girlfriends, he finally found the love of his life in 1990 during a concert in Germany,  Mayte Garcia. She was only 16 at that time, so he waited untill she was 18 and took her on tour as one of his dancers, they fell in love and got married on Valentinesday in 1996.

"The most beautiful girl in the world" he wrote especially for Mayte;

"Could you be the most beautiful girl in the world?
It's plain to see you're the reason that God made a girl
When the day turns into the last day of all time
I can say, I hope you are in these arms of mine
And when the night falls before that day I will cry
I will cry tears of joy 'cause after you all one can do is die, oh............"

And another wedding pic of Mayte (she's so pretty) ;

"There's a spark of magic in your eye

Candyland appears each time you smile

Never thought that fairy tales came true

But they come true when I'm near you........" 

"Let's have a baby" , another song he especially wrote for Mayte ( I must say that they we're just the cutest couple, and just perfect together, he wrote so many songs for her, about her, their love together and his love for her ) ; 

"I cannot lie when my hand is on your thighs

I'm thinking, isn't it a miracle that life comes from inside ?

So long I have listenend to your voice

Wonderin' what it would sound like coming from a girl or a boy

Isn't it funny that when you're truly in love

How just the thought of such things can bring you so much joy ? "..............

Soon after their wedding, Mayte became pregnant and he wrote the song "sex in the summer", which features the ultrasound heartbeat of their unborn child, so beautiful................I still can cry.

"Can't you feel the new day dawning? All believers will see
An end to suffering and every disease
Every waking hour will soon be spent kissin' each other
Angelic sisters and brothers
Clap your hands for one another, we'll be havin'................."

Their son, Boy Gregory, was born on October 16th of that same year, but died, only one week old , during Pfeiffer Syndrome. After that there was a miscarriage and because of the  losses of their two babies, they broke up together, they have wanted a big family and already decorated a playroom in their house and a playground behind the house for their future children. It was too much for them as a couple and they couldn't handle the grief together anymore. They divorced in 2000.

The song "Comeback" (so beautiful I can cry again) he wrote about the loss of his baby boy;

"Spirits come and spirits go
 Some stick around for the after show
 Don't have to say I miss you
 Cause I think you already know............."

Prince never recovered from the loss of his son. Soon after this loss and the divorce,  Prince's father and mother died half a year after eachother.  After that he became a Jehovah's Witness, and I probably can understand that, I think he found some love at their church and probably they helped him to handle with the loss of everything. Well he married again, broke up again(unfortunately he also didn't had any kids with his second wife) , but he always took himself away with his music which he already did when he was a kid. It makes me kind of sad that his life ended all alone, while he gave so much to us, fans, and if it can't get any worse; he died in an elevator, and was found after 6 hours !!!! That's what hurt me the most..................
The overdose of painkillers which killed him, he took because he had a serious hip issue. He needed a double hip replacement in 2010, but because of his religion he refused to have blood transfusion during surgery, so he had some surgery, one with no needed bloodtransfusion, but it didn't turn out to relieve him from pain, which was caused during the years dancing and jumping on heels and do splits, that's why he went on painkillers, which finally killed him...................... I feel very very sad about this, I wished he had that big family full of kids which he wanted so badly. I hope my story will give you another look at him of not being weird, but just normal human like you and me.

I want to thank Giorgia, for letting me do this special post, it has meant a lot to me.  Prince has left a beautiful legacy of music for us , which I am so thankful for.  All that left me to say is rest in peace my beautiful one, forever in my heart <3

Well thank you so much for taking a peek ! If you are interested in seeing more pages about Prince, you can always check my blog HERE . And, if there are any Prince fans out there who read this blogpost, I would love to get in contact with you, always great to share memories.

Thanks, xoxo Astrid