Transmission 2316 - A Royal-Purple Badass-Mutherfucker Tribute

Dearly beloved

We are gathered here today

2 get through this thing called life

Electric word life

It means forever and that's a mighty long time

But I'm here 2 tell u

There's something else

The afterworld

A world of never ending happiness

U can always see the sun, day or night

So when u call up that shrink in Beverly Hills

U know the one - Dr everything'll be alright

Instead of asking him how much of your time is left

Ask him how much of your mind, baby

cuz in this life

Things are much harder than in the afterworld

In this life

You're on your own

And if de-elevator tries 2 bring u down

Go crazy - punch a higher floor

If u dont like the world you're living in

Take a look around u

At least u got friends

U see I called my old lady

4 a friendly word

She picked up the phone

Dropped it on the floor

(sex, sex) is all I heard

Are we gonna let de-elevator

Bring us down

Oh, no lets go!

Lets go crazy

Lets get nuts

Lets look 4 the purple banana

til they put us in the truck, lets go!

Were all excited

But we don't know why

Maybe its cuz

Were all gonna die

And when we do (when we do)

Whats it all 4 (whats it all 4)

U better live now

Before the grim reaper come knocking on your door

Tell me, are we gonna let de-elevator bring us down

Oh, no lets go!

Lets go crazy

Lets get nuts

Look 4 the purple banana

til they put us in the truck, lets go!

Prince Rogers Nelson

T2316 

"The funkier I be

The funkier I get, oh shit

Lickety split on the lyric

A new jack in the pulpit

Watch it deacon, your track is leakin'

What is this you're seekin'?

The syncopated rhymes are at their peak

When you jumped on my D.I.C.K

That's the one thing that I don't play

The jock strap was to big for u anyway

You're just a simpleton

I'll bust you like a pimple, son

My star is too bright

Boy, I'll sink you like the ship Poseidon 

You're bumpin' dentures to be cocksure

There must be more coming from

Your mouth than manure

So with a flow and a spray, I say hey

You must become a prince before you're king anyway"

RFW

*The amazing picture above was taken by an old friend and usual suspect, Steven Stone, at one of the best concerts I saw at the long-defunct Metro nightclub on Lansdowne Street in Boston. Prince was on tour in 1981with his new album and we were playing "Dirty Mind" and "Head" on WBCN.

 Steven sets up the shot:

"When Prince came to Boston’s Metro club I was the house photographer. And being the house photographer had certain perks, including having installed a radio-remote controlled strobe system in the lighting bridge of the club. All I had to do to be ready to shoot photographs of the stage from anywhere in the club was to plug in the strobe system.

Since I was the house photographer the stage technicians and I worked together often under adverse conditions. One of the standard set-up at Metro was to place the large shipping containers that contained the band’s into a wall of boxes, behind which the techs could hang out and take care of any problems on stage. I used to work from behind this wall, protected from the rest of the room.

Prince had an absolutely no photographs policy. No audience member could even enter with any kind of camera. I knew this so I made myself scarce during the soundcheck (when I usually made Polaroids to check the lighting). I had a trusted tech (or it could have been Carmine) plug in my strobes and then I waited for the show to start.

Halfway through the first song I made my first exposure, and the strobes worked as they always did, with a big ‘ol FLASH! Which due to all the other lighting effects generally went unnoticed, but not this time – Prince’s head jerked up and he scanned the room – he knew they were strobes that were not part of his lighting design. I continued to shoot from the back of the room with my long lenses, hunkered down like a sniper. His roadies, who were looking, never spotted me and I slipped out halfway through his encore."

**Prince was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 along with Beatle George.

 That night, Mr. Harrison was smiling.

Today, they are both lead guitarists in The All-Star Dead Band.

Doves Gently Weep!