RIP PRINCE

Well, RIP. I’m not a fan, but then I’m old. My wife just came in from dinner with our daughter in Richmond and told me that Prince is thought to have died of an overdose. I didn’t ask where she heard it.

I do remember that back in the ’90s he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, and people started referring to him as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.

The former artist formerly known as Prince has died. My condolences to all who loved him.

Gayle – more likely shooting up with Jimi.

Ah, Stilton Jarlsberg has just weighed in on the matter at hand:

“The music world was stunned yesterday when Prince, the artist formerly known as ‘the artist formerly known as Prince,’ was found dead in an elevator at age 57. The cause of death is thought to have been Muzak poisoning.

“No, no – at the time of this writing, we don’t know what caused Prince’s untimely death, and moreover Hope n’ Change is genuinely sorry to see him go. Unlike so many celebrities and musicians these days, he was actually talented and left a lot of good music behind.

“Of course, Barack Obama wasted no time whatsoever in eulogizing Prince, declaring ‘few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly, or touched quite so many people with their talent.’ Which would have been an excellent place to stop. But noooo- Barry then had to add ‘a strong spirit transcends rules,’ which not only summarizes his policy on Executive Orders, but is also expected to be Hillary Clinton’s line of defense when she finally gives testimony on her serial acts of criminal misconduct.

“On a final note, as of this writing Hope n’ Change cannot confirm reports that, just before dying, Prince begged Joe Biden to run for president.”

(see http://hopenchangecartoons.blogspot.com/2016/04/purple-prose.html )

Hm. That last bit would, given Hiterly’s history of climbing to prominence over corpses, figure large in our appreciation of how Prince became so precipitously deceased, wouldn’t it?

When I think of music from the Twin Cities, I prefer Husker Du and The Replacements instead of Prince, but he was an artist.

Llpoh says: Gayle – more likely shooting up with Jimi.

Gayle – more like roasting with Jimi.

Ed writes: “I never once heard of Jimi Hendrix even smoking a joint, let alone shooting up. He did, however, drink a lot of booze and reportedly died from throwing up while passed out from booze and seconal.”

Given the fact that the pharmacology of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is such that it tends reliably to confer some mitigation of nausea and vomiting, it might could’ve been that Hendrix would’ve survived combining booze and pot more reliably than was the case when he doubled up on depressants by washing down his secobarbital with ethanol.

From the high incidence of major musicians dying of vomitus aspiration and similar misadventures, you’d think they could manage to incorporate at least one “designated spotter” in their respective entourages with the specific duty to stay straight and play lifeguard for all the people who are shooting up, toking up, or slugging down the firewater.

Ed, PS overdose as in Hoffman’s death has been attributed to heroin use in unfamiliar places. Maybe you can drink the full bottle of Vodka at home with no ill effects but drinking the same in the subway could complicate your systemic reaction.

These guys are traveling and trying to shoot up in unfamiliar settings, you’ve got temperature, barometric pressures and oxygen content in the atmosphere to think about when shooting up the usual dose.