Frank Ocean posts tribute to late musician Prince
Prince in 1984 (Photo: Warner Bros).
Prince, the music legend, has died at age 57 from a fentanyl overdose at his Minnesota home.
In the wake of his passing, Frank Ocean shared a heartfelt eulogy to one of his greatest influences on Tumblr:
I’m not even gonna say “rest in peace” because it’s bigger than death. I never met the man (I was too nervous the one time I saw him), and I never saw him play live, regrettably. I only know the legends I’ve heard from folks and what I’ve seen and heard from his deep catalog of fearless, virtuosic work. My assessment is that he learned early on how little value to assign to someone else’s opinion of you… an infectious sentiment that seemed soaked into his clothes, his hair, his walk, his guitar, and his primal scream. He wrote my favorite song of all time, “When You Were Mine.” It’s a simple song with a simple melody that makes you wish you thought of it first, even though you never would have—a flirtatious brand of genius that feels approachable.
He was a straight black man who played his first televised set in bikini bottoms and knee-high heeled boots, epic. He made me feel more comfortable with how I identify sexually simply by his display of freedom from and irreverence for obviously archaic ideas like gender conformity, etc. He moved me to be more daring and intuitive with my own work by his demonstration—his denial of the prevailing model… his fight for his intellectual property—“slave” written across the forehead, name changed to a symbol… an all-out rebellion against exploitation. A vanguard and genius by every metric I know of who affected many in a way that will outrun oblivion for a long while. I’m proud to be a Prince fan(stan) for life.
Prince’s first TV set, performing “I Wanna Be Your Lover” on NBC in 1980 (YouTube: The Midnight Special, 2024).
Prince in 1993 with “slave” written on his cheek, protesting Warner Bros’ control over his masters and release schedule (Photo: Brian Rasic).
Frank Ocean on his 2012 Channel Orange Tour, performing “When You Were Mine” by Prince (YouTube: Snow Child Prod., 2021).
Update 2016-08-20:
Frank Ocean’s favorite Prince song, “When You Were Mine,” may have inspired the track “Self Control” on his 2016 album Blonde. The second verse in “When You Were Mine” contains the lyrics:
I never cared, I never was the kind to make a fuss; when he was there, sleeping in between the two of us.
The lines resemble the chorus in “Self Control,” which says:
Keep a place for me; I’ll sleep between y’all, it’s nothing.
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