Prince`s Legacy - My Languages21

Prince’s Legacy
listening
Prince died last week. What do you know about the musician? Listen to the
statements read to you and say whether they are true or false.
2 Discuss the questions below and then listen to the report and check your ideas.
Where did Prince live?
Why did people compare
Prince to Jimi Hendrix
and how did he respond
to the comparisons?
What was he named
after?
Why was his home life as
a child difficult?
What award did Prince
win for the “Purple Rain”
project?
What did he take a very
public stand against in
1993 and what did he do
to show it?
Why is it almost
impossible to pigeonhole
Prince?
Where did his
perfectionism come
from?
Why did he get the
attention of the former
vice president’s wife,
Tipper Gore?
What did the musician
Sheila E. say of Prince?
bHow has his death been covered in the media where you live?
1/1
Prince’s Legacy
Teacher’s notes 1/2
student pages 1
week of 25.04.16
listening
advanced (C1)
Prince died last week. What do you know about the musician? Listen to the
statements read to you and say whether they are true or false.
After the students have told you what they know about Prince, read out the following
statements and ask them whether they think they are true or false.
Prince played guitar on Madonna’s ‘Like a Prayer’.
Prince had no shortage of nicknames and aliases: across his career, he’s been known
as The Kid, The Minneapolis Midget, Alexander Nevermind, Christopher Tracy and The
Artist Formerly Known As Prince. His real name was Prince Rogers Nelson and when he
was a kid he was known as Skipper.
Prince initially asked David Bowie to write lyrics for ‘Purple Rain’. > Prince initially asked
Stevie Nicks to write lyrics for ‘Purple Rain’. “It was so overwhelming, that 10-minute
track... I listened to it and I just got scared,” she said. “I called him back and said, I can’t
do it. I wish I could. It’s too much for me.” And so Prince went his own way and ‘Purple
Rain’ was born.
Prince was a talented footballer. > Despite Prince’s small stature at just 5’2, he was
a talented basketball player and once played for one of the best school teams in the
Minnesota state.
He wrote “Nothing Compares 2 U” for Sinéad O’Connor.
In addition to penning several hundred songs for himself, Prince also composed music
for other artists, including “Manic Monday” for the Bangles, “I Feel For You” for Chaka
Khan, and “Nothing Compares 2 U” for Sinéad O’Connor.
Even though the whole world referred to him as either “The Artist” or “The Artist Formerly
Known as Prince,” that weird symbol Prince used was actually known as “Love Symbol
#2.”
Prince’s guitarist sued him, claiming that he had written the lyrics to “U Got the Look.”
> In 1987, Prince’s half-sister, Lorna Nelson, sued him, claiming that she had written the
lyrics to “U Got the Look,” a song from “Sign o’ the Times” that features pop artist Sheena
Easton. In 1989, the court sided with Prince.
He took a promotional tip from Willy Wonka. In 2006, Universal hid 14 purple tickets,
seven in the US and seven internationally, inside Prince’s album, 3121. Fans who found
a purple ticket were invited to attend a private performance at Prince’s Los Angeles
home.
He simultaneously held the number one spots for film, single, and album. During the
week of July 27, 1984, Prince’s film Purple Rain hit number one at the box office. That
same week, the film’s soundtrack was the best-selling album and “When Doves Cry” was
holding the top spot for singles.
Prince wrote nearly as many songs as The Beatles. > Prince wrote more songs than The
Beatles, with a back catalogue that expands to over 600 tracks.
He liked to be filmed by fans. > In January 2014, he sued 22 individual fans he believed
had committed “massive infringement and bootlegging” by uploading footage of his sets
to YouTube.
He was a big fan of the internet. > In 2010 he claimed “the internet is over,” explaining
that “like MTV, at one time, MTV was hip, and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all
these computer and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers,
and that can’t be good for you.”
Prince’s Legacy
Teacher’s notes 2/2
week of 25.04.16
listening
advanced (C1)
Transcript C track 4
KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: We’re going to take a few
minutes now to look back at the life of a genderbending artist who gave us wailing guitar ballads,
excellent dance songs and a lot more. Prince died
today at Paisley Park, his home in Minneapolis.
Elizabeth Blair has this appreciation.
ELIZABETH BLAIR: Where do you begin to tell the
story of a man who had hit after hit after hit?
(SOUNDBITE OF PRINCE SONG, “WHEN DOVES
CRY”)
BLAIR: For more than three decades, Prince has
influenced just about every major pop, rock and
R&B artist.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WHEN DOVES CRY”)
PRINCE: (Singing) Dig, if you will, the picture of
you and I engaged in a kiss. The sweat of your body
covers me. Can you, my darling, can you picture
this?
BLAIR: People have tried to pigeonhole Prince, but
he drew from such a broad palette; that’s nearly
impossible. He was a student of all kinds of music.
He mixed it up and invented a new style.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRINCE SONG, “GIRLS AND
BOYS”)
PRINCE: (Singing) I love you, baby. I love you so
much. Maybe we can stay in touch.
BLAIR: Alan Light is the author of “Let’s Go Crazy:
The Making of Purple Rain.”
ALAN LIGHT: Now, there were a lot of easy
comparisons. People would say, oh, he’s like Jimi
Hendrix because he’s a black guy playing a guitar.
And he would say, you know, I love Jimi Hendrix,
but I’m not trying to play like Jimi Hendrix. There
are people who are doing more melodic work and
different kinds of work, and that’s the stuff that I,
you know, would draw from.
BLAIR: He was born Prince Rogers Nelson on June
7, 1958 in Minneapolis. His parents were both
musical. He was named Prince after his father’s
jazz group, the Prince Rogers Trio. His home life
was difficult. After his parents divorced, he moved
around a lot, bouncing between friends and family.
Music was his refuge. By the time he was a teenager,
he could play several instruments. He was known
to be a perfectionist. In 2009, he told Tavis Smiley
on PBS that came from his father who was tough
but taught him a lot about music.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRINCE: My father was - he was so hard on me. He I was never good enough, and there was something
about that. It was like - almost like the Army when
it came to music. It’s like, that’s not even close, he’d
say; it’s not even close to what I’m doing. And he’d
play again. And I could hear it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DELIRIOUS”)
PRINCE: (Singing) I get delirious whenever you’re
near, lose all self-control - baby, just can’t steer.
BLAIR: Prince was ahead of his time. In the 1980s
before he reached the height of his popularity, he
made a movie. He combined that movie with a new
album and a tour. “Purple Rain” was a hit at the box
office and earned him an Oscar. The album sold more
than 13 million copies. It also produced a song that
got the attention of the vice president’s wife. She
was furious over its sexual content. After buying
the album for her then 11-year-old daughter, Tipper
Gore spearheaded a system of labeling albums for
their explicit lyrics. Prince could be flamboyant
with velvet suits, ruffles, makeup. In 1993, he took
a very public stand against the music industry. He
changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol
and scrawled slave across his cheeks to protest
what he saw as the industry taking advantage of
artists. Alan Light...
LIGHT: He was, you know, openly ridiculed. I mean,
this was seen as, you know - it was sort of a spoiled
tantrum or something that he was throwing. People
made fun of him and, in some ways, never fully
recovered. But the fact is, he did draw attention to
these issues that have really become central over
the last five or 10 years to debate within the music
business.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I WOULD DIE 4 U”)
PRINCE: (Saying) I’m not your woman. I’m not your
man. I am something that you’ll never understand.
I’ll never beat you. I’ll never lie. And if you’re evil.
I’ll forgive you by and by ‘cause you - I would die
for you.
BLAIR: One of the musicians he inspired was Sheila
E. She once said, the sky’s the limit with Prince;
there are no rules in the studio; nothing matters as
long as the energy is there. That energy is a force
that will continue to inspire musicians for years to
come. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LET’S GO CRAZY”)
PRINCE: (Singing) Dearly beloved, we are gathered
here today to get through this thing called life.
Electric word life - it means forever, and that’s a
mighty long time. But I’m here to tell you there’s
something else - the afterworld, a world of neverending happiness. You can always see the sun day
or night.