Happy Birthday Prince!

6/7/11

Dear Prince,

I know your birthday was yesterday, but I still wanted to take just a minute to wish you a happy one.  I wanted to use your real name in this letter, so I looked it up.  Your real name is Prince?  Prince Rogers Nelson.  Your parents actually named you “Prince?”  Well done!  However this makes me wonder why between 1993-2000 you changed your name to some freaky name that no one could read or pronounce!  Apparently it has been officially translated to “Love Symbol #2.”  Eventually the media had to refer to you as “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.”  I had often wondered how it would be if someone were to attempt to pronounce that name.  A scene from “Splash” came to mind. When Daryl Hannah’s character “Madison” tries to tell Tom Hank’s character “Alan” what her name is in her language, you hear a strange screeching sound.  They’re standing in the TV appliance section of a department store and all the TV screens break simultaneously.  Well, I’m sure that’s what would happen if people tried to pronounce that strange name.  Why didn’t you just change your name to your childhood nickname, “Skipper?”  Easier to pronounce and spell.

You were born and raised in Minnesota?  I’d have thought you were born in some exotic place like Aruba or Belize. And you pioneered the “Minneapolis sound”?  Now I’ve only been to Minneapolis on a layover, but when I hear of Minneapolis I think of Garrison Keillor and The Prairie Home Companion.  Instead you describe the “Minneapolis sound” as “a hybrid mixture of funk, rock, pop, R&B and New Wave that has influenced many other musicians.”   So what you’re saying is that if I were to be musical artist someday, I could make up some distinctive sound and call it the “Yorba Linda sound?”  Ok, Prince, I’ll have to remember that.

I first learned about you in 1979 from a girl who lived in my sister’s dorms.  She listened to you and Rick James all the time.  I loved the music!  It was unique that’s for sure!  That girl in the dorms, who later became one of my best friends and a bridesmaid in my wedding, was so in-love with you.  Finally she showed me your picture in a magazine.  I said, “I can’t believe you’re in love with this guy? He’s wearing eyeliner and lipstick!  Plus he has on lace and high heels!”  I was shocked but intrigued, which I’m sure was your intent.

So Prince, or “Artist Formerly Known as The Artist Former Known as Prince”, or “Skipper,”  you are arguably one of the most experimental and “out there” artists.  You were around way before Lady Gaga was born and now she’s known as the “out there” artist of today.   O(+>  …there’s that the best I could do!  How’s that for Love Symbol #2?  Happy 53^rd!

Regards, Mrs Love