Prince was always himself, whatever the occasion. Fierce and unapologetic. Reinvention time and again.
He was the soundtrack to our lives since Purple Rain for folks like me. Dance artist. Guitar hero. Pop-music legend.
The only guy who can fire a sound tech at 6 p.m. and have a replacement by 7. (A true account from his second to last Air Canada Centre show.) "I don't like the way the drums sound."
Whether it was his famous after-show sets that happened in Toronto where the band would play till 3 a.m., or the Massey Hall show that was supposed to happen and created lineups around the building all for naught, the air of mystery was always intact. Not to mention his home on the Bridle Path!
Someone whose production style was and is definitively his. There is no mistaking the first snare beat as soon as When Doves Cry comes bursting out of the speakers.
So few reach such iconic heights in the pop-music world, and so many will try so very hard. Prince's ascent always seemed effortless.
Nothing compares to Prince.
Brendan Canning is a Toronto musician and a founding member of Broken Social Scene