Story time...back in the id 90's I was into typical music of the era: grunge etc and then around 1994, I was introduced to Prince. It's not like I hadn't heard Prince before but it's more like I'd never listened. So I started listening and for whatever reason, I instantly connected wit this music. I kind of understand it many years later but even now I'm intrigued by the whole "why" when it comes to the things we instantly become attached to. So, skip ahead to 1995 when I watched Graffiti Bridge for the first time. Like most people, I thought this movie was terrible when compared to Purple Rain. Bad acting, bad writing etc. The funny thing about Graffiti Bridge is that because of the movie, the music has never gotten its due. The soundtrack included songs by all of the artists in the movie where Purple Rain did not. I believe that had Prince focused on Graffiti Bridge as less of a soundtrack and more of a record that reflected the tone of the movie and paralleled the message of the movie, it could have been seen in a much different light. I mean, the fact that the whole movie is about an artist who stays true to himself and his art is a good message and combining it with the whole divine intervention thing could make a good movie unless you put Morris Day and Jerome Benton in co-starring roles. Anyway, I digress...
The story of how this affected me and the point of this post and the previous post is as follows:
When I initially watched Graffiti Bridge I was just learning to play guitar and I remember that after I watched that movie, I wrote "Angel" which was the first song I ever wrote on guitar. It was completely inspired by that movie and I was reminded of that this week and it just kind of fascinated me because it's something I'd forgotten about and it blows my mind that all of the art could have started from being inspired by that movie.
Secondly, "Still Would Stand All Time" is probably in my top 3 Prince songs ever and that's saying a lot. I could get into why I posted The Beautiful Ones earlier and followed it with this, but let's just say that sometimes we feel anger and hurt and jealousy and etc etc etc towards people we care about immensely and sometimes those feelings can stay for days and weeks and months and then one day we wake up and listen to Still Would Stand All Time and we realize that the one thing we want most in the world is for that person or those people to know that we've forgiven them and that we hope that they can forgive us when they are ready because life is too short to carry grudges and forgiveness and love bring peace and peace is what it's all about. That was kind of a rant but it was kind of necessary tonight.
Love can save us all.
