In our social media-infused, hyper-social society that we live in there are very few enigmatic spirits left to tantalize our imagination. Prince was one of those men that transcends normal space and time, never mind social media like Twitter and Facebook. To many, they think of Prince like the tall tales that have been woven by storytellers throughout pop culture. He’s the short man in purple with the big hair, wearing the big heels and donning his guitar like an extension of his manhood unlike anyone else has ever done.
If you are one of the few people out there who has never moved beyond Little Red Corvette or Raspberry Beret you have been missing out on one of the most brilliant songwriters of our time, as well as genius technical mastermind who has yet to release an actual bad album throughout his career (intentionally mediocre or too Jesus-heavy? Yes. Bad? No.). Tales of his vault containing hundreds of unreleased songs, nay, albums, have become an integral part of Prince’s lore, with unreleased tracks lusted over by hardcore fans to no avail. The same can be said for his compound in Minnesota, Paisley Park, which has moved from being just a home studio to a place that is revered and fawned over like a modern day Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. All of this is to establish that Prince is not only a tremendous musician, but he’s an enigma that leaves most of his life up to our wildest imaginations.
There are not that many enigmas anymore in a world where we have endless access to celebrities’ lives, such as what they are eating or how delayed their latest flight is. Never, for one moment, would I imagine that Prince would translate into such a public and open platform like Twitter, even if only for a few fleeting moments he was reciting what he wanted to say to the world in a hazy room to a Siren with an iPhone in her hand, ready to succomb to his any demand.
Yet that is [probably] exactly what is happening right now, as Prince has invaded the world of Twitter under the handle of @3rdEyeGirl. For those who are unaware of his current projects, Prince has assembled a backing band for his latest tour, called 3rd Eye Girl. According to some friends of Prince, some of the tweets have actually come from the Purple One himself. The Twitter account has been around for a while, but Prince himself has actually kind of taken over the damned thing over as of this week. I’m just not sure that I, or anyone else, needs this kind of access to Prince.
Some things are just too funky for this world and best left to our imaginations, and Prince is definitely up there. It just seems like a bad move coming from the guy who said that the “internet is completely over” back in 2010 to all of a sudden embrace the internet like this.
