Belated birthday greeting

Holy moley, I forgot to wish my buddy Prince happy birthday! It was two weeks ago and I missed it. It's not that big a deal because the way our friendship works is he shares music with me, I pay him for it, and otherwise we leave each other alone. Also, my understanding is that Prince doesn't even celebrate birthdays. Still, it's common courtesy to acknowledge it, so I am, even though I'm late.


I own all of his albums (no bootlegs, thank you), including most of the stuff he's done on the side and I've seen him in concert three times. I'm often asked by people why I have a Prince fixation, since it doesn't seem from outward appearances that I would have much in common with him...


PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES - Aside from where our legs, arms and heads are attached to our torsos, we look nothing alike. He's black, I'm white. I'm tall, he's short. In overall physical stature, I'm about five of him. In fact, if we ever fought in a kung fu movie, he'd have to morph into five of himself and attack me from different angles to even have a chance of defeating me.


CULTURAL BACKGROUND - We're both midwest boys but he's a black guy raised in a predominantly white city and I'm a white guy raised in a predominantly black one. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that I listened to more Parliament Funkadelic growing up than he did and that he heard more Led Zeppelin growing up than I did.



LEISURE ACTIVITIES - He loves basketball. I haven't cared about the NBA since Charles Barkley retired.

STYLE -

Ummm, no.

So I don't know. How or why does somebody need to justify something like a personal preference? His music appeals to me, I think he's a brilliant live performer and a gifted musician and I admire his commitment to being unique and independent. He's my favorite, that's all.

So happy birthday, dude. Even if you don't celebrate it, I appreciate having you around.