Born this day, June 7, 1958: Prince [Rodgers Nelson], the future Beatles of funk. Happy #45 to the Prince formerly known as Symbol Dude.

Indeed, he's one of only half a dozen artists of the rock era, tops, to rival the Beatles creative achievements.

There has just never been anything that sounded much like, say, the awe inspiring Parade album, not even Prince's own records. Where'd that Around the World in a Day come from? Lovesexy is absolutely the shiznit.

I want to take this opportunity to put in a special plug for his Batman soundtrack album. It gets looked over as some kind of marketing adjunct to a cartoon superhero movie. However, this was made by Prince in the 1980s when he was the ruling KING. There's quite an outstanding batch of songs, particularly including the "Lemon Crush".