Is Prince the Son of Queen?
When Prince died, both of my children – independently of one another – asked me if Prince was related to Queen.
Having never considered this before, I didn’t even understand the question when Dylan asked it. But when Shane asked more directly, “Is Prince the son of Queen?” it made sense. A prince is usually the son of a queen. How would they know that Queen is a group and that Prince is a solo artist and that the two don’t even remotely resemble one another?
My first response to Dylan was, “Oh no, Freddie Mercury died a long time ago!” As if they knew who Freddie Mercury – incredulous lead singer of Queen – might be.
I remember when Freddie Mercury died, though, only too well. His death was a total surprise to me.
But now, it seems, that so many, many, many of my favorite musicians are just disappearing. I adored Prince in his day. And his death comes on the heels of the death of beautiful glam rocker David Bowie. Then Glenn Frey died, which is really the death of the Eagles – my all-time favorite band.
I remember when Andy Gibb died, too – the first crushing blow to my favorite music. And Lisa Lopez from TLC – another horrific tragedy. John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Jerry Garcia – the extreme losses felt around the world. And Michael Jackson? I thought he would outlive us all.
It’s like someone has taken a monstrous sledgehammer to my album collection.
And I really do think that I expected everyone to live forever.
Luckily, it is the music that made me love them – and that music lives on, in spite of the artists’ mortality. Which, quite possibly, is why they became musicians in the first place.
In fact, I watched Dylan sing Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go almost better than George Michael did, in Dylan’s “Back to the 80’s” musical at school. And when Dylan sang Believe it Or Not, I was propelled back in time to my parents’ couch, watching The Greatest American Hero.
The music is going to keep on going. It’s legendary. And while it is sad when an era ends, new ones keep beginning – and I need to treasure those new beginnings.
I love Meghan Trainor now, for example. NO is my favorite new song. I got the kids tickets to Twenty One Pilots, but fell in love with their music myself and now we are all going to their concert. And I still get chills when I hear Ed Sheeran’s Don’t, even though Shane tells me that the song is “so old, Mom!” It came out in 2014.
So maybe Prince and Queen are lost to a new generation – even though my boys sang “We Will Rock You” as their first on-stage duet. Or maybe, just maybe, the songs will stay alive by being passed down through the generations as the classics that they are.
After all, that’s what “classic” means.