For Those About To Rock

Thirty years on, ‘So’ highlights Peter Gabriel's visual-audio legacy

Peter Gabriel sings in 2011. Gabriel comes Thursday to the SAP Center in San Jose on his joint headlining tour with Sting. (Courtesy photo/Jürgen Heegmann)

When Netflix's “Orange Is the New Black” returned last month, it tipped the hat to a famous movie moment referencing British musician Peter Gabriel.

In the episode aptly titled “(Don’t) Say Anything,” Brook (Kimiko Glenn) shows up outside the library with a tiny radio held above her head, playing an Eminem song, apologizing to her girlfriend, Poussey (Samira Wiley).

It’s a callback to “Say Anything … ” and one of the most memorable screen moments from the 1980s, when John Cusack’s Lloyd Dobler lifted his boombox aloft to play Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” and win back his lady-love, Ione Skye's Diane.

It’s so iconic, I caught the reference and I had never seen “Say Anything” until I watched it earlier this week to write this article.

This a long-winded way of showing how “In Your Eyes” and the album from which it comes, So, helped cement Gabriel's legacy as an artist who keeps a foot in both the audio and the visual realms.

So, Gabriel's most commercially successful LP, celebrated its 30th anniversary in May and some of its most enduring tracks are sure to pop up Thursday when his collaborative tour with Sting stops at the SAP Center in San Jose.

Gabriel and Sting are doing a “tandem tour,” a performance which incorporates music by the two artists blended together in a single set. Think Jay Z and Justin Timberlake’s 2013 show at Candlestick Park, when both artists took turns with their own songs as well as ganging up for selected tracks.

While So looms large, some in the under-30 set may not know him quite so well. He has released one studio album of original material since 1992. He spent much of the past decade ensconced in a forgettable orchestral period, issuing 2010’s minimal, milquetoast cover collection “Scratch My Back” and 2011’s “New Blood,” a batch of orchestrated renditions of old favorites.

That leaves 2002's “Up” as the lone original studio slab under the Gabriel flag since George H.W. Bush was president, so it’s easy to forget or, depending upon your age, not even known what made Gabriel a powerhouse in the first place.

"Orange" helps pull that into focus. It’s appropriate that the image of Cusack hoisting that boombox above his head to blare “In Your Eyes” is so inextricably tied to the legacy of So and Gabriel’s work since his career has so frequently found the connective tissue between the aural and the visual.

Reaching back to his days in Genesis in the 1970s, Gabriel was known for his theatrical performances, layering himself in makeup and costumes to play characters on stage.

To the '90s millennials and younger, he’s best known for his soundtrack work. In addition to some full-length efforts, the younger among us know him best for his cover of The Magnetic Fields' “The Book of Love” for its use in the original cast finale of the NBC/ABC comedy “Scrubs” and for his Grammy Award-winning and Oscar Award-nominated “Down to Earth" for the 2008 Pixar film “Wall-E.”

Those are great examples of how his music is intwined with visual art. So didn't mark Gabriel's emergence as a visual/audio artist, but it remains his apex.

MTV once claimed his unforgettable video for “Sledgehammer” was the most-played clip in the network’s history. Seeing as MTV doesn't play videos much these days, I'm inclined to believe that record still stands.

The "Sledgehammer" video combined claymation and stop-motion animation to send the singer on a visual spectacle that had never been done before in a music video, especially at a time when the level of artistry in music videos wasn't as high as it is today. It won a record nine MTV Video Music Awards.

With that sort of pedigree, it's unsurprising that Gabriel's music has continued to find a marriage with visual mediums, to provide the inspiration to bring teenage lovers back together or help describe the return of humans to earth.

Although his output of studio albums has slowed during the past 25 years, references to Gabriel's impact and legacy as a visual and audio creative force can pop up in the most unlikely of places, even inside the walls of Litchfield Penitentiary on “Orange Is the New Black.”

"Say Anything ... " boombox scene:
"Sledgehammer":
"Down to Earth":
"The Book of Love" scene in the "Scrubs" finale with its original cast:

Lannister twins face dark future after ‘Game of Thrones’ finale

Cersei Lannister (Lena Headley) looks out at King's Landing from the Red Keep in the most recent episode of HBO's "Game of Thrones." (HBO images)

At times uneven and oddly paced, the sixth season of HBO’s blockbuster “Game of Thrones” wrapped Sunday with an explosive final episode.

For those who haven’t watched all of the most recent season as well as any corresponding books in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, here’s a spoiler warning.

While the Stark family is the beating heart of the series — they’ve been the focal point since the first episode — I continue to be fascinated by the Lannister children.

Though youngest sibling Tyrion, played by Peter Dinklage, is my favorite, I feel that the finale tipped its hand toward its endgame with the elder twins, Cersei, played by Lena Headley, and Jaime (right), who Nikolaj Coster-Waldau plays.

Cersei’s always been manipulative and cunning, but crossed an irredeemable line in the season finale, bringing an abrupt and cataclysmic end to her trial for incest and regicide. In conspiracy with Qyburn, the resident Dr. Josef Mengele of “Game of Thrones,” she used hidden casks of wildfire, the universe’s more-potent-than-fire substance, to blow up a sept, a holy building, and everyone inside it. Those inside included anyone suspecting her of wrongdoing as well as many rivals, politicians and claimants to the throne.

As part of the collateral damage, the king, her last remaining child, son Tommen, jumped out of a window to his death, leaving her as queen by default and elevating creepy Qyburn to second in command.

It feels as if we've reached the boiling point on plot developments that heating since the pilot, when Jaime chucked Bran Stark out of a window to keep his sister-loving ways a secret. It’s difficult to paint “The Kingslayer” as sympathetic, considering he attempted to murder Bran, assassinated the “Mad King” Aerys, has killed scores and raped Cersei on the floor of the sept next to the corpse of their eldest son, the rotten King Joffrey.

Both have done heinous things, but Cersei’s act of mass murder pushed her across the moral event horizon. Dressed in black “Maleficent” fines, she was funereal as she became the queen of Westeros as well as its villainous (villainess, too) final boss.

Queen is a mantle she wanted, but lost all three children getting there. She flashed a wicked smile as she watched her enemies die across the city.

She is the woman who quipped the show’s title – “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die” – but who could have foreseen she would put such an emphasis on the death part?

Cersei's become a terrorist (left) and that’s not a word to be used lightly. She demolished a church and murdered dozens to free herself from the possibility of a guilty verdict.

Whether Jaime knows this is yet to be seen. It was clear from the episode’s penultimate scene that regardless of how much he knows, he finds his new, all-powerful queen worrisome.

Earlier in season six, Jaime made part of his political pitch to peacefully take over the castle of Riverrun by saying he will do “whatever it takes” to get back to Cersei. Now, he's in an impossible spot.

George R.R. Martin, the creator of this universe, has said that, like William Faulkner, he believes the only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself.

I want Jaime to find out what Cersei did. This would be juicy for the show's well-matched, but kinda icky power couple. More than 20 years after Jaime assassinated Aerys to save the citizens of King’s Landing from death by wildfire, his sister and lover weaponized the same substance to carry out a brutal, unforgivable attack.

With the upcoming final season to be split into two parts, the stakes rise as we steer toward the series finale.

So I want to see Jaime to face a choice between what’s best for the Seven Kingdoms and his love for Cersei. It will be a much harder decision than killing the Mad King. But I expect the fate of Westeros to hang in the balance.

Since his journey over the course of the series has been one of redemption – he has not killed any Starks since he vowed to Catelyn Stark he would not, he took Riverrun without bloodshed, he let Brienne escape after the takeover – I think if the moment comes, he will kill his twin sister and earn a new moniker: “The Queenslayer.”

Aging musicians' live shows still worth it

Bob Dylan performs at the Azkena Rock Festival in Spain in 2010. Dylan kicks off a two-night stand at Berkeley's Greek Theatre tonight. (Courtesy photo/Alberto Cabello)

As Bob Dylan kicks off the first of a two-night stay at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre today, there’s bound to be a familiar chorus.

No, not the one singing “Blowin’ in the Wind,” although that’s bound to happen, too.

It’s a chorus that comes from the crowd regularly when he or other musicians of a certain age – let’s lump them into the “classic” category – play live today. They sing about how these musicians aren’t what they used to be, that we’ve missed their prime and that going to the show isn’t worth it.

I’ve gotta be honest – there’s some truth to that assessment. Unless you’re a hardcore “Dylanphile” or the rash of 2016 musician deaths has driven you to “catch ’em all,” Pokémon style, you can probably skip out.

As someone who has seen Dylan four times on what’s been dubbed his “Never-Ending Tour” since a June 7, 1988, stop in Concord, I have a complicated relationship with Dylan’s live show circa 2016. It’s like an old married couple: “Sure, my partner upsets me sometimes, but I still love ’em.”

But for the unwed, so to speak, caution is advised. Casual fans seeking a carbon copy of the Dylan who made his essential 1960s folk and rock albums are going to come away disappointed. He doesn’t look like that, sound like that and, often, doesn’t even play the songs like that anymore.

During a rendition of “Maggie’s Farm” a decade ago at ARCO Arena, the tune was unrecognizable until Dylan croaked the opening line because he rearranged the song. He does that. Considering he’s been playing some songs for five decades, it's hard to fault him.

The cries that these old, gray hairs, they ain’t what they used to be, ain’t what they used to be are bound to resurface come October when Dylan, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Roger Waters, Neil Young and The Who converge on Indio for the Desert Trip festivals.

Looking at their catalogs is a “who’s who” of classic rock, but those who expect Macca to look and sound the way he did when he wrote “Hey Jude” are setting themselves up for disaster.

While McCartney, The Stones and The Who are sure to deliver the hits at that festival, it’s hard to imagine Dylan or Young will follow that script. I can’t see either of those men, who have made careers out of following their artistic impulses, doing anything other than exactly what they want.

If Dylan hasn’t made it abundantly clear during the past half-century, he doesn't care what anyone thinks. Or what they want to hear. To paraphrase a Bill Maher “New Rules” rant from earlier this year, we are not here for Dylan. Dylan is here for us.

Case in point: Tonight, he arrives supporting Fallen Angels and Shadows in the Night, two successive albums of songs performed by Frank Sinatra. Hopping on the Dylan train means rolling with whatever may come, even when he gets into phases when he does a Christmas album. Undoubtedly, some of Old Blue Eyes’ material will be sprinkled among the familiar tonight.

For committed music fans, though, there’s still value in seeing legends perform. Peak Steely Dan came in the 1970s, but last summer, they played a communal show with a gaggle of musicians at Mountain View’s Shoreline Amphitheater. Given the band’s history of collaboration with dozens of musicians even in its prime, was such an approach so far removed from the “real thing?” Not really.

As for seeing Dylan live in 2016, is he going to sound like a bullfrog gargling Jack Daniel's? Yes.

Is he a commanding stage presence? Not especially.

Is he still worth seeing? Absolutely.

He leads a tight, crisp band. He mixes in some latter-career nuggets, such as “High Water (For Charley Patton)” and “Duquesne Whistle,” too. I find his whiskey-croak voice endearing. It's unmistakable that it's Dylan.

Maybe his prime is gone, but the story of his career – and others of his age and ilk – is still being written. There's still an opportunity to be a part of that story, even for those who see Dylan tonight instead of in Greenwich Village circa 1962.

Accepting Dylan and other classic acts as they age is a "yes or no" prospect. There’s sure to be those disappointed by the gray hairs, but for those who take them as they are now, it’s still worthwhile.

BottleRock gives women chance to reaffirm credentials as headliners

Florence Welch from Florence + The Machine sings Saturday at the BottleRock Napa Valley festival in Napa. (Courtesy photo/Jon Ching)

An unusual thing happened Saturday at the BottleRock Napa Valley music, wine, beer and food festival.

Florence + The Machine, one of the three-day Napa event’s headliners, put on the best set of the weekend. With a shimmering curtain of yellow lights behind them, the British indie rock and chamber pop played a positive, life-affirming set of hits and favorites.

As they did, their singer, Florence Welch, owned Napa. Her soaring voice climbed scales as she prowled the stage in bare feet. She encouraged fans to hug, “touch each other’s faces” and love one another.

So what’s so unusual about this? That it was Welch – a woman – leading the way on the main stage of a major musical festival.

To anyone rolling their eyes at that, consider this: To compare to another, slightly larger Bay Area music festival, Outside Lands in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, BottleRock has had more women musicians leading its main stage headliners in the past two years than Outside Lands has in nine lineups, including this summer’s.

Zero isn’t a hard number to beat, though.

That’s not an aberration, either. It’s pretty common. Superfly, which presents Outside Lands as well as Tennessee’s Bonnaroo, one of the largest fests in the nation, also has never had a female artist leading the charge on a full day of events. In more than 15 years, Indio’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has had one female headliner, Icelandic art pop chameleon Björk, in 2002 and 2007.

Just last week, Huffington Post looked at 10 large-scale festivals – including ‘Roo, Outside Lands and Coachella – and determined that while more than 51 percent of their attendees are female, out of roughly 4,000 total acts, just 12 percent were female-only and 10 percent were mixed-gender groups, leaving just under 80 percent as exclusively male.

With two of its six headliner slots since in the past two years going to mixed-gender groups led by women, BottleRock is ducking those numbers.

It’s showed a willingness to see as viable main stage draws that aren’t exclusively men with Welch this year and the Gwen Stefani-led No Doubt in 2015. It’s also showed racial diversity in its headliners, booking OutKast in 2014 and Stevie Wonder this year.

“BottleRock’s diversity is a result of booking the best bands and musicians in all genres,” said Dave Graham, CEO of Latitude 38 Entertainment, the Napa-based firm which puts on BottleRock. “No Doubt and Florence + The Machine headlined the past two years because they were clearly the best choices to headline the festival. . . . We really do not think about gender or race when booking our lineup, but we put a lot of thought into what is the best fit for our attendees.”

Neither Welch nor Stefani needed to prove that women can hold down the main stage at large-size music festivals. Or, more accurately, they shouldn’t have to. It should be self-evident.

But as much as I want that to be true, why did it feel like such a revelation to see Welch commanding the crowd?

Because it doesn’t happen often enough. There shouldn’t be a shortage of female headliners or a broader spectrum of representation, for that matter. Those voices need to be heard.

Are we to believe that Madonna wouldn’t draw? That Beyoncé, who can sell out stadiums, can’t pull in tens of thousands? That Adele, who breaks album sales records, couldn’t carry a lineup? Puh-lease.

Yes, there are complexities and challenges to making a lineup, from “radius” clauses – exclusivity rules that limit where and when an artist can play before or after a festival – to artists who just don’t want to be involved in festivals due to branding or personal preference to cost to other reasons.

What Welch and No Doubt’s Stefani did was reaffirm that, indeed, the girls can hang with the boys. BottleRock sold out every day this year and on No Doubt’s day in ’15.

Sales often speak loudest, so while diversity is not the literal bottom line, inclusion is vital for fans of BottleRock and its organizers in the years to come as well as the music-listening public in general.

“The wonderful thing about music is that there is so much incredible talent out there, no matter what kind of music you are into,” Graham said. “For instance, my iPod is an eclectic mix of everything from Sylvan Esso to Gary Clark Jr. As long as artists continue to produce great music regardless of genre, we are confident we will be able to offer a quality, interesting and diverse lineup each and every year.”

Setlist: Red Hot Chili Peppers at BottleRock, 5.29.16

A panoramic look at the Jam Cellars Stage field at the Red Hot Chili Peppers play "Dani California" Sunday at the BottleRock festival in Napa.

NAPA — The Red Hot Chili Peppers played "The Getaway," the title track from their upcoming studio album, for a live audience for the first time Sunday at BottleRock Napa Valley.

The Los Angeles alternative and funk rock band rattled off numerous hits in a 100-minute set that featured numerous jams and interludes.

Here a complete list of what the band played Sunday at BottleRock:

Setlist
Can't Stop
Dani California
Snow ((Hey Oh))
Dark Necessities
Nobody Weird Like Me
The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie
Otherside
Right on Time
The Getaway
Under the Bridge
Higher Ground (Stevie Wonder song)
Californication
By the Way

Encore
Around the World
Give it Away

Setlists: Florence, Death Cab, The Pharcyde and Joy Formidable at BottleRock, 5.28.16

Ritzy Bryan of The Joy Formidable performs Saturday at the BottleRock Napa Valley festival. Bryan finished the band's set by ripping off her sunglasses, jumping into the drum kit and hurling her guitar on stage in the finale of the group's showstopper, "Whirring." (Robinson Kuntz/Daily Republic photo)

NAPA — Florence + The Machine wrapped itself around the BottleRock Napa Valley festival like a warm blanket Saturday night.

Lead singer Florence Welch twirled, danced and ran through the crowd barefoot as she and the machine delivered fan favorites such as "Cosmic Love," "Shake it Out" and "Dog Days Are Over." She encouraged the crowd to love each other and, during "Dog Days," hug each other and touch each others' faces.

Here's what the band played in its headlining set Saturday, as well as the sets from Death Cab for Cutie, The Pharcyde and The Joy Formidable, according to my notes and a little help from Setlist.fm:

Florence + The Machine

Setlist
What the Water Gave Me
Ship to Wreck
Bird Song Intro
Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)
Shake it Out
Delilah
Sweet Nothing
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
Cosmic Love
Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Neil Young song)
Mother
Queen of Peace
Spectrum
You’ve Got the Love (The Source song)
Dog Days Are Over

Encore
What Kind of Man
Drumming Song

Death Cab for Cutie

Setlist
The New Year
Crooked Teeth
Why’d You Want to Live Here
Black Sun
The Ghosts of Beverly Drive
Title and Registration
Little Wanderer
A Movie-Script Ending
What Sarah Said
I Will Possess Your Heart
El Dorado
You Are a Tourist
Doors Unlocked and Open
Soul Meets Body
Cath …
Marching Bands of Manhattan

The Pharcyde

Setlist
Hey You
Y?
Devil Music
Drop
Ya Mama
Still Got Love
Illusions
One Time for Dilla, Man (For J-Dilla)
Otha Fish
Pack the Pipe / Jammin’ (Bob Marley song)
Oh S—
[Unknown]
Runnin’
Passin’ Me By

The Joy Formidable

Setlist
Cradle
Little Blimp
Passerby
This Ladder Is Ours
The Last Thing on My Mind
The Greatest Light Is the Greatest Shade
Radio of Lips
Whirring

Updated 5/29/16 at 10:08 a.m.
Updated 5/29/16 at 11:20 p.m.

Setlist: Stevie Wonder at BottleRock, 5.27.16

NAPA — Here's the setlist for Stevie Wonder's performance Friday at the BottleRock Napa Valley festival, according to my notes.

In the sampler set, Wonder told the crowd to refer to him as "DJ Chick Chick Boom" as he played the studio recordings of songs from musical luminaries who have died in 2016, including Prince, Eagles, Natalie Cole and Earth, Wind and Fire.

It's possible there were others after Superstition as there was still a little time left before the festival's noise curfew:

Setlist
Give Up the Funk (Parliament song) [Spoken, as intro to ... ] >
Did I Hear You Say You Love Me
Master Blaster (Jammin’)
Higher Ground
Sir Duke
I Wish
Saturn
Overjoyed
If You Really Love Me
Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours
Living for the City >
I Want to Hold Your Hand (The Beatles song)
My Cherie Amour >
The Letter (The Box Tops song)

DJ Chick Chick Boom sampler set
Kiss (Prince song)
When Doves Cry (Prince song)
That’s the Way of the World (Earth, Wind and Fire song)
This Will Be (Natalie Cole song)
Hotel California (Eagles song)
Fame (David Bowie song)

Superstition

Preview: For fourth year, BottleRock beefs up culinary stage lineup

Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons performs at the BottleRock Napa Valley festival in 2015. The Napa music, wine and food festival returns for its fourth installment Friday through Sunday. (Robinson Kuntz/Daily Republic photo)

FAIRFIELD — Known for its convergence of music, wine and food, BottleRock Napa Valley seeks to double down on all three this weekend during the festival’s fourth installment.

A beefed-up lineup for its culinary stage features world-class chefs cooking with celebrities, including “Hell’s Kitchen” star Gordon Ramsay, Food Network host Tyler Florence, “Man v. Food” host Adam Richman and “Iron Chef” Masaharu Morimoto, with a side of athletes, celebrities, other chefs and more.

Last year, overstuffed crowds packed the small stage, leading promoter Dave Graham and his Latitude 38 partners to reassess, expanding its roster and redrawing the festival map for a bigger viewing area.

“This was just one of those ideas that you have and you think, ‘Well, this could work or this could bomb. Best case scenario, if it works, we’ll be OK’ and, fortunately slash unfortunately, we got it wrong,” Graham said with a laugh. “Demand was much greater than we anticipated. We figured that we’re going to need a bigger boat. So we built a bigger boat this year and we’ve raised the bar in terms of who will be on that stage.”

The sold-out festival, which runs Friday through Sunday at the Napa Valley Exposition, brings Michigan soul legend Stevie Wonder, English art pop rockers Florence + The Machine and Los Angeles alternative rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers to Napa along with more than 70 other artists.

Musicians will participate in making dishes, including Keith Jeffery (photo below), singer and guitarist for the Australian pop rock band Atlas Genius, best known for the hits “Stockholm” and “Trojans.” Jeffery, a vegan for the past five years, is looking forward to showing off his culinary skills.

“I think my biggest passion with food, as a vegan, is finding ways of recreating things that, basically, taste the same as what a meat-eater would want it to taste like, therefore eliminating the excuse that, ‘I can’t go vegan because I’m going to miss so-and-so-food,’ ” Jeffery said.

It’s a stage that fans also can view from an improved VIP area, Graham said. A raised deck will allow VIP ticketholders to see both the main stage and the culinary stage. Other VIP upgrades include an improved roster of musicians playing the VIP lounge, more than doubling the number of on-stage suites and building a doubledecker skydeck for the main stage. Also, the festival’s exclusive platinum lounge is adjacent to the main stage.

For those with general admission tickets, the main stage will look different this year, too. Latitude 38 has increased the size of the main stage as well as added larger video monitors.

The 2016 installment also marks the return of after shows for the first time since the inaugural BottleRock in 2013. This year’s after shows include appearances by Gogol Bordello, Rodrigo y Gabriela and Foo Fighters side project Chevy Metal and more.

Graham is proud of the lineup inside the festival grounds, too. Joining Gogol Bordello, Rod and Gab, Atlas Genius, Wonder, Florence and the Chili Peppers are Death Cab for Cutie, The Lumineers, Lenny Kravitz, Ziggy Marley, Buddy Guy, The Joy Formidable, The Pharcyde, Walk the Moon, Grouplove and many more.

“We feel like it is a world-class, eclectic mix,” Graham said. “There’s something there for everyone from your classic Red Hot Chili Peppers to your big-time indie rock bands like Florence + The Machine and Death Cab for Cutie to your iconic artists like Buddy Guy and Ziggy Marley and then some of the best up-and-comers around from Nothing But Thieves to The Struts, who could very well be the next Chili Peppers.”

Graham said, for him, although the bottom line matters, he will know the festival is a success when it has delivered on the promises of the lineup card, the food, the wine and the experience of coming to the Napa Valley.

“When I see someone walking around with a smile on their face and a big glass of wine and, call it a big Morimoto rib, or some piece of food that is indicative of or comes from a local restaurant, a Napa restaurant, that’s stuff’s fun for us to see,” Graham said. “Or the crowds going nuts. … I can’t wait to hear and see people watching Gogol Bordello, screaming ‘(Start Wearing) Purple.’ ”

All days of the festival are sold out for the first time in BottleRock history. For more information, visit BottleRockNapa.com.

Gordon Ramsay photo courtesy Dave Pullig
Keith Jeffery photo courtesy Alexa Stickler
Bottom crowd photo from 2015 BottleRock by Robinson Kuntz for Daily Republic

Beyoncé's 'Lemonade' album, film push boundaries for music

Beyoncé performs at Pavilhão Atlântico in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2009. The New York-based R&B and pop star released her sixth album, Lemonade, last month. (Courtesy photo/José Goulão)

What defines an album has moved beyond the constraints of its format.

It’s nothing new, really, to connect visuals to an album or even a movie.

Yet something about Beyonce’s latest project, Lemonade, which arrived via a one-hour film on HBO, delves deep into infidelity and relationships in a way that feels bold, intimate and fresh.

Lemonade — named, I assume, after the adage about turning lemons into a sweet drink — fills a popular narrative about break-up albums and records about marital trouble. There’s something romantic, if you’ll pardon that word in this instance, about the narrative of such albums. It parallels the American dream – Anyone who works hard and pays their dues can vault over even the highest obstacles.

People identify with wanting to turn tears, sadness and a broken heart into something better. In the case of Lemonade, it’s about martial issues, but it’s also a concept album and a video musical. It redefines not just break-up albums, but gives a window into where albums and music might go.

For Lemonade, Beyoncé frames the entire record and companion film of same name around an affair.

Whether an affair between Jay Z and Beyoncé is real or imagined is irrelevant. I found myself thinking of the words of piano rocker Ben Folds, who once said nothing is against the rules in creativity.

“If I feel that I want to write in first person and completely make it up, then I’m going to do it,” Folds said. “And I realize that it’s a powerful, uh — The ‘I’ in songwriting is powerful because people tap into the celebrity of it. … (People say,) ‘The guy that’s singing that actually did that.’ ”

Throughout the picture, voiceover serves as the connective tissue between songs. The interstitial moments give it the feeling of a musical, pushing the story forward between bursts of song. Through those snippets of voiceover, some of which cribbed from Kenya-born poet Warsan Shire, Beyoncé's narrator moves through 11 self-decided stages of recovery from cheating.

“With every tear came redemption and my torturer became my remedy,” her character says in the final chapter’s voiceover.

“Formation,” the song which caused an outcry in February after its performance at halftime of Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, closes the record. After Bey's character moves through the stages of grief, loss and rediscovery, “Formation” reads as a powerful closing statement. The first verse, in which she states where she comes from and talks about her body, reads as pride and confidence after a record of heartbreak, pain and rising out of the ashes.

It also sounds like a record only Beyoncé could have made. Her film and the narrator she portrays brings the project into full view in a way the music alone could not. By showing couples at different ages as well as her own home movies and making nods toward her parents’ 2011 divorce, Beyoncé’s Lemonade film either feels like a piercing self-examination.

Video is a field she’s dabbled in before. Her surprise, self-titled 2013 album sold with an accompanying music video for each song. She’s not breaking new ground here, but the idea of such an immersive experience is an area she can afford to explore more easily than others.

Musicians on film and video is nothing new. The Beatles were the subjects of A Hard Day’s Night more than 50 years ago. Elvis Presley starred in movies. Music videos help promote sales. Kanye West made a short film for the music video for “Runaway” in 2010 and even “Weird Al” Yankovic rolled out his last album, 2014's Mandatory Fun, with a series of music videos.

But what Beyonce’s done is use video not just as a marketing tool, but as an essential part of the experience and understanding of the record. It’s impossible to uncouple the film from the music.

She’s testing the boundaries of what an album can be while simultaneously delivering her most insightful and personal work yet.

The project’s title might be referencing turning lemons into lemonade, but it’s hard to think Queen Bey isn’t trying to do the same for the music industry, too.

Prince defined what it means to be unique

Prince performs at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2008. The music legend died Thursday at his home in Minnesota. He was 57. (Courtesy photo/Penner)

I’m unprepared to write about the death of Prince.

Even having to write the words “death of Prince” is draining. I wiped away a few tears writing this piece.

It shows no lack of imagination to call the musician, who died Thursday at his home in Minnesota, a legend. Four of his albums topped the Billboard 200, he won multiple Grammy Awards, including a nomination for album of the year for his career-defining magnum opus, Purple Rain.

But those accolades don’t give the whole picture. His music defined the 1980s with hit after unforgettable hit: “Let’s Go Crazy,” “When Doves Cry,” “Raspberry Beret,” “Kiss,” “U Got the Look,” “Sign ‘O’ the Times,” “1999,” “Little Red Corvette.” I could go on.

Across more than 40 albums and on stage, he was a musical shapeshifter, effortlessly moving from rock to jazz to soul to even an electronic-influenced album last year. He wore sexuality on his sleeve, unabashedly penning songs about love, lust and passion in all its details.

He exuded cool. The word unique has come to be synonymous with being rare or unusual, but Prince personified its true meaning — the only one of its kind in the world.

More than many other artists, what distinguished Prince was his steadfast commitment to his artistic vision. He was known for his “hit and run” shows, announcing gigs days before they happened. He was a champion of the Internet in its early years, selling his 1998 album Crystal Ball via a website back when many users had dial-up Internet. But he soured on it during the past decade, known for fierce copyright enforcement on YouTube and declaring the Internet “over” in 2010.

In 1993, during a dispute with his record label, he changed his name to an unpronounceable sign dubbed “the Love Symbol.” It led to him being known as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince for most of the 1990s.

He leaves behind a catalog of hits and so much unreleased material in his vaults that Consequence of Sound reported last year there could be a new album each year through the 22nd century.

That would be nice.

But what I’d really love is to see him perform one more time.

I chased him for a long time. He sat at the top of my concertgoing bucket list for more than a decade because of his unpredictable way to announce shows and the difficulty to get tickets when he did. He was my white whale.

In 2014, finally, I got to paint the town purple in Oakland. With his all-female rock band 3rdEyeGirl in tow, The Artist kicked off a two-hour show at The Fox Theater with a revamped blues rendition of “Let’s Go Crazy.” The front of his mic stand bore the Love Symbol. During the bridge of the song, he stepped back from it and cut into a fiery solo. Wearing bell bottoms and sunglasses, he looked so effortlessly, essentially cool.

The show ended with “Cool,” but the house lights stayed dark for more than 15 minutes, blaring a recording of the then-unreleased “Funknroll.” The mic stand stood, waiting for him to return. Even after the lights came on, both the fans and the microphone stand stayed.

It wasn’t until after 1 a.m., more than 45 minutes after Prince had left the stage – and, likely, the building – that a stage hand came out to dismantle the gear, beginning with the stand. That’s how passionate his fan base is. And how unpredictable Prince could be.

The second and final show I saw came just last month at Oracle Arena in Oakland. This time, it was just him and a piano. I had doubts that even an artist with the performance pedigree of Prince could pull off such a show in such a cavernous venue.

But he left my mouth agape. In retrospect, of course he did.

For two-and-a-half hours, The Purple One held thousands of fans in the palm of his hand. Without a band to back him, he was free to follow his whims, using one song’s ending as next’s beginning. He took breaks to strut around the stage and rile the crowd, but there was no doubt he was in control.

Without hyperbole, it was one of the best shows I’ve seen. Considering the challenge of one person entertaining a crowd of thousands and doing it so well that he exceeded expectations with a set of hits and favorites spoke to how captivating, beguiling and intriguing he could be. It’s what made him great.

It’s why Prince was unique.

And why we'll miss him.

Videos and Links

Let's Go Crazy from February 2014 with 3rdEyeGirl:

Prince plays The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" with Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne, George Harrison's son Dhani and others:

NFL Films vignette on his Super Bowl XLI halftime show.