Arthur Turnbull
Saturday's 1999 Presentation Panel Presenter
Dez Dickerson and Prince's Purple Rock
In a February 1981 Rolling Stone feature, “Will the Little Girls Understand,” Bill Adler writes, “Prince may be the unlikeliest rock star, black or white, in recent memory.” But what led Adler and his journalistic peers to continually refer to Prince’s music as “rock” when his biggest accomplishment before “Little Red Corvette” was a “soul” hit called “I Wanna Be Your Lover”?
Focusing on Prince’s use of lead guitarist Dez Dickerson, this presentation will examine the “bridges” that Prince used to connect his music to listeners outside his core audience group. It will demonstrate how these bridges continue to be used to inform and present Black American music in popular culture. And it will ask, what if Dez stayed in The Revolution during the Purple Rain era?
Arthur Turnbull began a career in technology as Technical Wizard for Jellyvision, makers of the video game series You Don’t Know Jack. He continued on as Technology Manager for Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, a leader in third stream. In 2018, he started Arturo Solo LLC, a managed services consultancy. Arthur is also a co-founder of Wildflower LLC, home to The Music Snobs, Mad Unreal, Snobs On Film, and Entry Points podcasts.
The Music Snobs podcast
Mad Unreal podcast
Snobs on Film podcast