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Prince: An Appreciation
May. 4th, 2016 03:18 pmI have to say I was caught by surprise like everyone when I heard Prince died, and I feel like this is de rigueur, but I actually am a big fan.
Prince kind of sticks out in my collection. I liked him in the 90s when all of my favorite bands looked a certain way- like the Pixies or Dinosaur Jr or 10,000 Maniacs. Of course, there was more to Prince than R&B. He was a rock n roller and a funk hero. So he may not have been "hip" like Fishbone or the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, but he was just as cool in my mind.
I started with Prince as one of the biggest stars of my formative years. It was Michael Jackson and him above all else in that rarefied air, that only had room for people like Bruce or Madonna. I often got mileage out of the quote Prince said in the late 90s/early 00s in which he pointed out that he was always considered the weird one, and Jacko was who you wanted the kids to emulate; whilst Prince turned into a devout married Jehovah Witness.
Prince in the 80s though was the most out there of the out there growing up in the Bible Belt. He pushed gender boundaries with lyrics that seemed to be of the most perverse and sacreligious, brought to stage by a group that looked the same with Wendy & Lisa pushing things even more. What did it all mean? Still, even with the mystery of what he meant by the image of doves crying, there was no denying the power of his music. His music could be denounced by the same people who would admit it's quality.
When I hit critical mass, those Serious Teenage years, I watched Purple Rain, and as it did with many really struck a chord with me. It's rock n roll self-mythologizing of the greatest effect of which every generation has one (or more), but Prince's personality pulled it off. (As Prince has passed, various tributes have went out to the film, but I like those who call it the best bad movie).
The movie took me to the album (and 1999) to get my fix of the man's music. The singles I already knew very well, and need not to go into much detail, but should still be mentioned how well they married rock and R&B. 1999 is a fine album, worthy of mention especially for the singles.
Whereas Purple Rain is a great record start to finish. I knew of the song "Darling Nikki" of course before I ever heard it. That album track made so famous by the PRMC, proving the Gores were better publicists than Warner Bros. It is (regardless of topic) a masterful song.
Prince was not the typical musical fare for me at that time, but it should be. Prince isn't that far off from the Cure, in the ability to create their own universe, own language, and soundscapes. The vocals and lyrics full of the mystery and wonder that begs a dedicated audience. The guitarwork and musicality undeniable to even people who don't like the frontman.
Besides Purple Rain and 1999, there are a couple other albums that have gained universal acclaim. Sign O the Times is generally considered the go-to, largely based on the range of styles on the double album. I still prefer Purple Rain, but SotT certainly has its share of great moments. The other album is the early career Dirty Mind, which truly is a solid piece of work. (Controversy gets close too, if not quite there).
I have not visited his other 80s albums, but even with some of those being considered critical flops (particularly Around the World in a Day), all seem to have their fans.
Of course, the Prince at this time of my discovery was the one who still had the power to go to number one and did that with the unique "Batdance". Much has been written since his death, but it seems so odd now- a vanity project- less a soundtrack than the opportunity for an artist to muse on a superhero. Although, I doubt Batman needed the help, I feel like in some crazy way, Prince is responsible for resurrecting the mythos as much as Tim Burton or Heath Ledger.
Prince's next project was the ambitious Graffiti Bridge. GB was the sequel to Purple Rain. It's too generic (yes, I have seen it) to capture anything of Purple Rain's thunder, but the soundtrack is pretty great. Highlights include the strong single "Thieves in the Temple" and some strong stuff from the Time. Prince's intention on the album was to highlight some new and old talent- He was successful in launching Tevin Campbell (who did have a successful career before he got himself into embarrassing legal troubles). Unfortunately, I don't think he got Mavis Staples and George Clinton the relaunch he hoped (Mavis is starting to get her due, but it took a decade and a half and help from Jeff Tweedy).
The next couple of albums still had plenty of chart power. Diamonds and Pearls introduced the New Power Generation. NPG led to a belief that Prince didn't "get" rap music, and there's some clunkers on D&P, but there's some great stuff there too. "Money don't matter 2Night" was only a minor hit but a great song. The Love Symbol album continued with the Princemusic that was still appealing to the radio and still a great listen. It's a pretty strong and consistent album.
This was pretty much a high point all around and things go a bit awry. Prince has the record label argument and things get patchy. Looking back now, it's pretty amazing what he did. He changed the game, and although Prince didn't kill major Label supremacy, he certainly helped.
"Come" with Prince 1958-1993 was supposed to be an ending, but it was also supposed to be a return to guitar rock. It's a terrible album. It ends with a song called Orgasm which is just that. It's a Prince album imagined by someone who wants to copy what a Prince album is and not getting it.
"The Black Album" got a release in 1994. It was legendary, and gives the power of the Prince mystique, There are few people who sold their own legend like Prince (see above), and in a social media age, it's hard to imagine there ever will be. Black Album was supposed to be released after Sign O times, but Prince said the Devil told him not to release it (or something similar). It was at that time (and still is) one of the most famous bootleg moments of rock n roll. The truth is it is not a genius record. There are a couple of moments. "Le Grind" is a hit in the style of "Get Off" and "My Name is Prince". "Cindy C" (Crawford) is another keeper, but there are clunkers like the strange diss track "Bob George".
Prince still had some hits in the cannon, and I think "the Gold Experience" is an underrated companion to the Diamonds& Pearls and Lovesymbol albums. The album (as he did many times even up to his final recordings) tries to tie in cyberspace and erotica. It has a killer opening track "P---y Control" a song that could never be a single, but became famous by word of mouth.
Leave it to Prince to be able to pull off a stunt like that, and have a cult hit in the way very few artists (like David Alan Coe) could ever pull off. He also released a 20 minute song back in the Batman days called Scandalous Sex Suite with Kim Basinger. It was a song only diehards had heard, but had gained it's own legend.
Gold Exp.. is a worthy album- still with the radio hit ("Most Beautiful Girl in the World"), still with the clunker diss track (like Axl Rose, Prince loved these) "Billy Jack B----".
I wonder if we will see artistry like we saw in the 90s with Madonna and Prince. Songs like "P---- Control" and "Justify My Love" were scandalous. Post-90s, we live in a world of Celebrity Sex Tapes, Howard Stern, HBO shows with mainstream audience sizes, and Vivid Video girls as recognized celebrities. Will we ever be shocked like that again?
There is another legend Prince has helped propagate which is that he has hundreds of albums and thousands of songs hidden in the archives. The end of the 90s saw Prince releasing some shelved material. I was pretty excited about these and bought one of his first such collections- Emancipation- a 3 disc set. I thought it felt like leftovers and hardly worth the hype (it did get some good reviews). I did like the cover of Joan Osbornes "One of Us".
Things get even weirder in this century with an instrumental jazz album. I have always kept an eye on him and it seemed like the comeback was just around the corner. 1999 gave Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic which followed the Supernatural formula of pairing with young and current stars- in this case, Eve, Gwen Stefani, Sheryl Crow and Ani DiFranco. 2004's Musicology has a great single in "Cinnamon Girl" (not the Neil Young song).
The truth is that I hadn't been excited by a Prince album in a long time until 2014 in what most music critics probably don't even consider a major album- his project with 3rdEyeGirl called Plectrumelectrum.
It's ironic of course in a way that Prince always delivered- it's a total cock rock album- the big dumb guitar rock n roll that is stereotypically white male, yet the band was Prince and an all-female power trio. Indeed, it showed that Prince still had plenty of gas in his tank, and I have to say I was still excited for what was coming next.
Prince's death meant a lot to many people, and it was good to see his genius recognized. It is easy for me to sound critical here and I actually mean the opposite. Prince had not had a hit in many years. You would have to go back to 1995 for his last Top 40 hit "Eye Hate You" (not counting a time appropriate re-release of "1999"), and since then he has had only two singles chart i the Top 100.
Yet, longevity is very difficult, doubly so in it seems in Pop Music. Look at the great R&B artists, no one has that string of success. Even the greats- Marvin Gaye, Aretha, Sly Stone, George Clinton. You could maybe say Stevie Wonder. You could say Michael Jackson. Even those who burned brightest (Mariah, Janet, Whitney, Celine) don't have decades upon decades. You could maybe say Diana Ross. Cher, certainly. Elton John certainly. Madonna probably our last great pop star.
This isn't even a pop thing, We give some credence to our rock legends- Rolling Stones, Springsteen, et al, and every album is an event, but their new singles are not Top 10 anymore. Maybe Bon Jovi. Maybe U2. Sir Paul, of course. Country, of course has a different legacy, but post - Urban Cowboy, even the Garths and Faith Hills eventually fade away in time. I am undoubtedly missing some one, but I challenge anyone to come up with 20 people with a better career than Prince. There might not even be 10.
So I think it is appropriate to take a time to say how remarkable a career he had. We will doubtfully see many more with the type of career he had- in terms of popularity, in terms of genre outreach, in terms of creativity. It's a worse world without him.
Prince kind of sticks out in my collection. I liked him in the 90s when all of my favorite bands looked a certain way- like the Pixies or Dinosaur Jr or 10,000 Maniacs. Of course, there was more to Prince than R&B. He was a rock n roller and a funk hero. So he may not have been "hip" like Fishbone or the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, but he was just as cool in my mind.
I started with Prince as one of the biggest stars of my formative years. It was Michael Jackson and him above all else in that rarefied air, that only had room for people like Bruce or Madonna. I often got mileage out of the quote Prince said in the late 90s/early 00s in which he pointed out that he was always considered the weird one, and Jacko was who you wanted the kids to emulate; whilst Prince turned into a devout married Jehovah Witness.
Prince in the 80s though was the most out there of the out there growing up in the Bible Belt. He pushed gender boundaries with lyrics that seemed to be of the most perverse and sacreligious, brought to stage by a group that looked the same with Wendy & Lisa pushing things even more. What did it all mean? Still, even with the mystery of what he meant by the image of doves crying, there was no denying the power of his music. His music could be denounced by the same people who would admit it's quality.
When I hit critical mass, those Serious Teenage years, I watched Purple Rain, and as it did with many really struck a chord with me. It's rock n roll self-mythologizing of the greatest effect of which every generation has one (or more), but Prince's personality pulled it off. (As Prince has passed, various tributes have went out to the film, but I like those who call it the best bad movie).
The movie took me to the album (and 1999) to get my fix of the man's music. The singles I already knew very well, and need not to go into much detail, but should still be mentioned how well they married rock and R&B. 1999 is a fine album, worthy of mention especially for the singles.
Whereas Purple Rain is a great record start to finish. I knew of the song "Darling Nikki" of course before I ever heard it. That album track made so famous by the PRMC, proving the Gores were better publicists than Warner Bros. It is (regardless of topic) a masterful song.
Prince was not the typical musical fare for me at that time, but it should be. Prince isn't that far off from the Cure, in the ability to create their own universe, own language, and soundscapes. The vocals and lyrics full of the mystery and wonder that begs a dedicated audience. The guitarwork and musicality undeniable to even people who don't like the frontman.
Besides Purple Rain and 1999, there are a couple other albums that have gained universal acclaim. Sign O the Times is generally considered the go-to, largely based on the range of styles on the double album. I still prefer Purple Rain, but SotT certainly has its share of great moments. The other album is the early career Dirty Mind, which truly is a solid piece of work. (Controversy gets close too, if not quite there).
I have not visited his other 80s albums, but even with some of those being considered critical flops (particularly Around the World in a Day), all seem to have their fans.
Of course, the Prince at this time of my discovery was the one who still had the power to go to number one and did that with the unique "Batdance". Much has been written since his death, but it seems so odd now- a vanity project- less a soundtrack than the opportunity for an artist to muse on a superhero. Although, I doubt Batman needed the help, I feel like in some crazy way, Prince is responsible for resurrecting the mythos as much as Tim Burton or Heath Ledger.
Prince's next project was the ambitious Graffiti Bridge. GB was the sequel to Purple Rain. It's too generic (yes, I have seen it) to capture anything of Purple Rain's thunder, but the soundtrack is pretty great. Highlights include the strong single "Thieves in the Temple" and some strong stuff from the Time. Prince's intention on the album was to highlight some new and old talent- He was successful in launching Tevin Campbell (who did have a successful career before he got himself into embarrassing legal troubles). Unfortunately, I don't think he got Mavis Staples and George Clinton the relaunch he hoped (Mavis is starting to get her due, but it took a decade and a half and help from Jeff Tweedy).
The next couple of albums still had plenty of chart power. Diamonds and Pearls introduced the New Power Generation. NPG led to a belief that Prince didn't "get" rap music, and there's some clunkers on D&P, but there's some great stuff there too. "Money don't matter 2Night" was only a minor hit but a great song. The Love Symbol album continued with the Princemusic that was still appealing to the radio and still a great listen. It's a pretty strong and consistent album.
This was pretty much a high point all around and things go a bit awry. Prince has the record label argument and things get patchy. Looking back now, it's pretty amazing what he did. He changed the game, and although Prince didn't kill major Label supremacy, he certainly helped.
"Come" with Prince 1958-1993 was supposed to be an ending, but it was also supposed to be a return to guitar rock. It's a terrible album. It ends with a song called Orgasm which is just that. It's a Prince album imagined by someone who wants to copy what a Prince album is and not getting it.
"The Black Album" got a release in 1994. It was legendary, and gives the power of the Prince mystique, There are few people who sold their own legend like Prince (see above), and in a social media age, it's hard to imagine there ever will be. Black Album was supposed to be released after Sign O times, but Prince said the Devil told him not to release it (or something similar). It was at that time (and still is) one of the most famous bootleg moments of rock n roll. The truth is it is not a genius record. There are a couple of moments. "Le Grind" is a hit in the style of "Get Off" and "My Name is Prince". "Cindy C" (Crawford) is another keeper, but there are clunkers like the strange diss track "Bob George".
Prince still had some hits in the cannon, and I think "the Gold Experience" is an underrated companion to the Diamonds& Pearls and Lovesymbol albums. The album (as he did many times even up to his final recordings) tries to tie in cyberspace and erotica. It has a killer opening track "P---y Control" a song that could never be a single, but became famous by word of mouth.
Leave it to Prince to be able to pull off a stunt like that, and have a cult hit in the way very few artists (like David Alan Coe) could ever pull off. He also released a 20 minute song back in the Batman days called Scandalous Sex Suite with Kim Basinger. It was a song only diehards had heard, but had gained it's own legend.
Gold Exp.. is a worthy album- still with the radio hit ("Most Beautiful Girl in the World"), still with the clunker diss track (like Axl Rose, Prince loved these) "Billy Jack B----".
I wonder if we will see artistry like we saw in the 90s with Madonna and Prince. Songs like "P---- Control" and "Justify My Love" were scandalous. Post-90s, we live in a world of Celebrity Sex Tapes, Howard Stern, HBO shows with mainstream audience sizes, and Vivid Video girls as recognized celebrities. Will we ever be shocked like that again?
There is another legend Prince has helped propagate which is that he has hundreds of albums and thousands of songs hidden in the archives. The end of the 90s saw Prince releasing some shelved material. I was pretty excited about these and bought one of his first such collections- Emancipation- a 3 disc set. I thought it felt like leftovers and hardly worth the hype (it did get some good reviews). I did like the cover of Joan Osbornes "One of Us".
Things get even weirder in this century with an instrumental jazz album. I have always kept an eye on him and it seemed like the comeback was just around the corner. 1999 gave Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic which followed the Supernatural formula of pairing with young and current stars- in this case, Eve, Gwen Stefani, Sheryl Crow and Ani DiFranco. 2004's Musicology has a great single in "Cinnamon Girl" (not the Neil Young song).
The truth is that I hadn't been excited by a Prince album in a long time until 2014 in what most music critics probably don't even consider a major album- his project with 3rdEyeGirl called Plectrumelectrum.
It's ironic of course in a way that Prince always delivered- it's a total cock rock album- the big dumb guitar rock n roll that is stereotypically white male, yet the band was Prince and an all-female power trio. Indeed, it showed that Prince still had plenty of gas in his tank, and I have to say I was still excited for what was coming next.
Prince's death meant a lot to many people, and it was good to see his genius recognized. It is easy for me to sound critical here and I actually mean the opposite. Prince had not had a hit in many years. You would have to go back to 1995 for his last Top 40 hit "Eye Hate You" (not counting a time appropriate re-release of "1999"), and since then he has had only two singles chart i the Top 100.
Yet, longevity is very difficult, doubly so in it seems in Pop Music. Look at the great R&B artists, no one has that string of success. Even the greats- Marvin Gaye, Aretha, Sly Stone, George Clinton. You could maybe say Stevie Wonder. You could say Michael Jackson. Even those who burned brightest (Mariah, Janet, Whitney, Celine) don't have decades upon decades. You could maybe say Diana Ross. Cher, certainly. Elton John certainly. Madonna probably our last great pop star.
This isn't even a pop thing, We give some credence to our rock legends- Rolling Stones, Springsteen, et al, and every album is an event, but their new singles are not Top 10 anymore. Maybe Bon Jovi. Maybe U2. Sir Paul, of course. Country, of course has a different legacy, but post - Urban Cowboy, even the Garths and Faith Hills eventually fade away in time. I am undoubtedly missing some one, but I challenge anyone to come up with 20 people with a better career than Prince. There might not even be 10.
So I think it is appropriate to take a time to say how remarkable a career he had. We will doubtfully see many more with the type of career he had- in terms of popularity, in terms of genre outreach, in terms of creativity. It's a worse world without him.
