Now, I can't profess to be the biggest Prince fan on the planet. I've never made the pilgrimage to Paisley Park...I never even saw him live. But I do have every single one of his albums - 39 studio albums and a couple dozen unreleased albums and such - and I have spent countless hours of my life poring over each one in detail. Some albums I like more than others, of course. That's bound to happen. When you're as prolific as Prince, it's to be expected that you're gonna drop a dud every now and then. But there are always at least a few diamonds, even in the worst of his albums (except maybe Emancipation - three CDs of shitty funk castoffs and not the grand statement it was meant to be). But then Prince would drop an album like Around The World In A Day, The Gold Experience, or Planet Earth and jaws - or mine, at least - would be on the floor.
I remember the first time I heard Prince and knew who it was. I was 10 years old and I was at Summer camp, eating lunch in the gym of my elementary school, and "When Doves Cry" came on the radio. I distinctly remember thinking that it was the greatest pop song I had ever heard in my life. Of course, this was a time when I thought that Alabama and Night Ranger were nifty bands so my judgement wasn't that trustworthy - but this was different. This song just dripped with cool, but it didn't sound like a put-on. Once I figured out who Prince was, I realized that I knew songs like "Little Red Corvette" and "1999", and I liked those songs too. I never bought any of his albums back then, but I always grooved when he came on the radio. I remember recording "Raspberry Beret" off of WAVA, on my crappy boombox, and the first time I heard "Kiss", I swear my head popped right off and rolled out the door. It was around that time that I discovered U2 and then I pretty much lost interest in any bands (or anything else) aside from them for a number of years, as those who knew me then would attest.
By the time I finally came to, Prince's music had changed - he'd gotten dark and funky, but it wasn't quite where my head was, at that time, and I just didn't dig it. Stuff like Graffiti Bridge and "Batdance" and things like that. By that point I was mostly listening to Rush anyway. One notable exception was in 1988. I was in Dublin with the Mount Vernon Guard and some of us were wandering around on a Saturday afternoon. We found some guy on the O'Connell St. Bridge, selling bootleg tapes. I predictably bought a couple of real shitty live U2 tapes and Bryan Howard bought a pirated copy of Prince's then-unreleased Black Album. We went back to the hotel and listened to the tapes. The U2 tapes sounded like shit, so we popped on the Prince. It sounded like shit too, but we kept it rolling. At the time, the Black Album was a really big deal. At the last minute before coming out, Prince second-guessed himself and pulled the album from release. The press had everyone losing their minds over it. But some promo copies had gotten out in Europe so it was quickly bootlegged. I remember being blown away by what I heard. It was different than anything we had ever heard before - a million miles away from "Purple Rain". Plus, it was a thrill to be able to hear this scandalous secret album. I can't say how many times we listened to it but it made an impression.
Funny, though...when Prince finally agreed to release it in 1994, it did not pack the same punch. Not sure why. Maybe it was the distance, maybe my tastes, maybe because it was now legit. There are some cool tracks on that album, though, and I'm glad it finally came out when it did. But I do think that Prince was wise to put out Lovesexy instead. "Alphabet Street", c'mon.
Anyway, in high school, I went through all the musical phases that you do - metal, prog, classic rock, alternative, jazz, and then finally emerging as a Deadhead and Phish head (i never went through a punk phase then, which is something i regret...we'll save that for another time). That was during the "Batdance" era...I wasn't missing all that much.
It was in college that my love for Prince finally took root. I found a cheap cutout of this deluxe edition of the "Love Symbol Album" at Kemp Mill Records and so I gave that a whirl. My appreciation for all things funky was at a high then and songs like "My Name Is Prince" and "Sexy MF" completely knocked me out, while other songs like "The Morning Papers" and "Damn U" proved that the dude could still write songs.
It was around that time that I got my hands on a tape of an unreleased project he did, called Welcome 2 The Beautiful Experience. It was taken from an NPG performance at Paisley Park, and it was all new material. I played that tape to death and, to this day, it's my favorite Prince bootleg. Much of that material made its way to The Gold Experience, and various other projects released around then. That pretty much did it for me - I became hooked on the jam, soaking up every recording I could get my hands on. Some of those records were a bit tough to get through (Emancipation, as well as all the preaching he did on the otherwise awesome The Rainbow Children) but there were plenty others that I still can't get enough of. His early albums such as For You and Controversy impressed the hell out of me - he plays virtually every instrument, and very impressively at that. Later albums like the all-instrumental N.E.W.S. showcase Prince as a hell of an improviser, while Musicology and Planet Earth prove that age only made him a better songwriter, especially songs like "Cinnamon Girl" and "Guitar" - no song ever summed the man up better.
My all-time favorite Prince album is 1996's Chaos And Disorder, which is kinda funny because it's the most maligned album in his catalog, with critics, fans, and Prince alike. The final album he had to deliver to Warner Brothers to finally get out of his contract, he made it clear that the album was recorded "for personal use" and delivered under duress, and he didn't let them promote it at all. Which is a shame. This album rocks, and pretty hard at that. Every song is fantastic, some are among his best. Not much funk in this set - there's a little but this is a rock record, and it rocks pretty hard. The opening combo of "Chaos And Disorder" and "I Like It There" is almost metal in its ferocity - the latter rocks harder than just about any song Prince ever did - while the late 70's soft-rock of "Dinner With Delores" is just about as tender a song as he could do. "The Same December" is easily among the greatest songs he ever wrote - it rocks, it slips, it swings, and it has a most righteous chorus, which is made even better by the rave-up at the end which leads right into the slammin' gospel of "Right Or Wrong". "Zannalee" is one of Prince's silliest songs but man does that guitar smoke - Prince was one of the few that could get away with bluesmetal. It's obvious that he had some of these tracks lying around for a minute, as evidenced by the early-90's Prince-funk of "I Rock Therefore I Am" and the New Jack beats in "Dig U Better Dead" - both are slightly distracting given all the heavy tone of this album, but the whiplash wears off easily enough. Prince's piano ballads are always a welcome breather and "Into The Light", with its tender verses and epic chorus, is one of his best, segueing right into the mellow guitar-fest, "I Will". Damn, that man could shred. Closing out the album, the somber "Had U" was perhaps the best kiss-off he possibly could have given to Warner Brothers. It really bums me out that this album is so overlooked - had it been released without any controversy, and promoted properly, this could have been his biggest album of the 90s. It's not hard to come across used copies of this album for a buck so if you ever come across it, do pick it up.
Another overlooked gem is The Truth, which is an acoustic-based album he threw in as a bonus on the Crystal Ball box set. By far the most unique album in Prince's entire canon, songs like the bluesy title track, the dark "Don't Play Me", and the classic Prince of "Dionne", in their stripped-down simplicity, reveal even deeper layers of an artist that could strike gold even when he thought no one was really looking. Good luck finding this album but if you ever do come across a copy, it's worth whatever they're asking.
Much is always made about Prince (the guitarist), Prince (the singer/songwriter), Prince (the performer), and Prince (the icon), but you don't often hear about Prince (the producer). Song material aside, every one of his albums is immaculately produced. It often results in his albums having a certain "dated" sound (especially those produced in the late 80s/early 90s) and I'll admit that's sometimes very frustrating, But you look past that and start searching through the layers of the song, every new spin a new experience. Surely he spent far longer mixing the tracks than writing and recording them. Even The Truth, which is pretty much a solo acoustic album, is full of these crazy assortments of studio trickery. These layers exist in all of his albums, every beat and note meticulously crafted and placed, no idea wasted. I learn something new about detail every time I listen to Prince, even if it's one of the records that I don't dig. Few records sound as good as his.
His skills as a guitarist are, of course, second to few. One of most tasteful guitarists to ever jam an extended solo, he could out-shred just about anyone. The visual and spiritual successor to Hendrix. No one else could come close. More than the shredding, he was a hell of a rhythm player. His chord comps were always clever and perfectly suited the song. But it's his solos that really count. His tone, combined with his flawless, laid-back delivery....I could just listen to him jam for hours.
A consummate workaholic, Prince maintained a very low public profile, spending the majority of his time working in his studio at Paisley Park. As prolific as his official output was, his vault is where the majority of his work remains. Hundreds, if not thousands of unreleased tracks. There could still be "new" Prince albums released fifty years from now. It's a testament to his commitment that he died at his studio. Then again, if he didn't work so hard...well, I guess we'll never know.
One of the things that I admired the most about Prince was his work ethic, and his prolific nature. It is because of artists like Prince, Bob Pollard, and Zappa that I now have almost fifty of my own albums. Prince taught me that it was okay to be as self-indulgent as you like, and he taught me that it was okay to stockpile recordings into a massive vault of personal works. Of course, his records sound much better than mine, and he certainly was capable of far more focus than I ever have been, but he has been inspiring nonetheless.
I also admired his subversion to the Man. Sure, he went about it in odd ways - writing "slave" across his face, changing his name to a symbol, etc. But he still stuck it to the big labels. Sure, he eventually went back to the big labels, for distribution purposes, but at that point it was on his own terms. Despite the fact that Emancipation is a terrible album, what it represented - Prince finally breaking free from his restrictive Warner Brothers contract and making music on his own label - was a massive breakthrough in the music world. Prince was one of the first major label players to make that sort of move. In the years since, dozens of bands and artists have gone that same route, albeit in a more subtle manner.
The thing I admired most about Prince, however, was his overall persona, and the command he had over it. Prince was slick, he was cool as hell, and despite being only 5'2", he was a perfect balance of head-in-the-clouds and feet-on-the-ground. He didn't play a character - he was a character. Also, Prince did not give a fuck what anyone thought about him, or at least he never appeared to. He didn't need to. Prince was the shit, and he knew it just as much as everyone else. No one looked, talked, or acted like Prince. One of the most unique individuals to ever be in the spotlight, he stayed true to himself, all the way to the end.
There have been so many musician deaths in the past year. It's almost getting to the point that I am losing track of them all. But I honestly can't remember the last time a musician death has hit me this hard. I am honestly going to be processing this for a while. Chris Squire, last year, was tough. But we knew he was ill. It was unexpected but not a surprise. Same with Lemmy. Bowie made me very sad but, while I appreciate everything Bowie ever did, I was never as close to his music as much of the world was. Prince, however, is in my Top Ten. I don't think I've lost a Top Tenner since Stuart Adamson and George Harrison passed away in 2001. The last one before that might have been Jerry.
Fortunately, Prince will always live on in his music. He was the Mozart of our age. People will be studying Prince's music for the remainder of human civilization. And, like Mozart, he has a body of work that will keep us all busy for a long time.
So, to the "skinny motherfucker with the high voice" - THANK YOU. Now Play On.
great post, chris!
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