FEATURE:
Prince at Sixty-Five
IN THIS PHOTO: Prince during the Sign o’ the Times era (1987)/PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Katz/The Prince Estate
The Five Essential Albums from the Much-Missed Genius
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ONE of the greatest tragedies…
IN THIS PHOTO: Prince performing during the 1984 Purple Rain Tour/PHOTO CREDIT: Richard E. Aaron
the music world has ever witnessed is when Prince died unexpectedly aged fifty-seven on 21st April, 2016. It was an enormous shock to say goodbye prematurely to a musician whose genius and legacy is unlike anyone else’s. Born on 7th June, 1958, I wanted to do a run of features (maybe five or six) that explore his music and what he gave to the world. I did a few recently when marking the seventh anniversary of his death. To start with, I want to highlight the five essential, must-buy albums from someone who released thirty-nine in his lifetime. Because of his famous Vault, we are getting all this unreleased material. That very much keeps his memory and music alive. Before getting to that, I have pulled some information from Wikipedia relating to Prince’s incredible success. In future features, I might look at underrated albums, the man behind the moniker, in addition to the ways in which he changed culture and society forever:
“After signing with Arista Records in 1998, Prince reverted to his original name in 2000. Over the next decade, six of his albums entered the U.S. top 10 charts. In April 2016, at the age of 57, Prince died after accidentally overdosing on fentanyl at his Paisley Park home and recording studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota. He was a prolific musician who released 39 albums during his life, with a vast array of unreleased material left in a custom-built bank vault underneath his home after his death, including fully completed albums and over 50 finished music videos. He also released songs under multiple pseudonyms during his life, as well as writing songs that were made popular after being covered by other musicians, most notably "Nothing Compares 2 U" by Sinéad O'Connor and "Manic Monday" by the Bangles. Estimates of the complete number of songs written by Prince range anywhere from 500 to well over 1,000. Released posthumously, his demo albums Piano and a Microphone 1983 (2018) and Originals (2019) both received critical acclaim.
Prince sold over 100 million records worldwide, ranking him among the best-selling music artists of all time. His awards included the Grammy President's Merit Award, the American Music Awards for Achievement and of Merit, the Billboard Icon Award, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006, and the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2016, and was inducted twice into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame in 2022”.
To start off with a remembrance and celebration ahead of Prince’s sixty-fifth birthday on 7th June, below are five albums from the master that everyone should own. A few might be quite obvious if you know his work, but there are one or two surprises that are thrown into the mix. If you are new to Prince’s work, or you need a reminder of his peerless brilliance, then below are albums that…
YOU really to need to hear.
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1999
Release Date: 27th October, 1982
Label: Warner Bros.
Producer: Prince
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/prince/1999-deluxe
Standout Tracks: Little Red Corvette/Delirious/Lady Cab Driver
Review:
“1999 is a sprawling double album (“D.M.S.R.” was cut from initial CD pressings to make it fit on a single disc) on which Prince indulged his curiosity in new technology, but what’s remarkable about it is how tightly-wound it feels, even on the more far-flung jams. “Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)” is claustrophobic and tense, Prince’s pleas to a lover who’s left him behind made even more frantic by the cacophony of digital sounds ricocheting around the mix. (It’s the song that probably brings Prince’s admitted influence of Blade Runner to mind the most.) “Lady Cab Driver” unfolds like a movie playing on fast-forward in Prince’s dirty mind, with a request for a “ride” turning into a bit of slap-and-tickle play before fading back to reality—as evidenced by scritching guitars and the reprise of the song’s feather-light hook.
Then there’s “Delirious,” one of Prince’s most unbridled offerings, its wheezing keyboards sounding like a mind left alone to whirl, propelled by a dizzyingly upbeat drum track and Prince’s half-sneeze vocals. The one-two punch of that track and the Erotic City staycation “Let’s Pretend We’re Married” is enough to drive even the most buttoned-up listener to their own personal brink—one that arrives even before Prince murmurs, “I’m not sayin’ this just 2 be nasty/I sincerely wanna fuck the taste out of your mouth/Can U relate?” Well. When U put it like that…
It’s not all fun and sex games, of course; even though “1999” makes the idea of impending apocalypse alluring, the planet still goes kablooey when all is said and done. The piano ballad “Free” presents Prince in tender mode, smearing the personal and political together as he sings “Be glad that u r free/Free 2 change your mind.” The music grows increasingly stirring, with militaristic drums and fiercely slapped bass fighting for supremacy as Prince sings of creeping clamp-downs. And “All the Critics Love U in New York” takes the self-regard exhibited by the city and its more pretentious inhabitants and mashes it into a ball. But those forays into the wider world only give the more pleasure-minded tracks on 1999 more urgency and lightness.
Prince played with different toys on 1999—new synths, new sexual frontiers, new paranoias. He bent them to his will, though, and this 11-song opus was the result. Balancing synth-funk explorations that would reverberate through radio playlists’ ensuing years, taut pop construction, genre-bending, and the proto-nuclear fallout of lust, 1999 still sounds like a landmark release in 2016; Prince’s singular vision and willingness to indulge his curiosities just enough created an apocalypse-anticipating album that, perhaps paradoxically, was built to last for decades and even centuries to come” – Pitchfork
Key Cut: 1999
Purple Rain (As Prince and The Revolution)
Release Date: 25th June, 1984
Label: Warner Bros.
Producer: Prince and The Revolution
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/prince-and-the-revolution/purple-rain-lp
Standout Tracks: When Doves Cry/I Would Die 4 U/Purple Rain
Review:
“Prince designed Purple Rain as the project that would make him a superstar, and, surprisingly, that is exactly what happened. Simultaneously more focused and ambitious than any of his previous records, Purple Rain finds Prince consolidating his funk and R&B roots while moving boldly into pop, rock, and heavy metal with nine superbly crafted songs. Even its best-known songs don't tread conventional territory: the bass-less "When Doves Cry" is an eerie, spare neo-psychedelic masterpiece; "Let's Go Crazy" is a furious blend of metallic guitars, Stonesy riffs, and a hard funk backbeat; the anthemic title track is a majestic ballad filled with brilliant guitar flourishes. Although Prince's songwriting is at a peak, the presence of the Revolution pulls the music into sharper focus, giving it a tougher, more aggressive edge. And, with the guidance of Wendy and Lisa, Prince pushed heavily into psychedelia, adding swirling strings to the dreamy "Take Me With U" and the hard rock of "Baby I'm a Star." Even with all of his new, but uncompromising, forays into pop, Prince hasn't abandoned funk, and the robotic jam of "Computer Blue" and the menacing grind of "Darling Nikki" are among his finest songs. Taken together, all of the stylistic experiments add up to a stunning statement of purpose that remains one of the most exciting rock & roll albums ever recorded” – AllMusic
Key Cut: Let’s Go Crazy
Sign o’ the Times
Release Date: 30th March, 1987
Labels: Paisley Park/Warner Bros.
Producer: Prince
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/prince/sign-o-the-times-remastered
Standout Tracks: Housequake/U Got the Look/If I Was Your Girlfriend
Review:
“Part of Prince’s drive was that he was keenly aware that hip-hop was rising up and shifting the sound of music. Rap was entering its “golden age,” and its mix of gritty storytelling and dope beats had to be reckoned with. (Michael Jackson would release Bad, his own answer to hip-hop, six months later.) So the title cut, with Prince’s commentary on the issues of the day (“a big disease with a little name,” mentions of crack and gang violence) and minimalist Run-DMC-styled production, made clear that Prince had his ear to the street. The song functions as Prince’s version of “The Message,” and, as crazy as that sounds, it works.
Prince wasn’t just wrestling with fresh energy from the streets on Sign o’ the Times, but with the twin pillars of carnality and spirituality that had defined his career and that of black popular music for decades. For this Minneapolis native, it wasn’t so much a battle between sin and salvation, as it was how the warring desires could become one, synthesized through innovative arrangements, seductive yet fraught lyrics, and that remarkable voice.
“Forever in My Life,” for example, has the sincere melody of early Sly and the Family Stone. It sounds ready made for optimistic sing-a-longs. At first, you think it’s a simple love song, but there’s a devotional quality (“You are my savior/You are my life”) that makes it a chant of piety. At the same time, songs like “Hot Thing” and “It” are aggressively sexual, but in the context of the electronic, oddly-pitched sounds around the words, they seem more like the search for human connection and transcendence rather than a roll in the hay.
The album’s two ballads, “Slow Love” (co-written by singer-songwriter Carol Davis) and “Adore,” are both showcases for Prince’s vocal prowess. The man was an encyclopedia of vocal styles, able to croon like a 1950s pop star on the nostalgic “Slow Love” and do ’60s soul style on “Adore.” Though equally adept at showy vocal riffs and screaming in tune, Prince’s lower, cooler register seems to express his truest self.
Prince’s ability to move between genres made him a unique musical chameleon with Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney his only peers at the highest levels of pop. While he was often compared to Wonder, especially early in his career, it’s the ex-Beatle who seemed to have the most enduring influence. McCartney’s story-song sketches on The White Album helped define his career. For Prince, they were just one of many tools. His whimsical profiles of an odd elementary school classmate (“Starfish & Coffee”) and a quirky lover with the name of a celebrated New Yorker writer (“The Ballad of Dorothy Parker”) are lovely stories supported by surreal sounds and beats, suggesting you are on psychedelic journey through Prince’s memories.
Sign o’ the Times is difficult to grapple with because there’s so much going on in each track. The up-tempo “Play in the Sunshine” drops in jazz fusion riffs and choral voices just when you think its winding down. “The Cross” starts as a mournful song of devotion to Christ with acoustic guitar and sitar before exploding into a huge rock anthem with military drums and fuzz guitar. “Play in the Sunshine” opens with the sound of kids at play, becomes a rockabilly song, transitions midway into a guitar showcase, and then, with a marimba, a different drum pattern, and cleverly arranged backing voices, it ends a musical world away from where it began.
“Housequake” is, perhaps, the most obvious songs on the album, a funk jam that would have been a hit single if he’d allowed it to be released as such. But the care of the track’s construction belies any shallow analysis. It starts with a cartoony voice (maybe a Camille reference), a synthesized drum heavy with echo, then adds bass, keyboard stabs, and rhythm guitar. The synth drum and snare drum merge while there’s a double-beat on the kick. Live horns come it and the bass line moves as there’s both a synth bass keyboard and a live bass doing playing different lines. Various backing vocals float in and out with Prince doing his James Brown impersonation as singer/MC. Compared to the simple loops of your average club banger, “Housequake” is a symphony of syncopation. The beat moves even as it grooves” – Pitchfork
Key Cut: Sign o’ the Times
[Love Symbol] (As Prince and The New Power Generation)
Release Date: 13th October, 1992
Labels: Paisley Park/Warner Bros.
Producer: Prince and The New Power Generation
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/619546?ev=rb
Standout Tracks: Sexy MF/The Morning Papers/7
Review:
“To backtrack a little, Love Symbol's strength lies in this comedic romance and its sleaze. The moments that are the strongest are definitely the album's more subdued moments. One of Prince's strongest skills as an artist, or rather more as a producer, was that in his prime, he very much underproduced his music and it really jumps out at you on early highlights like "The Morning Papers." A slow ballad that makes prominent use of piano and brass motifs and is one of the best examples of romance that you just can't take seriously. Detailing rather charmingly a scandalous forbidden love brewing between Prince's character in the story (named Prince, as the opener will have let you know) and a young maiden (who I take to be Mayte Garcia's character). The even more subdued and sensual "Sweet Baby," is a very different side to Prince's music, a reassuring slowdance with beautiful shimmering synthesisers, subtle piano and a soft performance from Prince really goes to show that Love Symbol is a jack of all trades, even a master of a couple of them.
The album has strengths outside of its charming more sensitive numbers, the anthemic "7" manages to make a very strong initial impression despite not really giving itself much to work with outside of the repeated chorus, which uses the same musical progression as the verses. While "7" in theory should collapse under its length considering how repetitive it is once you click that the verses and the choruses are pretty much identical outside of the Prince's vocal melody and phrasing, but interestingly enough it seems to be one of the songs that lends itself best to repeated listens. A number of the album's more hot-blooded club tracks, such as the aforementioned opener "My Name is Prince" and the succeeding track "Sexy M.F." are infectiously catchy. Albeit, these comically sexual dance anthems, particularly the ridiculous "The Continental", which I dare you to listen to with a straight face, essentially serve to make the fact that Love Symbol is supposedly a concept album virtually impossible to take seriously.
Love Symbol's weaknesses lie more or less in a couple of songs that just didn't need to be on the album, rather than any incoherence in the album's various musical adventures. The track that was inserted onto the album at the last minute "I Wanna Melt With U", which resulted in Prince having to cull most of the segues, absolutely does not justify this decision. It's an endorphin driven funk jam, designed to grind to, which as mentioned several times earlier, Love Symbol is not lacking in. While head and shoulders above possessing the most banal lyrics on the album, it also comes complete with a very aesthetically displeasing electronic sample reminiscent of a wet fart (listen to the song and you'll know I'm not kidding). There's also the bizarre "3 Chains O' Gold," which begins like a cheesy 80s stadium rock anthem and slowly morphs into an incoherent mess of ideas, suddenly going from a ballad not too dissimilar to the ones from earlier, back to a stadium rock track and then through a couple of Queen-type pseudo-opera sections.
A few duds from a 75 minute album, where Prince was working with a brand new backing bands and considering his lack of consistency on releases of similar length in the past (1999, Graffiti Bridge) is not surprising. With any pretense that Love Symbol is a perfect album out of your mind, it's far easier to anticipate what it has to offer and what it delivers. Featuring some of Prince's most spectacular vocal performances, from the acrobatic closer "The Sacrifice of Victor," the controlled, calm and collected "Sweet Baby" and the falsetto madness at the end of "Love 2 the 9's" that would put plenty of divas to shame, while there's not a lot to take seriously, there sure is an awful lot to be impressed by and plenty to enjoy.
Potentially one of Prince's most underrated releases, there's just something… charming, about Love Symbol's quirky presentation and its baffling lack of sincerity as a serious idea. Its uniqueness within Prince's discography, despite more or less musically being a natural development of previous outings and it's goofy themes make this album a seriously good time. It's rather hard to describe the sensations that this album gives off and in that sense it couldn't have a more fitting title. It could give it names, I could call it "quasi-romantic" I could say that aspects of it make it feel "spiritual" I can refer to it as being sensual, but in the same way you can think of this album as being called "Love Symbol" or "O(+>", it's actually just an unpronounceable symbol and at the end of the day there are a number of things you could call it. But the main thing is, despite its initial impression, there's something really intriguing about it and it works, you can't tell whether or not you should be thinking, not thinking at all or some weird combination of the two” – Sputnikmusic
Key Cut: My Name Is Prince
The Gold Experience (As ‘Love Symbol’)
Release Date: 26th September, 1995
Labels: Warner Bros./NPG
Producer: Prince
Pre-order: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/prince/the-gold-experience
Standout Tracks: We March/I Hate U/Gold
Review:
“Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in 1993, but it wasn't until 1995 that he actually released a record credited to that symbol. During those two years, he released a greatest-hits collection, an official version of his much-bootlegged Black Album, and a final Prince album, the lackluster Come. Throughout 1994, he pressured Warner to release another album, The Gold Experience, but the company refused and he staged a public protest in the media, calling himself a slave to the label. By the summer of 1995, the artist and the company had made amends and the record was released in the fall. In a way, The Gold Experience lives up to the manufactured hype created while it languished on the shelf. More of a creative rebirth than a change in direction, the record finds Prince and the New Power Generation running through a typically dazzling array of musical styles, subtly twisting new sounds out of familiar forms. Much like The Love Symbol Album, it follows a loose concept, interweaving a variety of pop, funk, rock, soul, and jazz styles into a vague story. Song for song, The Gold Experience is slightly stronger than its predecessor, as Prince's melodies are more immediate, especially on the Philly soul tribute "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" and the pure pop of "Dolphin." Also, the band's performance is lively and confident, bringing an effortless virtuosity to funk workouts ("P Control"), and fuzzed-out rockers ("Endorphinmachine"), as well as ballads like "Eye Hate U." The Gold Experience is somewhat weighed down by interludes that attempt to further the story but wind up interrupting the flow of the music, yet that doesn't stop the album from being Prince's most satisfying effort since Sign O' the Times” – AllMusic
Key Cut: The Most Beautiful Girl in the World