Prince
One of the most eclectic musical artists of the past 20 years, Prince incorporates elements of Pop, Funk, Soul, Rock, and Jazz into an organic whole. One of the top dance artists of the 1980’s, Prince changed his name, weathered contract battles, and still managed to produce more consistently evolving and entertaining music than most other artists. It has been several years since he has produced a major Dance hit, but his classic cuts remain nearly as fresh and challenging today as when initially released.
Prince, born Prince Rogers Nelson in 1958, grew up as the son of an accomplished Jazz musician in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area. By his early teen years, Prince had formed his first band, Grand Central, and included friends Andre Cymone and Morris Day. The band changed its name to Champagne and achieved local success, but fell apart before releasing any recordings. At the age of 19, Prince was signed to Warner Brothers Records with a contract to deliver three albums and in exchange he would receive full production control over his albums. His first album, 1978’s For You, was a promising release. Percussive synthesizers and the beginnings of the Minneapolis sound are evident. Soft and Wet, a single from the album, was a minor R&B hit.
1979’s Prince was a major breakthrough placing Prince in the top 10 on the Dance chart with I Wanna Be Your Lover. In addition, the album featured I Feel For You, later to become a Dance classic when re-recorded as a vehicle for the vocal talents of Chaka Khan. The sexual frankness of his next album Dirty Mind turned off some Pop audiences but the sheer eclecticism of the music impressed critics. The Dance and R&B hit Uptown was a blueprint for much of 80’s Dance and R&B music to come.
1981’s Controversy, Prince’s 4th album in 4 years, includes exploration of political themes in lyrics and more irresistible funky grooves. The song Controversy became Prince’s first number one Dance hit. At the same time, the Time, featuring Prince’s old bandmate Morris Day, appeared out of Minneapolis. The band also included Jesse Johnson and future producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Protégés and friends of Prince would continue to emerge throughout the next decade defining a Minneapolis sound on a significant number of hit recordings.
Barely a year later at the end of 1982, Prince’s single 1999 topped the Dance charts as a lead-in to his massive double album 1999. The later singles Little Red Corvette and Delirious became his first top ten Pop hits. His incendiary, Jimi Hendrix-influenced guitar work also appealed to Rock fans. Prince had become one of the top selling recording artists among Dance, R&B, Pop, and Rock audiences. The stage was set for his next project, a work of art combining film and music called Purple Rain. The movie was a boxoffice hit, but the music was even bigger. His soundtrack to the film topped the Pop album charts for an amazing 20 weeks while When Doves Cry and Let’s Go Crazy both topped the Dance charts. Let’s Go Crazy received a little help from the titillating, intimate Erotic City on its B-side. Purple Rain also included Prince’s band the Revolution featuring the talents of Wendy and Lisa who helped incorporate Psychedelic Rock as yet another element of the Prince musical stew.
1985’s Around the World In a Day dove headfirst into paisley-patterned psychedelia and featured two more top ten Dance hits, Raspberry Beret and Pop Life. Prince’s outrageous world of paisley prints and candy-colored landscapes gave way to the raspy, irresistible chart-topping funk of Kiss, accompanied by a video in black and white. The following album Parade was accompanied by a second film Under the Cherry Moon which failed at the box office. The music, however, was an undaunted success and Mountains and Anotherloverholenyohead charmed club audiences.
Armed with the emerging sound of House, concern about the growing AIDs epidemic, anger at conservative politics, and faith in the healing power of love and sex, Prince released his first solo (without the Revolution) album in five years. It was the sprawling double album Sign O’ the Times. The political and deeply funky Sign O’ the Times broke into the top 5 of the Dance chart as did I Could Never Take the Place Of Your Man.
After the near universal acclaim for Sign O’ the Times, Prince had recorded and was set to release the legendary Black Album before pulling it at the last minute. It was finally released anti-climactically in 1994. In it’s place, Prince released Lovesexy in 1988. Derided as a slapdash effort to replace the Black Album, it was Prince’s first true commercial failure and the single Alphabet St. failed to reach the top 10 on Dance charts. Eager to regain his audience, Prince agreed to record the soundtrack for the movie Batman. The first single, Batdance, simultaneously topped Dance, R&B and Pop charts. As the 1980’s drew to a close, Prince had recorded and released a dizzying array of groundbreaking, irresistible, sexy music.
Prince opened the 1990’s with the release of a third film, Graffiti Bridge, another boxoffice disaster that was accompanied by a more successful soundtrack. The album introduced Prince’s new band New Power Generation as well as his latest protégé, teenager Tevin Campbell. The leadoff single Thieves In the Temple entered the dance top 10. 1991’s Diamonds and Pearls brought Prince back to the top of Dance and Pop charts. The slamming funk of Gett Off topped the Dance chart while the sinuously salacious Cream charmed Pop audiences. 1992’s release included the debut of the symbol that soon became Prince’s new name. It was also the title of the album. My Name Is Prince became Prince’s final top 10 Dance hit while the album featured stylish work by the New Power Generation, including the Pop hit 7.
Mired in conflicts with his record label, Warner Brothers, the next two years included the release of a greatest hits collection, the Black Album, and Come, the album marking the retirement of Prince, henceforth to be known by an unpronounceable symbol. After highly publicized battles in which he claimed to be a slave to Warner Bros., The Gold Experience was released in late 1995 featuring the major Pop hit The Most Beautiful Girl In the World. 1996’s Chaos and Disorder finally brought the Warner Brothers contractual obligations to an end and Prince released Emancipation, a three hour, 3-disc set of all new music ranging from Pop to Rock to soulful R&B. However, the lack of any major hit singles limited sales.
In the latter part of the 1990’s and early part of the new decade, Prince’s commercial viability has not yet returned, but he continues to release challenging, interesting music. In 1998 he released a mammoth 4-disc set Crystal Ball, 3 discs of from-the-vault outtakes and one disc of new material, followed a few months later by the tightly focused New Power Soul. As expected, Warner Brothers re-released
1999 for the end of the decade and Prince countered with his own re-recorded version. The single is notable for a number of new Dance remixes. In addition Prince released new recordings on Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic while Warner Bros. released its own old outtakes The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale.
After having released a phenomenal amount of music, at least 11 discs, in a 4-year period, new material did not appear until 2001’s The Rainbow Children. Prince’s commercial clout had fallen to the point that this was his first album to not even break into the top 100 of the Pop album chart. It was eclipsed by the performance of a tightly focused Very Best of Prince which peaked at 66. In December of 2002, Prince surprised audiences by releasing his first live album, the 3-disc One Nite Alone Live.
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