With this song, however, his iron grip begins to loosen as he invites more outside creative influence from his bandmates. Of Prince’s early albums, Controversy is perhaps the one most geared toward the heads, less concerned with crafting hits as it is with establishing feels – from its recurring Reagan references, the docudrama portraits of fanatical personalities and the aggressive sexual tableaus throughout, Controversy is a dark album, inviting hefty doses of schadenfreude into the party.Ĭloser ‘Jack U Off’ is the first recorded appearance of Prince’s touring band - nearly everything prior had been performed, recorded, and multitracked solely by Prince in the studio, a practice he’d continue long into his career. The album is a buzzing bundle of machine funk that broadens Prince’s lyrical scope without diluting the his wit. While Dirty Mind focused on the politics of the body, its 1981 followup Controversy addresses more topical matters like nuclear war, the rat race, and what is likely Prince’s favorite topic after love and sex: the ever-powerful influence of organized religion. Dirty Mind firmly establishes the purple sound, often imitated yet never improved. The album’s brevity enhances its impact, its songs packed with hummable hooks and lyrics detailing the ins and outs and ups and downs of going out, getting laid, and facing the consequences the next morning. It’s a heavily synthesized album, featuring heavy use of Oberheim OB synths, but when the guitars do make their presence felt they emerge via nervous jolts of barbed, minimalist anti-riffage, less indebted to heartland hard rock than the wiry post-punk of groups like Devo or Wire.ĭirty Mind‘s ragamuffin attitude is filtered through the sweaty repetition of funk vamping, bringing a hypersexuality to punk rock’s usual chaste posturing. Dirty Mind is where the Prince best known by casual listeners first emerged, clad in a trench coat with eight songs tucked into his thong which managed to court new wave and rock-obsessed listeners as well as soul and R&B fans. Let’s go crazy!ĭirty Mind was a slap in the face to listeners after the seductive and at times saccharine soul of 1978’s For You and 1979’s Prince. If you’ve always wanted to dive in and get sweaty with one of the most subversive figures from the dawn of digital pop but didn’t know where to start, this guide is for you. Even more of Prince’s catalogue is expected to become available in the coming months, but let’s start with the essentials. To mark the occasion, here is a crash course in 10 of those releases, each highly influential and beloved by fans but perhaps less well known by newer listeners used to discovering music on streaming services. Thanks to a renegotiation with Universal Music Group (who control the majority of Prince’s “classic” formative early career), The Purple One’s most iconic and widely known music is now available to stream beyond Tidal platform. But where were those classic albums when the kids needed to hear them? Aside from iTunes, we had to head into the physical realm to find them, ordering old CDs from eBay and Discogs or digging in secondhand bins – until today. In the last years of Prince’s career, he reengaged with elements of the sound that brought him fame. Instead he carried on with his own vision, which moved away from the multilayered technological programming of his early, most canonized period into a more “organic” mutation of funk, blues, and soul. As such, Prince fell out of touch with the rap world for a long period, still keeping up with trends but never choosing to chase them. He seldom granted permission for his songs to be sampled, usually because he didn’t want to be associated with music that he deemed disrespectful or lascivious, as per his later religious beliefs. The CD editions of his Warner Brothers catalogue have been due proper remastering for decades, still often relying on thin early digital transfers, and his catalogue hasn’t enjoyed the rediscovery it deserves among younger fans, in part due to the iron grip he wielded over licensing. If you’re part of the streaming generation who’ve never yet enjoyed full access to the Purple One’s vast catalog, this is where to start.įor an artist with such a ubiquitous influence on modern music, Prince has been curiously and frustratingly under-served in the digital age. As Prince’s albums finally hit streaming services this Sunday (February 12), Mikey IQ Jones picks the 10 essential records from one of the all-time great discographies.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |