Play in the sunshine (Prince) (LP 3547 - 3550)

Prince and the Revolution  1999 (CD, Warner Bros. Records, 1982) *****  

Prince and the  Revolution  Purple Rain (Vinyl, Warner Bros. Records, 1984) *****  

Prince and the Revolution  Around the World in a Day (Vinyl, Warner Bros. Records, 1985) **** 

Prince  Sign o' the Times (CD, Warner Bros. Records, 1987) *****  

Genre: Pop, rock, funk, RnB

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records, Marbecks Records, JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Let's Go Crazy (Purple Rain)

Gear costume: Lady Cab Driver (1999), Sign o' the Times 

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: I have discussed Prince before on this blog - he's a formative influence in my musical education.

I used to own a lot more of his back catalogue but it's now long gone. In fact, I've had to buy back albums like 1999 and Sign o' the Times on CD after realising my stupidity. Still, I only have Prince albums from the eighties in my collection.

1999 gets the party started with lengthy songs that delve deeply into freaky funk (and sex) moves. I appreciate this album more and more with time. The man had music oozing out of every pore. Who else could carry off a song like Lady Cab Driver?

Purple Rain, his sixth studio album, kicks with an almighty 'let's go nuts' adrenalin rush. Prince is at his fiery Hendrix style guitar wig out peak on this track. Indeed, throughout this landmark album, his guitar genius is often on display - take a listen to Computer Blue and marvel again at the ridiculousness of his talent.

The Revolution needs a mention, as they are a force on Purple Rain: Lisa Coleman (vocals, synths); Doctor Fink (vocals, synths); Wendy Melvoin (vocals, guitar; and Bobby Z (vocals, drums).

Fittingly, the album (and film) made Prince a superstar with its combined pop, rock, metal, funk, synth pop sound. 

The follow up - All Around the World in a Day takes the pop rock moves of Purple Rain and puts them in a psychedelic blender. I'm a big fan of this approach. It houses some great Prince and the Revolution moments like Raspberry Beret, Paisley Park, Pop Life and America.

Sign o' the Times was his ninth album and the return to a solo status - The Revolution appear but only on one (live) song. Many critics and fans think this sprawling double album is his best. Tough to choose one. 

The album came from a typically prolific period where Prince was writing and performing whole albums that were discarded for whatever reason. Being a double album (The Beatles, Exile on Main Street, Blonde on Blonde, London Calling etc) it allows for over-reach which fans like me find simply irresistible.

Where do they all belong? A double compilation album Prince Ultimate rounds out my collection. It's a good retrospective and one way into a huge catalogue. 

Let's get nuts (Prince) #319

Prince and The Revolution Let's Go Crazy/ Erotic City (Warner Bros 12", 20246-0, 1994)

Prince divides opinion. Some love him; some don't.

I can understand why. 

Sometimes he's ridiculously lewd, he's so prolific that oftentimes he has problems with quality control, he's reclusive, he can be weird (name changes and 'slave' facials don't help), he seems to have a skewed idea of Christianity, appears to court controversy, and he's annoyingly talented.

I boarded the Prince train with 1999 (1982) and got off around the time of The Love Symbol album in 1992. During the decade long journey Let's Go Crazy provided an early peak.

This song kicks off Purple Rain (movie and album) with an almighty 'let's go nuts' adrenalin rush. Prince is at his fiery Hendrix style guitar wig out peak on this track.

Hidden gem: The B side is a curious thing - it didn't appear on Purple Rain and the lyrics guaranteed controversy. It's a catchy but minor player in the Prince canon.

Dearly beloved...

36 Prince and the Revolution, ‘Let’s Go Crazy’

Singers have been singing about sex since Adam wandered through Eden humming to himself while eating an apple. Old blues songs didn’t mince any words or hold back any details. Elvis frightened white America because he moved in a licentious way while making white girls go weak. Robert Plant wanted his lemon squeezed until the juice ran down his leg, for God’s sake.

My first dawning that music and sex were inextricably linked was in 1971. I ordered a copy of The Mothers Live at The Fillmore from the RCA record club – it was on sale and worth a punt. I knew nothing about Frank Zappa or the Mothers Of Invention or that ‘The Mothers’ was polite shorthand. Boy was I in for a surprise.

What greeted me was an album I could never play without headphones on – my parents would have killed me. My mother refused to let me buy a copy of Joe Cocker’s Cocker Happy because she considered the title vaguely rude. She never actually said that, I just picked that up from her roundabout explanation over time. What would she say if she heard The Mothers rapping overtly about sex with groupies, prostitutes and mudsharks??? This was all a scarey proposition for a teenage boy growing up in sheltered New Zealand suburbia. Things would never be the same again.

In retrospect this was all great training for my time as an academic, studying English at university. Shakespeare and Chaucer were no great revelation because Frank Zappa had laid the groundwork (so to speak). I was able to understand double entendre and sexual symbolism at the drop of a hat (watching Benny Hill on television may have also helped).

By the 1980’s and 1990’s the world had moved on in many ways but singers were still singing about sex. My life had certainly moved on and changed dramatically – my beloved mother had died and I was married with children of my own. The standards my parents had set remained with me though, and I still don’t own a copy of Cocker Happy. Although I was no longer listening to The Mothers Live at the Fillmore I was listening to Prince.

Depending on who you listen to, Prince is either a genius, a chancer, a sex maniac, a freak, or all of the above. Those who think him a chancer/freak should listen to Sometimes It Snows In April. For a while there (1982’s 1999 until 1991’s Diamonds and Pearls) I was a rabid fan. Then he wrote ‘slave’ on his face, started releasing 10 CD sets of everything he twiddled with while insisting the world call him an unpronounceable symbol.

Let’s Go Crazy though is Prince in his purple prime. It kicks off the Purple Rain album with gusto! All attitude, sexual strutting and Hendrix guitar – it’s a massive statement of purpose after the lengthy wig outs that mostly make up 1999.

We’ve come a long way since Elvis haven’t we, but in many ways Prince is a direct descendant of those old blues records that sing of strutting red roosters bossing the barnyard. Everything is very explicit in the song. He’s Prince and when he says ‘let’s go nuts’, he’s not talking about getting a bag of cashews. You want further evidence? How about, ‘She picked up the phone, Dropped it on the floor, (Sex, sex) is all I heard’ . This is pretty tricky stuff to sing about without lapsing into corny self-parody. To sing it you need to be convincing. Prince somehow manages it while dressed in purple and mugging the camera, to say nothing of his antics with his guitar.

My Prince listening days are pretty much over. My sons and extended family tell me about his latest album from time to time (pretty good according to them) but I can’t believe he’s ever going to better Purple Rain as an album and Let’s Go Crazy as a song. And let's hear it for The Revolution!

Let's go crazy／Prince & The Revolution
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