- #8
- Posted: 07/12/2013 10:30
- Post subject:
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Seriously? Again? Of all my nominations, Prince is the one I thought I wouldn't really have to do any promotion for, largely because it's fucking Prince.
| lethalnezzle wrote: | Everybody realises this is Prince we're talking about here, right? Multi-instrumentalist, crazy prolific, genius producer, immense songwriter, party like it's nineteen motherfucking ninety nine, purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka, all singing, all dancing, doing the best fucking Hendrix impression this side of Jimi himself, sexy as fuck little androgynous nymphomaniac Jehovah's witness, author of a good portion of the best songs ever by anybody, so far ahead of his time motherfuckers are still trying to catch up now, crying in the purple rain motherfucking Prince. Prince. With no disrespect meant to The Birthday Party (who are a band that, whilst I personally find them pretty average, many of the people whose tastes I most trust absolutely adore), the fact that this matchup is so close is madness. Prince is up there with Bob Dylan and The Beatles and David Bowie and Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra, as far as I'm concerned; a true genius who transcends genre preferences and stands as one of the greats, one of the beloved icons, of popular music. I wouldn't believe anybody who told me that there wasn't a Prince song they love. I wouldn't believe anybody who told me that there weren't five Prince songs they love. I'm just going to list a bunch of Prince songs here, in no order, as a reminder of how amazing Prince is, just in case you forgot (occasionally I forget, until I remember the songs he is responsible for):
1999
I Wanna Be Your Lover
When Doves Cry
The Most Beautiful Girl In The World
How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?
Sign ☮ The Times
Black Sweat
Controversy
Uptown
Let's Go Crazy
Raspberry Beret
Batdance (RIP JMan)
If I Was Your Girlfriend
Diamonds & Pearls
Kiss
Pop Life
Dirty Mind
Delirious
When You Were Mine
Little Red Corvette
Baby I'm A Star
Manic Monday
Anotherloverholenyohead
My Name Is Prince
Purple Rain
Alphabet Street
Adore
Nothing Compares 2 U
Darling Nikki
Head
I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man
As I said earlier, Prince is not so much post-punk as post-disco, but everyone seems to agree he is definitely new wave. Whatever he is, he's better than pretty much everyone ever. Prince's 1980s discography is better than anybody's, and I genuinely believe that. Even outside of his '80s stuff, there is plenty to adore, even if the light shone increasingly infrequently in the intervening years. This was a man who was unafraid to take real risks ('When Doves Cry' has no bass whatsoever; let that sink in for a minute, especially given the audience his record labels were violently encouraging him to pander to), and somebody who took the album format seriously. These weren't albums made up of a bunch of rushed filler surrounding a couple of big singles; they work as real, thought-out masterpieces - always sonically and thematically cohesive, and never less than brilliant. Prince, despite his ability to write dozens of songs a day and the subsequent need for side projects (Apollo 6, The Time, whatever the fuck Sheena Easton was during the late 1980s), put time and effort into making his albums complete pieces, made to appreciate, admire and (most importantly) to cherish. Take Dirty Mind for example; true to its title in every way, the album is perhaps the most sexual I've ever heard - every track contains moments of tension and release, and it feels at once smooth and sultry, but also totally representative of our most primal urges. 1999 (the album) is just pure pop-rock genius, an album so catchy and immediately familiar that it feels as though you've grown up on it, even on first listen (and 'Little Red Corvette' is, in every sense, Prince doing The Cars better than The Cars could ever have wished to). I can't add anything more to the deserved praise heaped upon both Purple Rain and Sign ☮ The Times, universally admired albums that are quite rightly heralded by a huge amount of people as being among the very greatest of all-time. I don't mean to neglect his other great albums (Controversy, Lovesexy, The Black Album, The Gold Experience all deserve everything ever said about them and more), but that's just a brief snapshot of why Prince deserves to win this matchup, and probably every other too. This is Prince we're talking about here. Seven hours and fifteen days, dressed to the nines, incendiary live performer, ageless, endlessly pushing boundaries, change his voice to make himself sound like a woman on a fucking lead single, precursor to hip-hop and neo-soul and modern R'n'B and everything in between, working up a black sweat motherfucking Prince. Prince. |
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