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PERFORMERS

By Rob Bowman

oncisely summing th e accomplishments of The title track of ’s 1978 debut , For You, Prince is a nearly impossible task. The undis­ featured any number of voices singing in counter­ puted heir to the crown worn by James point, sounding much like Queen at its most rococo Brown, and George Clinton, he is fused with the trademark soulful of the Del- equally capable of writing and playing fonics. The album’s single, “,” a keyboard- mind-melting rock & roll and concocting driven, hook-laden, funk-infused paean to the joys of some of the greatest pop anthems of all time (cansex, any­ stormed its way to the Number Twelve spot on the bodyC say “ Rain”?). Impressive as his mastery of R&B charts and pointed indelibly toward the future. these three iibergenres are, funk, rock and pop are just Incredibly enough, Prince wrote, performed, arranged the tip of the iceberg. In the past quarter century, Prince and produced every note of the album’s nine tracks. In so has proved himself an alchemical genius, drawing on a doing, he earned the distinction of being the youngest wealth of vernacular American traditions including producer in Warner Bros.’ history. blues, gospel, soul, folk and while' forging one of Prince’s next three , Prince, Dirty M ind and Con­ the most distinctive, rich and diverse bod­ troversy, were similarly falsetto-dominated ies of recordings in American popular mu­ dance-oriented affairs on which he played, sic history. Perhaps that was what Miles sang, arranged, composed and produced Davis had in mind when, in 1987, he stated every single note. Despite the success of his that Prince had the potential to be “the new first four discs with black radio and black [Duke] Ellington of our time.” consumers (collectively, they generated nine Prince Rogers Nelson was bom June 7,1958, R&B chart singles, three of which, “I Wanna in the location of . Be Your Lover,” “Controversy” and “Let’s Prince’s father was a jazz pianist and band­ Work,” penetrated the R&B Top Ten), Prince leader, and his mother was the band’s vocalist scarcely made a dent on the pop charts. In At the age of seven, Prince taught himself to play thel fact, when he opened for in Los Ange­ piano and wrote his first , “Funkmachine.” Soon les in 1981, to his everlasting mortification, he was pelt­ thereafter, he began to play guitar and drums, and six ed with debris and roundly booed. years later he formed his first group, Grand Central All this began to change in 1982 with iggg and even (renamed Champagne when the band members entered more dramatically two years later with Purple Rain. high school). In 1976, Prince offered his prodigious multi- Prince’s fourth single, “W hy You Wanna Treat Me So instrumental and vocal skills to local studio owner Chris Bad?,” had. clearly displayed his extraordinary talents as Moon in exchange for free studio time. The resulting four- a lead guitarist. But up to the release of iggg, his music song demo was strong enough to generate interest from a had been dominated by multiple layers of synthesized number of major labels. Supremely confident and bent on keyboards, falsetto vocals and drum machines as Prince artistic control from the word go, Prince ultimately chose situated himself squarely within the soundscape of con­ to sign with Warner Bros., the only company willing to let temporary R&B. On iggg and Purple Rain, and with sin­ him produce himself. gles such as “” and “Let’s Go Crazy,”

Left: Prince models Park and NPG labels for a number of an early look. Right: his musical heroes, including George Reigning in purple. Clinton, , and . Propelled into the rarefied world of superstar status, Prince let his creative muse range in a multitude of direc­ tions. Rather than building on the success of Purple Rain with a similar-sounding work, he chose to confound many critics and some fans by following it with the supremely psychedelic-tinged Around the World in a Day and the equally obscure Parade. While the albums may have been left of center, they generated heavy sales on the strength of decade-defining hit singles such as “Rasp­ berry Beret” and “Kiss.” Whatever direction he chose to pursue on his albums, Prince appeared eminently capable of writing monster hit singles at will, each containing a distinctive, instantly memorable melody and/or a bone­ crushing groove. Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day and Parade all fea­ tured the talents of his live band the Revolution, an ensemble that was, a la , inte­ grated both racially and sexually. For his magnum opus, 1987’s Sign ‘O ’ , the shockingly brutal The Black Album (scheduled for release in December 1987 but shelved until 1994) and 1989’s soundtrack, Prince opted to return to recording as a one-man band. One of the most Over the course of these and subsequent albums, Prince displayed remarkable stylistic growth and musical diver­ sity. Release after release was simultaneously shocking dazzling R&B and riveting. Fascinated with both timbre and texture, Prince was never afraid to follow his intuition. Conse­ singers of all time quently, “” was recorded without a bass instrument, while “Kiss,” one of the starkest recordings ever released, was mixed sans reverb. Both textures were Prince began to broaden his horizons, manifesting a seri­ absolutely unprecedented in the world of mainstream hit ous interest in rock-guitar playing and rhythms. He also singles. Prince’s use of strings was similarly radical: stopped relying exclusively on his falsetto, instead bring­ Recordings such as Parade’s “Sometimes It Snows in April” ing to the fore a rich and supple voice capable of sported wholly unorthodox, albeit gorgeous, string generating seemingly unlimited emotional depth. The arrangements, usually courtesy of . Other result was massive crossover success with singles such as cuts, such as the title track on Around the World in a Day, “r999,” “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Purple Rain,” employed the timbres of non-Westem instruments such “,” “Pop Life,” “Kiss” and “Alphabet St.” as the Arabic oud and darbuka. If it made a sound, in reaching the upper levels of both the pop and the R&B Prince’s mind it was potentially a color to paint with. charts, providing much of the soundtrack'for the rest of In addition to his facility with timbre, during his first the decade. decade in the studio Prince routinely made ingenious use In the same way that and the Rolling Stones of the earliest drum machines, concocting innovative dominated the 1960s, Prince’s music, alongside that of grooves and sounds. Later releases that featured tradi­ and , absolutely dominated the tional drum kits, such as “Housequake” and “,” airwaves and clubs of the . His concerts developed unleashed monstrously deep funk grooves, the equal of. into fantastic affairs: equal parts Broadway spectacle, sex­ anything , Sly Stone or George Clinton ever ual exorcism and communal celebration of the life force of recorded. And on funk numbers such as “Kiss” and bal­ black and white dance music as Prince brilliantly tapped lads such as “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World»* into the Zeitgeist of the era. His videos for “1999” and Prince proved himself to be one of the most inventive, “Delirious,” alongside Jackson’s Thriller clips, were instru­ daring and dazzlingly virtuoso R&B - and, by extension, mental in breaking the color barrier on MTV. American - singers of all time. Not content to merely write, produce, play and sing the hippest and edgiest of the day, in 1984 Prince ventured into the world of celluloid, completing four fea­ ture by the end of 1990. The first of these, the semi- autobiographical Purple Rain, is generally regarded as the finest rock since A ’s Night and was instru­ mental in spurring sales of the album of the same name to the thirteen-million-plus mark. Riding high on his new­ found success, Prince proceeded to build an empire, pro­ ducing, writing the majority of , singing backup and playing numerous instruments on albums by Vanity, , the Time, Sheila E., , Madhouse and Mazarati. He would later produce albums on his Photographed fo r '' by

Prince was never Sign 'O' the Times: Prince preaches to the converted recent years covered everything from ’s “Whole Lotta Love” to the Staple Singers’ “W hen W ill We Be Paid,” afraid to follow ’s “” and ’s “Take the A’ Train.” Perhaps artist since Ellington has been his intuition able to so successfully incorporate so many diverse styles into one overriding aesthetic. Always prolific, Prince seemingly lived to make music, By the end of the 1980s, Prince had traded the Revolution and like , he recorded incessantly. While his for the demonstratively funkier contemporaries of the 1980s and 1990s carefully orches­ (NPG). He had also begun to feature rapping in a number of trated the release of new albums every three or four years songs on both his 1991 and 1992 releases - his use of rap with marketing plans that included a series of singles and being'consistent with his interest in and ability to integrate massive world tours, Prince issued a new album year in and virtually any style into his oeuvre. He introduced year out, and by the early 1990s, he had reportedly amassed on Around the World in a Day, gospel on numer­ an unreleased body of work totaling some $0© songs. ous songs including Sign ‘O’ the Tim es’ emotional tour de Prince’s workaholic nature eventually lead him into con­ force “The Cross,” blues on ’s down-and-dirty flict with his record company, and he spent much of the 1990s “The Ride,” industrial on Emancipation’s “The Human Body,” attempting to reconcile his musical goals and personal pro­ folk on much of 1998’s The Truth (“Circle of Amour” provid­ clivities with those of the record industry. He initially became ing evidence of how Joni Mitchell had influenced him) and disenchanted with Warner Bros, in 1987, when the company jazz on much of his last two studio albums, The Rainbow Chil­ refused to allow him to issue a three-CD set. After he re-signed dren and N.E.W.S. A voracious listener and evidently an with the label in 1992, in a deal reportedly worth $100 ipillion, astute historian of , Prince has in concerts in things deteriorated further. While Prince wanted to release ever more material, as sales began to slip, Warners thought it its major-label distribution. While 1999’s Rave Un2 the Joy wise to cut back. In protest, in April 1993, Prince announced Fantastic was similarly distributed by Arista, his last three he was no longer going to record new material and instead albums, 2001’s , 2002’s live box set One rely on his treasure trove of unreleased tracks to fulfill his N ite A lo n e . . . Live! and 2003’s N.E.W.S., were released on contract. In June of that year, he changed his name from Prince’s own NPG label and independently distributed to Prince to the unpronounceable glyph that had been the title stores, as w ell as sold on the Internet. of his 1992 album. In recent years, Prince has attempted to pioneer alterna­ In 1994, unhappy with its increasingly disaffected artist, tive ways of marketing himself and his music through his Warner Bros, pulled the funding from Prince’s Paisley Park Internet-based NPG fan club. In exchange for a yearly fee, label» effectively undercutting Prince’s ability to produce members cl# download a number of recordings. They also other talent. In 1996, while ostensibly promoting what receive members-only CDs and are given access to Prince' would turn out to be his last Warners album, Chaos and Dis­ sound checks and after-show performances. In the mean­ order, Prince began making public appearances with the time, Prince has remained very vocal about artists maintain­ word slave written on his cheek, protesting the fact that he ing ownership of their masters and economic and aesthetic felt that his contract enslaved him to Warners. With Chaos control of their own careers. In concert, he has become and Disorder selling just under one hundred thousand copies increasingly disparaging about the dire state of contempo­ ,$2l the U.S. and staying on the album charts a scant four rary, narrowcasted radio. weeks, by mutual agreement, Warners and the Artist For­ In the first few years of the twenty-first century - in the merly Known as Prince (the Artist, for short) parted ways. third decade of his recording career - Prince seems content He would continue to be known by the glyph until the end to play smaller venues under his own rules, featuring his of 1999, when Ins publishing contract with Warner- new material and offering fascinating covers and exploring Chappell finally expired. and imploding every comer of his back catalogue. No longer After severing his ties with Warner Bros., in late 1996, encumbered by major-label expectations, the pressures of Prince recorded and released a three-CD set titled Emanci­ superstardom or the constraints of arena-size spectacles, pation, which was distributed by EMI, followed in 1998 by Prince, both on his recordings and in live performance, has the independently distributed four-CD set Crystal Ball (five increasingly blended jazz sensibilities into his already heady CDs if purchased over the Internet directly from the Artist). mixture of gospel, funk and rock. The result has been some While both sets were critical successes and displayed the of the finest music of his career. In 1965, wrote the Artist’s ever-widening musical interests (one of the CDs in line “He not busy being bom is busy dying.” Prince is an artist Crystal Ball was an all-acoustic disc titled The Truth), Eman­ who, twenty-five years after recording his first album, con­ cipation fared much better on the charts, thanks largely to tinues to define the very essence of that maxim. "There was always an air of mystery" Vicki Peterson on the Perfectly Princely Way to End an Evening

A rehearsal hall ¡riffle San More than s lf f it nervous, lookaround, and then damned ^suited about it. Fernando:¥aHey in October we play it fo r him, with suddenly he'd ju s t be ther# - When I arrived, 1 found 1986. We Bangles are Susanna still .unsure of tNt.,;, ira tb e wings, ready to join us my band mates there ail learning "" and me doing a poor f i t an encore. True, in reality, plugged in and Prince a t the preparing to go in and faux-harpsichord arpeggio fAts happened maybe twice, piano., 1®ie ISangles are not ’ record t h is jjjf la f a pop on guitar. As we but since these visits yvera exactly anyone's definition of song. The demo th a t had finish, i launch never planned ®P'expeqtid: a jam band (although yre had mysteriously appeared at "We're stilI figuring it put, by us, they seemed to be a- • once faked our way through our manager's office was and we donltllave any perpetual possibility. And a.Jiinry Lee Lewis song a fully fleshed-out keyboards y e t..." when fit did come to a onstage with Prince), and we production with a female "Doesn't heed it," Prince Bangles showjt'was a were feeling a little out of vocal (Apollonia,! think!)and says quietly. He’s sailing, and magical thing indeed. our element. Prince resolved a distinct keyboard intro. so is Wendy. He points One night onstage in this by proclaiming th a t he Prince had offered the upward. "It's gonna go" Los Angeles, PHnce picked i^fli^fced'to play our suggestion th a t we keep the As usual about such up'pjfe o f my Les Pauls songs. S urrpif as it was, we tracks and: simply record things, he was right, and and played a glor® isly sat in a room with Priftte in new vocals,'but we were ~ "Manic Monday" shaft. psychedelic s o li bn “Hero the early-morning hours and adamant about doing aMf*^ • stra ig h t up the charts-. Takes a Fall.” A fte r the show, played Bangles songs, with own version. So here we are, Whenever Prince ap­ he invited us to a recording him jumping from piano to going! fcSrsugh the song or|'; peared in our world, there studio where he'd blocked 4P iM m to guitar. At one point guitars, with our producer, was always an air o f mystery out some time. Beginning he le ft the room, as if to David Kahne, and in walks His about him. We would run a jam session a t three make a phone call. He never Princeness, acco m p ^p iii't^ offstage a fte r a show and ‘O'cjfifck in the morning was returned. Thte'was,in all its Miss . He find the backstage buzzing p|'parer1tly nothing new to oddness, a perfectly Princely wants to hear the song. with Prince sightings. We'd him, but we were pretty way to end an evening. □