The weird pop world of Prince
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Smooth singer … Prince is master of his pop domain.
Source: News Corp Australia
LONG before Beyonce dropped a surprise record and video collection or U2 thrust a new album on to unsuspecting iPods, the most enigmatic pop star of our times was throwing curve balls at an unsuspecting music industry.
The unpredictable Prince did it again a month ago when he announced he would release two new studio albums this week.
Art Official Age is a classic record from the 56-year-old music mogul, with the man christened Prince Rogers Nelson writing, producing and performing every song.
The companion record Plectrumelectrum was made with his all-girl band 3rdEyeGirl, with many of the tracks given live previews during his Hit and Run shows in the UK this year.
POP STAR: The reasons why Prince still matters
A mysterious man … Prince has dropped two new records. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied
He has also been drip-feeding other tracks and “instant gratification downloads” via social media throughout the year, including the gritty guitar and synth slammer Funknroll, as well as the futuristic slow jam U Know, the ballad Breakdown, Cloudsand Breakfast Can Wait.
The releases are also remarkable for the fact Prince has again teamed with Warner Bros. records, the label he acrimoniously split from almost two decades ago.
He famously protested his deal with them by writing Slave across his face.
Whether Art Official Age or Plectrumelectrum restore his chart fortunes to the heady heights of his 1980s and 1990s purple patch of success remains to be seen.
But both on and off stage, Prince has always proven to be one of the most thoroughly entertaining and intriguing artists of our times.
Here are some of Prince’s big career moments.
Workaholic slashie … Prince was recording new songs in the early hours between filming scenes for Purple Rain. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for NCLR).
Source: Supplied
Purple Rain
The soundtrack to the movie of the same name turned 30 this year. It won him an Oscar for best original song score and spent almost six months at No. 1 in the US.
Prince simultaneously had the No. 1 album, single and film in America.
Spearheaded by hits including When Doves Cry, Let’s Go Crazy and the title track, the record has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and is regularly cited as one of the best film soundtracks in history.
When he wasn’t acting, rewriting the script or cutting tracks during filming, he was in the studio working on new music for Sheena Easton and Time.
“He was the Nutty Professor,” Prince singer Susannah Melvoin said. “He would call you at 4am and say ‘I’m cutting hits, what are you doing?’ ‘I’m sleeping.’ ‘Wrong answer’ — and he’d hang up. You knew to get to the studio. It sounds a little cultish, but you did it. And, of course, I loved the music. Nobody was doing anything like that, and it moved us to believe in it. We got to do great things.”
Love Symbol … It was easier to refer to him as The Artists Formerly Known as Prince than try to pronounce his logo.
Source: News Corp Australia
The Symbol
Prince wasn’t content rewriting the English language to incorporate numbers and letters within words starting on the Controversy album in 1981 (Jack U Off).
Prince was way ahead of his time in 1993 when he turned his name into a logo universally known as the Love Symbol.
It was also an attempt to frustrate his label, who he had been at war with for several years, famously painting Slave on his face to protest that his contract did not give him ownership of his master recordings.
A combination of the symbols for male and female, his new moniker was unpronounceable and required his record label to supply floppy discs to media so they could print the name.
Most writers and publishers gave up on the bizarre request and began referring to him in print as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.
Treasure chest … Prince has thousands of songs, videos and concert footage secured in a vault at Paisley Park. Picture: Supplied
Source: AP
The Vault
His legendary headquarters Paisley Park in Minnesota is reported to house hundreds, if not thousands, of the prolific composer’s unreleased works, songs written for other artists and remixes as well as music videos and never-seen concert footage.
Notoriously anti-internet, he has kept a lot of his work off video and streaming sites even though bootlegs continue to circulate both on and offline.
Search for the Raspberry Beret video and you will most likely find a message that the content has been blocked by the artist or a music publishing company.
Allegedly he has a team of female black lawyers to keep his copyright safe from digital piracy.
Among the treasures that trainspotters hope may now see the light of day after he cut his new deal with Warners include the original version of Manic Monday which was recorded for Appolonia 6’s album (Purple Rain co-star) but was dropped at the last minute.
The song went on to be a hit for The Bangles.
But more widely coveted are the jams he recorded with Miles Davis after they performed at a Paisley Park New Year’s Eve party in 1987.
Winging it … Journalists granted an interview with prince are banned from recording it or taking notes. Picture: Supplied
Source: News Limited
The Documentary
Interviewers granted an audience with the pop royal are famously banned from recording or taking notes.
So when it leaked that film director Kevin Smith was collaborating with him on a documentary, everyone was intrigued.
In An Evening With Kevin Smith hilariously dishes on their initial phone conversation and filming sessions with fans at a Paisley Park listening session which Prince wanted to be a religious-themed documentary to “change the world”.
The footage is apparently locked in the vault.
Comic turn … Prince was perfectly Prince in the New Girl this year. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied
New Girl
He may have kicked off his career as a slashie with lead roles in Purple Rain, Under The Cherry Moon and the universally panned Graffiti Bridge in the ‘80s.
So it was yet another big surprise when, sporting his new look afro, Prince popped up in the post Superbowl episode of American sitcom New Girl, playing himself.
He was given raves for his hilarious guest spot and performed FALLINLOVE2NITE with the show’s star Zooey Deschanel. It hasn’t made the track listing for either of the new records.
Listen to Prince’s hits in our Spotify playlist below:
