“I never had as much fun as I had with the original seven… and it ain’t over yet,” Morris Day says wistfully on the spoken intro to his old band’s comeback record, Condensate. Morris Day and The Time – here renamed The Original 7ven because, well, mentor Prince’s copyright-related peccadilloes have gotten the better of him in recent years – may not have released an album together in 21 years, but you wouldn’t know that from listening to Condensate. Not only […]
Prince
Family Feud
Just last week, Blerd and I discussed the evolution of “Nothing Compares 2 U” through its various permutations. Although we gave a brief background about The Family there, it’s worth recounting. The Family were one in a string of many 1980s side projects for Prince, providing another outlet for his then-rich font of creativity. In essence, The Family rose from the ashes of the final incarnation of The Time, which had completely disbanded in 1985. For The Family project, Prince recruited ex-Time members Jellybean Johnson, Jerome Benton, and St. Paul Peterson, […]
Prince: Giving Me My First Reason Ever to Watch “Lopez Tonight”
I finally got to see Prince in concert last December, and I was amazed by the fact that, at age 52, the man still blows 98% of performers away with his stage presence alone. Add in his superior musicianship and…well, let’s just say that there’s Prince, and there’s almost everyone else. Mr. Nelson is playing a 21-date residency in Los Angeles (one of the very few times I wish I lived in California) and to help promote it, he stopped […]
Blerd’s Notes: A Guide to the Music of Prince: The Side Projects
Besides being an overall bad-ass, another thing Prince is well-known for is his stable of side projects.The desire to be known as a developer of talent in addition to being known as a talent himself ran strong in the little guy, and Prince started spitting out proteges almost as soon as he became a hit artist. Some of the artists went on to create great music (if not have lengthy careers), while other artists came and went in the blink […]
Prince Turns New Jersey Purple
Prince played an amazing show at New Jersey’s Izod Center on December 15th, with a 2-hour set containing some of his most memorable material.
Blerd’s Notes: A Guide to the Music of Prince (Part V)
Prince spent most of the late nineties and early oughts making uninspired music and bouncing from label to label. Part 5 of Prince’s “Blerd’s Notes” takes a look at some of the more disappointing entries in his catalog.
Blerd’s Notes: A Guide to the Music of Prince (Part IV)
Originally published November 17th, 2010. I’ve updated to include new photos, correct a few grammatical errors, and some text has been revised slightly. The last Prince album we covered in “Blerd’s Notes”‘ Part 3 was 1992’s Love Symbol album with the New Power Generation. Following that album, Prince’s label, Warner Brothers, gifted him with a lucrative (and ludicrous) contract that offered him a VP stake in the company. Shortly thereafter, Prince bailed-at least mentally. He changed his name to the […]
Blerd’s Notes: A Guide to the Music of Prince (Part 3)
Originally published November 9, 2010. I’ve edited this entry a little more than the previous two to make up for a couple of grammatical errors and a few turns of phrase that I’m not entirely comfortable with six years later. Everything’s been good on the Prince ride so far, right? We’ve already covered his ascension to superstardom, and now we’re at the tail end of the Eighties, when cracks in the Purple Armor were beginning to show. Nothing good lasts […]
Blerd’s Notes: A Guide To The Music Of Prince (Part Two)
Originally published 11/1/10 When dealing with someone whose released approximately 600 albums during his lifetime, it’s best to go piece by piece. When it comes to Prince, we’re gonna go five at a time. When we last left the Purple Yoda, he was on the verge of megastardom. “1999” was his biggest pop success, and set the stage for… “Purple Rain” (1984)– By the time “1999” hit, Prince was feeling himself so much, he convinced his label (and film studio […]
Prince Delivers News at the Apollo (Just Not the News I Wanted)
I’ll admit, I was hella curious about the press conference Prince planned for Friday evening at the historic Apollo Theatre in New York City. Visions danced through my head of several different scenarios: a Revolution reunion, a massive (and long overdue) reissue project (which would mean making nice with the honchos at Warner Brothers), another tour with the reformed (and allegedly making a new album) Time? Nah, none of that happened. Prince did announce that he will be headlining a […]
Another Crazy VH-1 List: The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time
My first thought upon hearing that VH-1 was compiling a list of the 100 Greatest Artists of all time was: how does one even begin to compile such a list? It’s not easy to quantify exactly what makes a great artist. Is it raw talent? Is it an eye for reinvention? Is it work that revolutionizes the artist’s milieu? The thought of taking the time to compile one of these lists myself makes my head explode. Nevertheless, on 9/6, the […]