Kiss OFF

I liked Prince. 

I liked Prince because he combined a libidinal energy with a sincere quest for religious redemption without compromising on either. Unlike Johnny Cash, say, he did not get all upset after getting jiggy with a lady, and his religious songs had the same ecstatic playfulness as his sexy tunes. 

I liked Prince because he performed queerness before it became a fashion statement. That is not to say all contemporary 'queer' artists are pretending, or that there isn't still some degree of danger in their stance. 

I don't like Prince because he did a dreadful guitar solo over a Beatles' song, though. I am pretty sure that this is getting used as an example of his genius because Prince spent a great deal of time getting his tracks off YouTube.

This is rubbish. Instead of putting the solo at the service of the track (it called gently weeps not has an ostentatious wank), Prince cuts loose and scribbles over the overly respectful, hushed voice cover version performed by one of those super-groups who blight rock'n'roll 'events'.

If Prince hadn't been so obsessive about getting his stuff off YouTube, maybe we could be celebrate his life with Kiss, in which he turns the sweaty lust of funk into an insidious sensuality. Or Sign o' the Times, a fit heir to What's Goin' On. 

Anyway, I just got this list from the PRS. It is the most played tracks by Prince (on the radio) of the twenty-first century.

PPL Most Played Prince Tracks of the 21st Century:

1. 1999   1982
2. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World    1994
3. Kiss  1986
4. When Doves Cry      1984
5. Raspberry Beret   1985
6. Little Red Corvette   1983
7. Purple Rain        1984
8. Diamonds And Pearls  1991
9. U Got The Look        1987

10. Let's Go Crazy    1984

Okay, who wants to look at the dates of those songs, and say something unacceptable?

I have two possibilities.

He has been rubbish since 1994, and his strategy of giving an album away free with The Daily Mail was the sign o'the artist formerly known as quite intriguing desperately trying to find an audience (although quite how the notoriously uptight Mail readers felt about his cheeky sexy riffs begs a few questions).

The nostalgia that now threatens to overwhelm pop music prevents anyone from listening to Prince's later work, and his prodigious subsequent output contains moments of genius that are lost in this bizarre bricolage of the past that now constitutes 'the present moment'.