93 Prince - 1999... His highness goes purple!

I took some convincing, but I eventually got there with Prince, before I joined the party, his early sex fueled egomania took a jazz / funk / purple turn.

93 Prince - 1999 - Streaming on Apple Music (Just the original tracks - not the laundry list of still excellent demos and live extras on the deluxe version)

Prince - 1999 - Spotify Album

Prince - 1999 - iTunes Album USA

Prince - 1999 - iTunes Album UK

Prince is another artist where it took me a long time to warm up to what he had to offer. Before this album, people in the UK were aware of Prince... "I Wanna be your Lover" and "Controversy" had got radio play... and grazed the outer reaches of the charts but it was this album that landed him in our consciousness (with a persona that would become solidified with the next offering). With the title track and Little Red Corvette (despite relatively poor UK chart performance) his Purpleness and the Revolution landed across the Atlantic. We forget just how much he really was a strange presence in the UK charts... and for me and my Prog / Rock / New Wave / Pop taste... his overtly sexual R&B / Funk early offerings were just not in my wheelhouse....I’ll get this out of the way and say that 1999 did not win me over at the time.

Both the song 1999 and Little Red Corvette made a huge impact on the UK music scene, this was the Prince we had been aware of, but now that sexy funk of early singles was infused with synths.... it genuinely was a new sound and at least for me cemented Prince as a talented curiosity with a lot of interesting ideas to offer. So let’s fast forward to 1989 when the genius of Sign ‘O’ the Times and Parade had genuinely started to win me over and I went back to properly listen to the back catalogue... from that point forward this and Purple Rain have become firm favourites. So this is very much reviewing looking back.... 

And it’s just astonishing. ALMOST.. a concept album.. IF you can stretch that idea to the concept being “we are all going to die in a nuclear war..... f**k it .... let’s f**k”.

And that’s the genius, we genuinely get a major glimpse of Prince’s social commentary, that was to feature so heavily later on... but infused with Princes’ sexual egomania and sly sense of humour (a Purple nuclear fallout....the dust cloud is falling but I’ve got a lion in my pocket....”mommy, why does everybody have a bomb”?)

Some of the indulgences are still too much unless you laugh along with them .... “International lover” is totally filthy and  “Lady Cab Driver” would never wash in the Me Too era. But alongside this is lyrical genius and thought provoking brilliance well ahead of it’s time “Free” and “All the Critics Love U in New York” are inspirational and cutting respectively.

Most of all... the musicianship is jut amazing, clearly Prince spent plenty time playing with his new electric toys, but as well as the synths, as with many of his other recordings, he plays large chunks of this himself... but the genius is how well he blends his own skills with the early incarnation of the Revolution ... Wendy and Lisa are both here and the interchange between Prince and Dez Dickerson on guitar is perfect. We think of Price as a lead guitar and Piano player...but the bass playing on this, all from his Purpleness is high energy funk excellence. If I had one criticism... the Drums are lifeless (mostly anonymous drum machine loops with simple fills).

Admittedly, some of the longer groove based noodling (D.M.S.R and Automatic) are far better live... where band members are given space to improvise rather than just letting the groove wander but it still fits together so well and somewhat forgotten tracks like Something In The Water are so atmospheric that you are pulled back in just as your attention might lapse.

My friend Pete B pulled my further into the Purpleverse in 1990 when we both headed to Maine Road to see the little man on the Graffiti Bridge tour... “Batdance” “Nothing Compares to You” and the title track from this are seared in my memory as some fo the best live performances I’ve ever seen! There is no doubt that he falls into the category of artists where once you have seen their genius live in action... it’s easy to re-evaluate all their work in a more positive light... but wither way you cut it... this real start of Prince’s Purple patch.... in SO many ways.

More later.....

94 Lionel Richie - Truly....forgettable

If “Endless Love” signaled the Lionel solo was something to look forward to, I was sadly disappointed when his self titled solo debut released.

94 Lionel Richie - S/T - Streaming on Spotify

Lionel Richie - Lionel Richie - Spotify Album

Lionel Richie - Lionel Richie - iTunes Album USA

Lionel Richie - Lionel Richie - iTunes Album UK

First of all - sorry for the delay. Life, work and stuff has got in the way, but an Easter break during Covid-19 prescribed lockdown seems like a perfect time to get back in the saddle.

Don’t get me wrong, Lionel is a superb artist. As my older brother drifted away from his prog and rock taste towards late 70’s disco, the Commodores were amongst the standouts - Easy, Brick House, Three Times A Lady and Still are absolute classics - up there with the very best of the output from Motown. The silky vocals Lionel brought to their best ballads were SO distinctive and memorable - to this day I’ll be transported by “Still” to a wonderful mellow headspace. As my taste began to drift away from my brother’s, the Commodores were definitely still common ground.

So after Lionel’s duet with Diana Ross on Endless Love - a mini classic itself, people were optimistic about his first solo album.... and “people” were generally pretty enthusiastic about this album.

I’m sure they had every right to be... it’s a smooth slice of Motown soul / disco...the glitterati of Motown session musican royalty make appearances, Nathan East and Joe Chemay, Greg Phillingaines, John Robinson... and literally dozens of others. Michael Boddicker and Thomas Dolby inject some nice synths and even Richard Marks adds his slick backing vocals to many tracks. They put in superb performances - there is slick uptempo disco, and smooth ballads. It’s easy on the ear but despite it’s ubiquity at the time it’s all just SO forgettable. Listening now to remind myself, I remembered every song, but had pretty much not thought of any one of them since 1982.

There are highlights - Jo Walsh’s guitar solo on Wandering Stranger is Superb... and the first single “Truly” is easily the best thing Lionel had been involved with since the Midnight Magic Commodores album back in the 70s - and “You Are” bounces along engagingly (and was a highlight at his “legends” slot at Glastonbury) but I bet even these highlights will fall right out of my head.

Just as “You Are” has woken us up 3/4 though the album.... we are into a stodgy dirge with “You mean more to me”....and the epilogue of “just put some love in your heart”,lush as the orchestrations are, just feels lazy.

Lionel had much better to come, as well as some excellent head clay work story videos ;-)... but I don’t think it’s too harsh to say this sounds to my ears like him finding his way as a solo songwriter....very safe, perfectly likable but ultimately meh....

Interestingly, my brother never engaged with solo Lionel either.... perhaps we still shared musical common ground ..... Still ;-)

More later.....(but not as late as the last time)