Side B of "The Family" was pretty special.
As great as Side A, but more adult, even if "Mutiny" is pretty darn serious.
If you take a look at (and drop an ear on) the 1985 Billboard,
you get a sense of how far ahead Prince was in pop.
But hey, most of the praise goes to Bobby and David Rivkin.
If the song didn't have a proper structure and his heart on a sleeve,
Clare wouldn't have make such over-the-top melodramatic chamber orchestra weeps,
and I mean over-the-top it in a good way. And David is one heck of an engineer.
With "Nothing Compares 2 U" and "Desire", you have the very first glimpses
of the extraordinary american-european crossover "Parade" would turn to be.
Until then, Prince was a romantic maverick and a showman with a very strong Broadway touch:
Do Me Baby, International Lover, even The Beautiful Ones and Purple Rain,
whilst perfect as they are, sound very american.
But this tune, along with Clare's work all over the album (he didn't add too much jazz to let the pop pop out),
"Desire", Nothing Compares 2 U and Eric's clicketing golden sax keys, "my-ears-are-never-tired" Susan Rogers,
The impeccable Analog Mastering from Mr. Bernie Grundman...
It's so much fun for us PurpleMania fans, to have Per Nilssen discover later that the entire album (minus)
has been composed by Prince. Like, what's new, man? I was only thirteen and it was so obvious.
We had our own private Beatle with Prince.
The guy was already releasing his albums at a 60's pace, long before the Warner Wars.
The fact that Sheila, Jill or St. Paul (which does an amazing job here, I dare you to sing and sound
in a convincing Prince manner, all lust syllabes and moans) had the lead vocal role
did not matter.
On the contrary, it was like Prince himself told us: 'you don't want to my voice all the time.
At least I don't.'
And for a few years it was a "jeu de dupes", as the french say, because it was of course
Warner themselves that passed the word to some critics and D.J.'s,
that "Joey Coco" was in fact another pseudo, "Girlsongs ASCAP" reappeared somewhere else,
it was fun because it seemed so generous, where all other artists seem to record an album,
then take a vacation for two years.
I'm glad that "River Run Dry" turned out to be Bobby's composition.
It could be Prince's: it has that Minnesota Country Blues in it (Purple Rain, Holy River, A Million Days),
the melody is great, the chord changes are haunting.
"17 Days", "Strawberry Lover", "River Run Dry", "Kiss"
are proofs that The Revolution and the girls and boys behind the soundboards were no punks as musicians.
They should have written entire albums on their own while on tour.
Their LP are plagued by fillers just because Prince wasn't around.
I mean Prince as a motivator, an imaginary competitor, not necessarily a participant.
But who could have kept up with the guy that never sleeps? Susan was the last man standing,
but even her had to finally fade it out.
[Edited 6/14/15 5:44am]
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