Philadelphia Weekly
Power Of Soul

Black and Blue: Reexamining Prince’s dirtiest of ditties
By Craig D. Lindsey

September 5th, 2007


I think it was in the movie Chinatown that someone uttered the line, "Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all become respectable if they last long enough." The same could be said for pop stars whom mainstream folk once thought were just too nasty and freaky for the room. Like Prince.

It tickles the hell out of me that Prince Rogers Nelson-who will turn 50 next year-has now become just as much of a respectable, family-friendly entertainer as Andy Williams. I mean, he played a halftime show at the Super Bowl (albeit with a very phallic performance of "Purple Rain" on his guitar).

The man recently did a stint in Vegas doing weekend gigs. Vegas! Didja ever think you’d see His Royal Badness play Vegas like he’s Wayne friggin’ Newton or somebody? Too fuckin’ rich!

It seems almost apropos that all this newfound reputability is happening on the 20th anniversary of his last R-rated stand The Black Album, the controversial follow-up to his acclaimed two-disc masterpiece Sign ‘O’ the Times. A vinyl-only, eight-song funk free-for-all, it was supposed to be Prince’s big fuck-you to those who thought the Minneapolis kid was going too soft after the commercial success of Purple Rain.

But right when everyone was ready to hear what the Purple One had to say to his haters, Prince decided to pull the album. Several theories surfaced as to why Black wasn’t released: Prince had a "crisis of conscience" over the album’s profane, violent and sexual content; Warner Bros. also thought it was unreleaseable; Prince thought, in retrospect, the album sucked; or my favorite, Prince went through an old-school, Sly Stone-style, drug-induced, devil-hallucinating haze while making it.

Whatever theory you prefer, Black immediately became a must-have bootleg after it didn’t make its November 1987 release. With badly dubbed copies circulating all over the place, dedicated Prince fans soon got a taste of the darkness that was lurking inside that petite body of his... almost. What they got were a bunch of naughty, wacky songs you could dance to.

With the exception of the out-of-place ballad "When 2 R in Love" (which would show up on his following album Lovesexy), Black does have Prince reacquainting himself with his funky side. "Le Grind," "2 Nigs United 4 West Compton" and the legendary Cindy Crawford love letter "Cindy C." is full of Prince’s patented synthesizer-heavy big-band sound, while the tawdry combo of "Superfunkycalifragisexy" and "Rockhard in a Funky Place" walks that fine line between being funky and naughty.

Black features Prince at his crankiest. The album’s most controversial track "Bob George" has Prince electronically altering his voice to sound like a shit-talking, gun-toting thug, cursing out his girl for creeping on him with a rock star manager character. While "Bob" may have been too over-the-top for 1987, it sounds funny as hell now.

Then there’s "Dead on It," in which he calls out rappers for being "silly," "tone-deaf" and letting us down. While this may have sounded back then like Prince being a purist, bitching about rap not being a real musical art form, there’s something eerily prophetic about the song. It’s as though Prince foresaw the mediocrity that would overtake rap, almost warning us of the whack MCs who’d take over the hip-hop game and turn it into the money/cash/hos racket it is now.

Just like Prince himself, Black today hardly seems like the too-hot-to-handle entity (which Warner Bros. eventually, briefly released in November 1994) it was when it surfaced all those years ago.

Hey, times change; Prince is a Jehovah’s Witness, after all. And the young audience who used to rock out and get all sweaty-either horizontally or vertically-to the man’s music have gotten older too, are probably railing against the performers their kids listen to now. ("Turn off that goddamn Hannah Montana! It’s the devil’s music!")

I guess we’ll always have the memories. The memories of the Prince that used to scare the hell out of people. The Prince who used to show up onstage in ass-less pants or a trench coat and a pair of black drawers. A Prince who sang about fucking his sister. Those were the days.

From: http://www.philadelphiawe...cles/15371

There are so many inaccuracies in this article that it's not worth reading. Vinyl only? Really? Someone needs to point Lindsey to a website called Google.

This person seems bitter.

F-ing board eating my replies!



It wasn't completely terrible, but to be honest, I've read better write-ups on here, many a time.

mochalox said:

PREACH! The guy NAILED IT on that one!

I miss the days of De La Soul & Boogie Down Productions. When Digital Underground rocked it along with greats like Whodini or Run DMC. Pete Rock & CL Smooth, ah those were the days...

Oh and "Crank Dat Soulja Boy" is the death of real hip-hop. F*** that wack MC!

NouveauDance said:

agreed, there's been some really good stuff written on here that could easily find home in a "professional" publication, but i thought it was cute fluff that would break the monotony of O2 madness and the youtube crusades for a minute. nothing earth-shattering, just a bit of navel-gazing from the outside world that got submitted recently.

suomynona said:

true-only vinyl exists of the black album-the original-12 apparently.shipped from germany in 87 when it was due for a dec.release

so calm down-google shmoogle

of course black exists on cd re-released etc

and.....that was a fucking cool article

jonylawson said:

Dude, per-lease. There were CRYSTAL CLEAR copies floating around pretty soon, and not from vinyl rips. At least a handful of CDs also slipped through the net.

RenHoek said:

Check out Aesop Rock.

suomynona said:

If you read the article (please read before over-reacting) is clearly states that ORIGINALLY the album was only available as a bootleg on vinyl. there were tons of cassettes that were made (usually bad copies of someone taping it from vinyl).


YEARS LATER, it was released as a cd on Warner.



good god, anytime some of you purple sheep sense any kind of criticism, you go on the attack.

Ah, the good ole days.
I remember these days clearly as some of the best days to be a music/Prince fan. I remember getting my hands on a 5th generation copy on cassette that sounded like crap sonically, but played it to DEATH.

every time you found a better sounding recording you bought it! eventually landing a 2nd generation copy bootleg on vinyl (and paying like $20 i believe).

It was THE benchmark for being a Prince fan.

"I love Prince!"

"you got the Black Album?"

"what's that?"


(thinking to yourself "yeah, right".)


and then there was the whole mystery behind it. which was played up masterfully by Prince during the whole Lovesexy period. "don't buy the Black Album" indeed. it made us want it MORE!

i was so freaking happy when Warner decided to release it officially, but was somewhat disappointed in one thing.

i don't know about you guys, but ALL of the bootlegs i had the sequence was off.

I always had the album sequence as:

Bob George
Superfunkycalifragisexy
2 Nigs United 4 West Compton
Rockhard In A Funky Place
Le Grind
Cindy C.
Dead On It
When 2 R In Love

i mean i listened to it like that for years!!!! it made MUCH more sense that way! starting with Bob George, you weren't even sure it was Prince until heard Prince yelling from the street near the end. and then it was all funk till it slowed down at the end and let you go.

to this day, i prefer to think that when Warner officially released it, they got the sequence wrong, because i'm so used to it.

wow. that took me back to a time when Prince really was the center of my musical universe. good times.

ButterscotchPimp said:

No. It's just that your boot started with side two. My boot started with Le Grind and ended with Rock Hard in a Funky Place. Same as the official release.

dannyd5050 said:

still think it makes more sense my way.

mochalox said:

why do critics persist in perpetuating the myth there's some mystery about why this album was pulled? he made it then took a bunch of ecstasy and decided it was too nasty, and had it pulled. fact. end of story. no mystery.

mochalox said:

an extremely weak attempt to salvage some credibility for one of prince's rare 80s missteps. this is a very poor and fairly stupid song, and its "criticisms" of hip hop have no relation whatsoever to the "money/cash/hos" criticisms usually leveled at the current mainstream hip hop scene that the writer refers to. also i dont think anyone who still spells wack with an h is qualified to make any judgements about hip hop, past or present, whether via prince or not.

jonylawson said:

that is true.. i got mine in 1989 .. there was only a vinyl back then..

"A Prince who sang about fucking his sister. Those were the days. "


Sho 'nuff.

but in all honesty I think the Prince of DM, Controversy, 1999 and "Darling Nikki" was nasty in an "honest" way. Even in 1987, black album had the smell of just trying too hard. But I busted my ass tracking it down back in the day.....haaa the memories....nothing beats the first time you hear "So you found me.....good I'm glad...this is Prince....."


SERVE IT UP FRANKIE!

Ain't that the truth?

BartVanHemelen said:

i am saying that floating around the market is twelve vinyl copies apparently NO CDS OR CASSETES escaped that pressing plant in germany.

suomynona said:

haha....i have this shit on TAPE. a real release.

violett said:

wx147????

i doubt that VERY much

People grow...I grew up with Prince music all of the time, along with
Motown and Rock-n-roll.
I don't go dancing wearing 100 plastic bracelets on each wrist anymore, that
Madonna syndrome passed in due time.
I no longer overuse hair spray.

Prince the musician and the man, grew through these stages.

When Prince is 99 years old he could be totin' his guitar in a wheelchair.
Some people say that people never change...

Listen to Smokey...People change, they always do.

violett said:

not in the 80's u did..

violett said:

thank you!

Flowerz said:

yes she did. someone obviously made a tape for her. and unlike what the original author said, they were of the same sounding studio quality as batman or lovesexy on cassette.

suomynona said:

if someone made a tape for her... how can it be a real release.. as SHE stated? we're talking about how.. when it 1st came out.. there were only vinyls..

i think me needs to school a newbie

the" black album" by name NEVER existed-prince released an album with NO name and a black cover with only a cat no.(in peach)
of WX147-back in december 87

the media coined the phrase"the black album"

if you have that origianl--congrats your a very rich man!!!!

it was officially released by WB in 95

1994

jonylawson said:

what i have is a tape. it has nothing on an all black cover except for the peach colored WX147.

believe what you want. i listened to it in my car yesterday and re-looked at the case itself to make sure that i hadnt mis-spoken on this thread. and i havent.