{{{Saturday evening January 25th was the second special presentation of the 2nd part production of the BBC radio program, " Purple Reign: The Prince Story." It ran just about one hour. It was much more informative on a more dedicated fan or friend level as Prince likes to put it than the 1st part ( which aired last week.)
It was once again filled with great insight into Prince's world by having interview snipets by some of Prince's friends such as, " Chaka Kahn", " Dr Fink," " George Clinton," as well as a few news journalists whom expressed their feelings concerning Prince's past, present and future.
It was hosted by," Mica Paris," whom gave a wonderful documented background on what some of the topics of discussion that were occuring. }}}
It also featured a variety of Prince's tunes throughout the past years. There was a lot to go through and of course there is no way that a 2 hour radio documentary can fill Prince's entire musical career, but offered a nice amount of informative material to just get an idea of some of the things that has gone on in the past ten years or so. ( It would take at least a 10 solid hour production to get the full effect! Maybe the BBC will get to it sometime down the road!!)Nevertheless it was a nice show!
The famous most bootlegged album in music history, " The Black Album" was discussed heavily! There was a lot of insight into that record that I know many fans did not know that was discussed. I did not even know the full story and after listening to this we still do not know the full situation, but we get to at least understand what Prince was kind of going through at that time! Price was planning a party and he wanted to have music for it in the addition to what everyone already knew by Prince. So he went inot the studio and recorded this kind of dance record that was to show others that Prince can groove with the times because they were starting to change quite a bit!
There was anger, pain, some sort of suffering, and issues that Prince obviously was trying to get through in the " Black Album." This
was Prince's answer to, " Hip Hop," which was starting to rise! He was dissolusioned by what rappers were trying to do at that time and felt that they were cheating by having limited talent by using beats as the main source of their meat and potatoes! Prince felt that these rappers were attempting to make so called music and not being able to sing or play an instrument, but trying to gain regonition by falsly using beats and aimless so called lyric's! This is were the song, " Dead On It," comes to play!
Another degree of anger that Prince was facing was in the management/ record company department! this is where, " Bob George," was created! An incredibly angry tune that goes on to dis a few executives/reporters! (I will mention no names, but do listen to the program!) I personally always loved that jam! It provided me a many nights conversations with my friends back in the day when we would refer to some fools with no knowledge in our neighborhood! Even when we were angry at our parents, schools, teachers, or whatever the legendary " Black Album," was a classic in my hood!
The show does explain what happened with this record and how it was cancelled literally while it was on the loading docks to be sent out! Prince went to great length's to have it cancelled no matter what the cost! He was head on to stop it's release and he did!
Of course now we understand why Warner Brothers released it for a limited time back in 1994! To me it was a spite act by Warner Brothers to get back at Prince for many things including his Prince is dead situation back at that time! I will say that Prince was a good sport about that album by performing, " Bob George," and " Supercalifragifunkysexy," on his 1988 Lovesexy tour! I feel that performing these tunes on that tour was a representation of the light vs. dark! Of course the album," Lovesexy," was the complete opposite of what the, " Black Album," was, so it made perfect sense when you go back and reflect on that tour we get to see what it was all about! The conflict of God and being human and having spiritual faith in our creator!
The show does give a quick background on the," Truth," Album and
the decision to release the album as a part of the, " Crystal Ball," collection back in 1998 as well. It also gives us a short montage of some of Prince's best tunes in the 1990's by "Mica Paris." There is even a " Dr. Fink," snipet talking about Prince's father and step father on a personal level and giving some insight on their relationship.
The album," Rainbow Children," is briefly featured in that it is a new direction for Prince and his band! Jazz music laced with rock oriented vibes! Whenever I hear this album I can not help in saying to myself everytime," THE WORLD NEEDS TO HEAR THIS!!!" The fans have heard it, but the world needs to! The musicianship is truly amazing as well as the lyric content! It is a perfect album for the times! It is some of Prince's best work as far as I am concerned and I am sure many will agree! You do not need to be a Jahovah Witness to get into this groove, just open minded and listen to Prince's take on Jazz!
The final portion of this radio internet broadcast gives us none other than the Funk Master himself," Mr. George Clinton." Clinton discusses the song, " Can U Paradigm," a track that George Clinton wrote and gave to Prince to put his input to! We get to hear a nice piece of this jam also which was recorded last year!
"LET 2003 BE A FRUITFUL YEAR... SO LET'S RISE UP!"
"FEBRUARY 14TH IS APPROACHING AND SO IS PRINCE!"
"BE PREPARED FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT!!!"

PEACE AND LOVE,
Nicky Tuzio
e-mail: tuztones@peoplepc.com

It really was a great show from the BBC.
To those who missed it - try catching it somewhere on the web,i'm sure it will be there soon.