Prince is more than just music. His genius comes from a place that needs fulfilment like a raging hunger. Like every human being we all strive to find happiness and contentment. But for some of us the search is harder. Not because we may be looking for different things, but because the drive to know, the raging hunger to find out is more consuming.

I think that if someone has this ever-consuming drive to find peace within themselves, then they are genuinely in pain until they find it. However, what makes the genius stand out from the rest of us is that the drive never lets up for a second. The only way they can try to quash that ever consuming hunger is to express their journey to the truth.

However they express it is not relevant. It could be through art, through mathematics, through music, through madness, through anything. But the thing with a real genius is that they cannot stop. They use their talent as the only route available to that place of contentment. All the while, all they are trying to do is to stop that driving hunger that wont let them go.

I truly believe that genius is a burden to those that have it. They just want to be happy, to be able to wake up and not have that surge of overwhelming hunger that keeps driving them. It never lets go, day in and day out. The irony of it is that the more they strive to escape that relentless drive, the more it feeds their genius. It is the genius itself which keeps the genius within alive by virtue of the attempt to escape it.

To the true genius, the only escape from it is in a place where they are no longer driven to do what they do. That’s the place where they only need do it if they chose to. But to have that fulfilment, you need to find peace within yourself. Its not surprising that so many geniuses speak like they are from another planet. They are seeking a place that the majority of us are not so desperate to find. And when they don’t find it where they have been looking, they have to search somewhere else, sometimes taking them to places that are just too way out for us normal folk.

Sometimes they find what they are looking for and sometimes they die without reprieve. When they do find it then maybe this is the point where the genius has been laid to rest. People then jump on the bandwagon and follow the critics – “So and so has lost his touch… blah blah blah”. Yet despite all of us who admire the genius but think they have lost it, the genius themselves are at peace and so glad that the relentless drive has ended. Then they can do with their talent whatever they wish without being dictated to by some inner power that doesn’t forgive. Peace at last.

I think Prince found a lot of inner peace around Lovesexy. By a general consensus of his fans, a lot will say that this was the end of that golden era of true genius. His struggle and search still continued after that period, but it was more about control and contracts and fights against the machinery of the business. The real drive of genius was no longer dictating his art.

You could see after the Lovesexy period that Princes unhappiness seemed to stem more from finding a new direction. The genius was still there and playing a part in that, but not as overwhelming as it was. The 90’s came and went with more wrangles and business decisions than any search for a truth.

The late 90’s saw a resurgence in the search however, although it was not the same drive as before, it was more about taking what he had already found one step further.

Now Prince is content. He is happy. He is still an optic short of a full measure, but he does seem to be at peace. Unfortunately for us fans, I don’t think we will ever see the true genius in him again. Now we see his raw talent and now he is showing off his raw talent, but the drive that made the genius is at rest, and I think our man prefers it that way. Musicology is just what it is, a good album by an extremely talented musician with an appetite for a fantastic live show. It is nothing more and that is where our man lives now.

Who knows though? Maybe the genius within always takes over in the end. Maybe its like falling off the wagon. And all it really takes I guess, is for the person to realise they haven’t found what they were looking for, they are not as happy and content as they thought. Then the monster within them rises again and pushes them onwards, never letting go. It would be sad in one respect to see Prince have to go through it again. But on the other hand, deep down we all want to see a return of that monster that created so much incredible music through Prince.

So, as fans do we wish for him to return to the unhappiness that created sign o the times, lovesexy, 1999, Parade, ATWIAD and Purple Rain? Or do we wish him a happy and content life at the expense of that raw genius?

I think the vault will one day unveil something special for the future. Perhaps, in the mean time, we shouldn’t keep pushing him to out-do himself each and every time he sits down in his studio ready to record something. Otherwise we, his fans, could end up being another driving force that Prince will feel a driven need to try and escape from. Do we want to become Princes demons?

"Tonight I wanna be somebody's somebody....."


Pure genius.

Jon said:

Man, that was funny

Damn, I need what your smokin... deep.....

That was pretty deep, man. I see all your points (damn, that's scary ) and do agree with your take on things. I'm in it for the long haul simply because Prince is a musician that strives to do something completely different each time. His music tends to be a reflecttion of where he or his mind is. That changes for all of us. What we may have been thinking to be important or entertaining at 17 isn't necessarily the case at 40 or whatever. I'm pretty sure he has his days where he just feels completely rebellious about something in his life and records something that reflects that feeling. The problem is, we may never get to hear it or it will be far later, after he is dead maybe, that we will hear it. Then comes the task of recounting the times like now, remembering what was going on in the world and in his career, to try to piece together the whole picture of his musical life. Never fear. We have not heard the last from Prince.

{Incomplete thought edit...}
[Edited 10/13/04 8:56am]

xpsiter said:

Very true.

What brought on this long winded diatribe, I was watching Livesexy 1 & 2 for the first time in years last night and was taken aback as to how much of a show peice it was. It wasnt just the music, it was the imagry and the 'story' of the show that made it what it was. And it seemed to me to be a message from a very mixed up genius.

But it also kind of explained a transition in Prince. The show went from a dark side into the light, the crossover being when he killed off Camille on stage.

I just thought I saw an epic end to a genius' struggle to find himself... And now he was sharing his relief at having the burden lifted from him...

Im not sure the audience of the day completely got that show mind you. It was very over blown, and Im sure I detected a little boredom in the crowd at certain points... Blues in C springs to mind oddly enough!

I think that show was intended to be epic. I also think it was intended to follow on the back of a much more epic album than Lovesexy... What if Lovesexy and the Black album DID get released together? Im sure WB really got on Princes nerves over that period which may have got the ball rolling with his next struggle. The struggle with the business.

But I definately see a transition in Prince's genius since Lovesexy, and I think its because he found a big peice of what he was looking for around that time.
[Edited 10/13/04 9:12am]

I'm still wanting to get a hold of the Livesexy show, Jon. Once I can see that, I'm sure it will put things in perspective regarding the the subsequent absence of Camille. Gotta look for it now...

Dude, I'm feeling that! Just got off a fat one myself, so you were right on time with that one chief!

Love Ya'll