So it’s not like I think Prince will read this but if you’re out there somewhere I just wanted to say, thanks, man. I appreciate the new CD and it’s on heavy rotation in my car during my commute to work and back. Is it the best Prince CD ever? No of course not. But radio is so godawful these days that I would rather hear Prince sing national anthems of South American countries than tune in to my local FM station.

It happens to everybody I guess. The day when we outgrow the appeal of pop music. The day we become our parents and start saying things like “Turn that crap down…it’s terrible.” But unlike the case with my father, who was complaining about my music when I was a teen, I’m actually right. Music does actually suck these days.

There are no bands that have come out in the last five years that I would pay to go see in concert. There are less and less songs that I want to hear over and over, much less even a second time. There are too many bands that come up with a “clever” catch phrase for partying or sex, the song gets played eight billion times, and the band disappears, money bag in hand as they leave town. Music is absolute positive shite right now. MTV is completely worthless. Pop music may really actually finally be dead right now, as has been said every five or 10 years since the form came into existence. RIP.

Which gets me back to Prince. I like the CD but I don’t love it. As I expected. I have listened to the man for so long that, like many of you, I have become a backseat Prince driver. I’ll be listening to one of the new songs and I’ll go, “P, why did you do that man. You should have turned right and you went left. Yo, the guitar should have gone here and you went there. What is wrong, dude?”

But then I catch myself. And I remember that Prince forgot more about music during his breakfast of Captain Crunch and soy milk that morning than I have ever known. And that ultimately even bad Prince is better than the “best” that Fergie or T-Pain or Hurricaine Chris have to offer. And that, when I listen to new Prince CDs, I should never compare them to other CDs he did 5 or 10 or 20 years ago. I should compare them to what’s on the radio now. Would I rather listen to Prince using background claps in “The 1 U Wanna C” as well as ever has or hear someone say “a bay bay” 400 hundred times in place of where actual lyrics should be? Pretty easy choice.

And I thank Prince because damn if he doesn’t put something out every year or every other year, tops. And who else does that? What other artist does that, goes to the recording studio, gets the band together, puts down tracks, finds the record company to distribute it, goes through the marketing rigamarole EVERY YEAR. Of course, people are going to be disappointed but most of us know that if his “at bat” isn’t to our liking this go-around, he’ll be swinging at the plate again in a year or two with something new.

And I’m not naïve that it is a completely unselfish act. Prince likes to record. He likes to make music. He does what he does, no doubt, because he likes to create and it obviously fulfills him to go through the whole process over and over again. And, of course, I understand that money can be made from this. But he does it for us too because he knows we like what he does and it gives us something new to listen to and talk about. For a year or so. And then he’s back with another one.

I go back and forth how I feel about sales figures, sometimes thinking they have become meaningless and sometimes wishing that Prince could just hit one out of the park and produce something that all these people who love him so much when he sings on SNL or at the Super Bowl would buy too. But I have to believe that Prince is a realistic guy who know that his army is about 500K strong now. And it is for us, the 500K, that he goes into the studio. He records for the ones in that 500K that love EVERYTHING he does, and for the ones who say everything pales in comparison to his past glories but dang if they don’t keep on buying new stuff. And for the rest of us in the 500,000 who are happily in the middle, liking some, second guessing others, but pretty happy to have a new product to evaluate, dissect and most importantly listen to.

And for that, Prince, I say thank you. And keep them coming. I’ll keep buying.

Thanks but next time put some more funk on the damn thing.

Thank you Boo-Boo

Hey, nice read!
I think you´re mentioning some interesting points there. Imagine if Prince still had more competition out there. His music would probably benefit from it. It is still great compared to all the garbage out there but I guess you catch my drift...his own music has always been a bit of a reflection of what was or is going on in the music world. Sure, there are still people like Erykah Badu and D´Angelo or Maxwell or guys like the Foo Fighters that I enjoy a lot but in general, we all agree that contemporary music sucks...and it sure doesn´t seem to inspire Prince the way it used to back in the day. He´s good, he´s great...but he´s better when there is fierce competition going on.
He was right about his only competition being him in the past or something like that ( off the Truth album , I´m paraphrasing a bit ).

Thanx Prince! I'm honored and privileged 2 listen