"Love me while you watch the time
And if I falter or lose my rhyme
You will drop me like a useless dime
'Cuz you ain't no friend of mine."

I was listening to "Silver Tongue" this morning, and the self-accusatory spirit jumped up in me after hearing those opening lines, especially after my critical response to "Cause and Effect."

So I listened even more closely to "Silver Tongue" and thought what a beautiful vocal & overall musical performance by Prince. For those unfamiliar, this was released as the "digital b-side" to "Call My Name" from MUSICOLOGY in 2004. The story goes, if I remember correctly, that Prince and Nikka Costa were sharing recording studios (or working next door to each other). She was working on her next album, and he told her if she wrote him a poem, he'd put it to music. The end-product didn't fit the direction her album was going into, I guess, so she never released it. He did instead.

I love it... it's very quiet and somber. Very One Nite Alone-ish, but not overproduced (like some ONA tracks which had those weird special effects). This is pretty much Prince's voice laid bare with piano. I have always liked this stripped down version of him, whether "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore," "Sometimes It Snows in April," "Eye Love U But Eye Don't Trust U Anymore," "One Nite Alone," "Reflection," etc. His vocals are spot on, the musical composition beautiful, and this a great song!

The other element of this of course are the lyrics--which are Nikka's. But they deserve mention for their poetry, and creative/artful way of describing betrayal. The lyrics stand alone as top notch, but Prince's music & vocals really drive them home poignantly. An argument can be made here for Prince to collaborate more, or at least open himself up to input from other artists who have the integrity to push their ideas through to him.
[Edited 3/3/10 9:05am]

i was just listening to this a few hours ago and it's a nice little track.

one of the things i loved so much about npgmc are these type of one off
tunes that we would otherwise never have heard.

I didn't know Nikka wrote the lyrics.

This performance has such a wonderful, "smoky cabaret" feel to it. Can't you just see him...sitting on a small stage...with a single spot and a red rose on top of the piano?

Love it.

I absolutely love that beautiful song!!!!!

I've never heard any of the "digital b-sides."

Yes, I really like this song.

Collaborations man!!!

djdaffy1227 said:

+1.

I love this song and as Nu says, it fits so much with One Nite Alone (piano and voice). I don't listen to it much cos it's one of those dreaded licenced WMA files that I only now have on my old Rio Carbon mp3 player (didn't burn this one and lost the rights when I had to change hard drive etc). Bummer. So wish I could redownload the licence and get it into a different format for my ipod.

IstenSzek said:

yes. isn't it a shame he doesn't have a website where he can release this kind of thing to his fans?