I was in the peak of my Prince fandom at this time. Every Saturday morning I'd go to a newstand in West Hollywood called "Book Soup" and check the Billboard charts. And, well, one time Prince was standing next to me and I missed my chance to say anything to him. He just pointed at a magazine and a bodyguard got it for him and he was back in the limo with Carmen Electra. I was standing there checking his chart position that week like I did every week and he winds up standing next to me one time.

Anyway, I was in love with "The Morning Papers" at the time. I was shocked it stalled outside the Top 40. What went wrong?

Nothing went wrong. The song doesn't change with chart position. As for chart position WB played that song on top 40 radio and on MTV, the public (casual fan) might have been tired or needed a break from Prince's imagery.

D&P (Cream and D&P) was sort of his "comeback" a few years before but by this point Prince was well past his mainstream popularity. He had a minor hit with 7 (which was a suprise to me). Sexy MF was a novelty song, "My name is Prince" was a bomb and by Morning Papers no one wanted to hear his more 80s sounding soul-rock anymore. Music had moved on (or just got tired of) from his mesh of rock and funk.

Here's a peek at the top songs in April 1993

https://www.billboard.com...1993-04-09

Grunge and alterna-pop was just getting started and Hip-hop was well underway of its domination of the charts. Prince responded with lame attempts a rapping but it just rang corny. (Tony M, game boyz, gun mic....ugh).

He would ditch it all soon enough with the name change and his sex alien androgyn thing during Come, TMBGITW and TGE

[Edited 8/1/21 17:11pm]

I agree with what Emesem wrote above. I like the song and its melody but find some of the lyrics a tad too creepy.

Grunge and gangsta rap were on the rise, and whereas Prince used to incorporate current musical styles in the past and make them part of his own sound, his answer to gangsta rap and grunge were Tony M. , a gun mike, and a cut off flanell shirt.

It is a decent song but the times were changing.

It's a mediocre,uneventful song.There was no way that this song would be a Top 10 hit.The Love Symbol album was filled with strong,potential singles but this track wasn't one of 'em.

SoulAlive said:

It's a mediocre,uneventful song.There was no way that this song would be a Top 10 hit.The Love Symbol album was filled with strong,potential singles but this track wasn't one of 'em.

Your opinion is wrong.

homesquid said:

SoulAlive said:

It's a mediocre,uneventful song.There was no way that this song would be a Top 10 hit.The Love Symbol album was filled with strong,potential singles but this track wasn't one of 'em.

Your opinion is wrong.

I think that,if they wanted to release a slower song,they should have chosen the superior "And God Created Woman".That song is fantastic!

emesem said:

Not one of his best rockers - too fussy, and the lyrics are weird.

One of my favorite Prince songs from the 90's

If he wanted to compete with the rock music of the time, he would've put 3 Chains O Gold out as a single or something. The Morning Papers is a great song, but it's not going to compete with the epic rock hits of the day. When did that Meatloaf song come out that was huge at the time? Plus alternative (which he was obviously cribbing a bit with the flannel). Wrong song, wrong time. It's one of those singles where you just know Prince thought it would be a hit just because it vaguely reflected an aspect of popularity on the charts and it was his song in his style.

MendesCity said:

Not one of his best rockers - too fussy, and the lyrics are weird.

I really like the track.

What's weird about the lyrics? If you mean the subject matter, then yeah.

If you mean the interpretation, then they seem pretty straightforward. Prince is singing about wanting to bang a young virgin. But Prince has sung plenty of times about wanting to bang young girls/virgins, so no weirder than any of those other songs. Here it seems he's at least aware that it's frowned upon and will be written about in the news papers.

Not sure how well this song would be received in today's climate.

[Edited 8/2/21 5:45am]

I agree with KoolEaze. Grunge and Gangsta was big by that time...P's music was already considered (by the younger fans of those two styles of music) either "out of touch" or "my older sibling's music"...The song is OK, but to me it sounded like he trying to use the "Purple Rain" songwriting formula again...Slow opening, big sing along chorus, typical and expected electric guitar solo, suspended ending, end song......Hate to say it, but it probably would have been a bigger radio hit if Whitney or Mariah had covered it.

SPYZFAN1 said:

I agree with KoolEaze. Grunge and Gangsta was big by that time...P's music was already considered (by the younger fans of those two styles of music) either "out of touch" or "my older sibling's music"...The song is OK, but to me it sounded like he trying to use the "Purple Rain" songwriting formula again...Slow opening, big sing along chorus, typical and expected electric guitar solo, suspended ending, end song......Hate to say it, but it probably would have been a bigger radio hit if Whitney or Mariah had covered it.

I think that his attempts of emulating and incorporating contemporary sounds worked well for him during the 80s , especially in the early to mid 80s and competing with very talented peers probably inspired him a lot in those days (plus the opening for the Rolling Stones debacle probably motivated him immensely, too) but around 92-93 he was more arrogant, less down to earth, and his lyrics not as universal and relatable as in the early days. That whole Egyptian princess and young virgin theme was not exactly something that the younger generation could relate to.

.

I wonder if he would have had more success with the younger generation at the time if he had had bit of a rougher edge, like he had during the mid 80s warehouse rehearsals or during shows like the August 3 , 1983 show at First Ave.

.

And as far as Gangsta rap is concerned, the irony is that many of the Gangsta rap artists secretly or even openly liked and admired the 1999 and Purple Rain Prince, Dr. Dre and his World Class Wreckin Cru dressed like Prince before they became NWA, and many respected him for who and what he was but things got a bit weird ,at least for me, when Tony M. joined him or when his cadence sounded a bit like Snoop Dogg´s on 18&Over......don´t get me wrong, I kind of like that song but to me it sounded a bit as if it was inspired a bit by the success of Snoop´s Doggystyle album which was a huge success in 1993.

And the Grunge crowd probably would have liked his music more if it had been more relatable for them. Talentwise Prince was in a whole different universe compared to some of those garage bands of the early 90s but his sound, especially in 92, was almost too perfect, too sterile, and his look, too, whereas that whole Grunge thing was very raw and unpolished. Many of my friends back then were quite surprised when they heard some raw sounding rehearsals with relatable lyrics or when they heard the Undertaker session and couldn´t believe that that music was made by the same guy who released songs like My Name is Prince or Morning Papers.

But in hindsight Prince´s career moves at that time are a long list of "should have, could have, would have". It´s still interesting to discuss and speculate though.

TheEnglishGent said:

MendesCity said:

Not one of his best rockers - too fussy, and the lyrics are weird.

I really like the track.

What's weird about the lyrics? If you mean the subject matter, then yeah.

If you mean the interpretation, then they seem pretty straightforward. Prince is singing about wanting to bang a young virgin. But Prince has sung plenty of times about wanting to bang young girls/virgins, so no weirder than any of those other songs. Here it seems he's at least aware that it's frowned upon and will be written about in the news papers.

Not sure how well this song would be received in today's climate.

[Edited 8/2/21 5:45am]

I actually still like the song quite a lot and liked it back then, too, but I´ve always found the lyrics a bit creepy. Sure, singing about virgin young girls was nothing new for him but he was 34 when the song came out and Mayte was still an underage teenager. I agree with you that he had done it before but the difference is that he wasn´t in his mid 30s then.

At least he recognizes that it might lead to speculations and gossip in the newspapers, and it is not as creepy as that line in I Wanna Melt With U, so there´s that.

Obviously not a hit for the masses but still a beautiful song though, despite the questionable lyrics.

Didn't like the song, and was not surprised it didn't hit. The outfit and content for the video was not great either.

SoulAlive said:

homesquid said:

Your opinion is wrong.

I think that,if they wanted to release a slower song,they should have chosen the superior "And God Created Woman".That song is fantastic!

"Blue Light" always struck me as single material as well. Perhaps "The Morning Papers" would have been a bigger hit in the 80s

I think the single release was too boring for fans to even pick up. The b-side was from Diamonds and Pearls, no remixes or edits... it held no value for fans, so i'm sure that impacted sales.

Simply put: Overexposure.

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I think we underestimate how much Prince the mass audience was exposed to Prince during this time. in the summer/fall of 1991 Diamonds and Pearls received one of the biggest commercial pushes/promotions in Prince's entire career (second maybe only to Purple Rain). He was everywhere. This continued (without pause) directly into the era.

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By the time The Morning Papers was released as a single in April of 1993, it had been nearly 2 solid years of nonstop promotion for two albums. This, essentially, is one of the things that lead to the schism between Prince and WB.

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WB, like most record labels, wanted their big stars to follow typical record/release/promotion/tour schedules and cycles. Prince didn't work that way. He wanted a constant and immediate output/promotion regardless of charts, sales trends, audience response, etc.

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All of that said: Is it an indictment of the quality of the song? Absolutley not. I've long maintained that airplay/chart success rarely has to do with the quality of a song and more with successful promotion. Some of Prince best songs, like Mountains, had very limited chart success/airplay due to ill timing, mishandled promotion, etc.

[Edited 8/2/21 12:28pm]

People, come on, in the pop landscape when that single was released... it was not an exciting, meaningful, inventive, or catchy pop song.

"7" was. And that hit.

billymeade said:

ufoclub said:

Pop Hits are an unpredictable mix of hot/trendy sounds, timing, payola, marketing. For Post-1984 Prince, it was impossible for me to predict which songs wud b HITS. When I first heard Kiss, I thought there was no way this skeletal sounding song wud b the absolute SMASH it became...shows wat I know 😂