MY TENDER HEART

It’s a time-proven trope for countless songwriters in need of a quick analogy for the cooling of a relationship. Or the cruel inevitability of the aging process. That odd, unique 23.5 degree tilt on this space rock’s axis of rotation that allows for four distinctive annual climatical changes as we endlessly spin around a nuclear furnace in the middle of infinity, evolving into new shapes and forms of consciousness over billions of years. Yes, I’m talking about the seasons.

Now, as homosapiens who somehow reached the cerebral heights to indulge our limited spectrum of hearing through the medium of recorded sound, we are all familiar with how often songwriters lean on the seasons for metaphorical inspiration.

From Kurt Weill’s September Song, Nat King Cole’s Autumn Leaves to Sinatra’s Summer Wind, the seasons and their effect on nature (as we can perceive it from our brief flashes of consciousness in this flawed flesh) have provided lyrical manna for musicians since the dawn of human consciousness.

And, it’s safe to say, Prince certainly brings nothing new to the table lyrically with the rather cliched and ham-fisted first verse of My Tender Heart.

I watch as the leaves turn from green to brown
And I know
One by one they fall right to the ground
And I try not to wonder if I'll ever see you around
'Cause just like the winter you came in with a roar
And left without a sound.

Of course, Prince knew this was cliche. It is the point. Heartbreak is something we all inevitably endure as humans - 'The lonely cold, mama’ - relatable to the point of ridiculous cliche with each and everyone of us. Whether you’re an intellectual or fucking moron, heartbreak will always hit with the same agonising intensity. Along with death, love is the great equaliser.

Yet, while most artists are satisfied with adopting cliche as a career - often amassing great fortunes and glazed-eyed followings by adopting it as a brand - Prince is, of course, different. It’s why we’re here. No-one wants P to walk in a straight line, we want to see what strange alien paths his ‘crooked shoes’ will lead him down.

He was, at heart, a subversive artist, always hungry to put his unique spin on the familiar, to give listeners just enough of what their ears would find safe and comforting - but then implanting little twists of avant subversion, sonic in-jokes of a genius - as he put his own stamp on whatever sonic exercise, aural painting or fuck groove he was gifting us. As we supporters of his art mocked up ‘Maybe it’s Maybellene’ pictures of him on the org in return.

In My Tender Heart, P applies the cliche of seasons changing, evoking that sting in the air, the brown leaves falling, rot setting in … to what is, to all intents and purposes, a suicide song. Like Another Lonely Christmas, where he alchemised the time-honoured western tradition Christmas song and the rather more European death song, here he is a little more blatant in intent, literally telling he listener he doesn’t ‘want to live’. Not dressed up in metaphor or flowery wordplay - just he ‘does not want to live’. There is lonely. Nothing can touch him, move him. His ‘tender heart’ has been utterly crushed by a woman who - as far as I can gather - simply dared to utter another man’s name in her sleep.

Being the sensitive (and, I imagine, paranoid) sort, P reacts with high drama - not even asking her if it was perhaps her dog’s name, her father’s, brother’s … no, the assumption to the ‘tender hearted’ P (he’s fully aware of how sensitive he is in these matters, this is not his first rodeo) is that it is a rival for her love, a competitor whose attraction is so strong that his lover dreams about him as he lies next to her.

And I lie in the dark, while you lied in your sleep

Oh how you told me you would love no other

Then you called his name in your dreams

Then, the (hurt, accusatory, pleading, self-pitying, desperate, suicidal) deceptively simple chorus …

My tender heart

My tender love is all I have to give

What makes you think I could live without you

When I don't want to live

So what sonic brushstrokes does P apply to communicate his inconsolable heartbreak on this occasion? Well, the morbid emotional state he has reached here is subversively countered by with one of the most opulent, sweet, rich and full orchestral productions of his career - it’s a ballad, yes, but not Disneyfied camp melodrama doomed by cold studio insularity like Arms of Orion.

Rather, this magisterial creation is worthy of a Broadway score, Les Miserables with even more heightened drama and doomed passion, Celine Dion without the cold pomp of her octave scaling Russian doll emptiness. Every layer of the shell the fucking same, all the way down. Songs that strive for sky scraping pinnacles of human emotion and fall flat on their bony arse because they inevitably collapse in on their own weight, like tired supernovas. I’m not really a Celine Dion fan.

My Tender Heart however, is magical. A unicorn with black acidic blood. A fluffy cloud hiding a heart of thunder and it's crackling electric nucleus, aching to erupt from its deceptive heavenly aesthetic. And erupt it does. Eventuallly.

Driven and anchored by a spiralling, lush, orchestral string hook that aims for the heavens yet soars past God into an intangical, dimensional fold upper room utterly unknowable to earthbound flesh or soul. It's a sonic cathedral spinning in space, a crystalline shimmering production, worthy of play on the speakers of Superman’s arctic enclave - cold, sparkling, pure.

Yet, there’s an earth wire of bluesy guitar, an earworm hook that holds the song gently and firmly to the Earth, in defiance of the angels intent on carrying it to the ether. A sublime vocal melody simultaneously sounds familiar and new … it’s utterly gorgeous, P’s voice stretching out luxuriantly over each shade of darkness and light his larynx is able to bleed out onto this plane of existence to proclaim ‘I exist. I hurt. I ache. I have taken too much pain. I wish to die’.

Superficially saccharine, My Tender Heart surprises as the chords sequence sinks in the self-realisation/lyrical resolution bridge where P sings, as tragically drowned in agony as Ophelia:

I hope he really loves you

I hope he really cares

P’s voice reaches ‘Adore’ states of rapture in his awe for all the countless possibilities and pains of love, an infinite spectrum of bliss and banality. Everything, and I think I do hear the kitchen sink being played too, builds up to a celestial crescendo where P sings as beatifically and magisterially as I’ve ever heard him in full gospel/done-me-wrong mode.

He musters up an astonishing gospel scream pulled from the core of his being which concludes the song as the instrumentation slowly collapes, exhausted, done … as P parts with a gospel-influenced, four-part harmony multi-tracked ‘heeeeearaaaaaaaaarrrt’ in the slipstream. It’s an ambitious, breathtaking composition - and deeply subversive in its own way.

My Tender Heart is certainly not one of those facsimile P ballads that he could probably still write from his urn. It’s drawn from a well of real, raw emotion - grandiose to the point of being overwhelming, yet sung in an achingly rich and mournful manner that Rosie Gaines doesn’t quite reach in her perfectly adequate rendition. But that is emulation, whereas this is the truly real deal.

Rosie’s voice, which I admire and dig, is a technical powerhouse - she sings it perfectly, but without the 100 percent conviction of P. In my opinion, of course. Somehow, the perfection of her voice marries and chimes too rigidly with the huge production and leaves it without dichotomy - it’s a beautiful but hollow experience.

For instance, around the three-minute mark, P (in his richest, deepest talk/sing baritone) asks the listener what a 'real man' is, how a 'real man' should act in this situation - then, in subversive response to himself, he hits, holds and sustains one of the highest, purest and sweetest notes of falsetto throughout what remains of the middle eight. It's deliberately provocative and simulteneously funny and tragic, how caged the male psyche must remain to maintain illusion of 'strength'. Prince defies convention and gives in to his femininity, hands himself entirely over to it. Truly, compared to Rosie's version, the vibrations emanating from Prince's voice create mini pocket universes in the air as the internal psychodrama of a musical genius plays out.

It’s a shining, triumpant highlight of this deluxe set - and an unexpected one, as Rosie’s version previously didn’t make much of an impression on me. Maybe I wasn’t listening hard enough. Maybe I couldn't 'hear'. Maybe, sometimes, it’s the singer and not the song. Or perhaps it's simply because it's autumn.

[Edited 9/17/23 16:34pm]

A lot of the songs he "gave away" perhaps were because they were too vulnerable to comfortably put out as Prince.

This song is one of my all-time favorites that I'm glad you highlighted, and emphasized how maybe it's easy to dismiss in whatever pile you might perhaps put "The Arms of Orion" in, but it's actually baring a deeply emotional part of Prince that he really didn't let come out like that. I don't believe he'd let borderline suicidal ideation be released with a Prince logo over it at this stage in his career.

Granted, it's probably not so much about suicide so much as that broken feeling of being lost without someone, like not wanting to "live" in the functional real world sense. Like you've lost everything. It's an intense emotion that I feel is delivered in a very sorrowful, deeper, more resolute ballad of a song.

Also the Clare Fischer is very lulling in this, yet epic, grandiose, but genuinely so, not at all over-the-top too much sauce. Like you bring up like a musical. It's cinematic, it's regal, yet there's real emotion in it much like the lyrics.., which also, I'm normally not even a "lyric person", but, man, he brought his A-game with this one.

JoeyCococo said:

It really is a treat to go back now to rediscover these many many treasures.

THIS

Landonfunkmonkey said:

Really looking forward to hearing this with a Prince vocal. I already like the Song with Roises vocal but I think Prince's vocals will elevate it even higher. I much prefer Roise's version of Pain to the Chaka Khan version. I'm hoping Prince's version is closer to Roise's.

I loved Chaka Khan's Pain....LOVED. I loved Rosie Gaine's version too....actually, it's so diff it's hard for me to say which one I like.....both are Super. The song is AMAZING. I think I have Prince's...but always thought the tape was running slow...or something.

I am really repeating myself but, how does one write songs of this quality (Pain, My Tender Heart) and just give them away. I'd say the same for Get Blue and Open Book....the set is shaping up to be something amazing. It's reminding me how high his quality was all the way through.

PAIN

Painful question to ask for such an interesting tune, but is Pain even a Prince song? Its murky origins are certainly apt for such a swampy, dense, unhurried, slightly mysterious and deliberately monotonous dank stanky groove.

The story goes: LA-based songwriter and filmmaker D. Chanson Berry wrote a tune called Joy and Pain in the late 80s which was originally intended for Rosie Gaines before she joined the NPG. Something about it must have stuck with Rosie, as she later played the song to P upon joining the NPG and, like a few times in his career (Morris with Party Up, Andre with Do Me Baby, Sandra St Victor with Soul Sanctuary etc) - P’s response was, simply, ‘mine’.

Apparently he reworked the lyrics but what the original music sounded like is unknown - to these ears anyway. As far as I’m aware it isn’t circulating. It doesn’t really matter - it’s safe to assume P improved Mr Berry’s original as it’s his version Rosie and later, Chaka Khan recorded. And there's no denying the song stinks of Prince. It’s undoubtedly superior in this raw yet fully-formed recording to Rosie’s Atlanta Bliss-enhanced rendition - and also Chaka’s high-gloss, silky smooth ’94 remake with Me’Shell Ndegéocello on bass.

As both those ‘covers’ were never (officially) released - the two albums containing it were cancelled - Pain has always seemed like a cursed song in the Prince oeuvre. It finally saw the light of day on the obscure compilation album Living Single (Music From And Inspired By The Hit TV Show) in 1996, an ignoble fate as it's song deserving of a much wider audience. Yet, assuming L. Londell McMillan does not take too much MDMA and order an immediate recall of this D&P deluxe set, it is just about to get that.

According to Princevault, recording took place in June 1990 in London during the same sessions that birthed the early recordings and backing tracks of Daddy Pop, Schoolyard and Walk Don’t Walk. This intense burst of studio creativity was apparently focused on songs intended for Rosie Gaines’ first solo album (planned way before D&P was released). Other D&P deluxe box set outtakes Hold Me, My Tender Heart and Streetwalker were recorded during this UK residence during the Nude tour - as well as two more songs, unheard among most collectors: In The Name Of Love and Turn Your Lights Down Low. Perhaps we'll hear them on the 40th anniversary D&P Deluxe Box Set ...

In the here and now however, bootleg aficionados can look forward to an extended version of the rather poor quality recording most of us are familiar with - an extra three minutes to be exact. Those who haven’t heard that heavily abbreviated edit of Pain can expect a claustrophobic rumination on a relationship that’s going nowhere, its embers smoking but never bursting into flame … two people caught in the bleak midwinter between pleasure and pain … no joy in repetition within this monotonous cycle of gloom, addicted to each others’ misery, both unable to break free of bleak stasis as, well, something is always better than nothing.

Lovin' you only brings me pain

Baby, when I'm with you

And through all others you remain

When I don't know what more that I can do

Our love has never been a bed of roses

Our personalities always clash

Through all the tears, and touch, and temperamental poses

Your kisses say nothing lasts... but I don't know

Pain opens with six seconds of warm yet ominous, and deliberately aimless, bluesy electroacoustic minor guitar arpeggios - an instrument that doesn’t appear again in the song. The last of the warmth dying, I imagine. It’s improvised as opposed to composed, simply setting the scene, P painting with some melancholy blue notes … before a synth emulates the guitar tone and overpowers it …. a cold chill has arrived. Gentle cymbals shimmer, lost somewhere in the fog of the swampy mix.

Then, a truly odd sampled effect interrupts - imposes, almost. It’s a recurring motif used repetitively throughout the song’s verses, like a full stop at the end of each line. It sounds cheap, a synthetic squelch, like the sound dubbed onto Road Runner as he zooms off … but sloooowed down. It could also evoke an old manual typewriter cartridge getting pushed back to start a new line of text. Or, as it does sound slightly flaccid, it may be imitating an engine failing to start up, something that won’t ignite. Whatever P is trying to evoke, it’s certainly not passion.

The gloomy, haunted synth line meanders, cymbals pick up a little rhythm, in search of a groove, the previous ‘full stop’ sound effect becomes more recurrent and then … the funk kicks in properly. Four big, bold, cold, simple lone piano notes form the main basic melody structure, ascending and descending repetitively, stuck on sticky ground, halted by that ‘fullstop’ each time you think the groove is going to pick up - but it's going nowhere. The sound is a block on progress, on joy.

The bass line mirrors that endless loop, creating a soundscape of unrelenting rhytimic monotony. A creeping bass melody, three notes up, four down as its resolution is deeply funky, paired with the four notes of gently climbing piano, juxtaposed with the odd Minneapolis Sound-style single plucked bass note to add colour and sparks of life throughout. It's uniquely Prince, odd, unsettling, freakily funky. Those piano notes sound like stairs, climbing, then any musical resolution denied by the ‘fullstop’ sound effect. He’s getting nowhere fast in this relationship.

Truly: the dull, distant quality of the edited bootleg version (at least the one I have) doesn’t capture the heavy, draggy, push/pull of the groove at all … or the anguish of the verse vocal which is countered by the production wizard oddness of the Rosie vocal on the chorus, which is laden with effects/reverb to evoke distance … her heat beyond reach, her passion growing further away.

The same groove repeats endlessly and relentlessly throughout the song - there is no change for the chorus, it simply layers itself over the repetitive, heavy vibe. By the time P gets to the third verse - and you’ll have heard this on Rosie and Chaka’s versions - he dispenses with words completely and hits the piano for a wild jazzy solo and scats his ‘pain’ - what he’s feeling at this point being beyond mere words. It's wild, untethered, brave and joyous. Then, the bass gets increasingly louder in the mix, the ‘fullstop’ sound effect becoming swallowed by it to the point it almost disappears … and everything then breaks down for P to muse:

When the smoke is gone and clears

You and me will still be here

That deep groove steams up the room again, accompanied this time with a wild, one-hand-waving-free wild mercury synth solo, suggestive of someone plunging a knife into P's head to release the mental anguish, a whistling dervish steam sound piping out from his cracked skull …. the keyboard's metallic iciness inducing mild euphoria, like 30mg codeine.

Yet, the foundation of this heavy groove still manages to keeps its cool, never erupting into flame like it threatens, just glowing mellow coals all the way to the end … the song's necessary ‘release’ coming from one final blissful chorus where P finally joins Rosie for a stunning see-saw, topsy turvy, curly wurly harmony - which of course plays out over the same unrelenting chords and dark, precise groove as the verses.

It feels, finally, like resolution, that in their misery this couple have discovered they are actually in tune with each other, and that, perhaps, there is hope for this relationship if they can only keep up this honesty of feeling. They have now recognised the same pain in each other - and alchemised it as acceptance through the boldness of admitting their predicament and confessing their dark truths to each other. They have a strange relationship, but it’s love ... because it endures. And the groove remains the same.

And perhaps it’s apt to note that despite their own strange relationship, their brief supernova energy together quickly imploding and cooling off into nonchalance and even minor resentment, the day after Prince died in 2016, Rosie Gaines streamed her own version on Facebook for the world to finally hear. And now, we have this treasure too. Once again, that line P sings throughout Pain:

When the smoke is gone and clears
You and me will still be here

[Edited 9/20/23 2:43am]

Oh yes...oh yes!!! I have ALWAYS loved the song. Chaka Khan and Rosie's versions. If you're telling me Prince's is better, i'm over the moon....super review. I think i can gather the trumpet in Rosie's version is not in Prince's....that's too bad b/c I loved it...

I really hope we hear something from Rosie Gaines on this release.

Number23...

I presume, you're going in order so the next 3 are - Streetwalker, Lauriann and Darkside. I think all or two of these may be those 'guitar freakouts' you mentioned in a post earlier....very excited.

JoeyCococo said:

Sorry to be that guy, but do we know this is legit? All 3 of these songs are pretty widely available in some form or another

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Love to read your takes on these songs But i confess, i imagine the actual songs would not entirely measure up to the expectations the writing suggests they will meet

I'm capable of objective criticism too. The Last Dance contains one of the most cringeworthy moments of P's career - and there's certainly been a few. It's an 'at the club' scenario song, perhaps, if I'm being kind, attempting to harken back to Christopher Tracy/Tricky prowling the French Rivera ballrooms. It's essentially a back and forth rap narrarive between P and Tony M. A DJ opens the song stating that it is 'The Last Dance' and that it's clubbers' 'last chance'. P and Tony start scouting the talent before closing time ... Tony clocks a 'slimmy stella' and P, in his sleaziest, trying-so-hard-to-sound-sexy voice replies 'Slimmie slimmie gimmie gimmie'. The rest of the tune is essentially P and Tony going back and forth about certain ladies' attributes over the music of Jughead. It sounds exactly like you think it will.

MendesCity said:

Sorry to be that guy, but do we know this is legit? All 3 of these songs are pretty widely available in some form or another

Number23 also did similar reviews for the vault tracks on SOTT SDE well before it was released,
so it's completely legit. Just enjoy the ride until october 27th

TheNumber23 said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Love to read your takes on these songs But i confess, i imagine the actual songs would not entirely measure up to the expectations the writing suggests they will meet

I'm capable of objective criticism too. The Last Dance contains one of the most cringeworthy moments of P's career - and there's certainly been a few. It's an 'at the club' scenario song, perhaps, if I'm being kind, attempting to harken back to Christopher Tracy/Tricky prowling the French Rivera ballrooms. It's essentially a back and forth rap narrarive between P and Tony M. A DJ opens the song stating that it is 'The Last Dance' and that it's clubbers' 'last chance'. P and Tony start scouting the talent before closing time ... Tony clocks a 'slimmy stella' and P, in his sleaziest, trying-so-hard-to-sound-sexy voice replies 'Slimmie slimmie gimmie gimmie'. The rest of the tune is essentially P and Tony going back and forth about certain ladies' attributes over the music of Jughead. It sounds exactly like you think it will.

oh god, so it's not a better song built onto the bones of jughead. it's an even worse 'thing'

MendesCity said:

Sorry to be that guy, but do we know this is legit? All 3 of these songs are pretty widely available in some form or another

Yeah, I wrote all that shit for no reason other than to fuck with people. I've got lots of time to waste annoying strangers on the internet.

LILpoundCAKE said:

TheNumber23 said:

I'm capable of objective criticism too. The Last Dance contains one of the most cringeworthy moments of P's career - and there's certainly been a few. It's an 'at the club' scenario song, perhaps, if I'm being kind, attempting to harken back to Christopher Tracy/Tricky prowling the French Rivera ballrooms. It's essentially a back and forth rap narrarive between P and Tony M. A DJ opens the song stating that it is 'The Last Dance' and that it's clubbers' 'last chance'. P and Tony start scouting the talent before closing time ... Tony clocks a 'slimmy stella' and P, in his sleaziest, trying-so-hard-to-sound-sexy voice replies 'Slimmie slimmie gimmie gimmie'. The rest of the tune is essentially P and Tony going back and forth about certain ladies' attributes over the music of Jughead. It sounds exactly like you think it will.

oh god, so it's not a better song built onto the bones of jughead. it's an even worse 'thing'

I reckon P would raise an eyebrow at this one getting emancipated from the vault. It's a failed experiment (albeit an interesting one as it shows us where his head was at regarding hip hop in 1990 ie. trying to incorporate elements of it into the pimp schtick). There's a few scripted raps in it with decent wordplay, but some quips are clearly on the hoof ... and the freestyling gods weren't smiling down upon P at this point. It's not entirely without its charms but it's pretty obvious why P went back to the drawing board with it. You can absolutely hear Tony's embarrassment as he tries to play it real chill lol. This is up there with The P in the way it informs some enzyme to signal to the intestines to suck up your testicles.

[Edited 9/20/23 16:05pm]

TheNumber23 said:

very excited already about the reviews of tracks that I haven't heard yet. Streetwalker being the first one, today.

TheNumber23 said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Love to read your takes on these songs But i confess, i imagine the actual songs would not entirely measure up to the expectations the writing suggests they will meet

I'm capable of objective criticism too. The Last Dance contains one of the most cringeworthy moments of P's career - and there's certainly been a few. It's an 'at the club' scenario song, perhaps, if I'm being kind, attempting to harken back to Christopher Tracy/Tricky prowling the French Rivera ballrooms. It's essentially a back and forth rap narrarive between P and Tony M. A DJ opens the song stating that it is 'The Last Dance' and that it's clubbers' 'last chance'. P and Tony start scouting the talent before closing time ... Tony clocks a 'slimmy stella' and P, in his sleaziest, trying-so-hard-to-sound-sexy voice replies 'Slimmie slimmie gimmie gimmie'. The rest of the tune is essentially P and Tony going back and forth about certain ladies' attributes over the music of Jughead. It sounds exactly like you think it will.

Cannot fucking wait...

OK, I finally found his version of Pain...man, I need to clean up my HDDs...4TB of Prince???????!?!??!?!?.

I went back first to listen to what Number23 described as a 'synthetic squelch' like a slowed down Road Runner zooming off. OK, i do hear it but due to the LoFi bootleg, it's not as prominent as he must be hearing it. I also think, he's describing a longer song than the 3:24 version I have. I also now do hear that ominous synthline and a lot of the keys.

TheNumber23 said:

LILpoundCAKE said:

oh god, so it's not a better song built onto the bones of jughead. it's an even worse 'thing'

I reckon P would raise an eyebrow at this one getting emancipated from the vault. It's a failed experiment (albeit an interesting one as it shows us where his head was at regarding hip hop in 1990 ie. trying to incorporate elements of it into the pimp schtick). There's a few scripted raps in it with decent wordplay, but some quips are clearly on the hoof ... and the freestyling gods weren't smiling down upon P at this point. It's not entirely without its charms but it's pretty obvious why P went back to the drawing board with it. You can absolutely hear Tony's embarrassment as he tries to play it real chill lol. This is up there with The P in the way it informs some enzyme to signal to the intestines to suck up your testicles.

[Edited 9/20/23 16:05pm]

you have a gift with words number23, indeed

I was just listening to my old bootleg version of "Letter 4 Miles" and I hope there is perhaps
another tune in that style on the set. A vocal song perhaps with that jazzy vibe?

Because I just realised how incredibly smooth "Letter 4 Miles" would fit on "The Vault OF4S".

I can't wait to add it on my playlist for that album and kick off that stupid version of OF4S,
that has about 4% of the charm of the original version.