School Yard

Is it Ace’s battered high school car spluttering into life? Or Prince’s libido? A stuttering staccato new-jacky drum machine jerks into action, spitting out attitude and spunky brashness … yet these introductory two seconds of Schoolyard sound somewhat distant, low-fi, a machine sparking up on 20 watts.

The vibe now darkens with a brutally synthetic, heavily processed bassline (maybe he is suggesting that this memory is not organic/true?) that layers an ominous, sinister vibe on top of a spastic yet somehow rigid big beat - it’s a deeply in-the-pocket, heavy yet jittery, a jarring adult cartoon groove. The foundation has been laid, but you’ve been fooled - any darkness suggested by this skeletal beat awaiting its flesh is a red herring.

‘Schooooolyard!’ Enter Rosie Gaines. Her larynx’s cracked ember fission core is burning on a low setting where, in tone with the aggressive, balls-out, intense, claustrophobic sonic landscape that’s being painted. But then, the main keyboard hook enters and it’s bubbly, upbeat, fun and playful - immediately finding a perfect place within the cartoon syncopation … it’s an airy, roomy production but still tights and cold at its roots - a dichotomy reminiscent of Emotional Pump, which plays the same trick of dark underlying groove and bubblegum top lines.

And here’s Prince - voice dropping with spunky rhythm, yet little actual melody, chasing the groove with his performance and not quite catching up … but deliberately so. It’s intent is to sound like a story being told breathlessly, suggestive - to me - of his thought train trundling down running down the memory tracks blinkered to all the stops and stations … but this is no song for melancholy - it’s upbeat nostalgia, and P is in a sprightly, upbeat, comedic mood. And in this story, high school Prince was so cool that he had a friend called Ace. Funny indeed.

The chorus enters and P leans on multitrack harmonies to evoke warmth over a vocal melody that does its best with the lack of chords on offer, the hard groove continuing to be sweetened by the keyboards - yet still unrelenting, unravelling, growing in intensity like the burgeoning sexual prowess of the song’s protagonist. Not menacing, not really, but definitely frisky and invoking adrenaline, uncertainly, excitement, or known unknowns as Rumsfeld used to say.

‘Schoolyard, schoolyard, getting it on in the schoolyard’. Read cold it’d raise the over-plucked eyebrows of Gary Glitter, but P knows what he’s doing - it’s classic songwriting bait and switch, provoke and rebuke - he’s learned a lot of lyrical lessons since Dirty Mind.

‘We never want it for the children of our own/We all pray better seeds we have sown/But one story that is most commonly known/Is getting it on in the schoolyard’. It’s the light after the shade, the moral follow-up, a hint of maturity, the distance of time, of self-awareness - he knows what he’s doing with this song and it’s not just to be a controversial MF. Well, maybe just a little. But there’s a lesson here. As we know, P likes a sermon. Even in his songs celebrating underage sex.

After the first chrous and its dischordant yin/yang ambiguity still hanging in the air, the drum machine enters a truly spastic rhythm - likely an attempt to evoke the adolescent confusion and unbridled lust of the song’s protagonist. It’s deliberately provocative, however - P pressing our buttons to see what colour our cheeks turn.

Ace again, what a dude. Tower of Power on the stereo, speeding down the highway. There’s a bit of banter with Carrie, she smokes some weed and gets woozy … a minor key piano lets us know just how woozy - it’s quite ‘on the nose’ that she’s out of it. And while she’s stoned, P takes advantage. No other way of putting it, really.

Ominous chord stabs suggest a new, more conflicted, rhythm coming into play and yes, it arrives - it chimes with young P knowing the situation wrong, the music is ominous, jittery, uncertain of direction. A single high organ synth note plays out and is held down - like an alarm, insinuating panic - moral or otherwise. ‘Hey hey heeeeeeeeeeeey’ - it’s Rosie, back in the tune, perhaps, we realise, as a finger-wagging angel on P’s shoulder. What will he do?

The rhythm now sinks even harder and darker, breaking down to the menacing bass and drum pattern foundation of the song. Real, organic horns suddenly appear - heated, throbbing lines. It seems P has decided what he’s going to do. He even warns us. ‘Now boys and girls for the graphic part/Close your ears if u ain’t got a nasty heart’. Rosie has been ignored. Teen P is giving into his overwhelming desire. All there is … is groove. ‘Schoolyard! Schoolyard!’ … but no moral balancing lyrics to follow this time - P ignores that moral resolution and goes straight into a new verse … comparing Carrie’s vagina to a glove filled with hot baby lotion.

It’s an interesting analogy, to say the least. A lot of psychologists would go pro bono to get to the bottom of it. Perhaps, from his crib, baby P once saw John L doing something unspeakable during a particularly cold Minneapolis winter, now forever tattooed his impressionable young brain.

Now we’re returned to the chorus - and like the first, this one actually has the lyrical moral resolution, reminding us we were all there once, so don’t judge. Now, P appeals to the rational mind of the listener who may have been offended at this tale of sexual awakening and virginity lost - asking them to empathise with teenage lust and remember how they felt themselves at that age. ‘Your very first tiiiiiiiime’

It’s the sweetest piece of melody in the song, quite deliberately so. Even the angel, Rosie, joins in beautifucally. P seems to have convinced her too. It leads beautifully into a full chorus with the original lyric ‘we never wanted ….’ It seems we’re now aural witnesses to a celebration of young P losing his virginity - he adlibs euphoric vocal vamps in the background with Rosie - talking in tongues at the ecstacy, supercharging that dark groove with positive energy. And ethereal synth wave appears high in the mix, a new sound. Rosie wordlessly vocalised joy over a massive funk vamp while live horns and synths facing off in moral battle over that dark staccato beat - it’s ridiculously funky and wonderfully odd. All these opposing instruments and rhythms have finally found peace.

Then, differing from the boot we know from D&P Beginnings (and, obviously, years before that on awful quality), P’s vocal is fed through pedals or some compressor and his processed voice chirps a new rhythm onto the groove, intensifying the funk - perhaps its some kind of mating call he’s attempting, playing the same notes on a synth in perfect harmony. A live horn then echos the peculiar vocal part playfully in response … hey, it is a mating call! Having dispensed with his cumbersome virginity, P is now single and ready to jiggle - and letting the world know.

Rhythm and bass note change and we’re now grooving in a different key, slightly more ominous that was has just preceded, to which P playfully adapts and repitches the vocal melody in the chorus. It’s a celebration once again - the small hint of doubt is gone. He’s a sexual warrior now, shedding his cherry granting him freedom to roam, to not be chained by shame, by horniness, to finally get out there and get physical, get blue.

And we still have two minutes to go. Rosie acquiesces with P’s newfound freedom by growling ‘getting it on!’. An angel no more. Breakdown now, just the beat. ‘Schoolyard!’ Then the bass arrives. ‘Schoolyard!’ The horns echo the melody then that relentless fundamental groove breaks down once again into something darker, more obsessive, primitive. Rosie scats in aural frustration as the drums go spastic again, a inhumanly fast machine roll enters … then all the glorious instrumentation re-enters the party for a last rousing take of the full chorus with everyone joining in.

And who is that on the top line of the ‘we never wanted children ….’ lyric? Is that fucking Bob George? That hell-bowel deep tone appears once then it’s gone … like some half-imagined monster, Krueger at the pool party. But it was real. A darkness now hangs over the track again. The top layer of cherries and um, cream can’t quite sweeten the bitterness of that exhaustively grinding underlying groove. Is this about being a slave to his libido? Or being so insecure in his youth that he had to wait until a girl was intoxicated to gain the sexual convince that made him ‘Prince’?

Maybe that’s going too deep. But, as we all know, he made the decision to drop this song from the album, despite it making numerous early tracklists. A commercial decision? Warners’ suggestion? Perhaps. personally, I think it’d have been too jarring for the ‘mature’ vibe he was projecting on the Diamonds & Pearls project. Either that or Rosie told him there was no fucking way she was singing those lyrics every night.

[Edited 9/14/23 3:34am]

[Edited 9/14/23 5:18am]

[Edited 9/25/23 17:29pm]

[Edited 9/25/23 17:30pm]

[Edited 9/26/23 3:35am]

[Edited 9/26/23 3:35am]

Whatever the reason, Schooyard is a classic Prince joint and i'm really glad the Estate included it on the D&P set in its full lenght glory.

[Edited 9/14/23 0:39am]

fredmagnus said:

Whatever the reason, Schooyard is a classic Prince joint and i'm really glad the Estate included it on the D&P set in its full lenght glory.

[Edited 9/14/23 0:39am]

Agreed!

I'd be more interested in reading short and to the point descriptions, not an overblown analysis of a track. I mean, it's not even that great a song.

mb71 said:

I'd be more interested in reading short and to the point descriptions, not an overblown analysis of a track. I mean, it's not even that great a song.

Me too, mate.

mb71 said:

TheNumber23 said:

mb71 said:

I'd be more interested in reading short and to the point descriptions, not an overblown analysis of a track. I mean, it's not even that great a song.

Me too, mate.

TheNumber23 said:

mb71 said:

I'd be more interested in reading short and to the point descriptions, not an overblown analysis of a track. I mean, it's not even that great a song.

Me too, mate.

in the interest of balance I enjoy these overblown pieces.

some would say the Gary Glitter mention is apt for this track.

I am trying not to respond to unnecessary comments but, I was messaging Mr Number23 over and over asking if he was going to review this set. I recall his amazing SOTT SDE Vault songs and was hoping he/she would do it again and, I'm so glad he has begun.

Landonfunkmonkey said:

Enjoyed reading that. Thanks I hope we get one for each track

Landonfunkmonkey...did you ever read his review of the SOTT SDE?

so, I read MrNumber23's intro about the ''sputtering into life" (or his libido:) and I listen to the start of the song and ...I get it!!! I know this isn't a review of Num23's reviews but....he is really able to visualize and describe the music so so well.

Prince was so clever/funny with his lyrics when he wanted to be..and...so so nasty

What I also get is that the version I have is 4:27 and what Num23 is describing, would make me think the song is actually double. I never gaave this one a real chance, dismissing it as a juvenile throwaway. It sort of is but for the music. Sometimes with the LoFi bootlegs, you don't pay attention to the instrumentation but from what Num23 describes and what I am hearing on the boot (and my imagination), I can hear that this is a very funky track and when I get it on my stereo, I'm going to really appreciate it.

JoeyCococo said:

JoeyCococo said:

All, for all of you that remember Number23's review of the SOTT SDE before it was released, get excited...he/she is back. Here you all are - track 1...I'm so damn excited, more to come

School Yard

Is it Ace’s battered high school car spluttering into life? Or Prince’s libido? A stuttering staccato new-jacky drum machine jerks into action, spitting out attitude and spunky brashness … yet these introductory two seconds of Schoolyard sound somewhat distant, low-fi, a machine sparking up on 20 watts.

The vibe now darkens with a brutally synthetic, heavily processed bassline (maybe he is suggesting that this memory is not organic/true?) that layers an ominous, sinister vibe on top of a spastic yet somehow rigid big beat - it’s a deeply in-the-pocket, heavy yet jittery, a jarring adult cartoon groove. The foundation has been laid, but you’ve been fooled - any darkness suggested by this skeletal beat awaiting its flesh is a red herring.

‘Schooooolyard!’ Enter Rosie Gaines. Her larynx’s cracked ember fission core is burning on a low setting where, in tone with the aggressive, balls-out, intense, claustrophobic sonic landscape that’s being painted. But then, the main keyboard hook enters and it’s bubbly, upbeat, fun and playful - immediately finding a perfect place within the cartoon syncopation … it’s an airy, roomy production but still tights and cold at its roots - a dichotomy reminiscent of Emotional Pump, which plays the same trick of dark underlying groove and bubblegum top lines.

And here’s Prince - voice dropping with spunky rhythm, yet little actual melody, chasing the groove with his performance and not quite catching up … but deliberately so. It’s intent is to sound like a story being told breathlessly, suggestive - to me - of his thought train trundling down running down the memory tracks blinkered to all the stops and stations … but this is no song for melancholy - it’s upbeat nostalgia, and P is in a sprightly, upbeat, comedic mood. And in this story, high school Prince was so cool that he had a friend called Ace. Funny indeed.

The chorus enters and P leans on multitrack harmonies to evoke warmth over a vocal melody that does its best with the lack of chords on offer, the hard groove continuing to be sweetened by the keyboards - yet still unrelenting, unravelling, growing in intensity like the burgeoning sexual prowess of the song’s protagonist. Not menacing, not really, but definitely frisky and invoking adrenaline, uncertainly, excitement, or known unknowns as Rumsfeld used to say.

‘Schoolyard, schoolyard, getting it on in the schoolyard’. Read cold it’d raise the over-plucked eyebrows of Gary Glitter, but P knows what he’s doing - it’s classic songwriting bait and switch, provoke and rebuke - he’s learned a lot of lyrical lessons since Dirty Mind.

‘We never want it for the children of our own/We all pray better seeds we have sown/But one story that is most commonly known/Is getting it on in the schoolyard’. It’s the light after the shade, the moral follow-up, a hint of maturity, the distance of time, of self-awareness - he knows what he’s doing with this song and it’s not just to be a controversial MF. Well, maybe just a little. But there’s a lesson here. As we know, P likes a sermon. Even in his songs celebrating underage sex.

After the first chrous and its dischordant yin/yang ambiguity still hanging in the air, the drum machine enters a truly spastic rhythm - likely an attempt to evoke the adolescent confusion and unbridled lust of the song’s protagonist. It’s deliberately provocative, however - P pressing our buttons to see what colour our cheeks turn.

Ace again, what a dude. Tower of Power on the stereo, speeding down the highway. There’s a bit of banter with Carrie, she smokes some weed and gets woozy … a minor key piano lets us know just how woozy - it’s quite ‘on the nose’ that she’s out of it. And while she’s stoned, P takes advantage. No other way of putting it, really.

Ominous chord stabs suggest a new, more conflicted, rhythm coming into play and yes, it arrives - it chimes with young P knowing the situation wrong, the music is ominous, jittery, uncertain of direction. A single high organ synth note plays out and is held down - like an alarm, insinuating panic - moral or otherwise. ‘Hey hey heeeeeeeeeeeey’ - it’s Rosie, back in the tune, perhaps, we realise, as a finger-wagging angel on P’s shoulder. What will he do?

The rhythm now sinks even harder and darker, breaking down to the menacing bass and drum pattern foundation of the song. Real, organic horns suddenly appear - heated, throbbing lines. It seems P has decided what he’s going to do. He even warns us. ‘Now boys and girls for the graphic part/Close your ears if u ain’t got a nasty heart’. Rosie has been ignored. Teen P is giving into his overwhelming desire. All there is … is groove. ‘Schoolyard! Schoolyard!’ … but no moral balancing lyrics to follow this time - P ignores that moral resolution and goes straight into a new verse … comparing Carrie’s vagina to a glove filled with hot baby lotion.

It’s an interesting analogy, to say the least. A lot of psychologists would go pro bono to get to the bottom of it. Perhaps, from his crib, baby P once saw John L doing something unspeakable during a particularly cold Minneapolis winter, now forever tattooed his impressionable young brain.

Now we’re returned to the chorus - and like the first, this one actually has the lyrical moral resolution, reminding us we were all there once, so don’t judge. Now, P appeals to the rational mind of the listener who may have been offended at this tale of sexual awakening and virginity lost - asking them to empathise with teenage lust and remember how they felt themselves at that age. ‘Your very first tiiiiiiiime’

It’s the sweetest piece of melody in the song, quite deliberately so. Even the angel, Rosie, joins in beautifucally. P seems to have convinced her too. It leads beautifully into a full chorus with the original lyric ‘we never wanted ….’ It seems we’re now aural witnesses to a celebration of young P losing his virginity - he adlibs euphoric vocal vamps in the background with Rosie - talking in tongues at the ecstacy, supercharging that dark groove with positive energy. And ethereal synth wave appears high in the mix, a new sound. Rosie wordlessly vocalised joy over a massive funk vamp while live horns and synths facing off in moral battle over that dark staccato beat - it’s ridiculously funky and wonderfully odd. All these opposing instruments and rhythms have finally found peace.

Then, differing from the boot we know from D&P Beginnings (and, obviously, years before that on awful quality), P’s vocal is fed through pedals or some compressor and his processed voice chirps a new rhythm onto the groove, intensifying the funk - perhaps its some kind of mating call he’s attempting, playing the same notes on a synth in perfect harmony. A live horn then echos the peculiar vocal part playfully in response … hey, it is a mating call! Having dispensed with his cumbersome virginity, P is now single and ready to jiggle - and letting the world know.

Rhythm and bass note change and we’re now grooving in a different key, slightly more ominous that was has just preceded, to which P playfully adapts and repitches the vocal melody in the chorus. It’s a celebration once again - the small hint of doubt is gone. He’s a sexual warrior now, shedding his cherry granting him freedom to roam, to not be chained by shame, by horniness, to finally get out there and get physical, get blue.

And we still have two minutes to go. Rosie acquiesces with P’s newfound freedom by growling ‘getting it on!’. An angel no more. Breakdown now, just the beat. ‘Schoolyard!’ Then the bass arrives. ‘Schoolyard!’ The horns echo the melody then that relentless fundamental groove breaks down once again into something darker, more obsessive, primitive. Rosie scats in aural frustration as the drums go spastic again, a inhumanly fast machine roll enters … then all the glorious instrumentation re-enters the party for a last rousing take of the full chorus with everyone joining in.

And who is that on the top line of the ‘we never wanted children ….’ lyric? Is that fucking Bob George? That hell-bowel deep tone appears once then it’s gone … like some half-imagined monster, Krueger at the pool party. But it was real. A darkness now hangs over the track again. The top layer of cherries and um, cream can’t quite sweeten the bitterness of that exhaustively grinding underlying groove. Is this about being a slave to his libido? Or being so insecure in his youth that he had to wait until a girl was intoxicated to gain the sexual convince that made him ‘Prince’?

Maybe that’s going too deep. But, as we all know, he made the decision to drop this song from the album, despite it making numerous early tracklists. A commercial decision? Warners’ suggestion? Perhaps. personally, I think it’d have been too jarring for the ‘mature’ vibe he was projecting on the Diamonds & Pearls project. Either that or Rosie told him there was no fucking way she was singing those lyrics every night.

[Edited 9/14/23 3:34am]

[Edited 9/14/23 5:18am]

Not my cup of tea as far as musical/lyrical criticsm goes, so to speak, but I appreciate the effort and quality of the writing! Well done.

Me either tbh. But it is Prince's origin story so thought it was a worthwhile exercise to actually try and figure out what he wa trying to convey musically. It's a fail though, mainly because I wrote it on my phone and the spellchecker has fucked up so much of it. Needs a good sub, undoubtedly. My Tender Heart next, strap yourself in ...

SpookyPurple said:

JoeyCococo said:

All, for all of you that remember Number23's review of the SOTT SDE before it was released, get excited...he/she is back. Here you all are - track 1...I'm so damn excited, more to come

School Yard

Is it Ace’s battered high school car spluttering into life? Or Prince’s libido? A stuttering staccato new-jacky drum machine jerks into action, spitting out attitude and spunky brashness … yet these introductory two seconds of Schoolyard sound somewhat distant, low-fi, a machine sparking up on 20 watts.

The vibe now darkens with a brutally synthetic, heavily processed bassline (maybe he is suggesting that this memory is not organic/true?) that layers an ominous, sinister vibe on top of a spastic yet somehow rigid big beat - it’s a deeply in-the-pocket, heavy yet jittery, a jarring adult cartoon groove. The foundation has been laid, but you’ve been fooled - any darkness suggested by this skeletal beat awaiting its flesh is a red herring.

‘Schooooolyard!’ Enter Rosie Gaines. Her larynx’s cracked ember fission core is burning on a low setting where, in tone with the aggressive, balls-out, intense, claustrophobic sonic landscape that’s being painted. But then, the main keyboard hook enters and it’s bubbly, upbeat, fun and playful - immediately finding a perfect place within the cartoon syncopation … it’s an airy, roomy production but still tights and cold at its roots - a dichotomy reminiscent of Emotional Pump, which plays the same trick of dark underlying groove and bubblegum top lines.

And here’s Prince - voice dropping with spunky rhythm, yet little actual melody, chasing the groove with his performance and not quite catching up … but deliberately so. It’s intent is to sound like a story being told breathlessly, suggestive - to me - of his thought train trundling down running down the memory tracks blinkered to all the stops and stations … but this is no song for melancholy - it’s upbeat nostalgia, and P is in a sprightly, upbeat, comedic mood. And in this story, high school Prince was so cool that he had a friend called Ace. Funny indeed.

The chorus enters and P leans on multitrack harmonies to evoke warmth over a vocal melody that does its best with the lack of chords on offer, the hard groove continuing to be sweetened by the keyboards - yet still unrelenting, unravelling, growing in intensity like the burgeoning sexual prowess of the song’s protagonist. Not menacing, not really, but definitely frisky and invoking adrenaline, uncertainly, excitement, or known unknowns as Rumsfeld used to say.

‘Schoolyard, schoolyard, getting it on in the schoolyard’. Read cold it’d raise the over-plucked eyebrows of Gary Glitter, but P knows what he’s doing - it’s classic songwriting bait and switch, provoke and rebuke - he’s learned a lot of lyrical lessons since Dirty Mind.

‘We never want it for the children of our own/We all pray better seeds we have sown/But one story that is most commonly known/Is getting it on in the schoolyard’. It’s the light after the shade, the moral follow-up, a hint of maturity, the distance of time, of self-awareness - he knows what he’s doing with this song and it’s not just to be a controversial MF. Well, maybe just a little. But there’s a lesson here. As we know, P likes a sermon. Even in his songs celebrating underage sex.

After the first chrous and its dischordant yin/yang ambiguity still hanging in the air, the drum machine enters a truly spastic rhythm - likely an attempt to evoke the adolescent confusion and unbridled lust of the song’s protagonist. It’s deliberately provocative, however - P pressing our buttons to see what colour our cheeks turn.

Ace again, what a dude. Tower of Power on the stereo, speeding down the highway. There’s a bit of banter with Carrie, she smokes some weed and gets woozy … a minor key piano lets us know just how woozy - it’s quite ‘on the nose’ that she’s out of it. And while she’s stoned, P takes advantage. No other way of putting it, really.

Ominous chord stabs suggest a new, more conflicted, rhythm coming into play and yes, it arrives - it chimes with young P knowing the situation wrong, the music is ominous, jittery, uncertain of direction. A single high organ synth note plays out and is held down - like an alarm, insinuating panic - moral or otherwise. ‘Hey hey heeeeeeeeeeeey’ - it’s Rosie, back in the tune, perhaps, we realise, as a finger-wagging angel on P’s shoulder. What will he do?

The rhythm now sinks even harder and darker, breaking down to the menacing bass and drum pattern foundation of the song. Real, organic horns suddenly appear - heated, throbbing lines. It seems P has decided what he’s going to do. He even warns us. ‘Now boys and girls for the graphic part/Close your ears if u ain’t got a nasty heart’. Rosie has been ignored. Teen P is giving into his overwhelming desire. All there is … is groove. ‘Schoolyard! Schoolyard!’ … but no moral balancing lyrics to follow this time - P ignores that moral resolution and goes straight into a new verse … comparing Carrie’s vagina to a glove filled with hot baby lotion.

It’s an interesting analogy, to say the least. A lot of psychologists would go pro bono to get to the bottom of it. Perhaps, from his crib, baby P once saw John L doing something unspeakable during a particularly cold Minneapolis winter, now forever tattooed his impressionable young brain.

Now we’re returned to the chorus - and like the first, this one actually has the lyrical moral resolution, reminding us we were all there once, so don’t judge. Now, P appeals to the rational mind of the listener who may have been offended at this tale of sexual awakening and virginity lost - asking them to empathise with teenage lust and remember how they felt themselves at that age. ‘Your very first tiiiiiiiime’

It’s the sweetest piece of melody in the song, quite deliberately so. Even the angel, Rosie, joins in beautifucally. P seems to have convinced her too. It leads beautifully into a full chorus with the original lyric ‘we never wanted ….’ It seems we’re now aural witnesses to a celebration of young P losing his virginity - he adlibs euphoric vocal vamps in the background with Rosie - talking in tongues at the ecstacy, supercharging that dark groove with positive energy. And ethereal synth wave appears high in the mix, a new sound. Rosie wordlessly vocalised joy over a massive funk vamp while live horns and synths facing off in moral battle over that dark staccato beat - it’s ridiculously funky and wonderfully odd. All these opposing instruments and rhythms have finally found peace.

Then, differing from the boot we know from D&P Beginnings (and, obviously, years before that on awful quality), P’s vocal is fed through pedals or some compressor and his processed voice chirps a new rhythm onto the groove, intensifying the funk - perhaps its some kind of mating call he’s attempting, playing the same notes on a synth in perfect harmony. A live horn then echos the peculiar vocal part playfully in response … hey, it is a mating call! Having dispensed with his cumbersome virginity, P is now single and ready to jiggle - and letting the world know.

Rhythm and bass note change and we’re now grooving in a different key, slightly more ominous that was has just preceded, to which P playfully adapts and repitches the vocal melody in the chorus. It’s a celebration once again - the small hint of doubt is gone. He’s a sexual warrior now, shedding his cherry granting him freedom to roam, to not be chained by shame, by horniness, to finally get out there and get physical, get blue.

And we still have two minutes to go. Rosie acquiesces with P’s newfound freedom by growling ‘getting it on!’. An angel no more. Breakdown now, just the beat. ‘Schoolyard!’ Then the bass arrives. ‘Schoolyard!’ The horns echo the melody then that relentless fundamental groove breaks down once again into something darker, more obsessive, primitive. Rosie scats in aural frustration as the drums go spastic again, a inhumanly fast machine roll enters … then all the glorious instrumentation re-enters the party for a last rousing take of the full chorus with everyone joining in.

And who is that on the top line of the ‘we never wanted children ….’ lyric? Is that fucking Bob George? That hell-bowel deep tone appears once then it’s gone … like some half-imagined monster, Krueger at the pool party. But it was real. A darkness now hangs over the track again. The top layer of cherries and um, cream can’t quite sweeten the bitterness of that exhaustively grinding underlying groove. Is this about being a slave to his libido? Or being so insecure in his youth that he had to wait until a girl was intoxicated to gain the sexual convince that made him ‘Prince’?

Maybe that’s going too deep. But, as we all know, he made the decision to drop this song from the album, despite it making numerous early tracklists. A commercial decision? Warners’ suggestion? Perhaps. personally, I think it’d have been too jarring for the ‘mature’ vibe he was projecting on the Diamonds & Pearls project. Either that or Rosie told him there was no fucking way she was singing those lyrics every night.

[Edited 9/14/23 3:34am]

[Edited 9/14/23 5:18am]

Not my cup of tea as far as musical/lyrical criticsm goes, so to speak, but I appreciate the effort and quality of the writing! Well done.

TheNumber23 said:

My Tender Heart next, strap yourself in ...

keep 'm coming! I've enjoyed the SOTT reviews very much. looking forward to this

ExTAFKASoladeo1 said:

Thanks a lot, Number23. Your work is really appreciated! I like your writing style/humor.

Sorry it's taken so long but I'll get the My Tender Heart blurb posted tonight then try to do one a day afterwards until the release date. Or maybe more regularly than that, will see how it goes.

They'll appear in the same sequence as the discs so it means there's still a few weeks to wait until 'I Pledge My Allegience 2 Ur Love' which is worth the price of admission alone imo.

I've been posting a lot more about the tracks and my thoughts about how cohesive/authoritative the set is on Discord and leaving the stream of consciousness mind dumps to the org. I know it's not to everyone/anyone's taste but vomit-writing while listening intently and intensely is how I like to study music, particularly artists like Prince who paint with sound.

You psychos who only get fulfilment from direct raw data and feel queasy digging through the flowery pish will get your gratification too, fear not.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Look forward to other reviews. Also, Can anyone join the discord channel? [Edited 9/17/23 6:13am]

Cheers - not my decision who joins these groups as I'm not an administrator but hopefully someone with that power will see this and send you an orgnote. Nothing has leaked yet however so don't get too excited - it's just me answering questions people have.

I'd also love to join this discord channel if anyone is feeling generous with invites...

[Edited 9/17/23 11:25am]

ok, My Tender Heart ready to go - but can anyone tell me how to post with spaces between paragraphs? Is it shift and return?

[Edited 9/17/23 13:02pm]

TheNumber23 said:

ok, My Tender Heart ready to go - but can anyone tell me how to post with spaces between paragraphs? Is it shift and return?

[Edited 9/17/23 13:02pm]

Yep!