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Can Prince regain his throne?
By Renee Graham, Globe Staff, 3/23/2004

Absolutely nothing in this still-nascent year in music has been as deeply satisfying as the glorious re-emergence of Prince.

Looking great and sounding even better, there he was at last month's Grammys, opening the show with a medley of "Purple Rain," "Baby, I'm a Star" and "Let's Go Crazy." (Oh, and Beyonce was also there to shake her hair and hog the microphone.) Normally considered publicity-shy, he's made several recent television appearances including "The Ellen Degeneres Show" and "Today." Next week, he launches his first major national tour in six years, including an Aug. 17 stop at the FleetCenter.

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Last week, as a 2004 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he kicked off the ceremony with another sizzling medley featuring "Let's Go Crazy," "Sign O' the Times," "Kiss," plus a snippet of the Sam and Dave classic, "Soul Man." And he wasn't done. During the tribute to fellow inductee, the late George Harrison, Prince offered a blazing guitar solo on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," which had other onstage musicians such as Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Harrison's son Dhani, staring in wide-eyed amazement.

Did we even know how much we missed Prince? If we didn't, maybe it's because it seems he's ever-present in one form or another.

On his current tour, "American Idol" Clay Aiken has been performing "When Doves Cry." The Foo Fighters' cover of "Darling Nikki" has been an alternative rock radio staple since last year. On her 2001 debut, "Songs in A Minor," Alicia Keys had a hit with "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore." And the influence of Prince's musically expansive world view is stamped all over OutKast's sprawling Grammy-winning masterpiece, "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below." Not surprisingly, OutKast's Andre 3000 and Big Boi and Keys were invited to induct Prince into the rock hall.

"Back in the day, entertainers were singers, they were dancers, they had great style, they had great personality," Andre 3000 said in his introduction. "We've lost a lot of that today, and so when it comes for me to do music, Prince is definitely one of my greatest inspirations."

Before Prince, there was no one like him, and no one's come close to duplicating his daring musicality. His influence certainly runs as deep as that of Elvis Presley and the Beatles, but it's also worth noting Elvis never wrote his hits, and that it took four individuals to make the Beatles fab.

The precocious prodigy named Prince Rogers Nelson was only 19 when he rewrote music industry rules with his debut, 1978's "For You." He composed all the songs, played all the instruments, and produced the album. No one that young, let alone an untested artist, had ever been given so much creative freedom. But it was immediately apparent that this kid would be a legend.

His influences included James Brown, Jackie Wilson, George Clinton, Jimi Hendrix, and Joni Mitchell. An expressive, versatile singer and virtuoso guitarist, Prince churned out hit song after hit song, hot album after hot album. From 1980 to 1990, he put out an astonishing 10 albums, including such classics as "Dirty Mind," "1999," "Purple Rain," and "Sign `O' the Times," plus the much-bootlegged "Black Album."

His music encompassed funk, soul, jazz, gospel, and rock, and tipped freely between the profane and the sacred. He even produced B-sides, such as "Erotic City," "She's Always in My Hair" and "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore," better than the A-sides of most contemporary artists.

Then after a protracted fight and finally his release from his former record label, Warner Bros., he seemed to disappear in a purple haze. He changed his name to that weird symbol, and people were ready to write him off. But the music never stopped. On albums distributed through his website, he continued to push himself with concept albums such as 2001's "The Rainbow Children" and the all-instrumental "N.E.W.S." released last year. And if the records were obscure and the results were mixed, there was solace he was still exercising his creative muscles and keeping himself limber.

And now, he's back, as resplendent as ever, and ready to show everyone the way it's supposed to be done. He's shopping a new album, "Musicology," which he wants released by several major labels at once. The market share, he says, "should be shared by all." Whether the market, currently preoccupied with Justin, Britney, and Beyonce, will make room for a 45-year-old whose best commercial days in the 1980s and early 1990s is a valid question -- but only if you're talking about fellow 1958 babies Michael Jackson or Madonna.

Mired in mediocrity and redundancy, the music industry unquestionably needs Prince's full-on, full-out musical genius now more than ever.