As a Prince fan since '81, I never much liked Purple Rain aside from "When Doves Cry". Though a couple more tunes grew on me, I never thought the album had the strength and dancabilty of 1999, the intensity of "Do Me Baby" from the album Controversy or the raw energy of title track, "Controversy". But, what pleased me to no end was the way Prince affected pop culture from that point on in the 80's. The Sign Of The Times collection is still my all-time favorite Prince record, with 1999 coming in 2nd. Over the rest of his career, I've taken what I could get as it came. I never faulted him for pulling back in his push for fame and success. I hoped like all true fans for a return to form, but over time, I learned to just appreciate what he gave me when he gave it.

The Rainbow Children, to me, signalled that the real Prince was back. It's not that I love the songs that much, though I do love "The Everlasting Now". It's that he seemed to care again and that came through on the sporadic set. So, since that time I've been expecting that there was more to come. Indeed, there was! I've had a slew of surprise moments over my life following Prince. The most recent being this year's Grammy's. It was obvious from the second I saw him open the show, that he was about to bring something BIG on. Since that show, it's been one piece of news after another.

While I agree with most that the Musicology cd isn't his best work. It is another step upward as it's more commercial than Rainbow and certainly since Diamonds And Pearls. It will be interesting to see how the new songs shake out over the next year. It could fair much better than many fans expect, because while the past dozen years haven't been Prince's most prolific, he's had some songs that would have been hits if not for all the bad press "the Artist" brought on himself. While many of the songs on m-ology remind me of things he's done already, most of the world ignored a lot of those songs and this new cd really does sound fresh to many casual listeners.

I'm most curious to see what comes next. It could be a fun decade for us. I'm just as pleased to see Prince affecting pop culture again as I am that he's given me my current new favorite song, "Dear Mr. Man" to jam on. My next wish would be for him to return to the studio after this tour without his band and muster up the next incarnation of Sign Of The Times!

Cool post - I know eXactly where ur coming from!