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Posted on Sun, May. 09, 2004

Prince cools down sexy vibe

Seeming contradictions embody the age-old rock 'n' roll paradox

PHIL KLOER

Cox News Service


ATLANTA - Could any more contradictions be bundled into a smaller package than Prince? The business decisions both canny and bizarre, the never-ending peekaboo game with fame -- and most important, the internal tension between the sexual and the sacred that's been present for years but is now front and center.

Suddenly Prince is as ubiquitous as he was 20 years ago, when "Purple Rain" was dual No. 1s at the box office and on the Billboard charts. His new round of accessibility includes opening the Grammy Awards with Beyonce; entering the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; sitting down with "Today's" Matt Lauer; releasing a new CD, "Musicology" and selling out a national tour.

There hasn't been this much engagement between Prince and his court of fans in ages; "Musicology" sold 192,000 CDs in its first week, more than any CD he's released in years. (Prince is giving the CD to everyone who attends his concerts, which bumps the sales figures.)

On his concert tour, he jams and struts and sings like a man possessed for two hours. But because he's now a Jehovah's Witness, he's cleaned up his act. He doesn't perform some of his earlier, more sexually explicit songs, and he's been changing the lyrics of "Purple Rain." He brings the funk and the faith both.

"I've taken them out 'cause you've got children coming to the concert," he said on a radio show recently. "For an artist not to be responsible and care about those children and how they first hear the music, that says a lot. Anybody missing those songs, you really want to ask yourself why you miss them, 'cause I think it says more about you than it does about me."

He gave Newsweek a slightly different explanation about dropping his provocative songs.

"It's not me anymore," he said. "Don't follow me way back there. There's no more envelope to push. I pushed it off the table. It's on the floor."

In neither case did he mention his religion as a factor.

"His greatest music was animated by themes of sexual freedom. But he became extremely conflicted about that, until now he's really a very conservative fellow," said Alex Hahn, author of the 2003 biography "Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince."

"He's extremely pro-monogamy and a practicing Jehovah's Witness. I've talked to associates who felt he was pressuring them into converting. That tension was very interesting. At some point that tension disappeared, and he's gone the religious route."

This battle -- devil on one shoulder, angel on the other -- runs through contemporary rock and soul.

"There's a fundamental contradiction between Christianity and a sexual freedom," says Tricia Rose, author of "Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary Culture." "But they're expressing the tension among many people -- the very same people who are out shaking their groove thing on Saturday night and going to church on Sunday morning."

You can tell Prince still has sex on the brain, only now he's 45 and married. When he spots a sexy woman in a concert crowd on the new song "What Do U Want Me 2 Do?," he tells her "Shame on U baby, can't U see this ring?" Whereas the old Prince would have told her, well, something else entirely.

It's Comendable of Prince to Consider the Children. Being a Mother I Truly Adore him for that. Guess we have to Watch that our Children Don't get a POTTY Mouth. Unfortunately in Today's World this is Rather Hard as one can abstain from cursing then go to a Burger King and here a woman or man next to her curse. Kids are Exposed but I suppose Prince Doesn't Wanna be the One doing any Morally Damaging things to the Youth of Today. God Bless him..