The Long Thief in the Night - Page 3

He cancelled the Black Album in a little crisis of conscience just as it was about to be released making it one of the most bootlegged albums ever and recorded Lovesexy in just a few weeks. This was at the time that he was working with Miles Davis and so there are polyphonous horns all over the place and the funk is dense psychadelia, cacophonous and ethereal. George Clinton and Sly Stone were proud of what he came up with even if it was less danceable than say Erotic City (the best B-side ever). As a work, it echoed the recurrent motif of black music througout the years, namely the dichotomy between the church and the earthy jook joint, love and sex as the title track puts it. On the whole, this was a turn towards heaven and religion, Anna Stesia and I Wish U Heaven are all pointers to that rebirth. The repeated chant is "This is not music. This is a trip"

Still as with everything Prince does, it was all tongue-in-cheek, like the misunderstood naked title cover which damaged his prospects in the US market. Critics asked how could someone be so naive as to appear naked at a time when it was all about machismo and gangsta rap? Echoes of De La Soul in the Stakes is High video showing them doing laundry and rodeo-riding in a time of Bling Bling, guns and gold chains. But maybe that was the point.

The line about "Put the right letters together 'and make a better day'" was about clowning the rock star economics of the USA for Africa We Are The World effort from which the "make a better day" part was a literal quote.

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Looking at the headlines, one wonders: Who has the single-tracked mind? Who has no clothes these days?

In any case, cultural critique at its best.

The Long Thief in the Night is cross-posted at Koranteng's Toli

Article Author: Koranteng

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