CD Odyssey Disc 1355: Prince

Welcome back to the CD Odyssey! Let’s get back to it!

Disc 1355 is….Originals

Artist: Prince

Year of Release: 2019 but most of the songs are from the eighties

What’s up with the Cover? Prince himself, looking a little bit guilty – like we’ve just caught him spray painting his name on that wall behind him.

Prince looks very vibrant and filled with life in this picture. Also, this album is called “Originals” which may be a subtle reference to the CW television show about a bunch of vampires. Could this be a signal that Prince is not dead but is simply living life as a vampire in the CW world of “The Originals”!

No, I’m afraid not. He’s quite dead. Sorry to give you that false hope.

How I Came To Know It: I love Prince, and I miss him. When I heard there was a posthumous collection of him performing songs he’d written for others I snapped it up.

How It Stacks Up:  I struggled with whether or not this counts as an album for a couple of reasons. First, it is a collection of tracks across Prince’s career, not a true studio album. Second, it came out after his death, and I tend to avoid art released by the estate of an artist. Despite these misgivings, in the end I decided it was a cohesive enough collection to give it a ranking, rather than treat it as a “best of”.

With that decision made, I can tell you Prince has over 40 albums, of which I have seven. Of those seven, I rank “Originals” at #6. Not great, but the man had a lot of good albums.

Ratings: 3 stars

Years ago, a friend of mine confided some somewhat wine-sodden advice on jazz. She said, “to understand jazz, you have to first know the song they’re fucking with.” I doubt that’s always true, but it makes for a good story. This advice also applies to hearing different versions of a pop song. This was a conundrum that confronted me on Prince’s “Originals,” an album featuring his 15 original versions of songs that were ultimately recorded publicly by other people.

A lot of these songs are RnB and funk tracks from the eighties and nineties; a scene, I have not had a lot of exposure to. I grew up knowing that people like Apollonia and Vanity existed, and that they were Prince proteges, but I didn’t go out of my way to listen to their albums. I still don’t. I suppose I could’ve gone and looked them all up, but the most interesting thing for me about Sheila E these days is that her uncle is Alejandro Escovedo.

Fortunately, I love Prince himself,. He's a gifted songwriter and performer, and so even deprived of half the fun of “Originals” there was still much fun to be had. If they were only vaguely familiar so much the better; I could listen to them entirely on their own merits rather than nostalgia.

On their own merits, these songs are consistently good, with more than a few standouts as well. “Jungle Love” is filled with funky brilliance and made me want to dance every time I heard it. “100 MPH” will similarly make your backbone slide in a pleasant manner.

What I didn’t like was when the song started off funky, but then just did a lot of repetition. “Holly Rock” is fun for about three and a half minutes, but it goes on for almost twice that long. That combined with 15 total tracks makes for a record that is over an hour long and needs to be about 25% shorter.

In addition to being funky, these songs are sexy, and joyously uninhibited about it. Also, with all the proxy writing involved you’re never sure if Prince is singing from a woman’s perspective, a man’s or a bit of both. The best example is “Make Up” a proto-techno track written for Vanity and recorded by her in 1982. The song totally suits the sexy vixen, but hearing Prince sing lines like:

“If I wear a dress
He will never call
So I'll wear much less
I guess I'll wear my camisole”

Is even more fun. I suspect Prince wouldn’t have hesitated to wear a camisole and you know he would’ve rocked it, too.

And of course, there was some nostalgia to be had after all. In addition to Sheila E.’s “The Glamorous Life” (which was outside my wheelhouse, but a big enough hit to cross over into my teenage awareness), the album has “Manic Monday” (the Bangles) and “Nothing Compares 2 U” (Sinead O’Connor). “The Glamorous Life” is great, but “Manic Monday” was the standout; a timeless pop classic that loses nothing from being transferred to the masculine voice. Also, that inspired bit of piano that sets the hook makes the song great in any incarnation.

I didn’t love Prince’s version of “Nothing Compares 2 U”. Sinead made that song hers always and forever more. I just couldn’t hear Prince do it and not wish I was hearing her.

I also have a soft spot for “Love…Thy Will Be Done” a song made famous by Martika. I had forgotten Martika existed until I heard this and realized it was also familiar. When I went back and rediscovered her bigger hit (“Toy Soldiers”) I wish I hadn’t checked. As risible as “Toy Soldiers” is, Prince gave Martika’s voice the song it deserved with “Love…They Will Be Done”. On his ‘original’ version, Prince still manages to give it the requisite heroic, romantic swell the song requires while avoiding that saccharine synth that threatens to sink Martika’s otherwise solid cover.

There is much to love about “Originals” and if you were a fan of the various one-named beautiful ingenues that Prince wrote for through the eighties, you’ll probably love it even more. I was never a fan of that stuff, but enjoyed the record all the same.

Best tracks: Jungle Love, Manic Monday, 100 MPH, The Glamorous Life, Love…Thy Will Be Done