Chart entered : 19 January 1980
Chart peak : 41
Number of hits : 49
And so the time came. The seventies were over. With them left a sweetness, a gentleness. No longer could modern citizens pretend to be naive. We were now jaded; the world was spinning more quickly. ( Douglas Coupland Girlfriend In A Coma ).
Coupland's words can easily be dismissed as mere nostalgia for his childhood ( he's three years older than me ) but for what its worth I agree with him and the eighties would be a difficult decade for me. On the other hand writing about it will be easier because less research will be involved . I was buying a weekly music paper for most of it and Steve Burdin of Northern Pop Quizzes calls me "the top eighties man in the country". I suspect that's probably not true but it's certainly the decade where I was most engaged with music. That doesn't mean I think it was the best. 1980 was another fantastic year in pop; 1989 by contrast was absolutely dire and when I came round to listing my personal Top 40 singles that year I was really struggling to fill it.
I won't claim to be a massive fan of this guy but he occasionally puts out something I can get into and certainly the world of pop would be a greyer place without his presence.
Prince Roger Nelson was born in Minneapolis in 1958. His parents were both jazz musicians and split up when he was 10. He mastered the piano and guitar early and formed a band at school. In 1975 he and schoolfriend Andre Cymone were drafted into the band 94 East led by his cousin's husband Pepe Willie. The band never got a deal but did lay down some tracks which were first released in the mid-eighties.
In 1976 Prince recorded a demo tape of his own which attracted the attention of a Minneapolis entrepreneur Owen Husney. Husney signed him to a management contract and got him a deal with Warner Brothers. The duo then left for California to record his debut album "For You" on which he played every instrument. It was released in April 1978. Prince is famously protective of his back catalogue as regards YouTube and Spotify so I'm only familiar with the two singles. As the title would suggest "Soft And Wet" is rather saucy - "I got a sugarcane that I wanna lose in you " for example - and combines his influences - Sly and the Family Stone, Parliament and Sylvester- with a robotic electro-funk years ahead of its time. There's not much melody in it but it still reached number 92 in the States. "Just As Long As We're Together" is a more conventional contemporary disco track with anodyne lyrics though there's a lot going on in the mix. It wasn't a hit and nor was the album.
Prince was anxious to press on with his next record and "I Wanna Be Your Lover" came out in the US in August 1979. It was a big hit in the US reaching number 11 and became his first UK release. Prince originally intended it go to disco singer Patrice Rushenbut changed his mind and recorded it himself. It's a pop funk number with straightforward lyrics which Prince sings in a Sylvester falsetto. The hook is a naggingly catchy keyboard riff that runs right through the song. I never heard it at the time but it holds up well enough.
The single had a very odd chart career in the UK. After seemingly little airplay it came straight in at number 44 , which was then unusually high for an artist's debut single. It then crawled up to 41 ,then down to 51 and disappeared. He booked some shows in London which had to be cancelled due to poor ticket sales. Not long after this there was a big expose on chart hyping and it makes you wonder if those positions were artificially achieved. He wouldn't have another hit here for three years.
Like you, Prince isn't a huge part of my musical life - got a compilation and his most famous album - but he's put out some cracking tunes, mainly in the 80s.
ReplyDeleteThe teenager in me always has a quiet chuckle at the way he goes "I wanna be the only one who makes you come" with the pause before "running"... Ahem.