MUSIC-USA: Prince Finds Freedom as a Nameless Symbol

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Feb 18 1997 (IPS) - Pop stars of today have been involved in some strange marriages: Just look at Michael Jackson’s two impromptu weddings. But Prince, who three years ago took an unpronounceable symbol for his name, topped the cake at his wedding one year ago this month when his bride, Mayte Garcia, had to point to his symbol when she addressed him during their wedding vows.

The former Prince – now nameless and referred to simply as ‘the Artist’ by his bemused employees – is singing about the virtues of marriage and family life on his new triple-CD album, ‘Emancipation’ (available on Prince’s NPG label, which is distributed by Capitol).

The record is his first since a bitter split with his former record company, Time-Warner, and it is one of the genuinely funny, exuberant opuses of recent times.

In many ways, Prince’s independence in putting out his music on his own NPG label rather than through a conglomerate has freed him to pursue a variety of styles, from big-band jazz to rap and from old soul ballads to guitar-based rock — all of which he does well.

To enjoy the songs, however, it helps to share in Prince’s skewed wit – from his refusal to have a normal name to his penchant for silly, smutty or bizarre lyrics. Although he refers repeatedly to his respect for Garcia in several paeans to marriage, he is also capable of coming up with couplets like: “Got a new Puerto Rican score/ And we’re doin’ it on the floor.”

Lyrics like that help to explain why Prince remained a bachelor for so long. But on the current album, songs like ‘The Holy River’ and ‘Let’s Have a Baby’ bear witness to a new maturity and appreciation of family.

(Prince and Garcia announced the birth of a son last fall, but the baby died from complications after several weeks; the sonogram- derived heartbeat of the fetus is used for the rhythm of one of the giddier songs, ‘Sex in the Summer’.)

Prince, an international star since the 1984 film ‘Purple Rain’, has long tried to combine sacred and profane themes, and ‘Emancipation’ is no different, with several songs about God (including a remake of Joan Osborne’s ‘One of Us’) and some dance songs that focus on sex.

The new element, and Prince’s obsession ever since he took a joined male-female symbol as his name, is an obsession with the record industry. For years, Prince has blasted a multi-million dollar contract he signed with Warner as “slavery” (and even used to wear the word ‘Slave’ on his cheek), largely because the company asked him to record commercial dance music and restrict his prolific output.

‘Emancipation’ — which contains 36 songs amounting to three hours of music — is his own response, as is the chorus to the title song: “Emancipation — free to do what I want to!”

For Prince, as well as for fellow discontented pop star George Michael, pop songs are an art form, a reality which record companies fail to understand. As he sings on one anti-industry diatribe, itself titled ‘Slave’, “Everybody keeps trying to break my heart…/I just want to play the part/ The part of someone truly free.”

In a concession to modern trends, Prince even includes some rap songs, including one tune, ‘Face Down’, in which he narrates in the third person how industry executives “wanted to put Prince through the wringer.” Another song ends with Prince mimicking the whiny voice of someone rich enough to go to a club but not hip enough to be accepted there: “I can buy every one of ya!”

Still, if records are judged by sales, Prince’s idea to put out a triple-length album is a flop. ‘Emancipation’ has fallen from U.S. charts since it debuted in December — suffering the same fate as two Prince albums put out by Warner last year, the soundtrack to Spike Lee’s movie ‘Girl 6’ and ‘Chaos and Disorder’.

Yet anyone who gives ‘Emancipation’ a try will find at least something interesting or amusing. The lead song, ‘Jam of the Year’, is a smooth dance number, while ‘Damned If I Do’ is a fun rock song with a lively horn section. Other songs include goofy musings about the Internet (‘Emale’, ‘My Computer’), jazz interludes (‘Courting Time’) and even a tap-dance solo by young dancer Savion Glover (on ‘Joint 2 Joint’).

The second of the three CDs is even a suite about marriage and parenthood, which include some of the sweetest songs Prince ever wrote — certainly a change of pace given his notoriety for lyrics so vulgar that Tipper Gore, the wife of the U.S. vice president, formed a parents’ lobby to police pop records in the 1980s.

Of course, Prince remains unique enough that he can’t resist making a serious message about commitment by delivering a mock lecture to a one-night lover: “You don’t know me…You don’t even know what kind of cereal I eat…Wrong: Captain Crunch with soy milk.”

That may be just another joke from ‘the Artist with No Name’, but on ‘Emancipation’, Prince shows he’s still serious about music.