This year, the '80s turn old. Three of the biggest artists of that decade turn 50 this summer: Madonna (August 16), Michael Jackson (August 29) and, today, Prince. Back in the day, everyone thought he was the weird one, but while Madonna peddles kid's books and lukewarm disco and Michael, well, whatever, Prince is the one who has grown up distinguished. He's fashioned himself an R&B statesman, and his work is as good as ever, despite the popular idea that he's "over." The Rainbow Children (2001), Musicology (2004) and 3121 (2006) stand up to his best albums. 3121 also received the biggest first-week sales of his career.
As a Jehovah's Witness, Prince probably isn't celebrating his birthday today, but that doesn't mean that TFGTSI has to ignore it. Here's a sampling of some of the finest Prince covers our team of interns were able to uncover. No Cyndi Lauper or Chaka Kahn or Alicia Keys, though. That'd be too easy.
On the title track of the 1981 album Controversy, Prince sang "Am I straight or gay?" The song was more about media fixation on his personal life than about his real preferences, but the album ended with a song that would beg the question. True he addresses a "girl" in the song, but who listens to lyrics? Most people missed "I only do it for a worthy cause / Virginity or menopause" and only heard the chorus: "I'll jack you off" (repeated five times) - making the song a natural for homo band Pansy Division to cover 13 years later.
Pansy Division - Jack U Off (MP3)
(Prince graphic from the b3ta Extended Album Art page)
Prince's next album was his big crossover into the pop charts, with "Little Red Corvette" and the title track. 1999 came out in 1982, but it was guaranteed to be an end-of-the-century anthem. None other than The Residents put up an mp3 on their website to close the millennium, and Evolution Control Committee put out a whole album of variations on the song - Party Like It's Only $19.99 - featuring the likes of Wobbly and Help Suit.
The Residents - Nineteen-Ninety-Nine (MP3)
Evolution Control Committee - Princelot Link and the Revolution Evolution Control Committee (MP3)
1984 was the man's huge breakthrough, of course, with Purple Rain. The album, the movie, the guitar solo, Tipper Gore - it's where he started bowing to Carlos Santana and studio invention, setting the stage for the amazing work to come. The movie might not have been great (since when do they outline the body in an attempted suicide?), but it made him a star, and inspired Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, Alchemical Burn, and Snuffleruft, who contributed a version of the title song to Station Manager Ken's Sixty Second Song Remix Contest,
Steven Bernstein Millennial Territory Orchestra - Darling_Nikki (MP3)
Alchemical Burn - When Doves Cry (MP3)
(You can get the whole album of Cobra/Group covers here.)
The final section of "Darling Nikki" was rumored to contain a backwards message. Some claimed it was something Satanic, others said you could hear Prince say "How are you, I am fine because I know the Lord is coming soon, coming, coming soon." You can judge for yourself if it's the Lovesexy or the Spookyelectric talking.
Prince - Darling Nikki (backwards) (MP3)
The next album, Around the World in a Day, wasn't quite the same smash, but it did include the song "Raspberry Beret," currently #23 on the US military prison hit parade. It's Pince's version, not the one Dump (aka James McNew of Yo La Tengo) included on his cassette of Prince covers, That Skinny Motherfucker With the High Voice?
The next album, Parade, was where Prince started getting too weird for radio, and was the soundtrack for an even worse movie than Purple Rain. Still, it charted #3 on the Billboard charts (#2 on the R&B chart) and spawned a #1 single, interpreted here by classical guitarist Benjamin Verdery and again by Moonman, another entry in Ken's Sixty Second Song challenge.
Steven Bernstein shows up twice on our countdown. He covered the title track from Prince's next album with his band Sex Mob on the 1998 album Din of Inequity. (Supplemental reading: check out Michaelangelo Matos's excellent book on Sign 'O' the Times, part of the recommendable 33 1/3 series.)
Sex Mob - Sign 'O' the Times (MP3)
Station Manager Ken also posted about Brian Joseph Davis, who burned ten albums that had been banned or censored and then played the remains, including, of course, Purple Rain. The whole of the wreckage can be heard here.
Overhearing her daughter listening "Darling Nikki" is what inspired Tipper Gore to found the Parents Music Resource Center, which was behind the legislation requiring "Parental Advisory" labels on records with words like "magazine," which was what inspired Davis to burn records and play them. Of course, since Prince was baptized a Jehovah's Witness in 2001, he can't use dirty words anymore, so maybe he and Tipper aren't so different these days. In any event, we leave you with Davis' charred Purple Rain.
I remember hearing this band play half of a total remake of P- R- somewhere in the Northwest; they were called something like Coleen's Sad End Affects Me Deeply on Both Emotional and Philosophical Levels Yet I Persevere. They disappeared but someone found the title track at http://www.myspace.com/juniorjail
at least it sounds similar though not as violent.
Also I have heard that Robert Downey Jr has a remake of Gett Off that someone may have leaked. True?
Posted by: Ransom Carroll | June 07, 2008 at 05:30 PM
I remember hearing this band play half of a total remake of P- R- somewhere in the Northwest; they were called something like Coleen's Sad End Affects Me Deeply on Both Emotional and Philosophical Levels Yet I Persevere. They disappeared but someone found the title track at http://www.myspace.com/juniorjail
at least it sounds similar though not as violent.
Also I have heard that Robert Downey Jr has a remake of Gett Off that someone may have leaked. True?
Posted by: Ransom Carroll | June 07, 2008 at 05:31 PM
I remember hearing this band play half of a total remake of P- R- somewhere in the Northwest; they were called something like Coleen's Sad End Affects Me Deeply on Both Emotional and Philosophical Levels Yet I Persevere. They disappeared but someone found the title track at http://www.myspace.com/juniorjail
at least it sounds similar though not as violent.
Also I have heard that Robert Downey Jr has a remake of Gett Off that someone may have leaked. True?
Posted by: Ransom Carroll | June 07, 2008 at 05:31 PM
Don't forget the Hindu Love Gods (Warren Zevon and REM sans Michael Stipe) cover of Rasberry Beret!
Posted by: Scott | June 07, 2008 at 05:44 PM
back when i had one of those newfangled mp3 blogs, i posted my friend evan reidell's full acapella rendition of the purple rain album. you can find it here if so inclined: http://www.porkchopsandapplesauce.org/purplerainfull.mp3
Posted by: m butler | June 08, 2008 at 02:21 PM
Even Mitch Ryder covered When You Were Mine.
Posted by: Kay | June 08, 2008 at 05:10 PM
Even Mitch Ryder covered When You Were Mine.
Posted by: Kay | June 08, 2008 at 05:10 PM
Even Mitch Ryder covered When You Were Mine.
Posted by: Kay | June 08, 2008 at 05:10 PM
Even Mitch Ryder covered When You Were Mine.
Posted by: Kay | June 08, 2008 at 05:10 PM
Even Mitch Ryder covered When You Were Mine.
Posted by: Kay | June 08, 2008 at 05:10 PM
(ooops!)
Posted by: Kay | June 08, 2008 at 05:11 PM
The most amazing versions of Prince songs I've ever heard are by the German singer Roger Cicero. I saw him sing "How Come U Don't Call me Anymore" live in concert and he was stunning. He's just released a live recording as part of his new single "Alle Möbel verrückt". There are a few clips of "How Come U don't Call me" recorded by fans at his concerts on YouTube and a version from a few years ago: http://youtube.com/watch?v=d9y63Y5Dbag. Roger Cicero also performed Kiss on a tv show: http://www.myvideo.de/watch/2611867/TV_Total_24_10_Roger_Cicero (go to 5:26 in)
Posted by: Ivy | June 09, 2008 at 05:27 AM
Laibach. The Cross(from sign of the times) on their Jesus Chist Superstars ROCKS!
Posted by: jomega | June 10, 2008 at 10:48 PM
Hundalasiliah! Thanks, Jomega! I'm off to find "The Cross." I love Laibach's Let it Be, but didn't know about this one. And while I'm at it, I'll be grabbing the a cappella Rain (thanks mbutler). And I've never even heard of Roger Cicero. Thanks Ivy. And I hear even Mitch Ryder covered "When U Were Mine."
Posted by: Kurt Gottschalk | June 11, 2008 at 01:35 AM
Age of Chance does my favorite cover of "Kiss"
http://www.myspace.com/ageofchance
Posted by: Derek in DC | June 11, 2008 at 11:20 PM
You're welcome, Kurt. The German singer Max Raabe also did a cover of Kiss on one of his albums. Thanks Derek, for the Age of Chance. That's the funniest cover of Kiss I've heard since Tom Jones'.
Posted by: Ivy | June 12, 2008 at 05:47 AM