It's not really
possible to overstate Prince's impact on my musical taste. You might
not think so if you stood Prince and I side by side. His influence
has been profound, but it's hard to say exactly how.
It's not that I
often pose semi-nude, or wear shirts with ruffles on them. It's not
that I know how to play the guitar. I'm uncomfortable singing about
how I'm going to lick you, or do you, make you holler, or ride you
like an aeroplane or sports car. I'm even more uncomfortable writing
about those things. So I don't. But Prince writes and sings about
those things on a regular basis.
Prince can walk on
stage and catch a guitar being thrown to him from the other side. I
can't do that. Please don't come to any performance of mine expecting
to see me catch airborne guitars. It's not going to happen.
Prince has guitars
with unusual shapes. My guitar is shaped like a guitar.
I am short but
Prince is shorter. I am white and Prince is black. Maceo Parker is
willing to play in Prince's band. I suspect that I do not have the
same “pull” in the industry. To date, Prince has had ten of his
albums go platinum and thirty songs chart in the top forty. I
haven't had any of those things, to date. He had his first big hit
when he was twenty. When I was in twenty, I was just in college.
Getting a degree in Sociology. Prince didn't do that. He had other
priorities.
* * *
Most other music
that I like doesn't sound much like Prince. And sometimes his
records are what the critics would call “self indulgent” (this is
something we actually have in common.) But other times his songs are
so perfectly composed, arranged, and performed that they transcend
style.
“When You Were
Mine” is an example of a perfect pop song. Its sentiment is not
only wistful, romantic, bitter, ironic, hurt or hopeful, but all of
those things, and the words are well-chosen and well-rhymed. The
moment and the feeling described could easily become too small or too
big, but it never becomes either one of these. The melody is
instantly memorable, and the song contains all the hooks that it
possibly can and should.
Probably this is
why Cyndi Lauper put it on her record too. It's a perfect song, and
everyone likes one of those. When I first heard those perfect songs
of his, they made a big impact. Bigger than the ruffled shirts,
sexual innuendo, and stagecraft. This is just a good song, and when I
learned that, it felt like I had really learned something.
