Prince Rogers Nelson

Prince: A True Master Of His Artistry

by Monique T. & GM

Born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota to a musical family, Prince from the age of five began to teach himself how to play the piano. His father John L. Nelson formed part of the Prince Rogers Jazz Trio and alongside of which sang Prince’s mother Mattie Shaw. It was by this influence that Prince acquired his voracity for music and by the age of twelve he already had formed his first band: Grand Central. Not one to be discouraged, Prince sought to learn all he could about music, sneaking into many music classes at school to learn how to play more instruments (no number sufficed – he now plays more than thirty!), learning the business aspect of it, perfecting his performances, and writing techniques (he’s ventured into every type of music style in existence!).

At age sixteen he sought a recording studio and found one run by C. Moon. They came to an agreement in which Prince was allowed to use the studio if he supplied music for Moon’s lyrics (“Soft And Wet” Lyrics are credited to C. Moon). Thereafter, a well-connected talent scout named Bob Husney, who had been in the music business for a while, after he heard some of Prince’s demos from C. Moon (astounded by the fact that everything was performed by him) rushed to help Prince get signed with a recording studio. After much work, at nineteen years old in 1978, Prince signed with the Warner Brothers music label. Soon afterward his first album For You was released. Although it wasn’t a commercial hit (it did sell a respectable 100,000 copies), his versatility and artistry were apparent and  it yielded his first hit, “Soft And Wet.” He followed this with his self-titled album in 1979, but it wasn’t until Dirty Mind (1980) that Prince came to create a new sound (the 80's sound) and an ambiguous persona filled with controversy to go with it. After Controversy in 1981came the millennium-inspired album 1999 which truly and finally established Prince as an international star. The album was loaded with hits such as its title track “1999,” “Little Red Corvette,” “Delirious,” etc. and the 1999 Tour extended into the following year.

By 1983, Prince began shooting his film, “Purple Rain” and his magnificent album (of the same title) cemented his status as the Prince Royale of music he truly is. All hailed His Royal Badness in 1984, eventful only for being the year of the “Purple Rain” release. Thereafter, Prince’s career went into commercial decline when critics failed to comprehend his next two albums -- the fanciful Around The World In A Day (1985) and the magnificent instrumentation of Parade in 1986 which became the soundtrack to his film “Under The Cherry Moon”. Perhaps the world was not ready for a progressive, dynamic and evolving artist like Prince who equated stagnation to death (what kind of legacy could he have hoped for had he relented and written nothing but “Purple Rain” rerun albums for the rest of his career?!). Had he perhaps written nothing but such repetitious commercial formulations, Prince would have continued to sell large numbers of copies and have been praised by the critics but his career would have amounted to nothing, not even enough to earn him a decent obituary in the LA Times! Sign ‘O’ The Times (1987) regained him success that once more was followed by decline with his spiritual album Lovesexy (1988). The Batman album (an ingenious collection of Burtonian songs envisioning a crime-ridden Gotham to mirror modern New York), Graffiti Bridge, an album and a film (which was an enigma to all and was simply dismissed by critics), and Diamonds and Pearls (1991) brought steady numbers but also an uncertainty as to Prince’s direction in music. Finally his Love Symbol Album O(+> (1992) defined this direction in his movement into rap a part in creating the progressive, socially conscious early ‘90's sound.

In 1993, Prince changed his name to O(+>, an unpronounceable symbol (or glyph, if pronunciation is intended) to settle his dispute with Warner Bros Inc over his master tapes and publishing rights, a grueling battle which ended in 2000 with the expiration of his contract, at which time he was then able to regain use of his birth name. In 1996 Prince married Mayté García, a dancer from his NPG band, and they were divorced in 1998 after Prince having borne the tragedy of a son who died a few days after birth. It was during this time that Prince went through a hibernating period in which he stayed in Chanhassen (where his Paisley Park recording studio was) to entertain fans and plunge into writing a vast body of new material which became the exegesis of his suffering state. In 1998 New Power Soul was released (which should have done much better than it did, just as Prince’s magnum opus Emancipation and the R-rated Come and rhythmically endowed The Gold Experience should have) and Prince began with his Hit ‘N’ Run Tour in 1999. Prince married Manuella Testolini,  an employee whom he divorced in 2006. Critics continued to misinterpret Prince’s work and albums like Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (1999), The Rainbow Children (2003) (a wonderful soothing album concerning many topics such as slavery, life and religion, dismissed as simply being religious affectation and pietistic hogwash) all went ignored. Even the extraordinary instrumental N.E.W.S. failed to yield results. It wasn’t until Musicology in 2004 when Prince began to do interviews again and performed at the Grammy Awards that he moved up in the public eye (thanks primarily to his ingenious ploy of selling tickets that had the price of an included album). 3121 and Planet Earth also went badly in sales due to insufficient commercialization. Yet the body critic can never have the last word about a phenomenon like Prince whose work is a metaphysical riddle, his conception always changing and growing, but he shall go the way of all great men and his genius will be his epitaph.