Prince's pop life, song by song, in chronological order.
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The Belle of St. Mark
While “Glamorous” sounded tailor-made for Sheila’s particular talents (even if it wasn’t), “Belle” is well-crafted but faceless, embodying the essentialist cynicism of the publishing imprint Prince used for his female side projects: “Girlsongs.”
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The Glamorous Life
Prince had tried before with his protégées, most notably Vanity, to Pygmalion a female version of himself; but while a few of these femme-Princes (Princesses?) could emulate him as a sex symbol, none before Sheila had the stage presence or musicianship.
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Erotic City
Here, Prince seems to hearken back to his electro-funk epics of the 1999 era; but rather than retreading past glories, he does so with a sense of tacit self-one-upsmanship, showing just how far he’d come as a musician and producer in the past two years.
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D / M / S / R Subscriber Dispatch #7: July 18, 2025