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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Sexuality
Like Prince’s earlier stabs at social commentary, “Sexuality” offers a kind of generalized, non-denominational liberation through hedonism and individual self-expression.
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Controversy, Part 3: Do I Believe in God? Do I Believe in Me?
More even than race and sexuality, the distinction between “God” and “me”–the sacred and the secular, the spirit and the flesh, etc.–was the prevailing theme of Prince’s career.
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Controversy, Part 2: Am I Straight or Gay?
While Prince’s flirtation with “post-racial” ideas in the Controversy era now seems antiquated and naïve, his similarly post-gender aesthetic feels remarkably ahead of its time.