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 Stick
If “Get It Up” was a proof of concept for the Time, then “The Stick” is the moment when their own distinct personality begins to shine through: cut from the same Minneapolis Sound cloth as Prince, but more unselfconsciously funky, with a sexuality that is less provocative than cartoonishly tongue-in-cheek.
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Get It Up
Here, for the first time on record, was Prince playing funk in the raw, “uncut” style of Parliament and Funkadelic–or, for that matter, his former onstage rival Rick James.