Prince's pop life, song by song, in chronological order.
-
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.”
-
Oh, Baby
“Oh, Baby” is merely pleasant: a muted, languorous slow jam, a little like “When We’re Dancing Close and Slow,” except without that song’s genuinely erotic ache.
-
Podcast: The Crazy Things You Do – A Conversation with Kimberly C. Ransom
For the first d / m / s / r podcast of 2018 (!), it was my pleasure to speak with budding educational historian and Prince scholar Kimberly C. Ransom. Kimberly presented at the University of Salford’s interdisciplinary Prince conference last May–those of you who listened to my series of podcasts on that event probably heard
-
Do Me, Baby
“Do Me” wasn’t the first piece of aural erotica to reach the American charts… But those songs, however suggestive, had stayed within the realm of plausible deniability; in contrast, there’s no question what Prince is doing at the end of “Do Me.”