Author: Zachary Hoskins
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The Dawn: How Prince’s Troubled Followup to 1999 Almost Became His Feature Film Debut
After the runaway success of his breakout album 1999, Prince had carte blanche to do almost anything he wanted. So, typical of his vaunting ambition circa 1982, he decided to follow up with both an album and a major motion picture. Sadly, the world never got to see the fruits of his cinematic vision; but…
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Baby I’m a Star
“Baby I’m a Star” has the familiar air of Prince self-actualizing through music: projecting himself toward a celebrity status he was still years away from achieving.
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Roundup: 1999, 1982
In case you missed it, yesterday I finally closed the book on the 1999 era for dance / music / sex / romance (well, almost… I still plan to write “bonus tracks” posts on “Vagina,” “Colleen,” “You’re All I Want,” and “Money Don’t Grow on Trees” for Patreon readers in the near future). This was…
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1999
What set Prince apart from his early-’80s peers was his insistence on greeting Judgment Day, not with solemn gravity or mordant gallows humor, but with a seemingly irony-free display of millenarian ecstasy.
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No Call U
It isn’t entirely clear whether “No Call U,” recorded toward the end of the 1999 sessions on July 23, was intended for Jill Jones, another side project, or Prince himself; more likely than not, given the “crazy blur” of recording sessions during this period, it wasn’t even clear to the participants at the time.
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Lady Cab Driver (Rearrange)
What keeps “Lady Cab Driver” distinct from 1999’s other transportation-themed erotic fantasies, “Little Red Corvette” and “International Lover,” is its pervasive sense of angst.