Last month, I said I wouldn’t be on any more episodes of Prince: Track by Track in 2017, but it turns out I was misremembering. So, here’s me with podcast host Darren Husted talking about one of my all-time favorite Prince tracks, “Joy in Repetition”:
This is–for real–the last time you’ll hear me talking about Prince until next year. I will, however, be back by the end of the week with a nice, long post about “Do Me, Baby,” so don’t go into winter hibernation just yet!
(Featured Image: Purple Rain Tour Shirt, 1984; photo stolen from the Current.)
It’s been just under two months since I started interviewing presenters from this spring’s interdisciplinary Prince conference at the University of Salford, and I’ve been absolutely thrilled with the results. But all good things must come to an end, so I had planned to make this chat with writer Erica Thompson the last of my post-conference podcasts. It would have been a great choice, too; Erica’s presentation was the result of many years of research for a book project on Prince’s spiritual journey, so our conversation was less about the conference in particular and more about her findings more generally: a nice segue into future, less Manchester-centric episodes.
But just when I think I’m out, they keep pulling me back in. Contrary to my own statements in this episode, I have already set up another interview with a few presenters from one of the conference’s gender and sexuality panels. So basically, expect me to keep interviewing scholars from the Purple Reign conference until the next milestone in Prince scholarship comes along. And in the meantime, please enjoy my and Erica’s conversation about the importance–and, sometimes, difficulty–of understanding Prince’s religious faith in relationship with his art.
As usual, I invite you to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play for mobile listening; you can also stream episodes on Mixcloud. And keep listening, because there’s good stuff–Purple Reign-related and otherwise–coming up in the near future!
Hi everyone! While I drag my feet on actually updating this goddamn blog, here’s some Prince-related writing of mine from elsewhere on the Internet: a piece I wrote for the online magazine published by record-of-the-month club Vinyl Me, Please. Thanks very much to VMP for making this happen!
This week we’ll have at least a new podcast for your listening pleasure–maybe more. Stay tuned! (And, by the way, if you’re interested in joining Vinyl Me, Please, use this link so I can get $10.)
I’m not gonna lie, guys: my enthusiasm was flagging for this post. Graffiti Bridgehas never been my favorite Prince album/era, and I’m just not ready to give it another serious try (fortunately, I have plenty of time to work my way up to it on this blog). But I did my best to give Tevin Campbell, Elisa Fiorillo, and Ingrid Chavez the consideration they deserve (not Robin Power though, she’s still wack af).
Honestly, though, I should count my blessings, because next week is–deep breath–Carmen Electra. We all have a week to brace ourselves. Let’s start drinking now.
, 1990.)