Prince, Little Red Corvette

 

I guess I should've known
By the way you parked your car sideways
That it wouldn't last
See, you're the kinda person that believes in makin' out once
Love 'em and leave 'em fast

 

When I e-mailed those song words to an eminent lady not long after Prince died, it was only because I thought they were great words, we had been exchanging thoughts on the great man's premature demise, she had e-mailed me first, the correspondance didn't have much further to go and I didn't hear back from her.

It took me a few days before I thought, OMG, she must have known, surely, that I was only citing great writing. The trouble with Prince is that there's not much of him you can quote without it being overloaded, drenched in the sort of need that could easily lead to depravity.

If I'd been born ten years earlier, I would not have been able to see beyond the Beatles. Born when I was, and having 1971 as the annus mirabilis, it is Marc Bolan and David Bowie that represent an attitude in 'rock' and 'pop' music that is in the blood and can only be bettered by the Motown Hit Factory. But if I'd been born ten years later, it would have been Prince.

He was a bit more than a year older than me and thus one of a generation of overwhelmingly gifted artists that also included Michael Jackson and Morrissey.

You had to go out and buy the 12-inch Little Red Corvette c/w 1999 and you had to have the Purple Rain album. Other musicians might have played all the instruments and done everything on their records but none of them did it as well as this. I'm still not ashamed of having once nominated Marc Bolan as 'best guitarist' - I didn't really know - but I understand that later, when asked, Eric Clapton said it was Prince and so at least he got that right.

It's Little Red Corvette we have here because it was seminal, important. It's not as if the back catalogue doesn't have so many others to offer. MOJO magazine eventually stopped asking their star interviewees what they thought of Bob Dylan and instead asked what they had to say about Prince.

I slightly 'missed the boat' by being a fraction too old to stay interested in everything he did but the short list of pop geniuses who did most of it all by themselves begins with him. It's not always advisable, it's not always possible but, if you are perfectly capable, it's a good idea.