50 albums: 1986 - Parade by Prince and The Revolution

I understand Prince, I respect that he's always pushing at the edges, constantly moving, but I don't "get" him. It's not for want of trying. Knowing that he's the sort of artist that deserves my time and effort, every so often (usually separated by years not weeks) I'll give it a go, I'll try but it just doesn't work. I appreciate Prince... I just can't like him. Listening to Parade I tried to figure out why. It's a good album, better than any other Prince albums I've tried to listen to, but when it finished... even before it finished, I knew I wouldn't be hurrying back to it.

Here's a theory.
I like love songs, I like sad songs, I like happy songs, and I like rock and roll. I'm also incredibly uptight. Sex is something that happens after the song, not in the middle of it. Sex is something that should be done in the dark, between two people who are honest and faithful. Sorry, I'm nearly 50 and sex is actually still pretty frightening for me (and dirty!). Now I know that lots of rock and roll I love is almost certainly about sex, but it generally comes shrouded in metaphors that I don't get, or can pretend I don't get. Or are just disguised as tender love songs, and love is different than sex.

Prince sounds dirty, all the time, even when he's not singing about sex it sounds like he's singing about sex, to the point that I'm not actually sure that he's ever not singing about sex. And then you have a songs like New Position or Kiss and it all becomes too much for me, I can't pretend that they're love songs because they're most certainly not.

Also... the guy is a bit of a prat, and I can never love that.

Obviously all the above is utter nonsense because I own this album and rather love this ridiculous song that might be about sex.

(play on YouTube)

50 films and 50 albums