Vanity And Insanity

On a sunny day in June, 1958, Minneapolis saw the birth of just another black kid amongst a struggling community. Prince Rogers Nelson , in adult life, became a singer, songwriter, producer, record label owner, multi talented instrumentalist and a studio owner, not to mention one of the most exuberant, exciting and outstanding performers of the twentieth century.

His first UK release came in the form of a single called 'I want to be your lover.' It entered the charts in January 1980 and failed to even make the top 40. This didn't deter the young singer and dreamt of greater heights. In all honesty, this didn't come along for another 4 years. Not until July 1984.

'Purple Rain', a film written as a semi autobiographical account of a young, talented boy growing up in a tough and poor neighbourhood failed to attract any form of positive recognition. The critics jumped all over it calling it pretentious and a waste of money. The soundtrack, on the other hand had earned Prince World fame. His first real taste of British acclaim came with the single, 'Little Red Corvette,' in April 1983. Prince had needed to maintain is pride by keeping on the same high cloud. 'Purple Rain' arguably became the greatest achievement of his career. A moment in his time, that the artist hasn't really topped since. Even though 'Parade - the soundtrack from 'Under The Cherry Moon' (1986) actually reached a higher position in the album chart , ('Parade' claimed number 4 where as 'Purple Rain' only claimed number 7) it is 'Purple Rain' that stands alone in the corridor of excellence.

His royal purpleness, encaged by an ever growing entourage of purpalies had created an atmosphere of total stardom. Of his own making, he had now reached the summit of God dom and hasn't been able to come down from it since.

His recent performance at the Brits was received with the same exuberance and excitement as if he had donned a Louis XIV wig, purple frills, straddling a purple motorbike and rode it as his entrance on stage. We could forget for one moment that it has been over two years since any releases from him. Hard to believe he is soon to be 48.

'Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life....' like a James Brown sermon in The Blues Brothers, we open this album with Prince the Preacher dictating to us his understanding of life and the after world. He is about to give us his greatest lesson like Sammy Davis Jr telling us to take a dive and swim to Daddy...our eyes are opened as well as our ears. We get ready for a lesson in throwing away care, kicking troubles in the groin and tweaking the nose hairs of strife, yes, its Prince giving us a taste of the album complete with ecstatic keyboards and low guitar riffs. We hear the artist's adaptation of rock, pop and anything gloriously arrogant.

'Lets Go Crazy' should speak for itself. A mad rush of energy pours out of our speakers and into our brains. We will emerge from this experience fully cleansed and enlightened. I believe that any sudden burst of frighteningly fast drum machines and hysterical guitars good for the soul. It would not be Prince without some yells and screams. This might be the only album where listening is just as good as the visual. We don't need to see Prince having it off with a microphone stand or running his tongue up and down a fret board (ouch), we http://seoulorganicgrowers.com/ can experience the whole live thing straight through our speakers. One thing is for sure, this album aims to please, excite, and begs for applause. Prince wormed his way into our hearts and our record collections with this enchanting piece of theatrical performance. There is not much left out of this irrational piece of basically going wild with no sense of direction. One will either love it or hate and skip the rest of the album.. If you keep going with it, listen with an open mind.