20. My Name Is Prince (Love Symbol, 1992)
Prince never sounded as angry as he did in this song about artistic self-determination – and never again since. With a kind of hoarse breath, Prince let his rival Michael Jackson (who had recently been crowned “King Of Pop”) belt out: “You Have To Become A Prince Before You’re King Anyway”.
Ironically, it would only be two years before Prince dropped his name and became TAFKAP. But even Tony M. raps on point here. Great song. Great opener!
19. Venus de Milo (Parade, 1986)
The number of orchestral musicians involved reads longer than the instrumental piece lasts (1:54). “Venus De Milo” is the tragicomic motif for Prince’s gigolo role in “Under The Cherrymoon.”
18. Take Me With U (Purple Rain, 1984)
In a cheerful duet with Apollonia, Prince pretends to have taken the first step towards domesticity through a trip together and lots of free time together. The song was supposed to appear on the Apollonia 6 album, but ended up on “Purple Rain” at short notice. “Computer Blue” and “Let’s Go Crazy” therefore had to be shortened.
17. I Wish U Heaven (Lovesexy, 1988)
“If I See Eleven / You Can Say It’s Seven / Still I Wish U Heaven.” The angel!
In the extended version, Prince not only uses unreleased songs (“Take This Beat”), but also lets the devil have his say. Prince becomes Tony “Scarface” Montana: “Say Hello To My Little Friend!”
16. Raspberry Beret (Around The World In A Day, 1985)
“Raspberry Beret” certainly deserves fame as a children’s song, but it also contains ambiguous and beautiful lyrics that Prince rarely managed to achieve afterwards.
“That’s when I saw her, ooh, I saw her / She walked in through the out door, out door” is just as brilliant as the farmhouse episode: “The rain sounds so cool when it hits the barn roof / And the horses wonder who you are / Thunder drowns out what the lightning sees / You feel like a movie star.”
The band Lightning Seeds, who misheard, named themselves after this passage.
15. Erotic City (B-side “Let’s Go Crazy”, 1984)
Beguiling, disturbing, endlessly cool: The duet between Prince and Sheila E. is like the accompanying melody from a Kubrick vision of the future, in which love has something pathological. We guarantee you, put this song on at a party – as soon as the bass hits, people are on the dance floor.
14. Lovesexy (Lovesexy, 1988)
Prince sings with the power of four different voices, has sex with himself: “Tonight We Make Love With Only Words – Girls First”. Dizzying. Unfortunately, it never played a role again outside of the “Lovesexy” tour.
13. The Dance Electric (Unreleased, 1984)
The piece, later published in an abridged form by André Cymone, offers a magnificently priestly opening (“Good Morning Children”) and is a highly danceable, twelve-minute appeal to forgive your enemies.
It’s a shame that Prince didn’t release it himself, he must have thought back then that his muse would never run out – it’s fine, can go. The “Purple Rain” B-side “God” would quote the title again, which would elevate “The Dance Electric” to prayer; he himself would return to the piece on the “Parade” tour.
“Dance The Dance Electric” – you want to say this sequence of words out loud again and again, it never, ever gets boring.
12. Sign ‘O’ The Times (Sign ‘O’ The Times, 1987)
Prince’s first rap and a successful attempt to capture politics in song form: the ghetto, AIDS, war, the Challenger disaster. The bass is remarkable, precisely because the bass rarely plays a decisive role in Prince.
Title song of his critics’ favorite album – and which Prince composed in 1986 and initially did not think he could play a standard-bearer role.
11. Christopher Tracy’s Parade / New Position / I Wonder U / Under The Cherrymoon (Parade, 1986)
“Parade” opened with a four-part suite consisting of “Christopher Tracy’s Parade,” “New Position,” “I Wonder U,” and “Under The Cherrymoon,” all connected by the drums. Probably Prince’s best nine minutes. The alien-sounding drums are accompanied by Clare Fischer’s orchestra, and these four songs perfectly reflect Prince’s changes in mood: first the world is his oyster, then he wants sex, and finally comes the doubts, the fear of mortality, the clinging to romance .
After this gala it was clear that the man could no longer do anything wrong. It was announced to be one of the best albums of 1986.