It's funny. You stay away from blogging for a whole month, and come back to find that the music industry as we know it is on the verge of collapse. First, Fopp, home of the £5 CD and wafer-thin margins, seemingly goes to the wall. Then, the retail sector's woes are multiplied when it's announced that Prince's new CD is going to be given away for free with the Mail On Sunday. Those familiar with Prince's recent output might argue that even this is overvaluing his work.
It wasn't always thus, though. While his finger slipped off the quality-control button in about, oooh, 1987 (roughly the time that he fired the Revolution, featuring talents like Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, and replaced them with workaday yes-men), there was a time from Dirty Mind to Sign O' The Times when he could do no wrong. Some of his best work of the period was reserved for side projects like The Time, The Family, Sheila E and Vanity 6. There are plenty of fansites that can put you in the picture regarding his career, so I shan't bother here, but for anyone that needs reminding of his purple patch (sorry) I've posted a Vanity 6 track below, the sort of thing he used to be able to knock off in his sleep. I'm really not holding out hope of any Prince renaissance, by the way, but the news that his new CD features the aforementioned Wendy and Lisa, and that his recent tours have starred Sheila E, does raise expectations slightly...
Download Nasty Girl by Vanity 6 (deleted May 2008)
See Sheila E Sister Fate
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