Prince - I Wanna Be Your Lover

Weeks ago I noticed that Prince's fiftieth birthday was coming up, and decided to do a post honoring the occasion. Then of course I forgot about it. So here, three days late, is that post.

This is the first Prince song I ever heard, and I remember exactly where I was when I first heard it -- the car I was in, the road I was on, the hour of the day. I had learned a habit which I still follow if I come across music I'm unfamiliar with: listen to it carefully, once. In other words, give the music one fair chance to make an impression. And don't cheat -- listen to it all the way through to the end. Then I can come to some sort of conclusion about it. I do this with artists I'm not familiar with, to see if I want to follow something new, and also with artists I already know, to see if their latest work is worth buying. For example, by following this rule, I have avoided buying the last eight or so albums of new material by both R.E.M. and the Rolling Stones.

But this is about Prince. So I listened to this song, thought it was good, and waited for the moment when it started to sound a little false, or lazy, or mindlessly trivial. That moment never came. It was good all the way through to the end. And that was, and still is, rare.

So happy birthday to the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince, whose place in the pantheon of American popular music is secure. He was so young when he started that he seemed young forever, and it's hard to register that he is most likely past the halfway point in his earthly existence. Welcome to the club, sez I, and thanks for the music.