Prince's Black Album--Surrender To The Funk--It's What Your Hips Were Made For

Pardon My Savoir Faire

I love the Black Album. It was a mysterious record, about to be released, then not released. I heard the rumors about the record and I vowed to get a hold of it. Finally I picked up a cassette of it in New York and listened to it all the time. Funny, funky, filthy. A booty shakin' party disk. Is it one of his best? Prince has made a lot of bests over his career, and this isn't one of them. But its one hell of a ride.

The cassette was destroyed on the beach one summer by an errant wave. The music was etched in my mind forever though. Helpfully the disc had a limited release years later, and I ultimately picked up a used copy in my local used book/music store. I wasn't looking for it, but it came back to me, like the Ring found Bilbo. It's all good here folks, believe me. The track I like least is hip-hoppy spoof Dead On It, and even that is a decent song. Aside from the euphoric ballad When 2 R In Love, it's full-on funktastic and funny.



Clap your Hands doubletime! commands Prince in Le Grind--if you don't think this is funky, pay someone to slap you. Superfunkycalifragisexy? I had to have this album to own a song with that title--and Prince delivers again with one of his best songs on the Black Album. Rockhard in a Funky Place is another top notch tune right out of the P-Funk school with some excellent guitar leads. Cindy C is also a tripped out funk delight. Prince makes it all seem so easy.

For a long period Prince was mainly mocked for his eccentricities and his diminutive height, and the public ignored all the substance beneath the smoke and mirrors. He is really an amazing musician, a polyglot who performs music in a variety of genres, and has made albums where he plays the majority of the instruments. When I started seeing him perform with the Revolution on MTV, I knew something special was happening. And he was a guy open to trying different things. There were rumors that he would sometimes check out some of the Punk bands performing at clubs in Minneapolis back in the 80's. He was in fact an artist who walked a tightrope between rock and rnb. He even signed the Three O'Clock to his Paisley Park label and recorded a good number of psychedelic inspired tunes himself.



But the Black Album is a disc I have a special affection for. I have some of Prince's albums, but with his prolific output, I have only scratched the surface. I think critics were always wondering what he was going to do next, when he was putting out albums every month or so. Even when he throws out the occasional dud, he's always interesting. So check out the Black Album, and satisfy your daily FDA requirement for the funk.