I’ve always wondered…if I had to write for someone other than myself and they asked me to leave my comfort zone and write about something that’s not in my wheelhouse, would I be able to do it? Then came this insane idea about writing about a random Prince song every day.
I’m an album person. Even when I’m not listening to vinyl, more often than not I like to press play on an album and listen from start to finish. When I’m not in the mood for an album I make playlists of the best songs by my favorite artists and shuffle them. My Prince playlist has over 200 songs on it. If you ask me to write about any of those 200 songs I can give you at least a few hundred words without needing to do much (if any) research. This is my fourth song in a row that’s not on my playlist. If it’s not on my playlist and it’s not on an album, I have limited experience with it.
That leads us to today’s selection: “La, La, La, He, He, Hee.” This song is the B-side of the 1987 classic “Sign O’ the Times.” There are some cool things happening on this track amidst a lot of nonsense. The rhythm guitar and horns – courtesy of Eric Leeds (sax) and Atlanta Bliss (trumpet) – are funky as hell. The lyrics are absurd. So ridiculous that when I was researching the song I found out that the song was based on a dare by singer and frequent collaborator Sheena Easton. She sarcastically challenged him to write a song about her six cats and he came up with this. A song with so much blatant cat innuendo you’d have to be deaf not to pick up on it. I can even get with the innuendo, but the animal sound effects are a bit much for me. Again, there is some good in this song, but it’s overshadowed by excessive meowing and pussy references.
Not a bad song, but certainly not a great one. A below average Prince song. I’m giving it 1.5 out of 5 and I’m begging the Excel Gods to give me something I can work with tomorrow. If you’re gonna keep throwing B-sides at me, give me “17 Days” or “Erotic City” please.
mookiefantana 