Fellow Prince heads, I have a confession. I have been battling an ear infection all week. If you’ve ever had one, you know having an ear infection means excruciating pain in one side of your head that prevents you from sleeping or concentrating. Then you have moments of exhaustion due to the lack of sleep when your body seems to block out the pain for a few hours and you’re able to sleep despite the pain. I slept from about 4:30 – 7:00 PM today, and now here I am. Up in the middle of the night again. I tell you all of this because in 80+ days this is the closest I’ve come to missing a day of Daily Prince posts.
Then I opened up Apple Music on my phone tonight and saw that the pre-order of Sign ‘O’ the Times is available to add and two songs are already there to stream: “Witness 4 the Prosecution (Version 1)” and “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man (1979 Version).” It gave me new energy. Damn, the 1979 version of “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” is the shit. Makes me wonder if that would’ve been a hit for him if he had put it on the Prince album. How differently would it be viewed now? I love the Sign ‘O’ the Times version, too, but this one is more raw. Sounds like it was recorded in a basement. “Witness 4 the Prosecution” is cool as well. Gotta give it a few more listens to familiarize myself. If these two songs are any indication of what’s to come in September (and you know they are), we are in for a serious treat.
So, here I sit about six hours before my posts usually go up and I’ve got nothing. The right side of my head continues to throb. At one point during this adventure I had eight or nine extra posts done and scheduled ahead of time. It would be perfect for an occasion like this so I could take the night off. As I’ve gotten busier with work my habit has become writing these posts less than 10 hours before they go up on the site. So, tonight I turn to the Random Prince Song Generator for something good, but it has a twisted sense of humor. Apparently this week it’s decided my theme is mid-90’s songs about technology. Since the Random Prince Song Generator is an Excel workbook and Excel is mid-90’s software, I guess that’s karma or something. I need to step my software game up. Seriously, though…I still have about 475 songs in the Random Prince Song Generator. What are the odds that I’d get “My Computer” and “Emale” in back-to-back days? About 1 in 225,150 I guess…
“Emale” is smooth. Another track from 1996’s Emancipation triple album. Nice laid back mid-90’s R&B vibe with contributions from Eric Leeds and Brian Lynch on sax and trumpet, respectively. This song isn’t breaking any ground for Prince, but it’s got a cool mid-tempo groove and just enough funk. Also has a hint of west coast hip hop to it like Warren G had a hand in the production. Unlike some of Prince’s other somewhat generic sounding 90’s work, I dig this song. However, I honestly have no idea what the hell he’s talking about. I’ve never considered myself to be great at translating lyrics to find a message between the lines. I feel like a song need to hit you over the head with symbolism for me to get it. I was 20 years old before I knew “Little Red Corvette” wasn’t about a car. OK, I’m exaggerating a bit, but you get it.
For all of my praise of Prince yesterday for understanding technology on the track “My Computer” I’m wondering if he was actually confused. Most of the chorus of “Emale” is just Prince repeating the line, “www.emale.com.” Wait, does he understand what e-mail is? Does he realize that e-mail is not a website? Here’s a sampling of the lyrics:
The emale left so clearly upon a computer screen
Read like a threat that crept into her like a sex machine
Wanted, Any woman who’s first name begins with a “Z”
From the sound of the keys, a pawn makes a move
Her reply brings on the groove
Sorry. I don’t get it. Someone needs to translate for me. No matter. Just block out the nonsensical lyrics and dig the vibe on this track. “Emale” is solid 90’s Prince work and I’m going to give it an average score. Maybe tomorrow he’ll have a song about a fax machine for me to tackle…and maybe the pain in the right side of my head will finally subside.
mookiefantana 