Daily Prince 10/18/20: Nothing Compares 2 U

I started the Daily Prince posts almost exactly six months ago to give me something to write about while spending days and night’s in the house during the COVID outbreak. I never envisioned I’d still be writing them six months later. We were supposed to be done with this by now. Once I got about a month in I was shooting for 50. Then 100. Yesterday was 176 days in a row. When does this end? 200? A year? Every Prince song ever recorded? I’ll tell you when. Today.

I decided tonight that I’m stopping the Daily Prince posts indefinitely. I’d love to continue writing about Prince, but I need to focus on a some other things right now. I left my job of 20 years recently. There’s an election coming up and I want to do everything I can to make sure Donald Trump doesn’t get four more years. I honestly think there’s a chance none of us will be around to see 2024 if he’s re-elected. I wish I was exaggerating. Most importantly I’ve been kicking around the idea of writing a book for about two years now and I think this is the right time to do it. Unfortunately, writing about my dearly beloved Prince every day takes away time that I could be using toward this crazy book idea I have. If I’m going to be looking for a job and trying to write a book along with everything else that comes with being husband of an ICU nurse during a pandemic and a father of three kids who happen to be in virtual school, I might have to chill on the Prince posts for a minute. Also, there are other topics I’d like to write about on the blog, but when I’m spending anywhere from 30-120 minutes every day writing about Prince, there isn’t a lot of time for other things.

So, sadly, I’m leaving the Daily Prince blog unfinished. I honestly don’t know what “finished” looks like if you’re writing about every Prince song. That could take years. I’ll gladly continue if someone wants to pay me for it, but I don’t see that happening. If someone wants to sponsor mookiefantana.com holler at me!

One thing I did not want to leave unfinished is my 5 Star Prince playlist. I didn’t get to write about all of the songs, but I made a quick run through the Prince catalog tonight and completed my list. Here they are in alphabetical order:

The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker – Sign O’ The Times (1987)
The Beautiful Ones – Purple Rain (1984)
Computer Blue (Hallway Speech Version) – Purple Rain Deluxe Edition (1984)
Darling Nikki – Purple Rain (1984)
Erotic City – “Let’s Go Crazy” 12″ Single B-Side (1984)
Head – Dirty Mind (1980)
Housequake – Sign O’ The Times (1987)
Kiss – Parade (1986)
Let’s Go Crazy (Special Dance Mix) – “Let’s Go Crazy” 12″ Single (1984)
Little Red Corvette – 1999 (1982)
Mountains – Parade (1986)
Partyup – Dirty Mind (1980)
Purple Rain – Purple Rain (1984)
Raspberry Beret – Around The World In A Day (1985)
Sign O’ The Times – Sign O’ The Times (1987)
Sometimes It Snows In April – Parade (1986)
When Doves Cry – Purple Rain (1984)
7 (Acoustic Version) – “7” Single (1992)
17 Days – “When Doves Cry” 12″ Single B-Side (1984)
1999 – 1999 (1982)

A few thoughts:

• The Hallway Speech version of “Computer Blue” is such a chaotic masterpiece. Whoever decided to leave the second verse out of the album version (It must’ve been Prince, right?) should be jailed.
• Yes, I have two B-Sides on the list, and they’re both from the Purple Rain era. Yes, that’s six songs from the Purple Rain soundtrack and two more B-Sides from Purple Rain singles. Yes, I happen to like that album. 1984 was a good year for Prince.
• It still bothers me that Prince heads seems to turn up their nose at “Let’s Go Crazy.” When I wrote my piece about the 4th best song on Purple Rain 18 months ago the main argument I got in response was that “Let’s Go Crazy” doesn’t belong in the top three. Really? It’s one of the greatest rock and roll songs of all-time and an amazing party starter. The intro and guitar solo are iconic moments in popular music. The Special Dance Mix adds all of the crazy shit from the movie. One of Prince’s best songs. Period. I refuse to listen to any arguments stating otherwise.
• I was very much looking forward to the day “Partyup” appeared on the Daily Prince Song Randomizer so I could argue passionately for why this obscure song buried at the end of Prince’s 1980 breakthrough album Dirty Mind deserved a place on the list.
• “7” is a great song, but there’s an acoustic version out there that’s not available on streaming services (that I know of). It’s worth the work to find it. It’s just a stripped down version of the original recording. I listened to it the day after Prince died and cried my eyes out.

Those are the perfect Prince songs in my humble opinion. If we add 4.5 star and 4 star songs to the list it gets long. I could make you a playlist of my favorite 100 Prince songs and I guarantee it would be fire from start to finish. Maybe I’ll work on that… If you’d like to listen to this playlist on Apple Music here’s a link: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/5-star-prince/pl.u-Gg4pgU5P3VE

Unfortunately the Acoustic Version of “7” was not available, so I went with the album version for the playlist.

Also before I go I want to give one more shoutout to Princevault.com. I’ve read a pile of Prince books, listened to countless podcasts, and absorbed a lot of information. It was still a relief having Prince Vault available for fact checking. I’ve been on that site every day for six months. I would’ve never gotten 180 days into this project without it. If the folks at Prince Vault are looking for someone to do some writing or website work, I’m available.

That’s gonna do it for the Daily Prince blog for now. If you’ve been following I hope you enjoyed it and sincerely appreciate that you’d take a few minutes to read what I have to say about anything. I hope you keep following what’s next. Thanks.

Long live Prince.