Willing and Able: Prince Hints At Giving a Shit

By Paul Casey

Prince last released an album in 2010 called 20Ten. It was possibly the best thing he has released in the last decade. Super tight, and containing at least three possible hits—“Sticky Like Glue,” “Future Soul Song,” “Laydown”—20Ten was given away free with newspapers in Europe and did not see any kind of release in America. For such a quality album this remains a great shame and is unfortunately indicative of the way Prince has treated his best material after leaving the mainstream in the mid 1990s.

A few days ago, through a typically obtuse delivery method, Prince released some new music. Four videos were uploaded by a YouTube user called 3rdEyeGirl, including one previously unheard track called “Same Page, Different Book.” An extended version of the brilliant “Laydown” was also included, as well as another remix of “Rock and Roll Love Affair.” More importantly, though, a live rehearsal of the 1979 deviant rocker “Bambi” made an appearance, a song that is generally considered to be a remnant of the old Prince.

All four tracks have now been taken down from YouTube, replete with the obligatory copyright claim. Given that Prince proxy Dr. Funkenberry publicized these tracks, as well as the problems inherent in one inside of Prince’s organization surreptitiously releasing this material, it seems that this is the kind of multiple persona game that pleases the Purple One.

This is fairly close to how Prince was operating in the mid 1990s, before he left Warner Brothers Records. One of his first ideas to get around the restrictions placed on him by WB—which limited the amount of new material they would tolerate—was to play new material live and inform those in attendance to record it. This may be a similar attempt to create excitement by limiting the time this music is available. It also seems like a gentle mea culpa to those fans who suffered his increasingly disproportionate reactions to his likeness appearing on fan sites and of course, the use of his music in any context.

As for the content of the tracks, “Bambi” stands as the most exciting, but that is to be expected. A return of the transgressive Prince holds far more promise than anything else. The new song has a laid back funk charm to it, and hopefully along with the excellent “Rock and Roll Love Affair” is further evidence that 2013 is going to bring us a new Prince album. Hopefully this time he will fully commit to giving the music its due by giving it a worldwide release, not just the ones where papers will give him mon mons.