“Shut up already, damn!” Prince really needs follow the directive given in the first line of “Housequake.” After reading a few of his recent interviews, it is clear the man should be locked up and released only to perform. Sure, Prince has always given bizarre and cryptic sound bites but that just added to crazy-sexy mystic. Now he is no longer the eccentric virtuoso wearing assless pants and ruffle blouses, but more the aging pop star, who writes lame, ineffectual fight songs and babbles about conspiracy theories involving chemtrails.
Although it is unfortunate that the fight song written for his home team, the Minnesota Vikings, caused TMZ to rename Prince, “The Artist Formerly Known as Talented,” Purple & Gold is just one example in a long list of songs that proves that Prince can indeed write and produce truly awful music. Anyone remember the dreadful little ditty, “My Name is Prince?” For every brilliant gem like “The Beautiful Ones” or “Starfish & Coffee,” there is a “Jughead” or “Mr. Goodnight.” For every iconic album like Purple Rain or Sign O’ the Times, there is a Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic or Planet Earth. His musical missteps are excused by the sheer brilliance, diversity and enormity of his overall catalog, and the credibility that he has in the music community earns him forgiveness for the Symbol name change and Slave scribbling on his check during his break-up with Warner Bros. But, his comments of race, politics, religion, and sexual orientation cannot be easily dismissed.
While discussing the topic of race with PBS talk show host, Tavis Smiley, Prince mentioned "this phenomenon of chemtrails." He implied a connection between an increase in aircraft trails that coincided with an inexplicable increase in "fighting and arguing" in his neighborhood (not his swank gated community in Minneapolis but his native hood). Everyone has their favorite conspiracy theories. (I am partial to the one where the Kennedys killed Marilynn Monroe.) But some could argue that poverty, substandard housing, poor schools, few legitimate job opportunities, and drugs lead to crime and violence in the inner city and not chemicals sprayed by the government to keep non-white communities down.
And, when Prince isn’t rambling about government oppression while simultaneously emphasizing that he doesn’t vote, he is talking about God. He has always had a lot to say about God, but it was a lot more interesting when he advocated a direct path to spirituality through sex. (See entire Lovesexy album.) Now he holds more dogmatic, rigid and downright homophobic religious beliefs as demonstrated by comments made in an interview with the New Yorker. When asked about gay marriage, Prince pointed to his bible and said: “God came to earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever, and he just cleared it all out. He was, like, 'Enough.'"
Does he not realize that smart people read the New Yorker, a huge portion of his fan base is gay and some of his former bandmates (especially members like Wendy and Lisa who helped him become a star) are gay? Should an artist who has given us songs like Head, Jack U Off, Sister (an incest tune that you can dance too), Let’s Pretend We’re Married (with the classic Prince line, “I'm not sayin' this just 2 be nasty/I sincerely wanna fuck the taste out of your mouth), Erotic City, Hide the Bone and Come (with specific details on where his tongue should be placed and how it should be moved) really be telling people where they should and should not be sticking things?
Oh how I long for days when he didn’t give interviews.
