Interview: Touré Discusses New Book on Prince

In his new book, I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became An Icon, journalist and author Touré suggests and explains certain fundamental reasons why the legendary musician has transcended the context of his craft to ultimately achieve a far more profound cultural distinction.

“It’s one thing to be a star or a superstar, and quite another to be an icon,” Touré maintains. “To become an icon you’ve got to have something more than talent. It’s not just talent that will propel you to that higher level. It’s a deeper connection with the generation that is really buying the music at that point.”

In the book you write about how Prince has explored both spiritual and sexual themes in his music. For a while now, though, I'd say since Emancipation was released [in 1996], he’s seemed to have trouble reconciling the two. What’s your take on that?

That’s a classic sort-of Black music trope. You see a lot of artists playing with the spiritual and the profane either in a career or in a song or in an album: Ray Charles, Al Green, R. Kelly, Toni Braxton, Whitney Houston, on and on and on. Prince wrestled with that — trying to do both, trying to combine both — within a life, within an album, within a song a lot of the time. 

The period you’re talking about, if memory serves, he had become a Jehovah’s Witness at that point and bringing a very overt spirituality back into his life made it a little trickier to reconcile his past wildness. There has always been a push and pull and a desire to have both. And there’s a sort-of pre-Christian understanding that you can worship God through sex. It doesn’t have to be two separate things, like you have to hide your bedroom from God or something like that. It can be all wrapped in one, and he was really pushing for that.

You write about how Generation X — Prince’s core audience — has certain shared references and shared musical icons that it admires, and yet it was the generation that was introduced to consolidated radio and genre-specific radio stations and playlists.

Every generation has those shared touchstones, but I’d push back against your assertion only because MTV was the biggest radio station in the world as we were growing up. And MTV was not segregated in the way that radio is and it was entirely integrated once they started playing black music. You would get a rock song, then a rap song, then an R&B song, then another rock song. They had Yo! MTV Raps and Headbangers Ball but their playlists were incredibly integrated.

There’s a lot in the book about how Prince transcended gender and racial and ethnic boundaries and stereotypes, but what’s intriguing is that he did those things in an era — predominantly in the ‘80s — that saw the rise of Reagan and neo-conservatism, the PMRC and Focus on the Family. There were so many resistant forces that were against him and other artists who were considered on the edge.

That was definitely there, but I think whenever you see a major movement — a major cultural or sociocultural movement — there’s going to be a corresponding counter movement. There are going to be people who will push back against that. I mean, if you look at the history of today 20 or 30 years from now, you could say, “Well, there’s 31 state legislatures that have laws against gay marriage, so at that time they were against gay marriage.” No, that’s the counter-movement. The movement toward gay marriage, toward marriage equality, is very strong and only gaining strength. We have a president who’s in favor, we have a strong majority of Americans who are in favor, and the tide is moving quickly toward marriage equality.

So it’s important not to just look at the counter movement; look at both. There was definitely a movement toward opening society, being more open to people who had been oppressed, who had not been part of any sort of power previously. When you see the multiculturalism movement and the PC movement, it’s trying to open America up to other than white men. Now, the movements you’re talking about are very real but that’s a counter movement, trying to put the genie back in the bottle, which of course is impossible.

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Album Review: Sheila E & Family's Missed Opportunity

On paper it looks promising: a family of venerable and versatile artists, coming together to celebrate their shared heritage and musical chops. However, The E Family—father Pete Escovedo along with his children, siblings Juan Escovedo, Peter Michael Escovedo, and the family’s most mainstream-famous member, Sheila E—seldom live up to their collective potential on Now and Forever (Fontana/Universal), eschewing what could have been a masterclass of dynamic musicianship to instead favor a mostly homogeneous mix of R&B and Latin jazz.

The album’s very last track, “Live Percussion Jam,” is also its strongest, most-satisfying moment. Joyful and irresistibly infectious, it offers the finest indication of what this project could have achieved overall.

Of particular concern is the conspicuous absence of Sheila E on lead vocals. Granted her strong suit is playing the drums, but the lady is by no means a slouch when it comes to singing—crank up “Love Bizarre” and “The Glamorous Life” for rump-shaking evidence—and that aspect of her artistry could have added some much-needed spice and sexiness here.

Instead, those attributes come courtesy of Joss Stone, who injects an extra shot of oomph into “The Other Half of Me” to make this otherwise average R&B groove a soulful success and the album's only other highlight.

Additional guests, including Earth, Wind & Fire, Gloria Estefan, and Raphael Saadiq, don’t contribute anything nearly as impressive or convincing. It’s just as well, as the Escovedo clan didn’t exactly give them much to work with anyway. Consider this one a missed opportunity.

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Prince Restrained On Planet Earth

Prince needs to tap back into his dirty mind. His previous album, 3121, offered some hope that the man could still deliver the erogenous goods, with songs like “Black Sweat” and “Lolita.” However, his latest release, Planet Earth, regresses into safe and average R & B territory. If this album were released by anyone other than Prince, few people would even take notice. 

One crucial factor to Prince’s appeal has long since been his gift for writing intriguing and innovative songs that, usually through adept use of metaphor, addressed sex (in its myriad facets and emotions) without sounding gratuitous. For clarity’s sake, if you’re still thinking that “Little Red Corvette” is a cute song about a car, well, it’s not.

Unfortunately, most of the songs on Planet Earth come across as pale derivatives of Prince’s libidinous past works. “Somewhere Here On Earth,” for instance, which is perhaps the most sensual song on the album, sounds like a clichéd and timid remix of an assortment of previous Prince slowjams. On “I’m The One U Wanna See,” he blandly says to a prospective catch, “So if you ain’t busy later/And you want some company/I ain’t trying to be a hater/But I’m the one U wanna see.” This is now the pick-up line for the man who once proposed, “Excuse me but I need a mouth like yours/To help me forget the girl who just walked through that door?” How come Prince won’t do that anymore?

Most likely, Prince has curbed his carnal expression due to the influence of his faith, as he is a converted Jehovah’s Witness. In the 1980s, though, Prince openly practiced Christianity and he skillfully reconciled his sexual and sacred callings to create some of the most visionary music of the decade. Yet, his faith, at least on this album, appears to have hindered his natural creative drive. “Lion Of Judah,” a song with religious imagery that, for all intents and purposes should feel inspired, sounds downright dull.

The closest Prince comes to flirting with his own past brilliance is on the title track. In this one instance, he offers direct and relevant commentary on the current sociopolitical climate in the world to the sound of a guitar-driven fury.

That being said, little else on this album lends credence to Prince’s stature as the uninhibited musical genius he has proven himself to be time and again. Ultimately, Planet Earth is a disappointment, not only because Prince is more than capable of producing invigorating and innovative music, but also because, for once, the artist sounds restrained.

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