1988: Rain Is Wet, Sugar Is Sweet
In December 1987, Warner Bros. was justifiably annoyed with Prince. He had just blocked the release of The Black Album six days before it was to be released. Half a million records pressed, now half a million records trashed. It’s not clear how much Prince cared about this, but he did promise to get another album to them quickly. Which he did. On December 11 (only ten days after “Blue Tuesday”) Prince started work on what would become, in minds of many fans, Prince’s last work of true genius. Two months later, “Lovesexy” would be delivered to Warner Bros.
Welcome 2 The New Power Generation
If I could have been a fly on the wall for any period of time at Paisley Park, it would be the two months that produced “Lovesexy.” I suspect at no other time was there so much activity in that building. Whatever made Prince stop the release of The Black Album also inspired him creatively in a way nothing else ever would. It’s like producing it was him puking out all the bad music he had in him at that moment. I am not one of those people who think this is the end of his genius, but it is the absolute high point of his career up to this point. “Lovesexy” sounds like nothing else in his catalog or anyone else’s. There’s no other way to say it: this is his “Sgt. Pepper’s.” For real.
The Lovesexy Band At Paisley Park, 1988. From Left to Right: Sheila E., Levi Seacer, Jr. Eric Leeds (on the balcony with cape), Dr. Fink, Cat Glover, Atlanta Bliss, Boni Boyer, Miko Weaver, Prince.
Listen 2 Me People, I’ve Got A Story To Tell
One thing that makes this album work so well is its laser focus. There is no excess, no fat, no overproduction, probably because there was simply no time for it. He had something in him that needed to get out, and even if he didn’t, his record company was ever-present, glaring, cracking its knuckles and muttering darkly about “bootleg revenues.”
Even though I do not subscribe to the “Blue Tuesday” malarky, I can’t deny that whatever caused Prince to pull The Black Album and replace it with Lovesexy happened quickly and dramatically. It’s not really remarkable that Prince came up with nine songs in two months. By this point Prince had the skill to do that. But it’s surprising that Prince so quickly produced one of the few functional concept albums in pop music, even though it has rarely been talked about that way. I believe quite strongly that it is a concept album about redemption.
Tracklist
“Eye” No
There are many things about “Lovesexy” that Prince stuck with for the rest of his career. He had been abbreviating and substituting letters for words for a while (ex: May u live 2 see the Dawn), but this is the first time he fully imposes his nonsense on written English. So get used 2 this.
The album opener definitely establishes tone. Everything about this song and arrangement is celebratory. Interestingly, and I never knew this until recently, the backing music is repurposed from elsewhere. Back in 1986, this was a song called “The Ball” and it was much slower with entirely different lyrics, but in terms of composition, they are almost exactly the same. It’s one of my favorite album openers of all time. I don’t even mind that the lyrics are quite God Rock-y. He keeps it in the realm of his own experiences, so whatever. It doesn’t feel like proselytizing, nor does any of the religious material on the album. It’s such a hard line to tread and he does it effortlessly. Pretty sure he never does that again.
This is a rare full band performance on this album (note the excellent contributions of Sheila E, Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss) and also has on background vocals the first appearance of Ingrid Chavez, another in a long line of protegees. She is an actor, singer, dancer, poet, and writer, and she was in “Graffiti Bridge.”
Alphabet St.
This was the first single released from the album, and to Prince’s, and possibly Warner Bros.’ credit, it is a great choice. It definitely has that feeling of being somewhere between funk and pop feeling that made Prince a crossover artist in the first place, with a hint of rockabilly in the guitar. It was probably ten years after I first heard it that someone finally told me it was about oral sex.
B-Side: Alphabet St (This is Not Music, This Is A Trip)
Back in the day, James Brown would release singles that would have the radio version of a song on one side, and on the other would be a continuation of the song, often mostly instrumental. This is a variation on that idea. On the 12-inch single the A Side had the complete album track clocking in at about 5:30, give or take. This B-Side was a nearly eight minute extension of that. This happened on a single for “Sign O The Times” too. “Housequake” was used as the B-Side, and then there was “7 Minutes ‘Mo Quake.”
Glam Slam
Great Song. Terrible Single. Prince knew it, too, and tried to pull a Black Album on this one, but it was too late. The second single was already out the door. It was just not a song that was radio-friendly. In the context of the album, it fits right in and is a nice way to wind the pace down as we head toward the first ballad. On the radio, it’s a mid-tempo mess that suddenly doubles in speed, then drops off for no reason. It failed to even break into the Hot 100.
It's a shame, too, because it’s one of my favorite songs on the album. It has a great hook, and the tempo changes hit just right to feel like a rollercoaster. It's true the lyrics are silly (flick a nipple, Prince? Really?) but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
B-Side: Escape
The full title is “Escape (Free Yo Mind From This Rat Race) but I didn’t have room up there. This is my favorite B-Side associated with this album. For one thing, it’s funky. It would be the funkiest song associated with the project if not for “Scarlet Pussy” (more on that later).
Anna Stesia
Among the songs Prince sings in a very low register, this one is probably the best. It never left Prince’s set for very long, especially once he had reached a point where he knew the crowds were full of hard core fans who actually would be happier to hear “Anna Stesia” than “1999.” In keeping with the concept of the album, it’s a slow song about seeking redemption through love instead of the other way around. Great song.
Dance On
First of all, the title is misleading. Second of all, if there is a weak point in this tracklist this is it, but I have to say it has grown on me over the years. It’s also one of the more complicated songs in his catalog. The track is a full band performance, making it even more impressive. Sheila E is a monster on drums.
Lovesexy
In keeping with tradition, Prince named the album after a song on the album – but broke that tradition in that it wasn’t a single. Which, for the superstitious, might explain the fallout after the album. I’m not sure why the title track wasn’t a single, because it’s definitely a great song: nice and loud, fast and catchy. Could you not say “sexy” on the radio? What gives? Whatever it is, I think not releasing this as a single was a missed opportunity.
I Wish U Heaven
An interesting little song. On the album it’s very short, only 2:43 or so, it floats along and gives a nice bridge to the album closer. If I could skip it, I wouldn’t.
On the 12-inch single, it’s a ten minute monster. It’s called “Eye” Wish U Heaven (Parts 1,2 & 3). It looks like instead of the usual extended dance mix of the time, Prince went into the studio in London and recorded the extra material. I have to say, for what it is (an artificial extension of a very short song) it works incredibly well.
B-Side: Scarlet Pussy
Hurr Hurr Hurr. Guess What this one’s about? The backing track seems to be a kind of homage to “Atomic Dog” by George Clinton. I suggest you listen to that instead. Meanwhile, the song on the single is credited to “Camille” instead of Prince, fooling no one.
Positivity
One of Prince’s better album closers. Recorded, if you can believe this, on the same day as “Eye No.” It’s a nice, affirming track that reminds people to watch ourselves for our hypocritical impulses. As usual with these sorts of Prince songs, it’s naïve and ignores the ways this behavior could open someone up to abuse, but it’s also clear Prince never gave that a thought.
What Went Wrong?
When “Lovesexy” was released on May 10, 1988 it was a hit in Europe, Japan, and all major markets - except the US. It absolutely bombed here. It sold worse than any album since “Controversy.” So complete and shocking was the failure of “Lovesexy” in the USA that Prince postponed the North American tour, hoping momentum would build as he sold out arenas across Europe. It did not. Prince’s run as an invincible hitmaker was over. I said “Lovesexy” was Prince’s “Sgt. Pepper’s” and I stand by that. So what went wrong? Unlike most of the rhetorical questions posed in this blog, this one has several clear and distinct answers.
The secret to Prince’s longevity as an artist was always his insistence on blazing his own trail, on zigging when the whole world is begging him to zag. Every single one of his greatest works (including this one) are a result of that stubborn insistence that he knew best what to do with his music. Unfortunately, all his artistic and commercial failures were a result of the exact same impulse. When you won’t heed anyone’s counsel when they’re wrong, it does leave you encouraged to ignore them when they’re right as well. In this case, most of Prince’s artistic decisions were clear and spot on, but his commercial decisions about how to sell the art he had created were…questionable to say the least.
The Album Cover
Prince wanted to have a high concept album cover shot by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, a well-known fashion photographer who is worth your time to google. The idea was to continue the sort of abstraction found of the cover of “Sign O The Times” while keeping with the themes of spiritual renewal and redemption found in the new album. What ended up on the album cover was either a picture of a nude Prince on an enormous flower or an extremely tiny nude Prince on a normal-sized flower. Retailers did not ponder which it was, because as long as Prince was nude, they didn’t care about the scale. Wal*Mart, especially, flatly refused to sell it, due to the “offensive” content of the album cover. Their inconsistent moral rectitude will be of further interest as this series continues.
Nevertheless, as much as I disagree with the puritanical attitudes of American retail in 1988, I can’t argue that any of this should have come as a surprise to either Prince or Warner Bros. It seems that the only person who was surprised was Prince. Shortly after the album was solicited (which means the album was sent around to retailers in order to get them to order copies to sell in stores), various retailers asked for an alternative version of the cover. Prince refused, and Warner stood by him.
As it turns out, the public didn’t like the cover much more than the retailers, so a combination of a turned-off public and a lack of an ability to impulse buy kept sales down.
Lack of Hit Singles
“Alphabet St.” was a respectable hit, but the other singles from the album did not exactly burn up the charts or create the kind of buzz that generates album sales. Prince was in the process of transition from an artist who creates hit songs, to an artist who creates great albums. Ideally, a great album has a few hit singles, but sometimes – as in this case – all you get is a solid 45-minute listening experience without much for radio to chew on.
Postponing the Tour
Putting off the North American leg of the tour might have been a mistake. Prince was relying on the album to sell tickets, when he might have been able to achieve the opposite effect. The “Lovesexy” Tour was not a failure anywhere in the world, even if the enormous cost of putting on such an elaborate show killed most of the profits. The problem was by the time he went all through Europe and was playing those songs in arenas around the US, the album’s buzz had already been poisoned. There was no retrieving it.
It Was Literally Not Easy to Listen to
CDs were already mainstream by this point and people were used to not having to flip over their physical media, and the novelty of being able to skip to the next song with the touch of a button was still fresh. But Prince, as has been suggested, had created a complete album experience. So he released a CD with nine songs on it…but only one track. Yup. You were expected to pop the damn thing into your CD player and listen to the whole thing. It was, even for a super fan such as myself, incredibly off-putting. For a casual listener, it must have been pure poison. I remember in the the early 2000’s actually spending hours downloading an early build of Audacity and teaching myself how to rip a .wav of the CD so I could chop down each individual track on my ancient laptop. I think it took a full Saturday of work. Unbelievable.
The Music Was Not of the Moment
As fantastic as the music is, if you look at the music scene of 1988, this album just does not fit in to that picture in a way that makes sense commercially. On the one hand you have the soundtrack to “Dirty Dancing,” “New Jersey” which was Bon Jovi’s follow-up to “Slippery When Wet” and “Faith” by George Michael. On the other hand, you have “It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back” by Public Enemy,” “Straight Outta Compton” by NWA, and “Appetite For Destruction” by Guns N Roses. It’s not even a matter of quality in this case; there is just no place in the market for an album like “Lovesexy” to grab the kind of market share that “Sign O The Times” did. The truth is, Prince knew in 1987 that hip-hop was going to be the next big thing, and he chose to release something that deliberately ignored that. He zigged when the whole world zagged. This time he got left behind. It’s a shame, because I think in its own way “Lovesexy” is as visionary as “It Takes A Nation Of Millions,” but it makes total sense that Public Enemy resonated more with the latter days of Reagan’s America than Prince’s spiritual renewal.
Nevertheless, these are all arguments why the album was a failure in 1988. The Estate recently reissued the CD in a properly-tracked version, and Reagan is long dead, so there is nothing to stop you from enjoying the album now. It’s on Tidal, check it out, and I hope you love it as much as I do.
NEXT WEEK: Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?
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