Alphabet Street – Prince
!988, Russia announced its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the US tests nukes like a modern day N Korea, Celine Dion wins Eurovision (wtf) and the US stops us smoking on domestic flights. (if less than 2hours.)
And the glorious and undervalued 10th studio album Lovesexy is released by Prince.
It took a mere 7 weeks 2 put together & replaced the pulled Black Album and extolled the virtues of good vs bad (kinda), maybe trying 2 show Prince in a more spiritual (minus the orgasm on the supersex funk Lovesexy title track.
Following from the previous years Sign ‘O The Times it never really got the praise it deserved.
That usual “Well how can u follow up that album and the oh my God single” came from critics and the consumer ending as his least successful (commercially) release in 7 years.
But wait a moment. It’s 2020 and we have some time right?
So hit your streaming service, dig out the vinyl, tape, CD (delete as nec) and if u want help then here, go listen to the title track and see the fight for and against unbridled joy and sex Prince style then, Anna Stasia, the hypnotic beauty that may be his resurrection from the Black Album then the last track Positivity, where our daring darling Prince gets his good vibes back and then…
Alphabet Street.
The first single and most successful hitting top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic Alphabet Street is not just the quick fit happy song it appears.
Rich in horns, it opens in Prince sexy MF mode ..
”I’m gonna talk so sexy
She’ll want me from my head to my feet”
and then takes us on a ride through that Cat Rap which even the man is not sure about
“Cat, we need you to rap (no)”
to the shout of “Lovesexy.“
In the middle of this we need the video for a visual connection that everyone should see and watch it burn itself into your consciousness for eternity..At approx 45 seconds Prince tells us
“I’m gonna drive my daddy’s Thunderbird.
A white rad ride, ’66 (’67) so glam it’s absurd”
and wholly shit he does and I still do that to this day. (alone, in my garage next to my Camry.)
A great song?
It was good enough for Arrested Development to base a song around Prince’s Tennessee intonation that cost them a hundred grand.
It is a much better album than it looks like in reviews.
A cover of a nude Prince got it banned or covered up in some places. A DIY video to this song that made it a little less than the whole and the insane decision not to release the full song (5:39 on the album) but a baby 2:35 single also placed some heavy weight on the brake.
But it is more than a track.
From the mentioned album version to the Lovesexy Tour that is only (maybe) topped by the Sign ‘O The Times tour the song is joy and hope.
Why is it on a list of songs that changed a thought?
Alphabet Street was the end of the Purple Kings commercial reign supreme before Hip Hop grabbed the crown of the airwaves but it was, for me, the birth of the Prince 2.0 and the dawning of the Hip Hop revolution.