Eli’s Music Pick: Prince
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called Life. Electric word, "Life," and it's a mighty long time, but I'm here to tell you, there's something else: Prince Rogers Nelson. Known to the world by his first name, Prince was a self-made musical polymath who performed the singular trick of somehow altering the world to accommodate his eccentricity and musical genius rather than the other way around. We know Prince in our cultural memory as one of the classic 1980s MTV megastars alongside Madonna, Michael, and Bruce, but what is less appreciated is just how remarkable it is that he managed to vault himself so easily into that rarified company despite being so unapologetically weird.
A Minneapolis kid who refused to ever give up his roots, Prince was so determined to carve his own path through the musical world of the late Seventies and Eighties that he recorded nearly every single note of all of his albums during this era. From his origins as an upstart in the R&B charts (as an heir to the autonomous tradition of Stevie Wonder, with crossover ambitions to match) to the avant-garde outrage of Dirty Mind and Controversy, to the world-conquering success of 1999 and Purple Rain, Prince moved with such method and purpose that the gang is almost in awe of the scope of his growth from 1978 to 1985. Join us for Part 1 of a three-part series where we celebrate the transcendent genius, and oddness, of The Purple One, his Royal Badness. We're living the pop life over here on Political Beats for the next few episodes.
Episode 115: Jesse Walker / Willie Nelson [Part 1]
Episode 114: Steve Miller / Mott The Hoople
Episode 113: Andrew Heaton / 'Weird Al' Yankovic
Episode 112: Scott Immergut / Squeeze
Episode 111: Eli Lake / Prince [Part 3]
Episode 110: Eli Lake / Prince [Part 2]
Episode 108: Mike Long / Robbie Fulks
Episode 107: Rory Cooper / Paul Simon
Episode 106: Andrew Prokop / Kate Bush
Episode 105: Bruce Edward Walker / Warren Zevon
Episode 104: Charles C. W. Cooke / Fleetwood Mac [Part 2]
Episode 103: Charles C. W. Cooke / Fleetwood Mac
Episode 102: Daniel Gullotta / Michael Jackson
Episode 101: Matt Lewis / John Mellencamp
Episode 100: Andrew Fink / The Allman Brothers Band
Episode 99: Randy Barnett / Traffic & Steve Winwood
Episode 98: Jeff Dufour / Neil Young [Part 3]
Episode 97: Jeff Dufour / Neil Young [Part 2]
Episode 96: Jeff Dufour / Neil Young [Part 1]
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