Girl With an Orange

"To me making a song is like a new girl walkin' in the room, you know, you never know what's gonna happen until all the things come together. And there she stands and she says "Hi, you wanna take a bite of this orange?" You bite it and it's cool and I send it to you.'
(Prince)

While there are Prince/[ the artist ] lyrics that are more witty, moving or eloquent, for me "the girl with the orange' is irresistible.


In the past two years that dynamic has undergone a critical change. Rather than him shaping ideas, they shape him. He is constrained by a kind of "food for the mind' that resists the unexpected and inhibits that sweet surrender -- ideas such as fatalism, a reliance on the exactitudes of dictionaries, faith in "A Plan' and one definable truth. These are all interesting, widely-held beliefs but the way in which [ the artist ] has chosen to use them allows little latitude for innovative and divergent thinking.
to these non-musical preconceptions.
Two excellent tracks, "The Human Body" and "Sleep Around", for example, may have been a lot tighter and more exciting if [ the artist ] hadn't been consumed by the idea of producing a CD set based on the pyramids which went for exactly three hours.

[ the artist ]'s newest, as-yet-unreleased album "The Truth", may be similarly constrained if you read between the lines


[ the artist ]'s preoccupation with words is like a map that charts his new world. He told "MuchMusic" (June, 1997) "I'm very interested in names. The name Washburn is very curious 2 me. Also the name Galloway.' There is nothing new in someone being intrigued by the meaning of names, however, the way in which [ the artist ] applies his interest is very telling.
[ the artist ] and Mayte's "Wedding Program' focuses on names as a testimonial to the fatedness of their union.
Mayte and John Nelson but not those of Nell, John Garcia or Prince. Meaning is found in the surname Nelson but not Garcia.
[ the artist ] seems genuinely committed to the idea of all things being fatefully connected. In one interview (admittedly with a highly irreverent "NME" reporter) [ the artist ] is quoted as saying: "People better start looking back, dates, titles, names, they better see those coincidences, man it's so simple, like a video game -- total recall. That happened, and because
I do something wrong, or something like that. If I write something and the tip of my pencil breaks I always think about what I just wrote.' (Stern)
[ the artist ] has also become a devotee of dictionaries. He checked out "soulmate' in "Love 4 One Another" to help define his relationship with Mayte. He even pulled up one poison-penned critic with a warning about creating bad "karma'. "Look it up in the dictionary', he said. More recently [ the artist ] told "Star Tribune"
they draw on how words are used on the streets, in the colleges and by the media.
That's what makes English a "living' language. On the otherhand, when [ the artist ] is in his righteous or control mode, he uses his "Webster's" as if it were written in a dead language such as Latin.
Are you a "fan', maybe you're a "friend' or even an "admirer'? Once we were all just fans -- an innocuous four-letter word that is universally taken to mean we really like somebody. But that all changed with "Love 4 One Another"
obligingly refer to themselves as "friends' (less commonly "admirers') while those who are less intense have resisted the orthodoxy and sign off their messages with witticisms such as "'friend' is short for fanatic'. Most likely [ the artist ]'s insistence on 'friends' is an attempt to control who is on "his side'. Those who convert to "friends' are not only likely to agree to their "name change' but to other orthodoxies as well. Those who resist and remain "fans' will maintain their independence, but at
else by an inquisitive and largely unfeeling public. It does however, also confirm that he ascribes a power, or control, to words that is both real and surreal.
When [ the artist ] has a point to make, words become finite and exacting, when he wishes to avoid those eyes that "fix you with a formulated phrase', they become as elusive as he does: "Words lie. Words turn everything around but they change nothing. If you do not like my record you can criticise it but that doesn't
Judgment appears to be what he really objects to more than anything. In numerous encounters [ the artist ] has stressed that you shouldn't judge because "one day you will be judged.' In the AOL chat alone, however, he made several judgments: "Don't eat anything with parents', "videos are for kids', "i have never seen so many bad musicians in my life'. Perhaps [ the artist ]'s real fear is being judged in the same way that he judges others. His skin, which he frequently refers to as thick, appears to be gossamer thin.
not the way to go. [ the artist ], as was Prince, is well-known for being consistently inconsistent. This is not so much hypocrisy or craziness as a reflection of his need to control his world -- particularly how he is perceived, loved or judged -- at any cost.
I feel an aching sadness. While [ the artist ] is currently mesmerising audiences as a consummate performer -- and I would love to be in that audience -- I also see him as one of the three great American tragedies of twentieth century
Her orange is what produced the magic that was "Kiss" and made Prince an extraordinary artist. His reward for biting into that all-too seductive fruit was sweet surrender to the unknown and to his own uninhibited imagination.

Prince had a unique mind, he could reach out, seize an idea or vibe, absorb its essence and shape it into something sharp, immediate and provoking. His creativity was dynamic.

[ the artist ] has given us a number of insights into how a new sense of order and predictability is shaping his work: "Music is like the universe: Just look at how the planets, the air, and the light fit together. That's one reason why "Emancipation" is so long -- because of the sense of harmony that keeps it together.' (Musician ) It has been said that much of the music on "Emancipation" actually suffers because of [ the artist ]'s attempts to make it conform
of Jim Walsh's double-tongued review: "["The Truth"] ... attempts not to ask questions but to answer them ... ' Where we once had open-ended album concepts like "ATWIAD" and "SOTT", we are now being offered monolithic, definitive statements such as "Emancipation" and "The Truth". These titles are not so much celebratory exclamation marks in the story of [ the artist ]; they are more like full stops.
Assuming that [ the artist ] is right about the importance of names and there being "no coincidences', the eye of the beholder ([ the artist ]'s) has clearly been far more active here than fate. Rather like the famous Rorschach ink-blot test, the names can be aligned to mean everything, anything, or nothing. By selecting another combination of these names or adding in those that are missing you can construct a vastly different meaning. For example, the program refers to the middle or other names of Mattie,
of that, that. In terms of the world and in terms of yourself, it's all lining up, it's all there for you see, to help you. If your eyes are open.'
This rear-vision view, however, allows little hope for a future made up of unexpected or random opportunities. Has [ the artist ] fallen out of love with "surprises'? Indeed those surprises appear to have been replaced by "signs': "It's always about signs in life, the small little ironies -- I always hope the tapes break when
columnist CJ (aka Billy Jack Bitch), in a close encounter of the most entertaining kind, to "look it up' when she parried with him about his "Entertainment Tonight" description of the birth of his baby as "amazing'.
While most lyricists, poets and writers might check out a dictionary, they are rarely confined by them. In fact, many contemporary US rappers and lyricists (including Prince and [ the artist ]) have been highly inventive, even radical in their use of words. More often
when [ the artist ] told our every-fan, Nikki, to look up "fanatic' in the "Webster's" dictionary -- "that's longhand for what you are. The best you can be is a friend. I don't need another fan.'
[ the artist ]'s persistence with this message -- Chris Rock (February), "MuchMusic" interview (June) and the AOL chat (July) -- has led to it becoming a bizarre mantra. If this was his "oblique' way of telling his fans to chill out, it didn't work. The truly "devoted' now
the cost of being allocated to the outer circle.
"Thoughts and words can breed reality ... ' [ the artist ] told Bryant Gumbel in December 1996 in referring to his "obliqueness' about "the situation' with his child. Perhaps [ the artist ] was simply saying that he did not want to hear or use the word "dead' because it did not reflect the spiritual reality of his relationship with his child. Maybe he didn't want an intensely personal and painful time in his life to be verbalised, owned and transformed into something
change the existence of the record. That's why you are not allowed to record this interview. What I say is true and not true if cut out and looked at for itself.' (Stern) He's right, of course, by selecting quotes for this article I have done precisely what he objects to -- constructed a new meaning. But this is exactly what [ the artist ] does every time he posts extracts from positive reviews on his own web site. We all try to make sense of our world by taking from it what we need.
[ the artist ]'s sensitivity to judgment is apparent in the way he jumped into the media mosh pit and replied to an unexceptional, blink-and- it's-gone report in the "Dallas Morning News", which suggested his glory days were over. Ironically, in defending himself, [ the artist ] refers to "the inherent problem with 1 allowing another 2 define 'success' 4 him or her' and goes on to explain what success means in RELATIVE terms to him. Looking "success' up in a dictionary, in this case, was apparently
art. First, Orson Welles, who never learned to live outside "Orson Welles, the genius' and left a legacy of uncompleted projects. Marlon Brando, whose contempt for himself and his craft led him to transform the Adonis of the 50s into a Mr Creosote and act out his days in B grade movies. [ the artist ] has little in common with these men on a personal or spiritual level. What he does share, however, is a lack of self- perception and that in the end is what determines whether or not a greatly-talented person will become a great artist.  [ s e v e n ]