Publication: Sacramento Bee [US]
Date: April 29, 1993
Section:
Page Number(s):
Length:
Title: "The Master Of Mystery"
Written By: David Barton

Funk-rock superstar Prince has long been described as "enigmatic," but Tuesday's brief written announcement that he will "retire from studio recording" had even his own spokespeople at a loss to explain it.

"The reason no one wants to comment is that no one knows," said one Prince associate, who didn't want to be named. "There's no information. . . . Who knows what he's gonna do? Only Prince knows."

His management company is not taking questions, and Warner Bros. Records, the corporate parent of Prince's Paisley Park label, is referring everyone to Paisley Park. But a spokeswoman there said, "No one speaks for Prince. " She referred everyone to the press release, which was released by Prince's publicist, at the artist's behest.

At this point, all anyone can do is take him at his word: After 15 albums in 15 years, including some of the most admired in popular music, Prince will release no more new studio recordings. Instead, he will "explore less conventional approaches to music and media," according to the press release.

The announcement came at a time when Prince has his highest profile since he was at the top of the heap in 1984-85 with his movie and album, "Purple Rain." He has just concluded a sold-out, 10-city U.S. tour and has a new single ("The Morning Papers") rising on the charts. His last two albums topped 2 million copies each, spawning a couple of top 10 hits each.

This comes just seven months after he signed a new contract with Warner Bros. that surprised the record industry with its size: $ 100 million for six albums. While no one was buying the $ 100 million figure -- an inflated number based on album-sales projections -- it indicated that the prolific Prince was gearing up to release a lot of records.

According to the press release, he still will. Prince has some 500 unreleased tracks, which he will release "well into the 21st century."

Certainly, Prince has loads of unreleased material. Last year, he proposed a four-CD box set of unreleased material, but it was nixed in favor of his most recent album, which was untitled. At least two albums were near release in the late '80s, only to be pulled by the artist. Tracks from those albums have long been available as bootleg recordings, along with dozens of other tracks. The quality of the bootlegged songs varies: Most are outtakes, deemed unworthy of release.

The question is: Are these unreleased recordings now meant to represent Prince? One of the pleasures of Prince -watching has been in seeing how he reacts to developments in pop music and gives them his own little twists. Although Prince's music has been ahead of its time, those outtakes would sound dated by say, 2005. The new albums would have little of the currency essential in pop music.

But the question remains: Why would an artist who is known for days-long recording sessions -- which required shifts of engineers to keep up with the performer -- stop recording?

In fact, he won't. He is producing other acts (including Earth, Wind and Fire and Tevin Campbell), and when he does, he records demos of the songs.

On the other hand, very few of Prince's outside productions have done well. Aside from the Time, a group he produced while he himself was a rising star, most of his productions -- whether of substantial artists such as George Clinton and Mavis Staples or puppetlike proteges such as Taja Seville and Carmen Electra -- have not sold many records. Most have been flops.

Likewise, Prince's own films, "Under the Cherry Moon" and "Graffiti Bridge," have been artistic embarrassments and commercial failures.

Nevertheless, Prince has long been interested in building a media empire, and he has gone quite a way toward doing that. In addition to Paisley Park Records, he built the state-of-the-art Paisley Park complex outside Minneapolis, which includes a movie sound stage, three recording studios and video production facilities.

And he is keeping busy on things other than his recording career. Among the irons he has in the fire is the Joffrey Ballet's current touring show, "Billboards," four pieces based on 13 Prince songs, which will visit San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House in July.

He also has written the soundtrack to a new James Brooks film, "I'll Do Anything," due this fall, which will feature 10 new Prince songs. But those songs will be sung by Nick Nolte, Tracey Ullman and other actors, not Prince.

He's also recorded the theme song for Black Entertainment Television's "Video L.P." program, and has opened three Glam Slam nightclubs in the United States and Japan, with plans for others worldwide.

There is the suspicion that this is merely a media ploy, and that Prince will record again.

Said one associate, "We have to take him at his word. He's just letting us know what he's going to do. One thing I've learned from dealing with Prince: He may be elusive, but he's not dishonest."