Publication: Chicago Sun-Times [US]
Date: April 4, 1993
Section:
Page Number(s):
Length:
Title: "Prince - What Happened?"
Written By: Martin Keller

For more than a decade during the 1980s, Prince Rogers Nelson dominated popular music the way Elvis Presley shaped the '50s and John Lennon and Paul McCartney ruled in the '60s.

Writing, recording and producing much of his material by himself, Prince synthesized punk's raw energy with soul music while integrating rock, funk, and rhythm and blues But for all his trend-setting achievements, there's a temptation to write in the past tense about the ruling Prince who pulls into the Chicago Theatre for three nights this week.

While he is rarely disappointing in concert, fans will be seeing Prince at one of his least creative periods. His current symbol-titled album and 1991's "Diamonds & Pearls" contain the obligatory hit singles but little else. And the Minneapolis native seems lost in the wake of the hip-hop explosion of the late '80s and early '90s.

The brave experimentation of songs like "Kiss" and "When Doves Cry," with their minimalistic rhythm tracks and cutting guitar solos, have been replaced by concessions to the rap marketplace and an aesthetic defined more by complacency than innovation. The edge that propelled his finest work as far back as "1999" in 1982 and as recently as "Graffiti Bridge" in 1990 seems duller with each recording in the '90s.

Prince's band, the New Power Generation, is musically adequate but lacks personality. And the once alluring Prince mystique, the prancing satyr obsessed with sex and salvation, has been replaced by someone even more obsessed with Garbo-like privacy than his artistic nemesis, Michael Jackson.

Lately, Jackson has used high-profile network television appearances to give his career a much-needed boost. But Prince recently used a rare appearance on "The Arsenio Hall Show" to set fire to a negative review of his latest album by Minneapolis Star Tribune critic Jon Bream, who was once kicked out of Prince's Glam Slam club for similar coverage.

Such public obsessions would be laughable if they weren't so revealing. In his personal and professional life, Prince is more isolated now than when he first began in the business as a recent high school graduate. 'He goes from his indoor garage at his house to the underground garage of Paisley Park through the secret stairs to the studio," said a Prince associate in Minneapolis-St.- Paul. "Then he's chauffeured to his own club, where he sits in his private guarded area.

"There isn't the interaction with people. including musicians in his band, that there once was. That example is pretty much an accurate metaphor for the way he's living and conducting his business." Alan Leeds, who worked as vice president of Paisley Park Records and helped to shape James Brown's career, left the Prince realm after 10 years, creating a glaring hole in the management organization. Leeds and others who once worked at the expensive studio served as reliable sounding boards, helping to direct Prince with his music, films and technical productions.

Surrounded by ''yes" people

One result of such key departures is greater insularity in the royal realm, which today includes a host of "yes" people catering to the whims of Minneapolis' most creative employer.

"If you look at the stellar musical careers of the 20th century. you find that there are sustained, collaborative relationships: With Duke Ellington. it's Billy Strayhorn; with James Brown. it's a series of sidemen," said Steve Perry. editor of the weekly Twin Cities newspaper City Pages and a longtime Prince chronicler. in a videography called 'Prince Unauthorized.' "The interesting thing about Prince, and the tragedy of Prince, is that he's never been able to sustain these relationships," Yerry continued. "He grew up isolated and developed a vision of where he wanted to go and who he wanted to be, and he invented himself in that mold ... but at this juncture in his career, I wonder if he's beginning to run dry."

Prince may be turning into the Howard Hughes of rock, but others say this period is just a brief lapse in an astonishing career. The singer has produced a record a year for the past 15 years, except in 1983, when he made the movie "Purple Rain." During one period in the mid-'80s, he also engineered the Time's career (writing and producing most of the group's early records). made two more films and wrote hit songs for the Bangles, Sheena Easton, Sinead O'Connor, Chaka Kahn and others.

In 1987. he orchestrated the construction of Paisley Park Studios, a $10 million. state-of-the-art recording, film and sound stage facility on the suburban prairie just outside Minneapolis. The facility has contributed greatly to the state's ability to lure Feature films.

Prince formed his own boutique label, Paisley Park Records, giving Bonnie Raitt a much needed boost to clean up her act before making "Nick of Time." He eventually opened his Glam Slam nightclubs in Minneapolis and Los Angeles, with a third planned for Tokyo. and last year. he contributed music to the Joffrey Ballet for a piece called "Billboards." All this activity is enough to make the most devoted workaholic collapse, 80 the smart money's not betting yet that Prince has dried up artistically. But tongues are wagging.

"Prince has gone from leading to following,' lamented another Prince associate who wished to remain anonymous. (In the big small town that is Minneapolis, good Prince sources are easier to find than a parking spot in downtown. and many must remain anonymous because of a gag clause in Paisley Park contracts.) 'He's following trends, not making them," the source said. "Prince used to be the Martin Scorsese of music: Both men never sold a lot of units, but their value was measured in the artistic standards they set for the entertainment industry, and they kept people on their toes."

Contract targets

A daunting structural organization has grown up around Prince after last year's megadeal with Warner Bros. The new contract is reported to be in the neighborhood of $100 million over 10 years-but only if Prince sells 5 million copies of each new album he releases.

The deal is thick with commercial incentives and allows the company a stake in other financial interests such as his publishing. It also makes Prince a vice president at the company where he first signed in 1977 at age 19. "If you're saying that our deal with Prince makes hum more market-driven, I don't see it that way," said Bob Merlis. Warner Bros.' senior vice president for media relations. "lt's always good to sell a lot of records. But in terms of motivation, Prince has always been Prince-driven. The contract doesn't change that."

But the pop market has not been responding to Prince the way it once did. The soundtracks for "Batman" and "Purple Rain" were his biggest sellers, and his last album has lagged far behind, selling about 1.5 million copies And Paisley Park albums by artists such as Jill Jones, rapper T.C. Ellis, Ingrid Chavez and Carmen Elektra "have never made a dime," according to the Minneapolis source. Even the design of the new tour-playing successive dates in intimate theaters and halls or about ~1,000 to 5,000 seats---may be a test of the little guy's sales potential both at the record store and concert box office.

Promoters are looking hard at this tour to see what he can do," Merlis says. "They've always been a little gun-shy in this country about booking Prince dates. but I think they're heartened by what he's doing this time. "This could be described as a 'brand relaunch,' although I hate to use a term you d read in Ad Age."