1.0Sgwrs Tei Bowhttps://www.clarkeroberts.co.uk/cyClarke Robertshttps://www.clarkeroberts.co.uk/cy/author/clarke-roberts/rich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="gkQzpFD4Vl"><a href="https://www.clarkeroberts.co.uk/cy/2011/09/18/did-religion-ruin-prince/">Did Religion Ruin Prince?</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://www.clarkeroberts.co.uk/cy/2011/09/18/did-religion-ruin-prince/embed/#?secret=gkQzpFD4Vl" width="600" height="338" title="“Did Religion Ruin Prince?” — Bow Tie Talks" data-secret="gkQzpFD4Vl" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script> /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document); //# sourceURL=https://www.clarkeroberts.co.uk/wp-includes/js/wp-embed.min.js </script>Good evening readers, how are you? As I’ve been sitting in my loft room at my dad’s for nearly the past week I have rediscovered my admiration for the work of the Artist Formerly Known As An Unpronounceable Symbol, the one and only, Prince. So what? You’re writing a blog post to tell us that you’ve gotten back into that skinny mother fucker with the high voice? (to quote the 1987 song Bob George)? Well not exactly. I’ve been working my way through his vast catalogue of hits and performances, starting in 1978 up to the latest shows in America earlier this year and something has had me wondering. Did Prince’s discovery of religion and a new-found spiritual self-awareness transform this once overt and enigmatic pop legend into a safe, secure and highly predictable eighties  has-been washed up on the beaches of the contemporary music scene? Well, let’s have a look. Who’d have thought the five-foot tall basketball playing son of a failed musician would have such a huge impact on the global music scene? Born the same year as his contemporaries Michael Jackson and Madonna, Prince lived and grew up in Minneapolis and was raised in a musical family; his name  actually derived from his father’s band The Prince Rodgers Trio. Anyway, this isn’t a biographical account so let’s get straight to the music. After leaving a small band 94-East, Prince released his first solo venture entitled For You in 1978 and when I say solo I mean, solo. Every song on the album was written, recorded and produced by Prince; every instrument played by Prince too. The only track to make any impact on the album was Soft and Wet. Classically Prince sounding, this song was to be the beginning of a career filled with sexually charged lyrics that would establish him as one of the raunchiest artists to grace the planet. His eponymous title in the following year was home to the hit I Wanna Be Your Lover, an upbeat pop song about falling in love with a woman. Even here though, with the lyric “I wanna be the only one you come for” leaves little to be desired. The track on the album that perhaps grabs more attention is the powerful rock number Bambi, in which Prince is heard to be attempting to persuade a young lesbian that sex with a man is infinitely better than with another woman and, insists that maybe she “needs to bleed” to be fully satisfied with any sexual encounter. Let’s put this into context for a moment. It is the late 1970s, the hippie movement is all but dead and the so-called “free love” ideaology along with it, yet here is a 19/20 year old black musician from a small town, Minnesota, singing quite frankly about sex. That probably amounts to the same sort of controversy as Lady GaGa’s meat dress. Prince was breaking boundaries long before anyone else, and his subsequent releases Dirty Mind and Controversy demonstrate this. Songs such as Head, Sister and Do […]http://52.19.228.105/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/27131.Prince1981NYC-300x200.jpg