Eastern Eye newspaper asked me for my ‘Celebrity Playlist’ – from the March 26th 2010 issue. Wanna know what songs I picked – check below!

Time to break out the purple champagne.

Prince’s new 3 album set (consisting of his ‘LOTUSFLOW3R’ and ‘MPLSOUND’ albums and the album ‘ELIXER’ by his new protege Bria Valente) has debuted at #1 in the Billboard album charts.

This is particularly impressive because the album set is only available in two places – Target retail stores in the USA, and the lotusflow3r.com website (and the website sales do not count towards the Billboard chart).

As the man himself says on ‘Ol Skool Company’ from the MPLSOUND album – ‘The white house is now black….it’s time to take the radio back!’

Congratz Prince! Now, where’s the party at?

Now this is exactly what was required. This looks very promising indeed. www.lotusflow3r.com

(Update: 21st December)  – Links are down for the time being and may or may not come back. They got spread around just a little bit too much. For the record, I did not receive any request from Prince or anyone representing him to remove them, it’s entirely my own decision, and I’m happy that a few people got to hear them who may not have had access to the radio station they premiered on. But, if Prince or his web team would like to get in touch with a real fan who has some great ideas on how he can create a revolutionary new internet presence and set a new precedent……then get at me dawg )

My mind is officially blown. FIVE new Prince songs premiered yesterday. 4 of them on Steve Jones (ex Sex Pistols) radio show in Los Angeles, and the 5th on a mysterious new website. Check em all out below, they are all awesome, some of the best stuff he has done in a long while.  I’m going to write a little bit about each one, not much though as I still need to digest all of this awesomeness properly.

Crimson & Clover

a purple take on the 60′s classic. it’s got a very ‘Purple Rain’ vibe to it. Amazing.  When Prince does a cover, it can be pretty hit or miss (for example, hit = his cover of Betcha By Golly Wow, miss= his cover of Every Day is A Winding Road)……this one is HIT HIT HIT HIT. Easily my favorite version of the song now.

[Links are down for the time being]

Colonized Mind

I’m finding it difficult to find another Prince song to compare this to. Musically, it’s almost Hendrix-esque. Very deep lyrics on this one.  I think this one will need the most listens to really understand. But it sounds incredible.

[Links are down for the time being]

Wall of Berlin

Some might remember Prince’s words from the end of the title track to his 2006 album "3121" – "It’s going down y’all……like the Wall of Berlin". So clearly this concept has been in his mind for a while.

Just like the last two tracks, this is a very organic rocker, but with a more pop feel. Catchy and memorable.

[Links are down for the time being]

4ever

This one was mentioned a few weeks back in an interview Prince did. A classic Prince ballad.  "Eternity is just one kiss away".

[Links are down for the time being]

There’ll Never B (Another Like Me)

This one wasn’t premiered on the radio show. A few days ago, a short instrumental clip of this track appeared on a mysterious new site (mplsound.com) – immediately setting the Prince fan community ablaze on whether it was real or not. It’s cut from a different cloth than the other new songs – this one is a serious funk jam with plenty of Prince’s trademark 80′s sounds like the LinnDrum.

[Links are down for the time being]

There’ll Never B (Another Like Me) (Instrumental Clip)

[Links are down for the time being]

Peace out neofunkers! Enjoy!!!

Prince was mentioned twice on this week’s episode of the hit comedy show ‘How I Met Your Mother’.

If you don’t watch it, you really should. It’s one of the best shows out right now.

At the beginning of the show, which is set in New York, it is said to be cold. Marshall (who comes from Minnesota) says,

"This is like a regular spring day in Minnesota, if it weren’t for the taxi’s, skyscrapers and non-white people".

The protagonist Ted then remarks – "There aren’t any black people in Minnesota?", to which Marshall then replies "Not if Prince is on tour."

Later on in the show, Robin has been hanging out with Marshall in a Minnesota themed bar, and pretending to be from Minnesota, since that’s the only way she can stay in the bar. When it’s revealed that she’s actually Canadian, she makes a scene of being proud to be Canadian, and says "We may not have a fancy NFL team, or Prince, but we invented Trivial Pursuit! You’re welcome, Earth!"

This was one of my favorite episodes in a while. Not to mention, there was a Nine Inch Nails reference somewhere in the show too. Always good.

Somebody asked me recently, that age -old question that artists get all the time….."If you could have written any song in history, what would it be?". God damn, what a ridiculous question. Thousands of song titles and grooves float into my head…but I feel confident that most of the time, I’d give the same answer…………and it would be…

777-9311 by The Time. The full 8 minute, ridiculously funky version of course. Written and produced by Prince. How can one person be so god damn funky?

OK, what is this? Make-fun-of-Prince-in-cartoons month?

First it was The Simpsons. Now Family Guy!

In this week’s episode, Brian and Frank Sinatra Jr purchase a big-band club. Stewie promptly turns it into a hot dance club, and when Brian and Frank show up wearing tuxedo’s, Stewie says "You’re more out of place than Prince was on The Price Is Right!"

Cut to a scene, of, guess what, our royal purple one as a contestant. Again with the 1983 outfits and soft, high voice! Come on animators, if you’re gonna parody someone, DO IT RIGHT!!!

I don’t know how many of you saw the latest episode of ‘The Simpsons’. It’s the latest in their ‘Treehouse of Horror’ Halloween specials.
In one part of this new episode, Homer is hired to kill celebrities so that a corrupt advertising agency can use the likeness of those celebrities without having to pay them. Of course, given Prince’s recent battles on the Internet to have control over his image, he was a prime candidate to be spoofed.

After a Prince gig, Homer is shown to grab Prince’s symbol-shaped guitar and beat him to death with it. This segment climaxes with the ghosts of celebrities coming down from heaven to exact their revenge.

Killing a loved celebrity in the name of a comedy show is always risky business. There are some that will find it tasteless, and others that won’t care and find it funny. Of course, the scale of the reaction depends on the loyalty of the fans, and Prince has some very loyal fans indeed. 

Hit ‘Read More’ to view the rest of this blog!

But actually, I’ve found that the more pressing issue here, is that the parody of Prince didn’t really resemble Prince at all. He hasn’t worn trenchcoats and ruffled shirts since 1984 (a long time before the symbol came into play). The hairstyle they gave him seems to resemble Little Richard or Lionel Richie more than Prince, his skin tone is a couple of shades lighter than that, and what was up with the Michael Jackson-esque high pitched soft voice? Whilst P’s falsetto singing may be one of his trademarks, anyone who’s ever spoke to him or even heard him speak can tell you that his speaking voice is actually quite low and deep.

I’m not quite sure who the artist is, but at some point, a gifted online artist and Prince fan drew this sketch of how Prince might look if he appeared on The Simpsons. This version resembles him a lot more and quite frankly it’s a bad look for The Simpsons that someone’s fan-art is better than their own caricatures. Check it out:

I gotta admit though, the dialogue was pretty hilarious, especially this part:

Ghost of John Wayne: Is that mustache coming or going?
Ghost of Prince: Well your wife likes it.
Ghost of John Wayne: (pauses, then laughs) You’re alright, goofy grape.

Peace out y’all.