Off the Charts: Prince

Portrait of the artist as an arrogant man

By Newt Briggs

There's a scene in Douglas Adams' The Restaurant at the End of the Universe in which Zaphod Beeblebrox, the ex-President of the Galaxy, is subjected to the most horrible torture device in the known universe, the Total Perspective Vortex. According to Gargravarr, the custodian of the Total Perspective Vortex, the prime function of the small metallic chamber is to instantly reveal the entire history of creation to its victim, thereby exposing him to the full extent of his universal insignificance and causing his ego to crumble like a stale piece of fairy cake. But when Beeblebrox is herded into the vortex, he discovers what he has known all along--that he is "really a great and terrific guy."

Perhaps the Total Perspective Vortex would send a similar message to the Artist formerly and currently known as Prince, who had the audacity to rename himself a symbol in June 1993. Until this nomenclatorial transformation, no one in the history of mankind--not Homer, not Michelangelo, not Shakespeare, not even balloon-headed Picasso--had been capable of such artistic vanity. It wasn't just that Prince had redefined himself as an artist, he'd set himself up as the Artist--the Artist who wrote the songs and played the melodies and wore the Victorian-era crushed velvet topcoat and matching cravat. One can only wonder if he had reconsidered this appraisal when he reverted to his former moniker in May 2000.

THE NAME: Although Prince has performed under an abundance of pseudonyms--Alexander Nevermind, Madhouse, Joey Coco and Paisley Park to name a few--his birth name is Prince Rogers Nelson, after his father's jazz band, the Prince Rogers Trio. Although Prince has denied it in the past, he is also reputed to be Jamie Starr, who produced and engineered albums for Vanity 6 and Morris Day and the Time.

THE STYLE: New Power Generation dancer Damon Dickson to Q, July 1992: "I didn't really notice Prince till he walked through the schoolyard one day wearing just an open trench coat and a pair of underpants. We just looked and said, `What the hell is that?'"

THE FANS: Prince was only 17 when he co-wrote his first hit single, "Soft and Wet," and his potent blend of New Wave rock and erotic soul quickly won supporters inside and outside the music industry. John Mellencamp, for example, once stopped a show to play a tape-recorded version of "Little Red Corvette" through a stage microphone for 20,000 fans in Tulsa, Okla.

THE SYMBOL: On June 7, 1993--his 35th birthday--Prince legally changed his name to a symbol, which combined the male and female signs with the alchemy symbol for soapstone. To this day, the inspiration for the change remains unclear, but it was certainly not the first time Prince had experimented with multiple identities. In 1987--after the release of his double-album masterwork, Sign o' the Times--Prince claimed to be caught between two personalities: "Camille" (his good side) and "Spooky Electric" (his dark side). Fortunately, Spooky Electric appears to have been vanquished during the 1988 Lovesexy Tour, which featured a three-level, 70-by-80-foot stage complete with a playground and basketball court.

THE SOUNDTRACK: The Batman soundtrack, Prince's best-selling album of all time, saw Prince assume the persona of the film's main characters. Despite its commercial success, the artistic results were dubious, with the Joker singing, "U whispered something/ It took my mind out like a/ G flat major with an E in the bass" on "Electric Chair." Prince's Batman effort, as well, suffered from creative shortcomings, such as when the caped crusader whoops, "Yellow Smiley offers me X/ Like he's drinkin' 7-Up/ I would rather drink six razor blades/ Razor blades from a paper cup" on "The Future."

THE BUTT: Notorious for performing in nothing but a black lace thong, Prince has never been shy about exposing his loins to the lusty gaze of the public. In fact, after being named the Minnesota Musician of the Year by a Minneapolis newsweekly in 1982, he inquired, "When do they give away the award for best ass?" But Prince's wanton exhibitionism didn't play so well in Las Vegas, where city officials demanded a poster depicting a pants-less Prince removed from McCarran International Airport in 2000. As a justification, the officials cited the airport as a "family area."

THE LEGACY: The Roots' Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson to Rolling Stone, April 2004: "I hear people speak of the Neptunes all the time, like, `Oh, man, this is some new shit!' `When Doves Cry' is a precursor to the Neptunes' one-note funk grind, a masterpiece of song with just a drum machine and very little melody. Anyone who saw 8 Mile, if they're over 30, the first words out of their mouth are, `Oh, I liked that film the first time I saw it. It was called Purple Rain.'"