Graeme Thomson

In defence of Prince’s late style

There are real flashes of genius in albums such as One Nite Alone...

Prince in 1986, at his peak — yet to the end, he was capable of real quality. The life picture collection/getty images 
issue 20 June 2020

In 1992 Prince released a single called ‘My Name Is Prince’. On first hearing it seemed appropriately regal. Cocky, even. Only in hindsight did it appear somewhat needy, a litany not of what Prince was going to do, but of the things he had already done. On it, he pulled rank on his status — ‘I’ve seen the top and it’s just a dream / Big cars and women and fancy clothes’ — called out young rappers for their potty mouths, and declared himself ‘fresh and funky for the 90s’.

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