1999 - Prince (CD 1983)

Chock full of funky jams but overlong by a third, the double album, neo-psychedelic covered groove-a-thon 1999 showcases some of Prince's best work as well as some of his excesses. Lyrically, Prince still has sex on his mind, be it on the dance floor or in the back of a taxi cab, but he backs it up with some deftly layered music credited to his backing band, The Revolution. Heavy on synthesizers, most tracks also feature Prince's lead guitar, and rhythm guitar, popping bass and either drums or a drum machine.

The first three songs, "1999," "Little Red Corvette," and "Delirious," all became hits and broke Prince into the mainstream. And they were well-deserved hits, too. "1999" parties on in the face of nuclear destruction. Ronnie talked to Russia and called them the Evil Empire. The arms race was in full swing and the feeling was that one of the old geezers, Reagan or Brezhnev, was going to slump behind his desk, push the button in his dying sleep, and take the rest of us along for the ride. Yep, war was inevitable and the attack could come at any time (where have I heard that before?). Prince took the pulse of the nation and wrote a song about it, something of an apathetic protest song. There's nothing we can do, he seems to say with a shrug, so let's enjoy ourselves. In three part harmony with guitarist Dez Dickerson and a female vocal, Prince sings the key lines:

If you didn't come to party
Don't bother knockin' on my door
I got a lion in my pocket
And baby he's ready to roar
Everybody's got a bomb
We could all die any day
But before I'll let that happen
I'll dance my life away

Some might look at "1999" as a fatalistic or hedonistic response to the Cold War, and that's probably the point. As for me, I take it as my patriotic duty to shake my booty on the dance floor, lest the enemy wins. "Sing it for your nation," Prince exclaims at the end of the song. And maybe, just maybe, if enough people around the world follow Prince's lead, a flower power moment might occur where global peace breaks out.

Years later, after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union splintered, "1999" gained a new audience as the year 2000 approached (or "two thousand zero zero" to quote the song) and fears of the Y2K bug had people thinking this time the party may indeed be over. Which only goes to show that no matter the threat, fear is never out of fashion.

The least well-known of the three hits, "Delirious" has an infectious synth riff guaranteed to get you into that state. Meanwhile, "Little Red Corvette" is simply one of the best sexual metaphors to hit the Top 10. Rubbing up against a soft-shoe percussion and a pulsating synth, Prince uses the sleek, sexy, Chevrolet to describe a Saturday night pick-up who asks "Baby, have you got enough gas?" Imagery of Trojan horses, some of them used, and pictures of jockeys (former lovers) that hang on the wall have Prince feeling dumb and ill, yet he maintains "you need to find a love that's gonna last," which works as both a statement of fidelity and of sexual stamina.

What makes "Little Red Corvette" such a great song is that the wordplay leaves it to your imagination as to what goes on next. After Side 1, Prince becomes much more explicit. When it works, like in the slinky "Lady Cab Driver," Prince puts some thoughts into his thrusts. When it doesn't work, particularly toward the end of "Let's Pretend We're Married," he just comes across as vulgar. I can't imagine any woman falling for his come-on lines; if anything they are probably wooed by the irresistible melody he lays down.

The middle of the album is where things start to slow down. The longest track on the album, "Automatic," is also the dullest--nine and a half minutes of rote funk. "Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)," despite some promising lyrics, is undercut by that '80s gimmick of a synth imitating a computer. And while Prince gives us an Aristotelian proportion in "D.M.S.R." (Dance, Music, Sex, Romance), the song runs its course about half way through.

Fortunately, 1999 closes strongly. Of the remaining numbers, "Free" is an inspirational power ballad with Prince delivering a guitar solo. "All the Critics Love U in New York" is a witty put-down of trend setters. "International Lover" concludes the album in smoldering, climactic fashion, with Prince using airline metaphors as your R&B love man in the skies.

Prince and The Revolution definitely give up the funk on 1999. Had they shaved about 20 minutes from the 70 minute final product it would have made for a tighter and better album in my opinion.