Emancipation [PA] - Prince (CD 1996)

In 1996, Prince released his first record outside the Warner Brothers contract confines. It was 36 songs and (my copy is cassette, so I can't vouch for this) Prince said each disc would be 1 hour long, to the second. It would be called EMANCIPATION, the cover photo showing Prince's raised fists breaking off the chains binding them. It was, he told Oprah, the sound of freedom. To me, it's the sound of someone with no self-control. Of the 36 songs on here, I count 12 or 13 that are really good. And only a handful of those are great.

First off, does anyone need 3 hours of new music, no matter who the artist is producing it? I don't think so. Again, I'm about the biggest Prince fan you're likely to find, as far as being able to listen to nothing but Prince for weeks on end, but even I've rarely been able to make it through EMANCIPATION in one sitting, start to finish. I believe that is probably due in part to the quality of the songs. When he's good, he's very good, but when he's not good, he's mediocre and, yes he still sounds like Prince, but, as Dennis Miller said of two-for-one sales at K-Mart: "Two of sh!t is sh!t".

He's trying to, not only flex his musical talent, but show what he's really capable of when allowed to do what he wants. Hey, there's a reason not everyone is allowed to produce their own records. I would LOVE to hear what a Prince record produced by someone else sounds like. Sure he throws in a lot of different types of music, a little swing, a little hip-hop, very little true rock, but it's mostly 3 hours of ballads and dance beats. It's like another Dennis Miller joke about the Big Gulp--"Do I need 32 oz. of any fluid?"--in this case, do I need 3 hours of ballads and clubs beats? The answer is no.

I'd intended to do this review without a song by song rundown--there's just so many of them--but I didn't think it fair to point out what makes the good songs good without also pointing out what makes the bad songs sh!t. So here goes. And PLEASE feel free to skip the rundown and go straight to the wrap-up at the end.

Emancipation 1:

You don't start your record with the best song, otherwise it's all downhill from there, but you don't want to start with crap, either. While "Jam of the Year" isn't the worst Prince song, it ain't in the top 10. It's not even in the top 10 of the 36 songs on the EMANCIPATION set. It's set as a dance club song, but the tempo is too laid back, as is Prince's falsetto. It's not the sexy "Do Me, Baby" vocal, nor is it the unique "Kiss" voice. It's just there. Rosie Gaines gives some background scat vocal for flavor, but it's already too late. If this song was the Jam of the Year, it was a sad year indeed. The one bright spot is the spoken bridge, "Let's make a toast to the host with the most / Raise your glass if you're on your own / All the girls say 'Ho' is your man's given' up the gold / All the fellas say 'Woof!' if you're only givin' up the bone -- tonight we're gonna hide it," but this isn't a promising beginning to a 3-disc set.

Things don't improve much from here, not for a while anyway. "Right Back Here in My Arms" has a good beat, but you can't dance to it--again, too laid back. It's like he's afraid to really cut loose--Hey, I thought the record was called EMANCIPATION. Prove it, man. "Somebody's Somebody" is a decent song, but it's a ballad set to a programmed beat and I'm still waiting for PRINCE to kick in. "Get Yo Groove On" is finally a hoppin' song. Unfortunately it's a standard club song and, seriously, I can get these anywhere, I don't need Prince for that. Granted, I doubt anyone else would have overdone the song to quite the extent it's done on here. For a song with the (horrible) opening lyric, "I got some money cuz I just got paid / It's time to get my groove on / Been workin' hard now it's time to play / I gots to get my groove on," he sure thinks an awful lot of it. How "Courtin' Time" ever made it onto any record is beyond me. Prince is a master of many different styles of music, and he may even be a master of . . . swing? jazz? whatever this song is, but that doesn't make the song itself any better. Sometimes you gotta know when to include a song and when it goes into the vault.

"Put on your shoppin' shoes, honey, it's courtin' time." Whatever.

And looky here--what I do believe to be a first for a Prince record--a cover song. "Betcha By Golly Wow", written by Thomas Randolph Bell and Linda Creed was the first single from EMANCIPATION. Popular belief is the song was included for Prince's then-unborn baby. He says in the liner notes, "Maybe, the prettiest melody ever written." Well, it is a nice song--I wouldn't peg it as a single, but it's okay--I'm still waiting, however, for PRINCE.

"We Gets Up" is "Get Yo Groove On" later that week--nothing new and now I'm getting bored.

However.

There are song songs on a record that are probably, unfairly, overlooked. I believe "White Mansion" to be one of those songs. I've owned EMANCIPATION since '96, but it's only recently that I've really begun to appreciate this song. The melody is beautiful, his vocal is perfect, and the overall tone of the song is underplayed, adding, brilliantly, to the songs laid back feel. Finally, nice job. But by now we're on the second song of the second side of the first cassette.

The rest of EMANCIPATION 1, while not a trend-setting work of art, is still better than anything before it on this record. "Damned if I Do" is an upbeat song with a cool guitar hook. "I Can't Make You Love Me" is a truly beautiful cover of the Bonnie Raitt song. "Mr. Happy" is a song I would expect from Prince, an undefinable tune. Too cool to be rap, too rap to be rock, and too rockin' to be funk. "In This Bed I Scream" is a great ending to a record that got off to a VERY rough start. Dedicated to Lisa, Wendy, and Susannah, it's a song about mending fences, forgiving wrongs, and making peace. The honesty in Prince's voice fits the song like a glove. "In this car I drive / I'm lookin' for the road that leads back to the soul we shared."

Emancipation 2:

What is the sound of an entire (well, almost entire) record of ballads, other than Michael Bolton (and who the hell listens to him anyway)? EMANCIPATION 2 is almost a dedication to Prince's then-new bride Mayte Garcia and his love for her was evident in just about every song, starting with the groovin' "Sex in the Summer" which features the fetal heartbeat of their baby as the backing groove. Remember those lazy summer days doing nothing but relaxing? It's kind of ironic he'd use a child's heartbeat on a song with that lazy day feel; I haven't had one of those days since I had kids.

For a while we move into straight ballad territory. "One Kiss at a Time" is nothing more than simple, slow, ballad-standard, but it's got a few sexy lyrics ("Slowly I pull your strap down / And touch you as if to hear / Layer by layer, inch by inch / Until your true love is revealed"). "Soul Sanctuary" is co-written by Sandra St. Victor, but this isn't a ballad like all the others. It's very smooth, almost restrained, and that restraint--you can hear it in his voice--seems to give it all the more strength.

"Loving you in silence, never-ending kiss / Under your gaze I can peacefully exist / Sanctuary, baby, nothing compares to this / In my darkest hour, you can be my bliss."

I know the feeling, it's how I feel about my own wife.

"Emale" is more upbeat, with a sly sound punctuated by the hand-claps in the back. It ain't a love song, at least not in the usual sense--not even in the usual Prince sense. But it's got such a good groove, who cares. "Curious Child" is just a simple, short, sweet song. "A simple ballet 4 an old friend . . . " say the liner notes, "or 2 whomever it may concern." We've had a run of pretty good songs so far, a trend continued with "Dreamin' About U", a quiet song of obsession or devotion, depending on how you look at it. This is another of those underrated songs I was talking about earlier.

We close side 1 of the EMANCIPATION 2 cassette with the overlong, overdone "Joint 2 Joint." As with the up-tempo songs from EMANCIPATION 1, it's too fast to be a ballad, too slow to really be a dance song. And with the rap, the sound of Savion Glover's tap dancing, and Prince talking over the end, the song just breaks down into a jumble of noise.

Of the 5 songs on side 2, 3 are incredible. "The Holy River" is another overlong ballad, but in the case of this unlikely single (I saw the video once on VH1, believe it or not--I guess MTV's too cool for Prince) you welcome it. This song's got layer upon layer of beautiful melody. One of the few sparks of brilliance in the entire 36-song set.

"Let's Have a Baby" is nothing to get worked up about, a song about a man telling his woman he's ready for them to have a baby--wonder where he got that idea from--but the next song "Saviour" is quite possibly the most powerful ballad of Prince's later years. "How did I ever come this far without you baby / What was I thinking, what was I tryin' to be?"

(We'll skip "The Plan", nothing more than an instrumental excerpt from the "Kamasutra" ballet. Who cares?)

To wrap up this 2nd part, we come round again to his true intentions here and whether or not EMANCIPATION 2 was meant as a dedication to Mayte (as if the cover photo including her pregnant stomach didn't say it all), he ends with "Friend, Love, Sister, Mother/Wife" a song the liner notes say was "Written in Tokyo while she slept. Recorded in secrecy and showcased at the reception. 1st dance . . . " You know, it's stuff like this that makes us regular, non-musical genius husbands look bad. I've written a good deal of poetry for my wife, but nothing as good as this song. "If ever I held a hand, it was only because I'd never held your hand / That was part of the plan, I had to get it right if I was to be your man / . . . / Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother/Wife / Air, food, water, love of my life / Teacher, healer, feeler, sight for sore eyes." Okay, maybe a bad example, those weren't the best lyrics, but it's still a great song.

Emancipation 3:

For a long time, this has been my favorite of the EMANCIPATION discs. The songs are overall better than 1, and they're not all love songs like 2. This could have been a straight Prince record on its own. It wouldn't have been his best, but it would have had a better chance of standing alone than 1 or 2. "Slave" is the first song, a funky song with a driving beat. The problem here is the vocal. He sounds like he's filled with too much energy, but is trying to keep himself calm. He sounds too restrained and I don't like it. When he sings the chorus, "Everybody keeps tryin' to break my heart / Everybody except for me / I just want a chance to play the part / The part of someone truly free," he's not convincing me. If anything, EMANCIPATION proves he NEEDS someone to reign him in once in a while.

"New World" and "The Human Body" are both straight dance tracks with their heavy, thumping beat ("Human Body" more so with its 2 very short verses and what seems like 10 extra minutes of just that pounding beat--it's not really that long, but it might as well be). "Face Down" is finally a pretty good song. Not great, though, because, again, his vocal is lacking. "Face Down" is a rap, which Prince has proven he can do, but he sounds too raspy, too weak. Interesting lyrics, though.

"Somebody once told him that he wouldn't take Prince through the ringer / Let him go down as a washed-up singer / Ain't that a b!tch / Thinkin' all along that he wanted to be rich / Never respected the root of all evil and he still don't to this day / Bury him face down, let them motherf**kers kiss a a$$ / okay?" Nice.

Prince's cover of Thomas Randolph Bell and William Hart's "La, La, La (Means I Love You)", while a pretty song, isn't in my top 10 (or 15). There's nothing wrong with doing your own interpretation, but Prince has always been so far from what everyone else is doing anyway, that even his interpretations of other people's songs are very much Prince's own--and yet NOT his, because they're someone else's. You know? Anyway, he just shouldn't do a lot of covers, that's all I'm saying.

"Style" ends side 1 of EMANCIPATION 3. This starts off as a pretty good song and doesn't have too bad an ending, although, as with all the other side 1 closers so far, it's just overdone. I know he wanted 3 exact hours of music, but that doesn't mean stretch out the parts you think can be stretched out. If this were a shorter song, it would definitely be one of the better ones. Nice bass.

"Style ain't sitting courtside with the owner of the team / Style is ownin' the court and chargin' 'em all a fee / Style is not lusting after someone because they're cool / Style is loving yourself until everyone else does, too"

"Sleep Around", again, a great song, made too long just because he can. And, again, this could have been such a good song if he'd only cut off the last 2 or 3 minutes of music. They add nothing and he just isn't getting that. If THIS is the sound of freedom, no thanks.

"Da, Da, Da" is interesting--not because of its stupid title--because the main vocal is by a rapper named Scrap D. Prince doesn't come in until the end with a little 6-line bit (also the best part of the song). Get the Parental Advisory version for the full effect.

"My Computer" is a song of loneliness, not too bad, with Kate Bush on "additional vox". Contains one of the best lines on the record: "I could count my friends with a peace sign--1, 2." "One of Us", another cover. This time he really does make the song his own, with some great guitar work, something I think Joan Osbourne's version lacked.

Now we come to one of Prince's most beautiful songs ever.

"The Love We Make" is a song (a ballad, 'natch) I could listen to over and over. The lyrics are Prince on his game. The vocal is dead-on and heartfelt. And the production is perfect, for once. Not too long--if anything I think it ends too soon--and none of the time is wasted on useless solos that go nowhere. Probably one of the few perfect songs ever recorded.

"Precious is the baby with a mother / That tells him that his Savior is comin' soon / All that believe will cleanse and purify themselves / . . . / Sacred is the prayer that asks for nothing / While seeking to give thanks for every breath we take / Blessed are we inside this prayer / For in the new world we will be there / The only love there is, is the love we make". It's one of those songs that make the price of the set worth it.

Finally we close out the whole mess with the title track. "Emancipation" is a pretty good song, one of the few I counted earlier as being one of the really good ones. But then his title tracks almost always are among the better songs on his records. And if there's a point to the whole thing, a reason for 3 hours of music, written and recorded with no one looking over his shoulder and telling him he couldn't do this or shouldn't do that, he sums it up in verse 2, leading into the chorus: "I've been tryin' to break the chain / Get my little a$$ out the game / I'd rather sing with a bit more harmony / Emancipation--free to do what I want / Emancipation--see you in the Purple Rain / Emancipation--free to do what I want / Emancipation--break the chain, break the chain."

When it's all said and done, EMANCIPATION has some good music and I'm glad to know he feels free now to record without the hassle of trying to please his record company, making music he wants to make--in a Rolling Stone interview in 1990, he said something like if he can please himself musically, then he knows he can please others. And sure there's some good stuff on here. There's just not 3 hours of it. There was no reason at all EMANCIPATION had to be 3 hours long. I don't want to say he had a lot of filler, but if he'd cut out the songs that didn't stand up well against the others, this could have been an album--even a double album if necessary, but no more than that--of some really great material. As it is, it's overdone, overproduced, and overblown. Tone it down a little, my man--you dig it?