The Prince album that almost featured Madonna: “I decided I didn’t want to do a musical with him”
For better or worse, it seems Prince has been called every name under the sun.
He was a prodigy, a musical genius, a deeply complicated mind with a fierce work ethic that no one will ever come close to replicating in art. But one thing he also mastered was the art of being prolific – something that almost earns vulturistic criticisms in today’s digital world.
Prince released 39 albums during his career, and that’s discounting the amount of unreleased and vault material that never saw the light of day. Countless musical heroes across history were just as prolific, which makes you realise just how old the over-saturation debate in music actually is.
This cycle, however, feels different. Because while there were surely fans who struggled to keep up with Prince’s heavy churn, it almost doesn’t even matter anymore. His legacy is all the more stronger for it, making it hard to think of any time he actually got it wrong. But as with most major artists, bumps in the road are inevitable. Even for Prince.
But once again, Prince is a unique case. Because while many artists find it difficult to maintain their own standards, Prince never really seemed to struggle that much with meeting his own. Even after his opus, Purple Rain, he only seemed to keep climbing, with material that wasn’t only high quality but entirely different in genre, approach, and concept.
After something like Purple Rain, people expected something resembling a follow-up. Just like the moments that followed Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, writers and fans almost expected a part two. But, as history decrees, such a move is almost always career suicide. And yet, once again, Prince’s journey was fairly unique. He might not’ve followed up the record immediately, but he eventually tried his hand at what would look like the closest thing with Graffiti Bridge.
On the surface, the immediate similarities are obvious, but beyond taking longer to complete and its central formatting, Graffiti Bridge went through several ideas that ended up either never materialising or being scrapped entirely. One of which was a brief encounter with Madonna when Prince was considering including her in the project.
Recalling the situation with Rolling Stone in 1989, Madonna gave the impression it was a fairly casual affair, and that she eventually pulled the plug when it came to deciding. “I went to his studio in Minnesota and worked on some stuff, just to get the feel of what it would be like to collaborate. Prince and I didn’t really finish anything, though,” she said. “We worked for a few days; then I had to leave to do some other things. I decided that I didn’t want to do a musical with him at that time.”
Maybe it was for the best, as the entire release around Graffiti Bridge – both the soundtrack and the movie – left some fans and critics alike in a state of malaise. There was plenty to sink your teeth into, but nothing that held that familiar Prince-like timelessness that we’ve since come to associate with the genius himself.
