Prince didn’t regret any of his songs: ‘You grow and you evolve’
Every artist looking to do more with their career only needs to look at the massive output of Prince. Being the definition of a working musician, ‘The Purple One’ never sat down to take a break, making music whenever he could and amassing over 40 projects throughout his lifetime. With a vast catalogue, there must be a few albums that the writer gravitates to more than others.
In terms of sheer influence, the impact of Purple Rain can’t be denied. Being one of the first to have a number-one movie and album simultaneously, Prince had created his magnum opus centred around a stylised version of a small-town kid growing up in Minneapolis. Throughout his run in the 1980s, Prince rarely missed in the studio, going all over the stylistic map on Sign O The Times and turning in a fantastic soundtrack to Tim Burton’s Batman as well.
Prince’s time in the spotlight was also hampered by his ruthless battle with Warner Bros, who chose to see him as a product rather than a creative entity. Occasionally writing ‘SLAVE’ on his cheek while performing, Prince even changed his name to a symbol halfway through his career to differentiate himself from his label.
While any artist tends to have a few albums that feel off the mark, Prince stood by every song he ever made, saying, “No, I understand why I wrote it at the time. I don’t have regrets like that when it comes to music. As you grow and as you evolve, you learn more about yourself, you learn more about the people around you. You start to see yourself as part of the whole universe, and all that changes. So I think I’ve done the best that I could at what I had to work with at the time”.
Considering his spiritual connection with music, it makes sense why Prince wouldn’t want to disparage any of his previous work. Even when working outside the confines of Warner Bros, he still kept his greatest material at the forefront of his setlist, tearing through hits like ‘Purple Rain’ as if they were his musical children.
By learning more about himself, the music that Prince made every decade seemed to be an extension of his soul. After settling down in the early 1990s, Prince was finally in a comfortable place to release the massive undertaking, Emancipation, a triple album set with the most eclectic array of songs since Sign O The Times.
Then again, Prince’s work as a Jehovah’s Witness towards the end of his life may have brought a handful of his best tracks into question. Even though he may have been preaching the good word to anyone within earshot, it was a little difficult to hear about the dangers of sin from the same man who sang about a dirty little girl in ‘Darling Nikki’.
Those songs were all in the past, and Prince was an artist that was born to live in the present at every second of the day. Whereas most artists might want to capture timeless songs, Prince’s output was about hearing what made him tick musically at any one moment.
