Artists Pick Their Personal Top 10s
The Roots drummer converted to the Purple side at age 11 listening to "Lady Cab Driver." "He pulls off a snare battle with himself — you can hear the wood chips hit the floor," ?uestlove says. "It was there that I first felt the passion in his musicianship."
- "Baby I'm a Star" (Live from Landover, Maryland, Purple Rain tour) - 1984 His "James Brown on The T.A.M.I. Show doing 'Night Train' " moment. He's the best bandleader of his generation — and if I ever need to prove that to someone, this is my surefire crash course.
- "Movie Star" - 1986 Prince's best display of humor, quirkiness, self-mockery and a dash of funk. This was originally a demo intended for the Time, but I can't see Morris Day waxing poetic about potato chips like this.
- "Irresistible Bitch" - 1983 "Tricky" - 1984 "Cloreen Bacon Skin" - 1983 A three-way tie between songs that share DNA: funky drums and a bass line in the key of A. No way I could separate 'em.
- "Little Red Corvette" (12-inch extended version) - 1983 A major face-lift: Prince transforms the song into this sweaty funk-out and — sorry, Diddy! — Prince invented the remix.
- "Lady Cab Driver" - 1982 "1999" was the kind of album where you couldn't just bite one chip, and this was the mightiest chip.
- "The Bird" (Rehearsal demo) - 1983 I'm certain Prince would be chagrined by this list of hard-to-find classics (in his eyes: illegal), but practicing and absorbing this song has shaped many a musician's life, including mine — it was all the college I needed. He builds a groove here from the ground up, note by note. This one shows that even the smallest detail is crucial to a song.
- "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" - 1987 If Graham Central Station's Release Yourself and Joni Mitchell's Hissing of Summer Lawns fell in love, got married and had a baby.
- "The Sex of It" (Demo for Kid Creole and the Coconuts) - 1987 Our hero reflects on his dead-end relationship, feeling like a used piece of meat — but don't cue the strings, because we'd all love for women to just want us "for the sex!" This brings his vulnerability to light.
- "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore" - 1983 A bare-bones song that shows off his gospel side (the piano), his soul side (the falsetto) and his jazz side (the way he phrases his ad-libs toward the song's fade-out). This song has wound up on every mope/breakup mix I ever made.
- "Erotic City" - 1984 This is one of his most popular B sides. It's his ode to P-Funk, and it makes for the perfect counterbalance to its A side, "Let's Go Crazy." It also marks the beginning of him singing as a helium-voiced female character named Camille.
- "A Million Miles (I Love You)" - 1984 I could be the minority here, but I truly believe that if she had been given half a chance, Brenda Bennett (Prince's wardrobe mistress in 81, later one third of both Vanity 6 and Apollonia 6 projects) coulda been a contender.
- "Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)" - 1982 "Water" is the soundtrack in my head everytime a girl does me wrong.
- "All My Dreams" - 1986 This song always gave me the impression that perhaps Prince was hip to the "You Can't Do That Onstage Anymore"-era Zappa, using this song as an homage. Shame this never made it as an official release.
- "Power Fantastic" - 1986 My all time favorite ballad of his. The perfect Sunday afternoon driving song. The flute part kills me everytime.
- "Strawberry Shortcake" - 1984 A hot sweaty purple funk instrumental workout!
