Fxckyeahprince
The artist formerly known as Prince
His Royal Badness
...or just...Prince
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Slow jams make up a fair amount of my favorite songs. I have a very weak spot in my heart for the quiet storm genre. That being said, Prince has a ton of great music that he has recorded over the last thirty-five years or so but my favorite track of his may be “Do Me, Baby” off of the Controversy album. Why? Because it may very well be the greatest slow jam of all time.
Oh sure, there’s plenty of competition out there. R. Kelly’s “Bump n’ Grind,” Marvin Gaye’s “Distant Lover,” The Isley Brothers’ “Between the Sheets,” etc. Even Prince’s own “Purple Rain” is up there. However, there’s something about “Do Me, Baby” that pushes it beyond these tunes and I think it has so much to do with the delicate and intricate arrangement. But that’s not to rule out the undeniable sexual savant that is Prince himself.
“Do Me, Baby” hits all the right marks of a slow jam. One could say that it provides a template, even. It’s masterful from that first piano glissando. The chord progression is fairly simple, but the instrumentation keeps it varied enough to never get boring. While the piano fills out the chords and some melody licks, the guitar part provides a constant rhythmic pulse with that ingenious volume swell in and out. So many things in this tune are done well, but the bass may be the best one of all of them. That pop on the and of one throughout the tune is placed so perfectly in the measure as Prince’s vocal usually comes in on the second beat. It’s like the bass preps you for the vocal delivery.
I love the direct message of the song. Prince is an artist who has written so many songs that I imagine they would begin to run together. It’s difficult to come up with new and interesting material. Even if you rule out the occasional subconscious plagiarism, your ideas are bound to start overlapping after a while. There’s so much pressure to be clever and dance around the subject of sex in these types of songs and while that is wonderful in its own way, sometimes when you’ve tip-toed around the subject for so long, it’s best to just get straight to the point.
Do me, baby. That’s about as direct as it gets.
People call me rude, I wish we all were nude. I wish there was no black and white, I wish there were no rules.
Prince - Jack U Off
Let’s Work (Extended) | Prince
The extended version by request. A bit of popping in the beginning, straight off a record player : )
