Jason, the "Prince" of these proceedings, is an eerie imitator in both sound and vision, and the band is solid at pumping out the largely Revolution-era tunes. One of the (many) upsides, however, is that faux Prince, unlike real Prince, hasn't undergone a religious experience that precludes him from playing the nastier portions of his discography, as evidenced by an extended take on "Gett Off" Sunday night at the House of Blues.

While the faux Prince is quite convincing, the real stars of the show were the imitation Morris Day and Jerome, who came out during faux-Prince's occasional breaks. Besides performing a stream of Time hits and a great deal of handkerchief choreography, Morris ran though a very entertaining cover of "Just Got Paid" on which Jerome worked as hypeman. I briefly considered coughing up the cash to see that Beatles' "Love" show, but instead I saved myself $200, didn't have to leave the grounds of my hotel, and had a much better time.

Purple Reign [homepage]

Neal Hefti, the American jazz trumpeter, dies in LA [Telegraph]

1. The Beastie Boys
followed by...

Unwilling to repeat themselves after the left-field success of Check Your Head, the Beastie Boys wander through abortive sessions with Mix Master Mike, Lee Perry, Q-Tip, Miho Hatori, and others while promoting Tibetan Freedom Festivals, running Grand Royal, and raising families; Adam Horowitz's glitchy BS-2000 and the peculiar Country Mike's Greatest Hits make fans both curious and excited for what the group might eventually return with. Finally, after over a decade of waiting, Capitol Records and a nation of expectant stoners are blessed with... The Mix-Up.

2. Aerosmith
followed by...

Following the departure of Joe Perry during the recording of A Night In The Ruts, Steven Tyler descends further into chemical dependency, unable to complete sessions with new guitarists for several years. After his recovery from addiction in the mid-'80s, he is hesitant to return to life in the fast lane, preferring to raise his family and promote anti-drug campaigns. Finally, the original lineup returns with 1997's Nine Lives, where a new generation, unprimed by Wayne's World and Alicia Silverstone videos, is introduced to a group of decrepit transvestites screaming "Falling In Love (Is So Hard On The Knees)."

3. Grateful Dead
followed by...

Despite the success of Wake Of The Flood, things aren't the same for the Dead after the death of Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, and the band decides to abstain from the touring circuit. Attempts to hone a new sound are hindered by a series of exploding keyboardists, but the group finally returns to the limelight with 1989's Built To Last. Then another keyboardist dies, and the band says "fuck it." Meanwhile, Trey Anastasio is happily playing in a Creedence Clearwater Revival cover band in Vermont, just happy that he doesn't have to hold down a day job.

4. David Bowie
followed by...

After releasing Pin-Ups (itself The Spaghetti Incident?! of its day), Bowie grows tired of his hard-rock Ziggy Stardust shtick and fires the Spiders Of Mars. Rumors leak that the rock star is obsessed with "soul" and attempting to maintain cultural currency by working with Brian Eno (the Moby of his day), but year after year and release date after release date pass. Finally, cleaned up and ready to play ball, Bowie, joined by Peter Frampton and Charlie Sexton, returns for a massive world tour to promote his new album... Never Let Me Down.

5. Prince
followed by...

Even after his Hollywood dreams fizzled, Prince finds it impossible to follow up the monumental Purple Rain, retiring to his Minnesota home; he's rarely seen after the failed non-musical version of Graffiti Bridge. Some say that the recluse won't even answer to his name! Always up for a challenge, Clive Davis signs the artist to a one-album contract, teaming him with a variety of pop stars that had followed in his wake. He then presents the world with... Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic. The world is not impressed.

6. Bruce Springsteen
followed by...

Darkness On The Edge Of Town, while a critical hit, isn't really the sequel to Born To Run that Columbia was looking for. So for years Bruce struggles with synthesizers and drum machines, hoping to craft a surefire hit. Off the road and not meeting supermodels and back-up vocalists, Bruce lives a long, lonely life before finally releasing The Ghost Of Tom Joad, after which Columbia decides this man is no longer the future of rock and roll.

7. U2
followed by...

Torn between their desire for fame and their belief in Christian humility, the members of U2 are more than happy to finely hone their follow-up to The Unforgettable Fire with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. But after a decade-plus of work, it becomes clear that they've lost the script. So instead, the band looks both to the past (their original producer Steve Lillywhite) and the future (Nelle Hooper and Jackknife Lee), creating How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, which the group promotes on an '80s Flashback Tour co-headlined by Simple Minds.

8. R.E.M.
followed by...

The Green tour takes a lot out of R.E.M., with the band first attempting to create a grand follow-up with mandolins and string sections before scrapping the sessions to try and regain their rock energy. Finally, with both producer Scott Litt and Bill Berry no longer involved, the remaining trio makes an album everyone is comfortable with. An album named Around The Sun.

9. Rolling Stones
followed by...

Let It Bleed is a surprise triumph after the loss of Brian Jones, but drugs overcome the band and it isn't long before replacement Mick Taylor is gone. It won't be until after the failure of Mick Jagger's first solo album, She's The Boss, that he'll get the old band together for a new album titled Dirty Work. While they knew Mick Jagger was capable of anything, it shocked fans of the enigmatic Keith Richards, long rumored dead, to see him dancing with cartoon cats in the video for "Harlem Shuffle."

10. Stevie Wonder
followed by...

With Motown refusing to let him run his own albums, Wonder boycotts his label following the release of For Once In My Life. When Berry Gordy finally relents in the early '70s, his concerns are proven tragically valid as Wonder toils unsuccessfully to capture his "inner visions," desperately trying to create songs "in the key of life." The singer could have been forgotten—but Gene Wilder gets in touch with him in hopes that he'll create a soundtrack for The Woman In Red. America is shocked as Little Stevie Wonder returns to the limelight with "I Just Called To Say I Love You," with Rolling Stone declaring it the Least Welcome Comeback of 1984.

There is one alternate history Axl could take heart in. If Paul Simon had waited fifteen years to put out an album after Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, Graceland would have been even more of an impressive wtf than it was at the time. But will Axl Rose's adventures in the diaspora ("Madagascar!") have the same zeitgeist as Simon's?

Hell no.

WEB SHERIFF
Protecting Your Rights on the Internet
Tel 44-(0)208-3238013
Fax 44-(0)208-3238080
websheriff@websheriff.com
www.websheriff.com

Hi Dan & Everyone,

Many thanks for your interesting story ... .. "My-Good-Fellow" (we hope that's British enough for you ?!) ... .. the point here is that How Do I and QueenSissy are correct - Prince actually has performers' rights in his stage and recorded performances and, as such, he's still entitled to pull these videos if he chooses to and regardless of whether or not he wrote the song.

There is a very interesting comparison to be drawn between Radiohead and Prince who, between them, probably represent the spectrum of artist opinion on the use of the internet. Some artists are very relaxed about the use of their rights on the net, whereas others are more protective, which, we'd suggest, is the whole point - it's the artist's decision (whichever way they lean) and no one else's.

We hope this clarifies the position for your readers.

All The Best,

WEB SHERIFF

I don't have a good international calling plan, otherwise I'd call the Sheriff in the UK to get to the bottom of who exactly is protecting my rights on the Internet, but is this whole operation one guy with a lot of time on his hands and a not-very-quick reaction time to Google Alerts? I'm fascinated by the personal touch. Oh, Web Sheriff, you're such a mystery. You haunt my dreams.

WEBSHERIFF's Activity [Idolator]

Why, then, is there such a virulent strain of anti-intellectualism among the indie rock fans on music blogs?

Allow me to employ an example from my own life. Last week, Stereogum thought to link me in a post about an imagined beef between Radiohead and Prince, in which Prince seemed to be asserting ownership over the cover of "Creep" he performed at Coachella earlier this year. The author of the post, Brandon Stosuy, linked to a piece I had written about the cover, claiming that I said "the Purple One actually did write (or re-write) 'Creep.'" After quoting four paragraphs of my post, he concluded: "Or maybe he forgot the words. Grad School [sic] is fun. Give it up for Borges."

The thing is, I wrote the piece a month before any of this surfaced, so it had nothing to do with copyright wrangling. I was really just saying that the cover was awesome, specifically because Prince made "Creep" his own. Though Stosuy seemed to have some problem with this, the idea of making someone else's song your own is not an unfamiliar one to most music fans. This is because of a little show called American Idol. See, for instance, Randy Jackson at the end here:

(Or, you know, you could just read an earlier post on Stereogum.)

I've spent some time thinking about the art of the cover, and I've come up with a certain set of guidelines. First, if you're going to cover a song, it has to sound different from the original. If I wanted to hear the original, there are many outlets for me to do so. Second, any good cover reinterprets the song using the coverer's particular sound, and should meld the song into the quirks of phrasing and effects that permeate that artist's originals. And finally, covering a known song is almost always better than covering an unknown song. The thrill of hearing a cover comes from referentiality, not discovery.

All this stems from a particular philosophical viewpoint: there are too many songs out there, and not enough interpretations of songs. The history of recorded music is deep enough at this point that pop should be adapting some of the techniques of older musical forms, and one of the most important ones is reinterpretation. A great cover shows us something about the original that we never saw before, some stylistic similarity or hidden element that the coverer brings out and highlights. This is what "making it your own" means. A good cover doesn't just transmute an existing song into a new style to make hay from the absurd juxtaposition; it makes an old song sound like a natural part of the coverer's repertoire, thus revealing things about both the original artist and the one doing the reinterpretation.

All this was very clear in my piece, were you to actually read it rather than placing it out of context into a new setting that had nothing to do with it. The spin put on the piece by Stereogum was not just wrong, it was some Bill O'Reilly shit, intentionally misinterpreting what I said so as to cause outrage. Though I don't normally respond to crazy criticisms of things I write, I figured a clarification was in order, and I threw together the least snotty comment I possibly could—which, in fairness, was still kinda snotty—to make sure everyone was clear on what I meant. I then went on with my day.

Still, something about it bugged me. Maybe it was the comments. Here's a sampling, all [sic], naturally.

That second to last paragraph almost made me throw up.

What kind of insane garbage was that second statement. If I go into a karioke bar, fuck up a song...can I claim that I was just using my creative genius too?

That ClapClap paragraph is a load of bullshit: If All Along The Watchtower's still a Bob Dylan's song, then Creep is still Thom Yorke's...A cover's a cover, no matter how much "astounding pop magic" is used, period. Maybe if I could see the fucking thing I could change my mind for the better, but since that's pretty much nil, Prince remains a corporate whore to me. Plus, the fact that Radiohead embraces this new age of open media has to say something for them compared to other popular rock bands.

I LOVE the description of how Prince made it his own - it's like that great clip where Vanilla Ice defends the bassline in 'Ice Ice Baby' as being completely different from the bassline in 'Under Pressure.'

"i've written this new song its called "2009" i copied Prince's "1999" almost verbatim but instead we're going to party like its about to roll over to 2010. you get it? I'm brilliant.

Now, this is being somewhat unfair. Comments posted after mine corrected many of the errors in the original post: Thom was just pointing out the irony of being unable to hear a cover of a song he had written, Prince did have a right to request the videos' removal as the performer, and my post had nothing to do with any of this.

Still, one issue remained: that final sentence of Stosuy's post, the one where he mysteriously capitalized "School" and sneeringly—and just as mysteriously!—invoked "Borges." In my attempt not to be snotty, I nevertheless couldn't resist responding to that one, beginning my comment with: "I appreciate the hat tip—and the anti-intellectualism!" A Stereogum commenter took issue with this:

And I don't know if you got the memo, but intellectualism is not very cool anymore (or was it ever?).

There's an irony in this. Stosuy is not exactly one to shun intellectualism himself, having written, among other things, a book about conceptual artist Matthew Barney, as well as the introduction to a book published by Semiotext(e). And good for him! These are all interesting, worthwhile things. And they make it not only more difficult for him to accuse someone of being pretentious, but fairly depressing to see him do so.

Gentle reader, I must be honest with you at this point. I am, indeed, in grad school. But I began writing wordy, pretentious, and overexcited things long before I rejoined the academy. Four years ago, I wrote over 23,000 words on a single Fiery Furnaces album. And this was not entirely unusual for the time. Those of you who remember the early days of music blogs might remember them as being more or less like what I described above: long, thoughtful, serious posts about music. I'm sure you need not be told that this is no longer the case, and the fact that a Stereogum commenter thought to tell me that intellectualism isn't cool—key choice of words there—should indicate why.

If my writing gets pretentious and overly serious, I'm happy to be called on that. But if you read my piece, I don't see anything approaching grad schoolishness; it is, after all, mostly about fucking. What I do see in my piece is enthusiasm, something that's never cool, whereas what you get on Stereogum is the exact opposite: hysterical denunciation. That's always pretty cool—were you to ask commenters what they were rebelling against, "What do you got?" seems a likely answer.

As the audience for music blogs has expanded, the wordcounts of posts have shrunk, and the commenters have gotten meaner and greedier. Instead of the kind of thoughtful and occasionally heated discussion that was once the norm, we are now treated as heretics if we fail to bestow upon our readers the free music they feel they deserve. Forget good writing—music blogs have chased the lowest common denominator so aggressively that anything longer than a blurb merits a "tl;dr." Maybe the indie rockers read so much in college that they they're tired of it.

I try not to let it get to me. I try to get excited about things, and think about things, and write about things at whatever length they deserve. And if I don't always get it right, I'm OK with that. An error is forgivable. To pander to the worst impulses of your audience by snidely dismissing thoughtfulness is, I think, a bit less forgivable. A writer or a critic with any concern for his craft should not so easily abandon the idea of expanding the imaginative possibilities of art, especially not in pursuit of more click-throughs from a readership that likes nothing better than being told everyone is stupid but them.

[Photo: Vincent Giordano]

Radiohead believes they should have been able to ask for removal of the clips from YouTube, since they, you know, wrote the song and all.

In a recent interview, Thom Yorke said he heard about Prince's performance from a text message and thought it was "hilarious." Yorke laughed when his bandmate, guitarist Ed O'Brien, said the blocking had prevented him from seeing Prince's version of their song.

"Really? He's blocked it?" asked Yorke, who figured it was their song to block or not. "Surely we should block it. Hang on a moment."

Yorke added: "Well, tell him to unblock it. It's our ... song."

YouTube prohibits the posting of copyrighted material. If the site receives a complaint from a copyright owner, it will in most cases remove the video(s). Whether the same could be done for a company not holding a copyright is less clear, but Yorke's argument would seem to bear some credence according to YouTube's policies. YouTube, which is owned by Google, declined to comment.

Prince also did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Prince may be able to claim that he put enough of a spin on the song to have some copyright control over his version, but that claim probably won't hold up. But who would dare argue with the Web Sheriff (who in my head looks a lot like Sheriff Lobo, but with a British accent)? He's watching over us all!

Radiohead to Prince: Unblock 'Creep' cover videos [AP via CNN]

The Bird (performed by Morris Day)
Jungle Love (performed by Morris Day)
Glamorous Life (performed by Sheila E.)
Instrumental Jam
1999
I Feel For U
Controversy (with snippet of "Housequake")
Little Red Corvette
Musicology
Cream
U Got the Look
Shh
Anotherloverholeinyourhead
Creep
Angel
7 --> Come Together
Purple Rain
Let's Go Crazy

Set list via Brooklyn Vegan's comments section, which is, of course, bringing out the "well, I saw him play in a FARM to THREE PEOPLE" assholery in full force. God bless the Internet.

[Photo: AP]

42. Morrissey, Your Arsenal

"Morrissey appears topless and vulnerable, neither dispelling nor confirming rumours surrounding his sexuality as his posture is effete while his body toning is masculine. His microphone looks extremely phallic too."

28. Herbie Mann, Push Push

"Flouting his thick curly chest hair and ominously holding his flute as if it's some kind of sex toy, to us at least, it's stomach-churningly cheesy. Mr Mann seems to be pleased with himself. The dirty bugger."

26. Lords Of Acid, Crablouse

"A curious male naked form, with a female hand seemingly coming out of nowhere and grabbing the genital region, it's just plain baffling."

15. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Abbey Road EP

"We just wonder what they're hiding?"

13. Prince, Lovesexy

"The site [sic] of Prince unclothed is enough to send many-a-woman or gay man weak at the knees, and that's exactly what we got back in 1989: the pint sized music icon completely bollocks naked."

8. Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers

"The well-endowed chap in question is apparently Joe Dallesandro and not Mick Jagger who is apparently hung like a mouse."

7. Kevin Rowland, My Beauty

"While many claimed it was merely a publicity stunt, the former Dexys man denied saying he was trying to display his 'soft, sexy, feminine side'. It sold about two copies upon its 1999 release. Literally."

1. Liars, It Fit When I Was A Kid

"Although we don't think Angus Andrew and co are into sexing each other up, they sure look like they're enjoying themselves."

Naked men! So funny! Within this group, there are arguably three covers (Morrissey, Prince, Rolling Stones) where male nudity isn't taken as absurd, intentionally or otherwise. The same can't be said of most the boob, butt, and beaver shots that compile the rest of the list. So what would a list that didn't find chest hair inherently ridiculous include? Al Green's Greatest Hits? Raw Power? Uhh, umm... a little help?

Sex Sells: The 50 Dirtiest and Sexiest Album Covers Ever!! [Gigwise]

After Jay-Z announced he would headline the upcoming four-day O2 Wireless Festival at Hyde Park (an indoor gig) a week after Glastonbury, rumors spread that he would drop out of the earlier festival, offended by claims that British campers aren't psyched to wait through three days of mud (and bands like Kings Of Leon) to see him. Word even got out that Prince might replace him. But Glastonbury organizer Michael Eavis says such claims are rubbish.

Speaking to XFM, Eavis said that the reports of a possible Jay-Z cancellation were "completely unfounded" and "nasty, malicious rumours".
"The Sun was carrying a story that he was pulling out," he continued. "I'm not sure where they got from, probably from the people that were doing a show in London the following week [the Wireless festival in Hyde Park, which Jay-Z is set to headline], because they were tying to sell tickets for their show."

Jay-Z's great and all, but I really can't think of a context where I would be disappointed if he wasn't magically replaced by Prince. Songs, concerts, candid tabloid snaps with Beyonce—Prince would always be preferable.

Jay-Z Ready To Pull Out Of Glastonbury [FestivalWise]
Prince replacing Jay-Z at Glastonbury? [DigitalSpy]
Michael Eavis: 'Jay-Z Is Not Pulling Out Of Glastonbury' [NME]

The artists are planning lawsuits both in the U.S. and in Sweden, said Lars Sandberg, a lawyer assigned to work on the Swedish side of the case.

"Work has been initiated to claim damages from those who are behind The Pirate Bay," Sandberg told The Associated Press. He confirmed reports in Swedish media that the artists would seek damages of millions of dollars.

While Prince is looking for damages from downloads of his entire catalog, the Village People have but one target: Unpaid-for downloads of "YMCA," the group's dancefloor-filling megahit. You'd think that they'd at least want people to pony up for "Sex Over The Phone," too, what with it being such a viral hit and all, but I guess it's all about the baby (dance) steps.

Prince and Village People to sue file-sharing site Pirate Bay: lawyer [AP via IHT; HT TorrentFreak, whose nauseating pro-TPB attitude isn't safe for lunch and whose super-homophobic comments are even less safe for your view of humanity]

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

"The action taken earlier this week was not to shut down fansites, or control comment in any way. The issue was simply to do with in regards to copyright and trademark of images and only images, and no lawsuits have been filed.

"The three sites in question have falsely positioned themselves as representatives of millions of Prince fans. In fact, many have come out in support of Prince at his official site and even on the message boards of the unofficial sites in question.

"Mediation between the parties is currently resolving the matter."

It's probably good that Prince has decided to back off suing the people who attend his concerts and buy his merch, because he's going to need the full brunt of his legal team for his next endeavor:

"Prince is breaking new ground as the first artist to take on the world's largest internet pirates bootleggers, including the notorious The Pirate Bay who have been misrepresenting themselves as a site for 'the fans'.
"They are in fact exploiting copyrighted material for their commercial gain. The site has flouted constant legal notices from artists and corporations throughout the world while cashing in on advertising monies. All the time, they keep up the pretence of being an anarchist, 'free music' fansite when it is really a massive money-making venture."

"We should have known it was Prince that tipped off the authorities to our existence after we got that email that simply read, 'I'm comin 4 U.'" This should be almost as entertaining as when Cam'ron went after child predators on the Internet. Ready the paisley battering ram.

Prince "Not Suing Fans" [NME]

Several of the largest web communities dedicated to the artist have received notices to cease and desist all use of photographs, images, lyrics, album covers and anything linked to Prince's likeness.

It is our opnion that these threats are not made in an attempt to enforce valid copyright as Prince alleges in his threats, rather we believe they are attempts to stifle all critical commentary about Prince. We strongly believe that such actions are in violation of the freedom of speech and should not be allowed. Prince claims that fansites are not allowed to present any artwork with Prince's likeness, to the extreme that he has demanded removal of fan's own photographs of their Prince inspired tattoos and their vehicles displaying Prince inspired license plates.

No idea what those Prince-inspired license plates could have had on them as far as direct references to the purple one, but the "Prince-inspired tattoo" request is probably more troubling; is scouring the Internet for people bearing tattoos of the Purple One the prelude to his legal team showing up at the offending fans' houses with a laser and a "licensed technician"?

Prince Fans United [Official site]

The Web Sheriff managing director, John Giacobbi, said the extent of piracy online has become "ridiculous", spanning videos, music downloads, bootleg merchandise and unlicenced ringtones.

"99% of the stuff online is totally unauthorised," he told MediaGuardian.co.uk.

"Someone has to start somewhere and we know this will make a serious impact - a hell of a lot of artists are going to follow suit.

"We have to build a 21st century model for the entertainment industry."

Mr Giacobbi described YouTube, eBay and Pirate Bay as being in "the vanguard" of online piracy and said he hoped that once cases against those companies had been won, smaller sites would be more respectful.

In the past two weeks, Prince's legal representatives have requested the removal of around 2,000 illegally uploaded videos from YouTube.

Well, the taking down of Prince-related videos has actually been going on for quite some time—but the eBay mention makes me wonder if this crackdown on bootlegs going to extend into the record-fair realm as well, or if the Web Sheriff is only going to remain an excessively polite e-presence in offending sites' comments sections.

Prince seeks to 'reclaim the net' [Guardian]

Occasionally a critic will come up with a single sentence so pithy and brash, it obliterates the rest of the review. Tim Zagat, founder of the series of restaurant guides bearing his name, still says he'll never forget the 1994 review of hyper-romantic New York City eatery One if by Land, Two if by Sea that an anonymous restaurant-goer closed with, "If this place doesn't get you laid, no place will."

Robert Christgau, the Dean of Rock Criticism, has made a career out of pithiness—in an era when Rolling Stone still published 1,000-word record reviews, "Xgau" would summarize an album in about 100 koan-like words. But the last sentence of his 1980 review of Prince's third album, Dirty Mind, is so famous, so oft-quoted, you'd be forgiven for thinking the whole piece was only 10 words long. Quoth the Dean:

"Mick Jagger should fold up his penis and go home."

What's great about this one-liner isn't just its prescience. (Jagger may not have gone home, but we can agree that after about 1981 or so his penis was quite tucked back.) It also expresses, to those of us who came of age long after Prince's artistic breakthrough, the admiring gasp that greeted his arrival. And it helps us understand how this record—which for all its merits now sounds a bit dated, compressed and slight—could have seemed so shocking at the time.

The mighty Prince is responsible for at least three, sometimes four canonically anointed albums. Which one you prefer says a lot about your tastes, and just a little about what you think the whole point of album canonization is: to recognize art that shifted the culture? to reflect the opinions of elites?

Twenty years after Prince's last great album, the answer for him is: both.

In our first two "Canon Fodders," we talked about acts whose legendary records predated the rock canon, which essentially came of age at the close of the '70s, as Rolling Stone and others started taking album-enshrining seriously. One act codified the very idea of fetishizing a rock album; the others were kept alive by canonization long after they'd both had their mid-'70s moments of glory. Prince Rogers Nelson is a different animal, both massively popular and admirably weird. After two contempo-R&B albums in 1978 and 1979, he came of age right at the start of the '80s—the decade when the rock canon began to harden and calcify, letting in only the occasional critic-approved current act.

As such, the canonization of Prince's oeuvre was a work in progress, and he could reasonably be called the first canonical rock act of the post-canon period. Some of his contemporaries (Bruce Springsteen, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello) have great albums that straddle the early/pre-canon period of the '70s as well as the '80s; others (U2, R.E.M., Madonna, Smiths) were mid-'80s debutantes who only began to be inducted as the '90s approached. But Prince achieved his cultural watershed at the very moment 100-album lists started to become commonplace. So even while the rock-crit establishment was rolling out the purple carpet for him, the idea of "Prince's greatest album" became something of a moving target.

That's because Prince kept topping himself—or at least, living up to himself. From 1980 to 1988, with only a couple of hiccups (we can debate Controversy and Around the World in a Day later), Prince churned out one not-less-than-stellar album after another, with world-beating singles that saved even the weaker albums.

In addition to Dirty Mind, Prince's decade of dominance produced three records that factor into greatest-album debates—1999 (1982), Music from the Motion Picture "Purple Rain" (1984), and Sign 'O' the Times (1987). Of these, 1999 is the red-headed stepchild, important to the development of Prince's sound and beloved in some corners but weighed down by a stretch of just-okay tracks that filled up four sides of vinyl back in the day. It never tops the others in any album poll, so for our purposes we can ignore it, with honorable mention for perhaps the greatest trifecta of pop hits ("1999," "Little Red Corvette," "Delirious") ever to lead off a rock album.

This leaves three albums vying for the title. Each has had a turn near the top of various album polls, and generally, the formula is simple: whichever album came out within five to seven years of that particular poll was considered old enough to be canon-worthy, and hence performed best. For example, in 1987's "Top 100 Albums of the Last Twenty Years" poll, Rolling Stone's critics placed the six-and-change-year-old Dirty Mind all the way up in the Top 20, bookended by The Band and The Velvet Underground and Nico; Purple Rain squeaked into the top 40. Just over two years later, the RS panel flopped the two albums, ranking Purple Rain No. 2 among its "100 Greatest Albums of the '80s,"^* and knocking Dirty Mind back to No. 18. In 1994, SPIN's Alternative Album Guide picked up the seven-year-old Sign 'O' the Times and ran with it, placing it in the top 25; stalwart Dirty Mind fell just outside the top 50, and Purple Rain didn't place at all.

Eventually, when Prince stopped releasing great albums, the last and longest one in the series of greats—Sign 'O' the Times—remained in pole position permanently. On its face, this seems improbable and maybe even lazy. Imagine if film critics collectively decided Apocalypse Now was Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece simply because it came last in his streak of great '70s movies and is his longest film. Would that be fair to The Conversation (Coppola's Dirty Mind) or to the first two Godfather films (his Purple Rain)? By the same logic, you'd think lovers of Prince's greatest double album^** should be seen as contrarian and marginal, like those who prefer Col. Kurtz to Don Corleone.

You'd think that, but you'd be wrong: Prince's longest great album is, still, his piece for posterity. It shouldn't have worked, but it did, because joined together Prince's two main audiences: pop fans and geeks.

Give the geeks credit: They had Prince figured out before the rest of the world caught on. Bespectacled appreciators like Christgau and his Voice peers championed Prince in 1980 not just for his rawness but for his genre promiscuity. Dirty Mind remains history's greatest new-wave rock album disguised as an R&B album (admittedly, a small category, but think how George Clinton feels). It was also a near-total flop, charting outside the Top 40, barely going gold (it has since crossed platinum), producing no pop hits—think of it: "When You Were Mine" never charted!—and sending only the good-timey "Uptown" to R&B radio's top five. Dirty Mind is to 1980 what, say, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor was to 2006: a "black" album with white appeal crushed by the marketplace but born to be admired by record nerds.

We all know what happened to Prince next: 1999 broke down race barriers at MTV, and Purple Rain took the world by storm. With 24 weeks at No. 1, Purple Rain owned 1984 and remains behind only Thriller, Rumours and Harry Belafonte's Calypso among single-artist albums to dominate the Billboard charts. It's also, as massive pop albums go, virtually perfect—four smash hits ("When Doves Cry," "Let's Go Crazy," "Purple Rain," "I Would Die 4 U"), the first of which is an all-time classic; one medium hit ("Take Me with U") that would have been the standout on any Prince album a decade later; one virtual hit ("Baby I'm a Star") with a remarkable live sound; and one song infamous enough ("Darling Nikki") to give a future Vice President's wife a hobby. Even the least-known tracks, "The Beautiful Ones" and "Computer Blue" (the only two to receive no appreciable radio or MTV play), are elevated in context. On Purple Rain Prince also did Dirty Mind one better by more closely achieving a rock sound, largely by treating the Revolution as an actual band. It's as if Prince, in 1984, anticipated that Bruce Springsteen would release his biggest album ever that same summer and decided to let his own E Street Band have an arena-sized sonic stamp.

From 1984 to 1986, Prince belonged to everyone, and his sound overtook American radio, whether he was writing the hits or not. All this made him rich, powerful and influential—which meant it also left him alone. Who were his peers? His friends? By '86, Prince had released a terrible second movie, broken up the Revolution, and holed up in Paisley Park.

In short, Prince became something of a geek himself, a peerless studio rat with a lifetime's worth of material—his 1987 opus would be a pared-down version of an intended three-record set—and a lingering sense of what America wanted to hear. Sign 'O' the Times was the last moment Prince would have both the ear-candy gift and the bedroom-confessional gift at the same time. It spun off three Top 10 hits, the first of his albums to do so since Purple Rain and, to date, the last. But Sign also took everything that was great about its predecessors and coalesced it all onto two monumental platters. Stark, improbable pop hits? Check: "Sign 'O' the Times." Personal boudoir narratives? Check: "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker." Great new-wave rock? Check: "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man." Singalongs for the ladies? Check: "U Got the Look." Unadulterated funk? Check: "Housequake." Godly paeans? Check: "The Cross." It even has not one but two first-rate, disc-closing slow jams in "Forever in My Life" and "Adore" (touchingly immortalized in Rob Sheffield's book Love Is a Mix Tape). Anything you can point to on Dirty Mind, 1999 or Purple Rain, with a couple of exceptions (he'll never do anything quite like "When Doves Cry" again; "Little Red Corvette" is too perfect), Sign 'O' the Times does better, as good or nearly so.

But comparing songs isn't even the point; on that score, Sign 'O' the Times would probably lose to the all-killer-no-filler Purple Rain. (In Rolling Stone's 2003 album poll, Purple actually edged out Sign, probably the result of the industry folk and pop stars participating.) What Sign has that virtually all of Prince's other albums lack is a coherent sense of mood. Twenty years later, at a time when albums are mixed for the pitiful dynamic range of iPod earbuds, the quiet, slow-burn openings of "If I Was Your Girlfriend" or "The Cross" still sound like what they were: whispered diary entries from Prince's loneliest room. Sure, Prince writes hits; but when you put on Sign 'O' the Times in the privacy of your own little room, it's a dialogue with just you.

No wonder we geeks (including our own Matos) all love it.

Final note: Your guest Idolator has been a Sign 'O' the Times man since the summer of '87—but Purple Rain got him through junior high and even lit up some lonely college nights. The Beautiful Ones always smash the picture. Always, every time.

^* Far as I'm concerned, this means Purple Rain topped the Rolling Stone '80s poll, because they totally cheated in slotting the Clash's late-'79 London Calling at No. 1. There's no excuse for this—London Calling totally reads as an end-of-the-'70s record, not an augury of the sound of the '80s. Go back.

^** Resolved: not only is Sign Prince's only great double-album, it's one of only two great double albums of the rock era, the other being the Beatles' White Album. Caveat: all double-vinyl albums that now fit on a single CD are no longer "double albums," which removes from the debate Blonde on Blonde, Exile on Main Street, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, London Calling, Double Nickels on the Dime and Daydream Nation, as well as 1999. The only remaining double albums are those needing two CDs, and most of those are bloated—like Stevie Wonder's overrated Songs in the Key of Life, which doesn't hold a candle to Innervisions and which I defy anyone to enjoy in one sitting. (Don't even talk to me about The Wall.) Go back.

At this point, we're expecting to hear a rumor that a looking-to-extend-his-brand 50 Cent will actually put out Curtis through Hear, but with only 24 hours to go, the time for conjuring up wild tales is rapidly running out. So below, we ask you which, of the three artists who have been rumored to join the coffee giant's music stable, makes the most sense as a match—and we've thrown in one dark horse who, while out of the game for a while, has obvious synergistic appeal:

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Rumor Mill [HITS Daily Double]
Earlier: Idolator's Starbucks coverage]

- "A whack to the right part of the machine, and his next whole album could be as hot as "Mr. Goodnight" and "Black Sweat" and, I don't know, "Cinnamon Girl". As it is, though, he's firmly settled in a stylistic niche that's delivering diminishing returns— and what made him great in the first place is that he never settled down anywhere for long." (4.8) [Pitchfork]
- "According to Prince, we still have wars because most of us secretly want them. That's a rare perspective from this seldom contrary writer. How nice to know that, 30 years into his career, Prince can still keep those little surprises coming." [NY Daily News]
- "So Planet Earth spins, all right. But so far into his career, and with edgy producer-auteurs such as Timbaland and Pharrell littering the charts, this album isn't the heavyweight genius knockout blow we were expecting from the artist formerly known as seminal." [Observer]

Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics Family Guy • Peter's Two Dads • Fox MADtv • 1209 • Fox Saturday Night Live • Host: Justin Timberlake - Song title: "Dick In A Box" • NBC Scrubs • My Musical: Song Title: "Everyting Comes Down to Poo" Scrubs • My Musical - Song Title: "Guy Love"

Outstanding Special Class Program
79th Annual Academy Awards • ABC
Jerry Seinfeld - The Comedy Award • HBO
Prince Super Bowl XLI Halftime Show • CBS
The 60th Annual Tony Awards (2006) • CBS
The 64th Golden Globe Awards • NBC

I don't know about you, but if Family Guy or the friggin' Golden Globes win their categories, I'll have a little present for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to open.

59th Annual Emmy Awards Nominees [Academy of Television Arts & Sciences]

The BBC found just the person to ring the alarm of panic: a representative from the Entertainment Retailers Assocation.

Although covermounts have for years been a major concern to the Entertainment Retailers Association, its director general Kim Bayley says this marks a new low.

"It devalues the music and the losers will be new artists who are trying to come through who won't have any support from recording companies because established artists are chucking out their music for free.

"Consumers only have so much listening time in the week and if they receive the new album from Prince then they don't need to buy new music and will spend their money on something else."

Giving away something for free gives the impression it has no value, says Ms Bayley, and along with illegal downloads, they reinforce consumer expectations that music costs next to nothing.

Covermounted discs make up 10 percent of CDs pressed in the UK, and they have been a part of the periodical industry for some time, but no artist as notable as Prince had released a full-length album through the press before. However, it's unlikely that the industry will fall merely because an artist who makes most of his money from ticket sales found a way to make money by bypassing record stores. The idea that consumers would have purchased music by new artists alongside the Prince disc—if only they had walked inside a record store—is laughable to anyone who has worked on the retail front lines and watched people ask a clerk where the new album by their baby-boomer favorite was located without taking even a glance at anything else.

The likelihood that the Planet Earth release is a one-time gimmick is high; while one British retailer closed before feeling the impact of lost Prince sales, blaming Prince for the British music industry's financial woes is equal to blaming hip-hop mixtapes for poor sales on this side of the Atlantic.

Maybe that's a bad example, but you get the idea.

Are free CD's killing music? [BBC Magazine]

We spotted Christie Brinkley with her brother and son; Kelsey and Camille Grammer; Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos; L.A. Reid and wife, Erica; Edie Falco and Aida Turturro from "The Sopranos"; Jay-Z; mega-guys Ron Burkle and Steve Bing; Anjelica Huston; Lorne Michaels; "Saturday Night Live" producer Marci Klein and so on.

And there were ironies galore. Because Prince was once a Warner Records artist, the legendary Mo Ostin arrived and sat with Courtney Ross. When Prince and Ostin were with Warners, it was owned by the Courtney's equally legendary husband, Steve Ross. So Mo and Courtney sat together and reminisced about their golden era.

After a while, the pair was greeted by Edgar Bronfman Jr., the man who now owns has summarily destroyed Warner Music. Still it was Saturday night, and everyone was in a happy mood.

"Now owns has summarily destroyed"? Sounds like someone's internal "say nice things" censor was malfunctioning after a long night of free Pop Burger. (Also: With all those big-time celebrities in the audience, was there any room for people who actually paid to get in?)

Prince Snubs Celebs In Favor Of A Parking Lot [FOX News]

The official aftershow 4 Prince's Target Center event this Saturday will take place at First Avenue. Doors open immediately following the Target Center concert. Tix are $31.21 each, 18 & Over, and will be available on Saturday. We will post more details here soon.

The show is said to have absolutely no guest list. (This is germane because First Avenue has long been generous with comp tickets to events.) And yes, that's "aftershow," not "afterparty." Never in my life have I pined for my home city so hard. (Mega-thanks to ace commenter loudersoft for the confirmation.)

SonyBMG is pulling Prince's new album, "Planet Earth," from shelves in the U.K. after the reclusive rock star struck a deal with a local newspaper to give away the CD, The Post has learned.

According to two sources close to the situation, Columbia Records - the label Prince records on with SonyBMG - is none too pleased with the miniature minister of funk's deal to include free copies of his new record in The Mail on Sunday.

Known as "cover mounts," record labels are generally against this kind of promotion because it cuts into retail sales. And with CD sales already down about 20 percent so far this year, no major label can afford to have one of its marquee artists giving away what amounts to its biggest source of revenue.

One label executive said that in the U.K., in particular, there's been strong pushback against cover mounts.

While a Columbia Records spokeswoman stressed that the label still plans to release Prince's new record throughout the rest of the world, including the U.S. and other European territories, she added that, "After giving away two million copies for free, we didn't think it made good business sense to put the record out to retail in the U.K."

The story goes on to note that Prince could engage in legal action against SonyBMG for pulling the album in the UK—although we suspect that he's having a lot more fun watching them squirm over the business idea that his camp negotiated behind their back. (Not to mention that he apparently has a few other things on his plate at the moment.)

SONYBMG, PRINCE IN ROYAL ROW OVER FREEBIE [NYP]
Prince May Be Planning To Make Your Newsstand Much More Beautiful
[Photo: AP]

Music industry insiders say the newspaper is in talks with the pop star to issue his latest album as a free covermount.

The plan follows the Mail on Sunday's giveaway of Mike Oldfield's album Tubular Bells, which sparked a row with the musician over the effect on sales. Oldfield attacked music company EMI for agreeing to give away Tubular Bells in the paper, but the Mail on Sunday responded by saying it actually lifted the album's sales in the shops.

The Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) made no secret today of its anger over the Prince plans, saying the rumour of a giveaway "beggars belief".

"It would be an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career," ERA co-chairman Paul Quirk told a music conference. "It would be yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music."

"If it turns out to be the case - and we're still trying to get to the bottom of it - The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores. And I say that to all the other artists who may be tempted to dally with the Mail on Sunday."

According to the Guardian report, the UK arm Sony BMG—which recently struck a deal with Prince to release the album in the U.S.—is somewhat freaked out by this news; Prince is also reportedly giving away free copies of his new album with tickets to his upcoming 21-night concert run in London, and none of these gimmicks will, presumably, help the company's bottom line much. But we're guessing that Prince doesn't really care much; after all, he's never been a fan of the major-label machinations (case in point: his own Web site is currently streaming a radio-ripped version of a new song from Planet Earth).

Prince giveaway an 'insult' to record shops [Guardian, reg. req.]

Set List: Prince, Hollywood Roosevelt [The Set List]

Only one awkward moment emerged during Prince's forays into the crowd. He approached the daunting bunch on what could have been dubbed the "hip-hop power couch" — it included Diddy, Death Row Records founder Suge Knight, Erykah Badu and Nas, among others — and tried to hand the microphone to Nas.

The rapper declined to ad-lib, however, simply muttering, "I love Prince," and handing back the hot potato. Prince then tried to work his charm on Badu; she gave up a half-hearted rhyme about sisterhood, but it fizzled out. About half of those seated on the couch then abruptly departed (although Nas and Badu both stayed).

This must have been one of the most terrifying moments in Diddy's life: With Suge and Nas by his side and Prince standing right in front of him, he's faced with the prospect of having to rap—in public! If only he'd sprung an extra $3,121 and grabbed an extra seat for his ghostwriter.

Prince charming at the Roosevelt [LATimes]

We have no idea who decided to flood the web with faux Earth editions, and we're especially curious as to why someone would pick this album in particular. Was it just a piss-taking anti-leak effort? Or is Prince trying to tell us something? If you have any idea, drop us a line at tips@idolator.com.

Bros - When Will I Be Famous? [MP3, link expired]

As expected, Prince's shows will not be a cheap ticket. VIP packages (for two), limited to a total of 65, will cost $3,121, with 70 standing-room only tickets going for $312.10. (Yes, numerals in the pricetags add up to 7; the guy has a fondness for that number.)

The show promises to be intimate. The evenings kick off with a 7:30 p.m. dinner in the hotel's Dakota restaurant, presented by Prince's personal chef Lena Morgan. After dinner, guests will go to the Blossom Room for a DJ set followed by a two-hour Prince performance. And at about 1 a.m., Prince will preside over a "free-form jazz jam." Expect cameos by special guests — the likes of Elton John, Will.I.Am, Herbie Hancock and Kelis have sat in with Prince before.

For those of you who can't afford tickets, we suggest you stand outside of the Del Taco on W. Century Blvd and Club Drive and ask the guy loitering outside to sing "Kiss." It's pretty much the same effect, and we bet Kelis will show up there, too.

Meanwhile, we've found a bunch of fake copies of Prince's new album on the Internet—anyone seen the real deal? If so, drop us a line at tips@idolator.com.

Exclusive: Prince performances to start this week at Roosevelt Hotel [Buzz Bands]