Around The World In A Day – Prince And The Revolution

In 1984, an artist by the name of Prince Rogers Nelson had it all: a big hit movie, a big hit album, a string of hit singles, a swag of Grammy awards, an Oscar award and hell, he probably even a had few very sexy women in his bed. So then, just how does a big named star like Prince follow up the success of a hit album like “Purple Rain”? Does he re-arrange the chords to all of the songs on his previous album and try to pass it off as a brand new album? That would’ve been far too easy. Even Cameo did that with “Word Up” several years after this particular Prince record was released. The man himself, though, wound up creating something entirely different and incredibly daring. Something that the world was definitely not ready for. This was undoubtably a very early shred of proof that Prince was all about innovation and evolution: the here and now, certainly not the past. Let’s get stuck into this review for further details.

Around The World In A Day: If Prince was trying to do something else with his next album, then he definitely hit the nail on the head with this song! Without question. High pitched whistles, Princely shrieks and a few programmed handclaps & beats. Well, maybe those last two things were heavily featured on his previous LP and its predecessors, but the rest of that was definitely a sharp turn in the left direction. Then he comes in with the opening lyrics, “open your heart, open your mind…..” I can see why he chose this as the opening number though, it’s very much like a curtain opening up right before a concert, or rather it’s as if something is just about to be unravelled….in this case it’s a brand new sound. He gets kinda funky on this cut a few times too, so don’t think for a second that he’s left any funkiness behind.

Paisley Park: Looks like the success of “Purple Rain” really did wonders for the man born Prince Rogers Nelson – he went & built himself a brand new big white mansion in his hometown of Minnesota, which also featured a couple of recording studios and even an office for a record label. This was the first ever album in his catalogue that was mostly recorded at in his new studio & released on Paisley Park Records. The song itself is pretty much his own little theme song dedicated to the new complex. It’s a very psychedelic type of tune with a plethora of references to folks who are always happy and just generally free spirited. Its chorus is legendary: “The girl on the seasaw is laughing for love is the colour this place imparts. Admission is easy just say you believe and come to this place in your heart. Paisley Park is in your heart.” That’s right! And don’t you forget it. During the soundcheck of one of the “One Nite Alone” shows in 2002, a certain fan sang it like this: “The girl on the seasaw is laughing for love is the colour the face it attracts.” Prince’s reaction? “That’s good except for the wrong lyrics!!!!” No matter how ya slice it, it’s still a great song. Being that he wrote a psychedelic song, he even went & created one hell of a psychedelic video clip to accompany his message. It featured a bunch of kids playing in a park while miming the words to the song. Prince himself, however, was not featured in the clip.

Condition Of The Heart: Ok now this song was really a sharp turn in the left direction. It starts off with Prince playing his piano for about three minutes or so, along with the odd finger cymal that says its piece every now and then. Prince then sings of “a sometimes lonely musician” who sent a letter to a woman in Paris professing his love to her. Turned out that “she left him for a real Prince from Arabia.” I guess this is somewhat of a “humorous” type of song from Prince. Very tounge in cheek and sarcastic. He also says things like, “Everyday is a yellow day” and “I’m blinded by the daisies in your yard.” He wasn’t exactly Mr Conventional was he? Nope. But that’s what made him – and still makes him, for that matter, so unique to this day. Personally, I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with this song, although a lot of other fans out there seem to love it with a passion…..each to their own.

Raspberry Beret: Out of all the songs on this record, this is the one that became the first single and therefore got the most attention. It still gets the most attention to this day. “Beret” doesn’t have a bassline, just like “When Doves Cry” before it. Although according to ex-Revolution guitarist Dez Dickerson, it was actually written back in 1982 on a tour bus, but of course, he never released it until 1985. He sings about “working part time in a five and dine” and spotting a girl who “walked in through the outdoor. “She wore a raspberry beret…and if it was warm she wouldn’t wear much more.” While this is indeed a classic song and overall a very melodious pop tune, it’s the 12inch mix that I think is far more superior. Not only did he make it funkier than a sack of grandaddies, he even had the nerve to start coughing in the intro. Bold as hell. He looks more like Liza Minelli in the video though.

Tamborine: This time around, it’s nothin but da funk. I think this was also one of the first times where he combined both a drum machine and a real live drum kit at the same time, which is something that he would do quite a lot in his career especially on the “Sign O The Times” album. Lyrically this song is all about Prince sitting all alone in his room, flipping through some pages in a magazine. Suddenly he sees a photo of an incredibly beautiful woman…..let’s just say that the pages of the magazine is not all he’s flipping after he’s seen this photo. Hence the reason for him playing his, err….tamborine. Yeah, that’s right.

America: Even though Prince is generally looked at by the non fans as some kind of weirdo, he is definitely aware of what’s going on in the world around him and this song certainly proves that whole point. He tells us of folks virtually living in poverty, governments making mountains of money, and a fella called Jimmy Nothing who was told he would never amount to anything, but now he “lives on a mushroom cloud.” Whatever that was. Overall it’s a furiously funky song that originally ran for over twenty minutes. Yes I’m deadly serious. Check out the 12inch single if you think I’m lying. For the album’s inclusion, it had to be edited down to about three minutes and forty seconds.

Pop Life: Prince drops the funk on us one more time, while delivering a socially conscious message in the process. “What’s the matter with your ilfe?,” he asks, “Is the poverty bringing you down?/Is the mailman jerkin’ ya ’round?/Did he put your million dollar cheque in somebody else’s box? Tell me.” Then he talks about how some folks are complaining cuz the sex of their child is not up to their standards. He caps it all off by informing us that “Life it ain’t too funky, unless it’s got that pop, dig it.” This is my favourite song on the album, without a doubt. From what I understand though, there were two different extended versions of “Pop Life,” but both versions were seemingly labelled “The Fresh Dance Mix.” Regardless, it’s a funky song. Again, he resurrected this one for the “One Nite Alone” tour back in 2002. It was very cool to hear him kick off the “Live at the Aladdin” DVD with this one.

The Ladder: For this next jam, Prince called on his late father, John L Nelson, who helped him write the lyrics. If you really concentrate on the message, you’ll notice that it’s a very deep song about how everybody in the universe is looking for that next step to take in their lives, which he of course likens to a ladder. Clever little dude isn’t he? Unmistakabably so! After he released this album he announced that he was retiring from the music business “to look for the ladder,” because “sometimes it snows in April.” Everyone thought he was bonkers! I guess we all knew what he meant now: that he was just taking a break to re-group for a while and prepare for the next stage in his career. I can see where this song was compared to “Purple Rain” as well. It has that rock anthem type of feeling to it. Don’t let that fool ya though, they’re two totally different songs.

Temptation: With the exception of “Tamborine,” Prince hadn’t really done anything “sexual” on this album. For the big finale, he decided to go all out with the sexual overtones. “Sex. Temptation. Lust.” He’s letting it be known that sexy ladies are most definitely his weakness and that whenever he thinks of such women, he becomes incredibly aroused. Hence, temptation. Musically it’s quite a blusey type of jam with lots of rock guitars and a heckuva hip shucking groove. At the end of the song, he has a conversation with God, who informs him that love is more important than sex. As a result of Prince’s fornications, God wants him put to death. I’d say he’s evolved a lot since then and looks at God as a loving God which I think is much better. Still, it was quite brave of him to conclude a song like that. Again, that’s why we love him so much. He has a lotta Don Coglione.

Verdict: What I realized while I was writing this article was that “Around The World In A Day” is a pretty damn hard album to review. That alone should tell ya that it’s not a very accessible type of record, which would therefore make it a very difficult piece of work to really get into and that’s what Prince was doing with this album. He was challenging his audience with something totally different to “Purple Rain” hence his decision to completely flip the script. Those who really sat down and focussed on the songs and their lyrics stuck around for the ride and those that didn’t, well…..they left the boat that sailed away. Overall this is a really great album, but as I said, it really has to be listened to in order for it to be fully appreciated.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)