So I should be working and/or sleeping, but why do that when I could blog about Prince?
Got to thinking today about my favorite Prince love songs. The tricky part, of course, is that it’s often impossible to tell the difference between a love song and a sheet sweater with him. Often they overlap, but a slow beat does not a love song make. Is “Do Me, Baby” about love, or is buddy saying what it takes to get where he wants to go? That’s always the gray area with Prince. But what’s really the difference between “I Love U in Me” and “Erotic City” other than tempo and sound?
So here are the 17 I’ve got (like 17 Days). It’s late and I’m tired. I’m in a hotel, so all I was working with was the iPod, and I went through and pulled songs as they came up when I spun the wheel. By no means is this as thorough or scientific as I would prefer, but it’s my blog, and I’ll post haphazard shit when I damn well please. That’s liberation, and baby, I’m on it.
Either way, here’s what we’ve got — we’ve got my ordered top 25 Prince love songs, with the songs either being a reflection on or profession of love. This isn’t about lust, but who said that can’t be present. A sheet sweater list would look pretty different, but this is different.
Also, sitting around depressed songs don’t make this list. Sorry, “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore” and “Still Waiting,” but there’s no room for you here.
Comments welcome at the bottom.
17. She’s Always In My Hair. OK, I didn’t pick this one because it’s so intense, because the lack of intensity is what strikes me about this. I mean, she’s always there, and that’s cool and all…but does this really sound like a winner? No. But damned if most haven’t been there before. It’s more about her love than his, and the poignance is in the unavoidable reality that sometimes, she doesn’t really do it for you. But she’s there…is that a good or bad thing?
16. Girl. “If I was anything else, I’d be the water in your bath.” Got it?
15. Thieves in the Temple. So yeah, it’s weird, and I’m not sure anyone can truly say they know what he’s talking about. We’ve all got a good idea. And we can hear, “voices in the sky say rely on your best friend to pull you through/but even if I wanted to, I couldn’t really truly cuz my only friend is you.” Yeah, that’s love. Or he needs to join a rec basketball league or something.
14. Do Me, Baby. The toughest call as to whether it should have made the list at all. It’s a sheet sweater, and it’s all about trying to get a her in bed. Is this really love? At least for then it was. But I guarantee it was like “Reasons” in the morning. Yeah, still not sure this belongs.
13. When You Were Mine. Yo, I’m glad I never fell for someone this scandalous. Real talk.
12. The One. As in “the one good song on that awful album.” As in, “if you’re looking for a man that will turn your bad day into one long night…look no further, I am the one.”
11. I Wish U Heaven. So most Prince fans I know look at Lovesexy as the beginning of the decline in Prince’s music, which has some merit. However, lost in it is there are three all-timers on there, including this one that tends to slip under radars. I can’t tell if it’s the beginning or the end in this song, but it sure as hell is real and remarkably selfless.
10. Purple Rain. The lil fella isn’t one for regret too often. Guess that’s why he made it this good.
9. Forever In My Life. So this is on Sign O The Times. How many love songs had Prince done, up until this point, without a single physical reference? Could you count them on one hand?
8. Condition of the Heart. I often compare Prince to Bowie, but I look at this track as the opposite of “Heroes.” “Heroes” is an emotional one night stand, loving for a day in the face of an impossible long term reality. “Condition of the Heart” is all about the fear of rejection in the face of the whole gamut of possibilities. It’s six minutes of defensiveness, no doubt caused by a bad experience or two, with tastes of proof that one can keep his guard up forever. And he still loses in the end. Moral of the story? Sucks when you doom yourself before you even start.
7. Little Red Corvette. Hey, just because it’s about one you shouldn’t fall in love with doesn’t mean it’s not love, right? Nasty girls — and yes, carrying soiled condoms in your pocket makes you nasssss-teeeeee — need love, too, I guess. How could an imp in high heels say he was above it?
6. Power Fantastic. This isn’t even close to his best written song. But i don’t think teh band’s ever been more perfect and evocative, horns and flutes floating as the power fantastically does. Flawless.
5. Saviour. He can say it better than me.

How did I come this far without you, baby?
What was I thinking?
What was I trying to be?
You never gave me
any reason to doubt you, baby
You are my destiny
and yes, I truly see
We’re like two petals from the same flower
Two branches from the same tree
Whenever I look in your eyes
I can see paradise
You’re my saviour
you’re all I’ll ever need.

4. The Beautiful Ones. True story. A friend and I both needed to get new copies of the Purple Rain soundtrack. We rolled out to Best Buy, and we stopped on the way at Burger King. So we’re eating, and we get to talking about the movie, and we talked about the performance of “The Beautiful Ones,” with Prince pointing at Apollonia while Morris was dirty macking. We talked about it, mimicked it, looked each other, threw away our half-eaten food, and raced to Best Buy. The album came out 15 years prior. Yeah, the song’s like that.
3. If I Was Your Girlfriend. Of course, buddy talks about love on about 57 different levels. The question I ask — do you need for your woman to share with you like she does with her friends? The answer, whether you know it or not, is YES.
2. When 2 R In Love. Yeah, this is also on top of the sheet sweater list, but it’s just so much more. If it’s sex, it’s the-night-we-fell-in-love sex. He-just-gave-me-a-diamond sex. Completely and totally enveloping and captivating, and inextricably linked to a feeling that couldn’t possibly be fleeting. And the truth is, if it was never like this, you probably were never in love.
1. Adore. This wins the contest, and it’s entirely because of the “smash up my ride…well, maybe not the ride.” That, my friends, is keeping it real. And sexy from the first beat, and totally intense without being explicit. It’s grandiose simplicity, completely over the top yet totally grounded, and the song that is guaranteed to let you know what she thinks about you if you dance to it. Any wedding DJ that doesn’t have it is doing you a disservice, real talk.