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David Rhoden

Too soon?

. Day .

I need to write something because every time I hear a Prince song (which I'd guess is as much now as ever), it comes to mind and I need to just say my piece and be done.

I like a lot of Prince music, but I can't stand his mid-tempo hits.

There's one exception, and it might be his best song. That's the first song on his first record: "I Wanna Be Your Lover." It has really grown on me, too. It might be too fast to count as mid-tempo. ("I Feel For You", from the same record is also not bad, but again, a little faster tempo.)

No, I'm talking about the big blundering boring radio hits. The worst is the dreadful "Purple Rain." That song sucks AND it's seven minutes long! But that might be too slow to count as mid-tempo. What I can say definitively is I really hate the "woo-hoo-hoo-hoo"s at the end, and I always want that part to be over.

The ones that are definitely mid-tempo, and definitely suck, are these:

"Kiss": hate it so much. It's just dumb.

"Raspberry Beret": incredibly tedious. ("When You Were Mine", from an earlier record is sort of similar but it's just great and fun, with the simplest arrangement, it's almost like a demo. A little faster, though.) That wimpy uncommitted saxophone spreading all over everything like a fungus or just a smell.

"1999": this sounds like something you would teach a kindergarten class to sing and do motions to. Awful.

"Little Red Corvette": references to "a pocket full of horses, some of 'em used" aside, this song would be offensive as an instrumental. Uninteresting musically. This song makes me angry. I do not like it.

Those are my top four. Thanks for letting me vent.

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