🇺🇲　

Every morning, earphones in, "Alphabet St." playing on the Walkman on the way to work.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah" — the moment that light groove entered the body, any morning became a little brighter. There is something in Prince's music that lightens the pull of gravity. 

🎵Alphabet St." this song from the ' Lovesexy'album was the song that lifed my mood on the daily commute. 

Chapter 1 traced the Minneapolis prodigy's birth through the summit of Purple Rain. Chapter 2 follows what came after that summit — the deliberate escape beginning with "Around the World in a Day," the deepening of "Sign O' the Times," the fierce battle with Warner Bros., and April 21, 2016 at Paisley Park.

💜 "Around the World in a Day" — Deliberate Escape From the Summit

While Purple Rain was sweeping the United States and the world in 1985, Prince made a choice no one anticipated.

He would not place the next album as a continuation of Purple Rain. That was Prince's decision.

Around the World in a Day, released in April 1985, wore a jacket decorated with psychedelic floral patterns and medieval-style illustration, and its music pointed in a completely different direction from Purple Rain. Flower power, psychedelic pop, Middle Eastern sonic textures — this was a clear homage to the Beatles' 1967 Sgt. Pepper's, and simultaneously a declaration: "I am not making a sequel to Purple Rain."

Why did Prince make this decision?

The success of Purple Rain had been overwhelming. But precisely because of that scale of success, the expectations and pressure for what came next were extraordinary. Prince chose "making what I want to make" over "making what is expected" — because that was his nature.

Around the World in a Day reached number one on the Billboard 200 — a remarkable figure for anything following Purple Rain. But the settled assessment was "commercially successful, but not as much as the previous album." For Prince, that may actually have been a comfortable place to be. The historic success of Purple Rain was a cage built from expectations — and the first step out of that cage was Around the World in a Day.

The 1986 follow-up Parade served as the soundtrack for the film Under the Cherry Moon. The film failed critically, but the album's "Kiss" reached number one nationwide. That spare, stripped-down funk masterpiece — "U don't have to be beautiful to turn me on" — is one of the peaks of Prince's ability to express the maximum with the minimum.

🎭 "Sign O' the Times" — Confronting the Darkness of the Era

In 1987, Prince released Sign O' the Times — a double album spoken of as one of his absolute masterworks.

The title track "Sign O' the Times" carries one of the most socially engaged messages in Prince's entire career. AIDS, gangs, drugs, natural disaster, a question toward the cosmos — the darkness of 1980s America, painted with nothing but a minimal beat and a voice.

"In France a skinny man died of a big disease with a little name" — this line, which referenced AIDS without naming it directly (mindful of the censorship of the day), was unambiguous in its reference to the AIDS epidemic. That Prince — a devout Christian and future Jehovah's Witness convert — chose to sing about AIDS demonstrates a moral integrity that ran deeper than his religious affiliations.

The musical diversity across the full album is overwhelming — funk, rock, gospel, psychedelic, acoustic ballad, electronic pop. The question of gender-transcending intimacy in "If I Was Your Girlfriend," the duet with Sheena Easton on "U Got the Look," the rock guitar of "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" — the ability to hold this range of styles in a single album while maintaining a consistent artistic vision belongs to Prince alone.

Rolling Stone included the album at number seventy-three on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003 edition), and moved it further up to sixty-one in the 2020 revision. There are many listeners who feel Sign O' the Times represents the depth of Prince's musicianship more accurately than Purple Rain.

Sign O' the Times is the work that speaks most eloquently to the fact that Prince was not simply a pop star, but an artist who looked seriously at his own time and chose to respond to it through music.

🎵 "Lovesexy" and "Alphabet St." — A Forbidden Album and a Commute Memory

In 1988, Prince released Lovesexy.

Before the release, there had already been major controversy. Prince had originally completed an album called "The Black Album," and Warner Bros. had the release fully prepared. Then, five days before it was due, Prince suddenly cancelled the release.

Prince reportedly said the reason was that the album was "filled with demonic energy." Musically, The Black Album was dark and hard funk — against which Lovesexy was reconceived as a hymn to love, light, and God.

The Black Album was never officially released, and became one of the most sought-after bootlegs among collectors. It received an official release in 1994, but its mystique as "the forbidden album" never really faded.

Now, back to Lovesexy.

The album's cover sparked new controversy — Prince seated nude on a flower, artwork that several retailers refused to stock. But the musical content, in contrast to the jacket, was filled with spiritual inquiry.

The fusion of love, sexuality, and spirituality in Lovesexy is the defining theme of Prince as an artist. From Dirty Mind to Lovesexy, Prince consistently portrayed sex and God not as opposites but as two aspects of the same sacred experience.

And on this album lived "Alphabet St." — my commute song.

"Alphabet St." is light, pop, and above all simply fun. That bouncing beat, the "yeah, yeah, yeah" chorus — nothing complicated about it. The body just moves, the mood lifts, the morning commute becomes a little more special.

A worldwide top-ten hit, "Alphabet St." shone as a clear light within the context of Lovesexy — an album navigating the cancelled Black Album, the jacket controversy, and a US chart position of eleven that counted as underperformance.

The beauty of Prince's music is that the same person, in the same period, could produce the serious social message of "Sign O' the Times" and the pure joy of "Alphabet St." That is the breadth of a complete human being.

🏛️ Paisley Park — The Man Who Built His Own Kingdom

In 1987, Prince completed Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota.

Total construction cost: approximately $10 million. At 65,000 square feet, the facility contained recording studios, a live performance venue, rehearsal rooms, and editing suites — everything under one roof. Interior design in purple and white, countless gold records lining the corridors, and everywhere the symbols and artworks of Prince's world — Paisley Park was not simply "a studio." It was Prince's universe made physical.

Why did Prince build a facility of this scale in what might be called the "hinterland" near Minneapolis?

The answer is simple: "I wanted to make music at my own pace, in a place that was neither New York nor Los Angeles." With Paisley Park in existence, Prince could enter the studio whenever inspiration arrived and record for as long as he chose. The creative style of "when inspiration comes, immediately turn it into sound" — he built the environment to realize this approach to its fullest.

Many artists were invited to Paisley Park and collaborations took place. Sheila E., Mavis Staples, Chaka Khan, Miles Davis — musicians Prince was interested in came to Paisley Park and made music together.

The engagement with Miles Davis is particularly striking. Prince connected with Miles around the 1986 album Tutu and later contributed songs for Miles's recordings. The emperor of jazz and the prince of pop, making music in the suburbs of Minneapolis — this fact alone conveys the breadth of Prince's musical world.

Paisley Park was simultaneously a "fortress" where Prince maintained his distance from the outside world. By retreating into it, Prince protected himself from the noise of the music industry and sustained his concentration on the voice within.

On April 21, 2016, Prince died at Paisley Park. After his death, the facility was opened to the public and became a museum. Today, Prince's fans travel from around the world to stand in that purple sanctuary in Chanhassen.

⚔️ The Battle With Warner Bros. — The Day He Abandoned His Name

Through the 1990s, Prince fought the most celebrated "artist versus label" battle in music history.

The core dispute was copyright and creative freedom.

Prince was recording albums at an enormous pace, but Warner Bros. was limiting releases to one per year. Behind this was the deeper problem — Warner Bros. held the copyright to Prince's songs, meaning Prince did not "own" his own music.

"The fact that a musician cannot own their own music is the same as slavery" — Prince said this in public. The language was extreme, but the frustration behind it was genuine. The industry standard of the time, in which the copyright to an artist's creations accrued to the record label, did contain a genuinely unfair structural element.

Prince's resistance took radical form.

In 1993, he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol — a unique glyph combining elements of the male and female symbols. The logic was: "Warner Bros. holds the rights to the name Prince. If I abandon that name, I become free."

He also appeared at concerts and public events with the word "SLAVE" written on his cheek — another act of protest from this period that is remembered as among the most extreme in music history.

Musically, during this period Prince released the important albums The Gold Experience (1995) and Emancipation (1996). "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" from The Gold Experience reached number one in the UK — Prince's biggest hit under the symbol name.

In 1996, Prince finally brought his relationship with Warner Bros. to its end at the contract's completion. And in 1996, he released Emancipation — "emancipation" meaning liberation — on his own label, NPG Records. Three discs, thirty-six songs, 186 minutes — "I am free now." The declaration was embedded in the very form of the album.

🔮 The Symbol Name — "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince"

"The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" — the long title by which Prince came to be known during this period describes a complex era in which musical experiment and personal turbulence intersected.

During the symbol period from 1993 to 2000, many albums were released: Come (1994), The Black Album official release (1994), The Gold Experience (1995), Chaos and Disorder (1996), Emancipation (1996), Crystal Ball (four-disc set, 1998), The Vault... Old Friends 4 Sale (1999).

Prince's strategy of releasing a high volume of albums was partially an attempt to fulfill his Warner Bros. contractual obligations quickly and reach freedom sooner. The musical quality across this output is uneven — that cannot be denied. But within this period's work there are also pieces that have been reappraised as masterworks.

On the personal level, during this time Prince married his first wife, Mayte Garcia, in 1996. The son born to them, Ahmir Gregoire Nelson, died one week after birth from a skull condition (craniosynostosis). This tragedy was almost entirely absent from public discussion, but it is understood as one of the sources of the deep grief flowing through Prince's music during this period.

In 2000, when the relationship with Warner Bros. was fully resolved, Prince returned to the name "Prince."

When asked whether changing his name had been the right decision, Prince answered: "I had no choice. In that moment, that action was the only thing I could do."

🌿 Converting to Jehovah's Witnesses — A New Relationship Between Faith and Music

In 2001, Prince converted to the Jehovah's Witnesses.

For many, this was one of the most surprising changes in Prince's life — the artist who had made the most sexually provocative music imaginable, converting to one of Christianity's most conservative denominations.

But looking back at Prince's life, the conversion was not so sudden. He had suffered from epileptic seizures in childhood and been raised by a mother who told him "God is always watching over you." In Lovesexy he had sung the fusion of love, God, and sexuality; in "Forever in My Life" on Sign O' the Times he had expressed simple gratitude to God. Spirituality had always been at the core of Prince's music.

After conversion, Prince's lifestyle changed significantly. No alcohol, no meat, avoiding violent content — living according to the Witnesses' teachings, Prince also engaged in the ordinary activity of a Witness member, visiting neighbors' homes to share the faith.

The impact of this conversion on his music is complex. On one hand, sexually extreme expression diminished. On the other, the music Prince made from Musicology onward gained a new stillness and depth. The spiritual inquiry that had always been present became more explicitly the foundation of the work.

"I believe in God. But I don't make music for God — I make music with the talent God gave me." This is what I think most accurately describes the relationship between Prince's music and his faith.

🎶 "Musicology" and the Revival — Reappraisal in the 2000s

The 2004 album Musicology was the opening of what might be called Prince's third golden age.

Understanding the context of this album requires knowing Prince's situation in the early 2000s. Having passed through the Warner Bros. battle and the symbol period, Prince had moved somewhat to the margins of the mainstream. For a new generation of music fans, Prince was "a former great star" rather than a current artist.

Musicology changed that perception entirely.

The album's sound was a return to the golden era of 1980s funk and R&B — live band sound and Prince's vocals and guitar brought to the foreground, rather than elaborate synthesizers or experimental acoustics. "A WomAn," "Call My Name," "Cinnamon Girl" — these songs delivered the best of what Prince had to offer — melodic beauty, rhythmic precision, emotional depth — in simple form.

The Musicology tour ranked at the top of annual concert revenue figures. And in an innovative move, Prince included the album price in the concert ticket price — everyone who came to the show received the album as a gift. This business model sent shockwaves through the music industry and sparked debate about how Musicology's sales should be counted for chart purposes.

At the 2004 Grammy Awards, Musicology won Best R&B Album and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance.

The follow-up 3121 in 2006 debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, and in 2007 Prince delivered a legendary performance at Super Bowl XLI's halftime show. Prince playing "Purple Rain" in pouring rain — that performance is still remembered as the greatest halftime show in Super Bowl history.

Did you watch the 2007 Super Bowl halftime show? "Purple Rain" in the rain was a performance that seemed to embody Prince's entire career.

💊 April 21, 2016 — What Happened at Paisley Park

April 21, 2016. 10:07 AM. Chanhassen, Minnesota.

Prince was found dead at his own Paisley Park. He was fifty-seven years old.

The cause of death was an accidental overdose of fentanyl, an opioid painkiller.

Those close to Prince had known for years that he suffered from chronic hip and knee pain. Hundreds of concerts since 1983, intense dancing and playing — the physical cost had accumulated in his body. But Prince reportedly refused surgery on grounds of his Jehovah's Witness faith (surgery requiring blood transfusion conflicts with Witnesses' teachings), and had been managing pain with prescription painkillers.

At concerts on April 7 and 14, 2016, it was clear Prince was not well; there are accounts of him collapsing during the April 7 performance. On April 15, Prince's private jet made an emergency landing and he received medical treatment at a hospital — but the following day he declared "It's just the flu" and checked out.

Six days later, he was gone.

The moment news of Prince's death spread through the world, thousands of people gathered spontaneously at First Avenue in Minneapolis — the club where Prince had performed in the Purple Rain era — and spent the night weeping, dancing, and singing to his music.

Major landmarks around the world were illuminated in purple — the Eiffel Tower, Niagara Falls, London Bridge, the One World Trade Center in New York. The world turned the color of Prince on that night.

After Prince's death, it came to light that approximately 2,000 unreleased recordings had been found at Paisley Park. He had recorded music continuously throughout his life, preserving it without releasing it. "Music discovered after death" — this is another dimension of Prince's legacy.

⭐ What Prince Left Behind — Freedom in Music as a Legacy

If what Prince left the world is to be expressed in a single phrase: the practice, at the cost of everything including his name, of the belief that "an artist must completely own and be completely free in their music."

The battle with Warner Bros., the abandonment of his name, the construction of Paisley Park as a self-contained kingdom — all of these were actions taken to protect "the freedom to create and own music." The fight Prince waged at such personal cost anticipated the debates about "artists' rights" that came to define the digital music era.

When Taylor Swift fought to reclaim ownership of her own catalog, she was walking a path Prince had already walked in the 1990s. Swift herself has publicly acknowledged her respect for Prince.

As musical legacy — the number of Prince's recordings, including more than 2,000 unreleased pieces, continues to be catalogued. Even the officially released albums alone represent a breadth and depth of catalog without parallel.

Rolling Stone consistently places him among the greatest musicians of all time, and Purple Rain and Sign O' the Times are spoken of as timeless masterworks.

But what I think about most deeply when I think about Prince is the complexity of someone who tried to live talent, freedom, and faith simultaneously. Making sexually provocative music while continuously singing gratitude to God. Reaching the peak of commercial success while fighting commercial music. Possessing the greatest technique while always prioritizing emotion over technique.

"Music is music." Prince said it simply. Genre, race, gender, era — all of it is meaningless before music. Only music exists.

Those mornings, walking to work with "Alphabet St." on the Walkman — Prince's music was, for me, "the power to begin a day." That power has not changed today.

Prince, who departed Paisley Park on April 21, 2016, lives on in the music that still flows through that purple space.🎹