If you know me, you know I love Prince; I could probably compile a 365-Prince-song mixtape. He first entered many people's consciousness when 1999 came out; the doves-and-satin-sheets phase followed the much lewder black-briefs-and-trenchcoat Dirty Mind phase, and as a result, he gained a somewhat deserved, at least for the time, reputation as being a sex fiend. (The songs "Sister" and "Head" helped.) I'm not going to say his heart wasn't in it, I love those songs, but my guess is that he saw sex as an opening (oh no I didn't!). Most of the Prince songs I respond to as being the most honest are the ones that aren't dirty so much as playful: "Raspberry Beret," "Alphabet St," "Cindy C.," "Girl," "Kiss," "Adore," "Pink Cashmere," "Lovesexy," "If I Was Your Girlfriend," and so on. Prince isn't a lothario, or even a romeo. He's a goofball, the kind of guy who falls in love on a first date. "Good Love" was on the Bright Lights, Big City soundtrack and, much later, Crystal Ball, a compilation of rarities. Gustav Mahler number 3 jamming on the box / I'll have another glass of you, this time on the rocks!
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