Little girl Wendy’s Parade

There are many single things that encapsulate why Prince is possibly the greatest musical artist of our generation. So many curiosities exist around his musical output, side projects, ghost-authoring and hidden classics, not to mention the actual hits themselves , produce a web of tantalising miscellany to keep any music fan intrigued and inspired for years. That is one of the reasons why A Story To Tell makes no apologies for returning again and again to the music of Prince, for his is a subject that, like Santa on amphetamines, just keeps on giving, keeps on offering up interesting facts and fascination to riff on. And the term riff is apt in this case because the thing that I wanted to begin with is indeed one of the purple one’s most recognisable riffs of all. Two, in fact. Because the song I wanted to talk about is none other than his evergreen classic from 1986, the irresistible, and irresponsibly funky “Kiss”.

Now there is so much to say about this one song that it is almost indecent. The album that gave rise to it is of course the brilliant “Parade”, the semi-soundtrack to “Under The Cherry Moon”, and an LP which constantly vies for my attention as my absolute favourite Prince effort. To be fair, such rankings are relatively obsolete when considering Prince’s phenomenal output, but occasionally a contender will nose ahead of others as flavour of the month, but is soon gobbled up again by the chasing pack, a very definition of several firsts amongst equals. Then there are the two guitar parts, the first the frenetic opening note, tickled on his electric guitar for but a single second and sounding like the fast and frenzied de-clothing of a particularly frantic coupling, before breaking down with a single funky “Uh!” into a groove of simply monstrous funk-pop perfection.

A chugging electric guitar with slight distortion, kick drum through the reverb of the AMS 16 and the Linn 9000 drum pattern. A bit of piano and the singer’s now legendary falsetto solicitations of lip-based shenanigans through his favoured Sennheiser 411 microphone, itself an instrument that provided roll to the vocals, further upping the treble of the sound itself. And this is important because what is missing from the track is, of course, the bass line, a fact all the more phenomenal when you consider the deliciousness of the groove itself. How can something this downright disgustingly funky not be driven by a bass line!?! Ridiculous. “Kiss” was Prince’s third number 1 in America, but incredibly the second to hit the top without a bass line, the incredible “When Doves Cry” being the fore-runner in 1984 (and indeed his first US number one).

But there it is, a sparse tune of funky brilliance, apparently no more than 9 individual tracks in the mix, and a song that started off, no less, as an acoustic countrified folk style song, comprising just one verse and a chorus. Indeed the song was originally intended, and originally developed, by ill-fated off-shoot Maserati, comprising more complex arrangements and even sung in a lower octave. However, what was an attractive yet slightly undirected studio jam, meandering slowly towards a full track, was soon taken back by Prince.

He declared the tune too good for Maserati, and re-appropriated it for the “Parade” sessions, allegedly transforming the studio workout into a fully-fledged killer tune literally overnight, along with able support by engineer David Z, a man whose contribution to the success of the song should never be over-looked. You can still hear Maserati as the backing vocals throughout incidentally. So sparse was the tune, however, that Warners originally refused to consider its release, labelling it a demo, a work in progress. Shows what A&R men know, and fortunately Prince’s star was so far on the rise that his power won out and the song was released, and of course has become an absolute critical and commercial smash.

There are numerous other things to consider. The lyrics for one, surely just the perfect blend of sexy and frivolous, of simplicity of intent and yet complexity of intonation. Remind yourself of the video also, Prince, upper torso naked, writing with a veiled cohort in a blizzard of incredible moves for which he still doesn’t get the acclaim he deserves. As one reviewer has stated of his live show, his moves make Michael Jackson seem nailed to the floor. There is the breakdown at 2.09 when Prince declares that “I think I wanna dance” and the tune takes on an even funkier hue, before the track defines genius at 2.29, when the wah-wah splays the beat even further.

The 12 inch extended version features under-appreciated singer Jill Jones, while the B-side is the rare “Love or Money”, an exploration of Prince’s Camille alter-ego. Just phenomenal all round. If asked to sum up the genius of Prince in one word you could do worse than simply replying “Kiss”, as it seems to do the job. You just leave it all up to me, i’m gonna show you what it’s all about.