Parade

Certain Songs #1654: Prince & The Revolution – “Mountains”

October 11, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Parade
Year: 1986

. . .

Along with “Let’s Go Crazy” and “The Cross,” “Mountains” is probably my favorite Prince song, such a stellar jam that I’m pissed at myself that I didn’t realize how much I loved it until 2016, but better late than never.

Seamlessly blending funky soul and psychedelic pop, “Mountains” is as big-sounding as its subject, riding on top of a massive four-on-the-floor kickdrum that never lets up for even seconds, even as the song changes all around it.

That kickdrum is surrounded by glistening synths and ringing percussion, giving “Mountains” the feel of a magic carpet flying high in the sky gazing down at the world.

Certain Songs #1653: Prince & The Revolution – “Girls & Boys”

October 10, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Parade
Year: 1986

Please don’t hold it against me that Parade is my favorite Prince album. Sure, I know that objectively, Sign ‘O’ The Times is probably his greatest album and that Purple Rain is his most world-beating, but I love tuneful funky weirdness of Parade.

Sadly, this was a thing that I didn’t realize until after he passed and I started digging into the parts of his catalog I’d missed, and Parade, which doubled as the soundtrack to his film Under The Cherry Moon, the, erm, unsuccessful follow-up to Purple Rain was where I started.

Certain Songs #519: Prince & The Revolution – “Kiss”

April 27, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Parade
Year: 1986

It took Michael Jackson five years to follow up Thriller. It took Bruce Springsteen three years to follow up Born In The U.S.A. It took Madonna two years to follow up Like a Virgin.

It took Prince ten months to follow up Purple Rain.

That said, after I heard the underwhelming (despite the pure pop glory of “Raspberry Beret”) Around The World in a Day, I started a pattern with Prince that I’ve kept up for three decades: I started dipping in and out of his discography.