siLLy puPPy
PRINCE Rogers Nelson showed musical talent at a very early age and released several demos before this debut album FOR YOU which emerged in 1978. At this time he was only 17 and i have to say…. sounds like it. This album is a far cry from the masterpieces of “Purple Rain” and the gazillion hits that would follow, but for what this album isn’t, it has kernels of what PRINCE would become yet at this point anyone listening to this album at the time would have a hard time predicting that this strange dude with that funny falsetto would become one of the biggest stars in all of musical history.
This first release by “The Purple One” was a rather modest affair. There is R&B, disco and synth-funk. Pretty much standard affair for the day and improving on none of the greats of the day in even the slightest. The music is nice and catchy and if this was PRINCE’s only album ever to emerge then it might even be a little bit beyond OK, but as we all know the best was yet to come and come again over and over and over again.
This may be one of PRINCE’s lesser appreciated albums simply because it gets drowned in the sea of albums he has released over the years, yet there is something special about a debut album for me whether it is their swan song or not. It displays a time where the artist shows a unique potential (or not) and a portrait of their roots. That is definitely the case with PRINCE here. In all his reserved efforts there is a sense of something lurking beneath the surface ready to unleash itself on an unsuspecting world. The album? OK. I got to this well after being exposed to pretty much everything after, but there is a smattering going on here that points to something more albeit unperceivable at the time.