52 Weeks Of Prince: Week 37

Image: Cbabi Bayek / NPG Records / Paisley Park Enterprises

2001 Part 2: The Rainbow Children, and Prince’s Problematic but Compelling Embrace of Religious Dogma

In June of 2000, Prince and Mayte divorced. On July 29th, Prince played an hour-long set starting at 3:30 a.m. at Paisley Park. The band was a stripped-down version of the current NPG with just Kirk Johnson on drums and Morris Hayes on keyboards. It was Kirk’s last gig as Prince’s drummer, and Morris Hayes would not rejoin the band for several years. Kip Blackshire would last a few more months, and then he would leave the band as well. Everyone else had already been let go. Prince was doing what he regularly did during moments of inner turmoil: he was hitting the reset button on his entire life.

There was a sea change underway at Paisley Park again. Looking back, it probably should have happened around 1995, but for some reason it didn’t. He did get reinvigorated after the name change and his wedding, and again after the split from Warner, but none of that caused the kind of large clearing of the decks that accompanied a major change in direction. This was the third major shift in Prince’s life. The first was his break with the Revolution, the second was when he formed the NPG and essentially took up residence at Paisley Park, and here is the third: Prince broke completely with the mainstream recording industry by releasing an album of completely new material with no connection to any major label. From now on, Prince would dictate the terms of his career and his life. Nobody could truly tell him “no” ever again. He had finally achieved the level of creative freedom he had believed he was being given by Warner Bros. when he signed his first record deal as a teenager. Now he had what he had always wanted. It would result in his greatest artistic successes and give him a level of inner peace he had never been able to find before. I do not think he saw any danger in this situation at all.

Following Through On His Promises

When asking his fans to fork over a hundred dollars for a yearly fan club subscription, the big draw was not so much the monthly music drops (although that was a tantalizing prospect to us), but rather the free and / or exclusive access to new albums of music. That was the hook that got people to open their wallets for the NPG Music Club.

Prince, as usual, was coy about the number and exact content of these albums, but the true faithful were not bothered by the details. After all, if he had been specific, we would have known better than to believe him anyway. In any case, Rave IN2 The Joy Fantastic was a disappointment to the Club members. True, much of the content was improved from Rave Un2, but that’s not really the point. It was not quite what we signed up for.

The problems with Rave IN2 were twofold: first, there was the obvious problem that it was basically a rehash of the prior album. It was an exclusive version of an album that we already owned. Meanwhile, the monthly content drops were, for the most part, entirely new tracks. True, they were usually from the vault, and seemed to be mostly Exodus outtakes or other mid-90’s runoff, but since that was a period of fantastically good work, it was hard to complain about that. The point was they were new, not reworked or remade versions of the very last album Prince had put on the market.

The second problem was that the entire purpose of the Rave project was to revisit well-trodden ground. Even though he was still using his unpronounceable name, the producer’s credit went to “Prince,” a clear indication that he was reaching back for sounds and styles that reflected his earlier work. The problem with that is when Prince reached into the past, nothing he grabbed on to was likely to be very interesting to him, and it showed. So not only were we getting two versions of the same album, it was an album that Prince himself did not seem truly inspired to make. Even with the best of intentions, Prince had difficulty creating music for no purpose but to deliberately appeal to the audience. Anything he recorded under those circumstances came out bland at best and unintentionally hilarious at worst. He was a terrible panderer.

That was not why we joined the Club, and ultimately we knew that’s not why he created the Club. NPGMC existed so that he could make the kind of music we actually wanted to hear, which was whatever the hell Prince heard in his head yesterday when he woke up. The best way for Prince to pander to us was to surprise us. We loved to be zagged on. Or at least we thought we did. In October of 2001, Prince put that to the test like he never had before and never would again.

New New New Power Generation

Anytime Prince found himself in need of a band, he tended to seek out a drummer first. Sheila E., Michael Bland, and Kirk Johnson were all added to their respective bands before the rest of the players fell into place. Prince was a fine drummer, but if you want to jam with someone and you consider yourself a guitarist and a pianist, then it just makes sense to find yourself a drummer, right?

Prince was spending more and more time with Larry Graham. Their friendship was genuine, but there was also Prince’s accelerating conversion to the Jehovah’s Witness church that was factoring in to that. In any case, they were basically inseparable during 1999 and 2000, and at a Patti LaBelle show, they saw a drummer by the name of John Blackwell.

Image: Getty

“One night after the show Prince came up to me and said ‘My God, you’re unbelievable. I’ll see you soon.’”

-John Blackwell, in an interview with “Modern Drummer” May 2004

Prince’s estimation of Blackwell was spot on. John Blackwell (who sadly passed away in 2017) was simply the best drummer Prince ever worked with. From a technical standpoint, in terms of showmanship, virtuosity, stylistic range, or even if we’re just talking about plain old physical stamina John Blackwell stands alone. I’m not sure I can say this about any other musician: Prince was lucky to work with John Blackwell.

On bass, Prince chose to recruit Rhonda Smith. It seems like Larry Graham would be the obvious choice here, but I think Prince wanted to make sure the chain of command had him very clearly at the top. Of course, the other argument is that Rhonda’s stylistic palette is just more broad than Larry’s. Like John Blackwell, she has classical training, a strong jazz background and a degree in music.

Prince & The NPG on "The Tonight Show." Left: Renato Neto, Right: Rhonda Smith. Image: NBC

On keyboards, Prince recruited Renato Neto at Sheila E.’s suggestion. Neto is a Brazilian jazz keyboardist who has been playing with big names since age fifteen. I tried to find more information on him, but I honestly couldn’t, apart from fairly boring stuff about where he was living during various years, which is a shame, because like the rest of the band, he is a virtuoso at his instrument with a distinct voice and style that rings out regardless of the genre in which he plays.

In case the above descriptions didn’t make it clear enough, this version of the NPG is a favorite of mine. I think this is the best live band Prince ever put together – or at least this is the core of that band. There are a lot of additions to the band and rotations that occur over the next several years, but these three remain in their places for a very long time, and even when they leave, Prince does whatever he can to bring them back into the fold. This NPG played its first gig in the early morning of January 5th 2002 at Paisley Park, a warmup gig for one of the most artistically successful and unusual tours Prince ever did.

The Difference Between “This” and “That”

This third major shift in Prince’s life is the last of its kind. It’s not that Prince’s eccentricities lessen in the last fifteen years of his life, because that is certainly not the case, but the nature of those quirks change in fundamental ways that only appear clear now, after his passing.

Prince never swept the table clean like this again. From now on, he took a “yes, and” approach to changes in his life. He never completely rejected a former way of doing things or looking at the world, but tried to incorporate as much of what he was learning into his prior worldview. In other words, when he joined the Jehovah’s Witnesses, he tried to completely reject a large chunk of his former life. To put it simply, that did not work for long.

Another thing that would change for him swiftly and permanently would be his dealings with other people. He would always be a bit aloof, but the image of the short guy surrounded by an impenetrable wall of hard-faced bodyguards would go away for the most part. He became almost approachable, and frequently had conversations with “normal people.” He would appear on television slightly more often (when he felt like it) and give more complete, if sometimes rambling and problematic, answers to questions.

Prince at "Celebration: 2001." He would often mill about at the workshops chatting with people, making sure they were comfortable. After a few days it became nearly normal. This image is a still from documentary footage that was never released, apparently because Prince didn't want it to seem like he would exploit his fans in a PR move to soften his image artificially. Image: Paisley Park Enterprises

He started to make efforts to repair bridges he had burned. Sometimes, these efforts were half-assed, and they were rarely successful. Partly because Prince didn’t seem to know how to apologize to people and partly because when Prince burned a bridge he burned that sucker all the way down, but still – he reached out to people, and more frequently as time went on.

Overall, Prince’s sojourn with the Jehovah’s Witnesses was not good for him. In fact, I will argue later on that it killed him. However, I also think these things I just listed are a direct result of his involvement with the church, even though some of them are a result of his disagreement with them. It is worth noting that it wasn’t all bad. But it was still far more bad than good.

They Set About The Work Of Building A New Nation

Prince did not wait for the band to fully coalesce before he began working on a new album. Once John Blackwell was hired in early September 2001, he knew exactly what he wanted to do, and went into the studio with Blackwell to start defining the sound that would characterize Prince’s work for the next five years.

The Rainbow Children is easily Prince’s most problematic album. It has moments of casual misogyny in it, a religious fervor of the sort that can be unsettling to reasonable people, and moments that sound like Prince might be a bit delusional.

On the other hand, it’s a great album. No, really, it is. It’s Prince’s most thematically and sonically consistent album. It’s one of the most successful concept albums I’ve ever heard. And as far as the problematic elements go – well, yes, they are there. But, I have to ask myself if I am practicing selective outrage? Is anything here truly more misogynist than “Irresistible Bitch,” “Billy Jack Bitch,” “Pussy Control” “I Hate U,” or even “The Morning Papers?” As for the religious content, I could always go back and listen to “God,” “The Cross,” “I No,” or “4 The Tears in Your Eyes,” none of which I ever skip.

I’m conflicted. I don’t have clear answers to those arguments. Except to say that what bothers me most is the humorlessness, the lack of irony and self-awareness in the misogyny, and especially the use of religion to justify it. Because the real difference here is these two problematic elements have never been intertwined this way before, and they never would be again.

Having said that, it slaps. The Rainbow Children is the return of Prince. As misguided as some of its ideas are, when it landed as a single, enormous, untracked mp3 in NPGMC members download areas in October of 2001, we could not say that this was not what we had signed up for. It absolutely was. Here was Prince, taking the biggest artistic risk of his entire career. It’s a Jehovah’s Witness jazz album. You just don’t make one of those unless you really really feel inspired to make one of those.

The Rainbow Children did not have a whole lot of promotional material, but this album sampler did circulate to some outlets as a kind of replacement for the promo single of "She Loves Me 4 Me." Image Cbabi Bayoc / NPG Records / Paisley Park Enterprises

A month later, a commercial release (a fully tracked CD) hit stores. The critical reception basically boiled down to “whut.” As far as chart performance goes, The Rainbow Children was pure poison. It barely reached 109 on the Billboard 200, and 33 on the Billboard Top R&B charts. Outside of the U.S. it failed to chart at all beyond France and Japan.

Why Do I Like This Album?

I do not have a good answer for this question. I just do? I cannot justify myself here. I don’t know. I mean, I disagree with almost every sentiment expressed in it. On the other hand, the very few things I agree with are some of my most deeply held beliefs. That’s like…one song, though. Apart from that, I guess what I can say is most of the songs don’t express much of anything beyond the usual, so what you have here is a fantastic Prince album with some absolutely insane lyrics from time to time. And when I say “insane” I mean that there is a song that basically sounds and acts like “Erotic City” where he tells a woman to get with him, she needs to believe that America needs to be a theocracy. Yeah. Insane. Not. Sane. WTAF, Prince. For real. Now I have to write a blog about this. Lauren wonders why this shit is weeks late. This is why. Theocracy. FFS.

"Riene Keis Quintet" minus any album cover interference. Image: Cbabi Bayoc.

A Quick note: the album cover, which is one of my favorite Prince album covers, is a painting called “Rieine Keis Quintet.” The artist is Cbabi Bayoc, (pronounced kuh bobby) a Black artist whose work Prince loved. He owned at least eight paintings by Bayoc, and this painting still hangs the lobby at Paisley Park. All of Bayoc’s work is cool, and you can check it out here.

TRACKLIST

Rainbow Children

I’ve often wondered why Van Halen even bothered with having a singer. They couldn’t seem to get along with any of their singers, and the reason was simple: the band was called “Van Halen.” Nobody was actually there to see David Lee Roth or whoever. You can argue the band was better with him or with someone else, but if we’re honest with ourselves the best version of Van Halen is probably the imaginary version where nobody sings and Eddie just stands center stage and shreds, right?

Same with “Rainbow Children.” This is a ten-minute jazz odyssey that absolutely slaps. The only problem with it is that Prince’s voice, pitch-shifted way down the scale, occasionally comes in to say crazy and / or horrible things. Here is some of what he says:

“With the accurate understanding of God and His law They went about the work of building A new nation The rainbow children The wise one who understood the law That was handed down from God long ago Reflected the true meaning to his woman every day And she surrendered her discerning of it into his care and keeping For she trusted he would lead in the right way Her children in subjection to her, she in subjection to the wise one The wise one in subjection to the Almighty God Forever is in subjection to God”

-"Rainbow Children" lyrics by Prince, (c) Paisley Park Enterprises

Yup, nothing crazy going on here, with no chance of abuse. So, just to be clear, the thinly-veiled allegory here is as follows: “Rainbow Children” is basically about Prince’s divorce from Mayte as he is joining the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In this scenario, he is (can you believe it?) the “wise one,” and she is “his woman.” Later in the song, she is tempted by “the resistor,” because “the resistor” knows how much “the wise one” loves God, “the resistor” tempts her and finally “assimilated the woman first and only.”

Again, nothing completely batshit bonkers happening.

All of this completely undermines the actually amazing music taking place while all this bazoo nonsense is being spoken. Like Van Halen, the best version of this is one with no vocals, but this is the one we get.

Muse 2 The Pharaoh

This song is a song about his budding relationship with his soon-to-be wife Manuela Testollini. He’s casting himself as “Pharaoh,” but this is actually a lot less insane than it sounds, especially in light of the prior song. If it weren’t on this album it would just be Prince freely associating sexual, romantic and religious imagery as usual.

As is typical of the album, it’s just Prince and John Blackwell on the track, and it has the mix of pop and jazz that would define the album more than the solid jazz of the title track.

One weird lyric that nobody seems to understand online is “The opposite of NATO is OTAN.”(pronounced AH-tin) In live settings he would often revise it as “The opposite of NATO is monotheism.” It’s not as controversial as it sounds. “Otan” is an alternate spelling of Aten, an Egyptian sun god. In the Eighteenth Dynasty in Egypt, a pharaoh named Amunhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten (translation: “true son of Aten”) when he converted to monotheism as he became convinced that the Hebrew god Jehovah and Aten were the same, and only, god.

Digital Garden

This is one of the moments in the album where it really achieves the “rock opera” goals it was shooting for, or at least the storytelling ambitions. The characters of The Rainbow Children, The Banished Ones, The Resistor and The Wise One become more detached from their real world and religious counterparts (mercifully) and so the story is much more enjoyable as a result. In the meantime, the song has a hypnotic quality to it as The Rainbow Children Gather like-minded people to build a kind of internet utopia for themselves as The Wise One basically pays alimony to the Banished Ones (read: Mayte), much to the Wise One’s annoyance. (come on, Prince, you know how the world works).

Then there is a brief segue into one of the better songs on the album.

The Work Pt. 1

Image: Cbabi Bayoc / NPG Records / Paisley Park Enterprises

On any Prince album, there is usually one song that gives a clue to the direction to be taken in the next album. “Prettyman,” the James Brown pastiche on Rave, was the clue to The Rainbow Children, because here we have another James Brown tribute, only much better. This is a rare instance for this album of a more complete band recording. Larry Graham is on the bass, and the Hornheadz make an appearance. According to a blurb on the NPGMC website, Prince played the piano solo and the guitar solo in a single take.

“The Work Pt. 1” embodies the energy and joy that ran through this album. Prince was excited to make music again, and this shot of adrenaline never quite left him. This was recorded in February 2001, and by then he had well and truly found his groove again. If you listen to nothing else from this album, this track is worth your time.

Everywhere

This is one of those deep-cut tracks that I feel don’t get enough attention. It sounds like the kind of thing that would be sung in a particularly boisterous church, but whatever. It’s good. Apparently, John Blackwell had created a drum pattern when Prince was out of the studio, then left for the day. When he arrived the next morning, Prince had built this track from that pattern. Co-lead vocals are provided by the group Milenia, a group of four sisters, and the arrangement is obviously meant to show off their skills.

The Sensual Everafter

This song is largely an instrumental (but a good one). The line put out by Prince’s camp at this time was basically that he was excising sex from his work. Completely. Bad language, sex, and anything else that could be considered salacious or objectionable. And especially nothing like premarital sex. You could put on a Prince concert at Sunday School, basically. The press basically went along with this, and often talked about “Prince minus sex.” This was never really true, though. For example, on the tour for The Rainbow Children he regularly played “Alphabet St.” and “Raspberry Beret,” and then there is this brand new song, which had the following words spoken in it:

“To all his good brothers The Wise One spoke highly of his Muse, Because her love for the one true God Was growing with every passing day. So he said, "to all a good night", Sent them to bed early and invited his Muse to join him in The sensual ever after”

-"The Sensual Everafter" lyrics by Prince (c) Paisley Park Enterprises

Now, for sure they are not married here, because that happens later in the story so….<wags an admonishing finger>

Mellow

Another song about sex (naughty Prince!). This one also has the Hornheadz guesting as well as excellent flute and soprano sax performances from Najee.

What I like most about this is there are frequent moments of “silence between the notes.” There’s lots of tension and release that you normally don’t get in Prince’s songs, especially his ballads. He likes to keep things constantly but gently suspended more often than not, but this on-and-off teasing is indicative of an old dog learning some new tricks.

1+1+1=3

This is the one about “theocratic order.” There’s an old adage that says you can say almost anything you want as long as the beat you put behind it is funky enough. Prince really puts that to the torture test here. The beat is as funky as it can possibly be. This song, apart from that one bit, is a hit. Honestly, there are not many songs that are more danceable that Prince ever made. I am going to paste all the lyrics below, just so you can see how far out on a limb he went:

“If you ain't got no place to stay Come on baby 'round this way Stay with me baby But let me tell you how it's gonna be

There's a theocratic order. There's a theocratic order now

This is how it's gonna be If you wanna be with me Ain't no room for disagree One+one+one is three

Take you're time and think it through If this is what you wanna do I ain't really that hard to please Cause one+one+one is three

Stroke you're hair a hundred times Let me see what I can find Do you know about the order. Do you know about the order, now?

(The banished ones)

"We are the banished ones and we have come to dance If you will not let us, we'll have to kick you're pants!"

Who's that knockin' on are door? Didn't we throw you out before?

I'm 'bout to get rowdy! I'm 'bout to get rowdy, now!

Make me wanna do something.

We could be surrounded in the palace "Everybody wants to get you!" I don't care

How many y'all just came to dance? Let me see you shake you're pants We don't give a duck what you got on You just need to work that sexy body all night long

Come on”

Where them banished ones at? "Said they 'round the back" Don't cut 'em no slack "I'm gon' tap, tap, tap"

But should I keep this party going? "Brother you know that!"

Moneyapolis, sing-Rainbow Children, raise you're hands If we can't do it, nobody can!

Here they come y'all

Rally 'round the palace now You know what we got to do!

How'd that fool get up in here? Snagglevoice."

"1+1+1=3" lyrics by Prince, (c) Paisley Park Enterprises

Now, you may have noticed, there is only one bit, right at the beginning, that is off-putting. Apart from that, it’s bog-standard Prince braggadocio with a slight flavoring of the album’s story thrown in, but nothing actually offensive…except that oooone bit.

And there’s further evidence that in his heart of hearts Prince is still Prince, because if a fundamental change had occurred you wouldn’t have to say “We don’t give a duck” because you wouldn’t have had that line in the first place, my dude.

A duck, my ass.

Deconstruction

This is basically a segue with light musical backing.

Wedding Feast

This is that rarest of things: A Prince comedy song that lands properly. It’s very silly, and while not laugh-out-loud funny, it does work as it is supposed to, and it lightens the mood.

She Loves Me 4 Me

Image: Cbabi Bayoc / NPG Records / Paisley Park Enterprises

If someone came to me and said “Quick, Paul McCartney needs a Prince song to cover!” it would be this one. And he would knock it straight out of the park. There are not many songs that I can say Prince seemed to have written specifically to be played on an acoustic guitar at campfires, but this is certainly the big one.

His second marriage was far more of a private matter than his first, but it seems to have been no less sincere and his glasses no less rose-colored going into it.

Family Name

In this latter period of Prince’s life, he was unafraid to express potentially unpopular opinions on any number of subjects. Some of these were more problematic than others at the time, and a few have proven to be downright prophetic. This is one of the more prophetic opinions.

“Family Name” deals with (among other things) White privilege, specifically with White people’s lack of understanding of Black people’s continuing to feel injury over the evils of racism – even the evils that happened long ago. In this case, Prince focuses in on the fact that Africans had their heritage stripped from them when they were enslaved. Their family names and heritage were taken away and replaced with something else. Sometimes the name of the White slave owner (for example, his own family name “Nelson” is likely one of these) or possibly something less innocuous (if having your name replaced with your owner's name can be said to be innocuous) and frequently racist. His drummer’s family name, Blackwell, was likely given to an ancestor extemporaneously by a White person. There are others that are far worse: “Blackburn,” “Outlaw,” etc.

In the song, there is a spoken part that supposedly is a recording of the “Akashic Records”:

“This is Thomas Jefferson: ‘My fellow Americans, if there is a just God…we’re gonna pay for this!” -"Family Name" lyrics by Prince (c) Paisley Park Enterprises

This is a liberal paraphrasing of a quotation from Thomas Jefferson, himself a slave owner, in “Notes on the State of Virginia.” He was talking about the institution of slavery and how that could possibly square with the American ideal of personal freedom. How can you say that God imbues each living human with certain inalienable rights and then enslave humans? Obviously, you can’t. And yet, we did. He personally did. And the Founders knew full well a reckoning was coming. The quote Prince was referencing was:

“And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.”

Prince also turns on certain kinds of religious institutions:

“Preacher, preacher, is it true That Jesus wants me to give my money to the likes of you? Ride around in your Lexus Coupe Take us to the cleaners in a pinstripe suit Preacher, that ain't truth”

-"Family Name" lyrics by Prince (c) Paisley Park Enterprises

Additionally, this song has some of Prince’s finest ever lead guitar work on a studio recording. If it hadn’t been so lyrically challenging, and on an album specially designed to not be commercial, it might have been a hit. Maybe. At least I’d like to think so.

The Everlasting Now

Remember “1+1+1=3” and how only a tiny bit of the lyrics were potentially off-putting? Well, this is sort of the grand finale of the album, so this is the opposite of that. This is a dance track that is full “Do you have a minute to talk about the Lord?” Here’s the chorus, it’ll tell you everything you need to know:

“Don't let nobody bring you down Accurate knowledge of Christ and the Father Will bring the Everlasting Now Join the party, come on make a sound Share the truth, preach the good news Don't let nobody bring you down The Everlasting Now”

-"The Everlasting Now" lyrics by Prince (c) Paisley Park Enterprises

I just love that word “accurate.” I mean, it’s always good when you know what the Almighty wants. It’s good to take the ineffable and just know that you are the one who effs it.

Last December / Last December (Reprise)

This promo CD circulated only in very limited markets.

This is a kind of “power ballad epilogue” for the album, and it works well enough, but it only works in the context of the album. And that is sort of the curse of the concept album: most of these songs fail miserably once you separate them from their natural habitat. It was hard to promote this album both due to its content and due to the fact that very few of these songs could function as singles. "Last December" sounds great after listening to the preceding 70 minutes of the album, but it's not something you'd want to hear on its own.

The huge, untracked mp3 Prince distributed to the NPGMC felt lazy at first, but he wanted to make sure people listened to this album as an album, and not just like a bunch of files he dropped into a box for you to download. The album was challenging in every way, and not always in good, necessary or useful ways. Like I said before, I like it. But I could understand if you didn't. It's a big ask. Probably bigger than Prince knew.

Or, on the other hand, maybe he was fully aware.

Was There Blowback?

Surprisingly, no. The fanbase was willing to play along with a Jehovah’s Witness jazz album. My general assessment of The Rainbow Children seems to have been the majority opinion. They didn’t necessarily agree with all of the opinions expressed, but it was a surprise, and it was difficult to argue with the quality of the music, if not the content of the lyrics. Prince was back. Secretly we were hoping the rest of his career wasn’t going to be THIS, but one of these really was not bad.

In the end, we lucked out. Prince’s experimental period was not over by a long shot, but there would be no further Jehovah’s Witness albums. The rest of his experiments would either be pleasant surprises or by fan request, as with next week’s album.

NEXT WEEK: Prince gives the Club something they have been asking for: a solo piano and voice album: One Nite Alone arrives.