Prince
For You

THE REVIEW

Prince, in 1977, is 18 years old, has experience with a local musical group (the Grand Central, later Champagne) of which he was already the leader at twelve, and plays 23 instruments (basically anything that emits notes except for wind instruments). With an English producer short on money, he seeks fortune in the Big Apple, and finds it in the Warner studios (from which, about twenty years later, he will desperately try to escape, but that’s another story…): they give him a contract, a studio, and the help of a former Earth, Wind and Fire member.

Prince declines and decides to do everything by himself. Let’s be clear: his debut, "For You", is not a masterpiece, but it is a good album, this yes, full of references to '70s black music, from James Brown to Sly Stone, through the essential Funkadelic and the pop-soul of Marvin Gaye and Chaka Khan.
The title-track is nothing but a mess of our guy's vocal overdubs, introducing us to his world; “In Love” is a ballad that goes down like fresh water, neither good nor bad; on the other hand, “Soft and Wet”, the single from the album that at the time had good success, and that many in America still remember, gives a taste of what the prince will be in the future: a provocateur, an innovator, and a (hetero)sexual maniac (the title, “soft and wet”, is already more than eloquent...).
The song is a jumble of playful keyboards and synthesizers, with a quirky rhythm and an unusual structure: the first milestone. “Crazy You”, “Baby”, and “So Blue” are three beautiful ballads, but made with the same mold; in particular, the third with its guitar intro gives hope, but turns into just any slow song. Of “My Love is Forever”, one remembers the touches of electric guitar, the concept of “Just As Long As We Are Together”, a long funk full of keyboards will be reworked and improved in “I Wanna Be Your Lover” on his second album, the same goes for the final rock “I’m Yours”, whose atmospheres will return in “Bambi”.

What to say? At the time, the most farsighted might have seen in this young multi-instrumentalist a prodigious talent, for sure this good LP gives just an idea of what the sprite will do in the '80s.

Next stop: “Prince”, 1979...