mp3: prince – i would die 4 u

i usually don’t waste people’s time writing about songs that i don’t like. what’s the point in that, when there are so many great ones to write about? but in this case, i’m finding it difficult to resist… i apologize in advance.

so, “i would die 4 u” was selected by popular vote as the subject of the second cover throwdown, which i have committed to participate in. while i was pretty happy with the result of my decision to not listen to the original “witchcraft” for the first throwdown, i thought i would try something different this time and listen to prince’s version beforehand. well, i wish i hadn’t…. this song is horrible!

sure, i can see people getting down to this in 1984, but it really should have remained there… locked away so as not to bother future generations (i think this might actually be a worthy idea. at the end of each decade, take probably 90% of the music recorded and made commercially available in those years… pull it from store shelves, take it offline and ship it off to the library of congress to be filed away as a relic of the times,  reserved for study by historians. slap an expiration date on it and spare the public from the stench of its decaying relevance). because “i would die 4 u” is simply a pop song, with no lyrical or musical merit, beyond its understanding of what radio listeners must have found appealing at one distinct point in time. it does nothing for me as a music-loving human in 2009, though i’d imagine this has been the general consensus dating back to 1986, if not earlier.

lyrically, the song reminds me why i have largely avoided listening to the radio for the past 10 years… there are very few choruses strong enough to legitimize the garbage-strewn wastelands that so frequently surround them. “i would die for you / darling if you want me” isn’t so bad.. but what the hell is the rest of this? i’m not a prince fan (clearly)… this is one of 2-3 prince songs i’ve ever heard… do all his lyrics sound as if they were written by an assembly of elementary school students on a communal glue high? taking the song as being written from jesus’ perspective helps prince’s case slightly, in that then at least he is not claiming to be an incomprehensible omnisexual dove himself. but, in my mind at least, jesus does not substitute numbers for words or abbreviate “you” as “u”when writing , he doesn’t call me, or i call him, “darling” and he doesn’t generally speak in such a juvenile manner. i’d say that perspective hurts the song, as much as it helps it.

so i’ve got to admit i’m pretty surprised that six people voted hoping to sing these lyrics. i’m definitely interested to see what they do with them. i’ve got a very simple, but i think good idea for my interpretation of this thing and i’ll probably set aside 20 minutes at some point this week to record it. but, clearly, i had to complain about it first. although i have yet to hear anything in “i would die 4 u” to make the song worthy of  a throwdown’s attention, i’ve still got some slight hope that someone will change my mind.

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