BEATS OF LOVE
32. The Cross by Prince
SO MUCH mediocre music annoyingly wafts around our lives. Do folk even realize that there are actually folk who are driven solely by a compulsion to create glorious songs?
The problem is that they don't waft about in folk's consciousness because they are actually fucking important. One such being is Prince and one of many of his glorious songs is this. My own faith is very important to me. I sought transcendence through music but came back to the fold after a few breakdowns and a serious illness. The real-life music biz is too much about ego.
Josemaria Escrivá taught that "joy has its roots in the form of a cross", and that "suffering is the touchstone of love" which really resonated with me. I still grapple with my Catholicism. Its obscene wealth sits uneasily with me. I call my God a last resort one because I've tried everything to be less spiritual, but no pub philosopher or acid house hero has convinced me that I'm wrong and I've never attempted to convince anyone that I'm right. Christians are called to convert folk and save souls. Unlike Prince, I'm more evangelical about this song than Christianity, I guess, which is no bad thing.
The lyrical genius is his reverence for absolutely everybody. Sharing in this song my own tacit understanding of the Gospels, that Christ doesn't discriminate between believers. His Ghettos are not poorly built overcrowded man-made hellish housing developments but the faithless. The flowering of faith is all you need to redeem yourself. Escrivá also pertinently noted "there are some who pass through life as through a tunnel, without ever understanding the splendour and the security and warmth of the sun of faith." Making faith pretty Balearic.
This masterpiece begins like a folksy spiritual then adds a stiff military drumbeat that evokes the battle-cry of the Creed before culminating in a psychedelia that borders on grunge. Cobain must've been listening coz only he puts his voice through the ringer like Prince. That sitar knocks me out every single time.
Experiencing it twice on the Lovesexy tour will stay with me forever. It didn't waft about, it truly transfixed everybody.
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