As a writer, I love quotes and keep a running list of them. Prince, of course, was a font of wise sayings. The Purple Yoda not only spouted wisdom himself but also inspired quotes that range from wise to hilarious to quirky. Sometimes, in my research on anything from Prince’s whereabouts in fall of 1990, to what color he favored at that time (yellow), I stumble across a quote that I can’t use in my work but seems too good to slip by unnoted. In the interest of leaving no good quote unused, I’ll feature one here each Wednesday under the heading, “A Little Wiser.”
In the first week of November 1990, the Baltimore Sun saw fit to publish two pieces on Grafitti Bridge. First up was film critic Stephen Hunter, on Nov. 5, 1990. To his enormous credit, Hunter latched on to Prince’s foray into spirituality, while expressing doubts about the execution of that concept.
Hunter leads off his review with, “As Olivia Newton-John didn’t use to say, let’s get metaphysical.” This line not only evoked recent discussions of our President’s use of negatives (ahem) but also caused me:
- To Google “Let’s Get Physical,” only to discover that distressingly, it was one of the top songs of 1982, with a 10-week run at the top of the Billboard charts. I hope this puts “1999” into context for us all.
- To remember compassionately the good people of the year 1990, who were questioning why Prince, as “one of the sexiest, hard-driving sex objects” was suddenly wearing oversized clothes that fell off his shoulders, in an apparent desire to turn himself into a version “either Michael or LaToya Jackson.”
As salient as Hunter’s points were, my favorite quote came from the second Baltimore Sun review, published on Nov. 7, 1990. Reporter Lou Cedrone, noting that the film seemed to be written in a secret language, summed up his verdict on the movie in two brief lines.
“`’Graffiti Bridge” is showing at local theaters,” he stated flatly. “Only Prince fans are advised to attend.”
Oh! I keep quotes too! I was just watching Gold this morning and this one grabbed at me … “What’s the use of money if you ain’t gonna break the mold?”
But this is about Graffiti Bridge. GB was somewhat difficult for even the best Prince fans. I don’t think it’s because it was a bad movie, but because the content was difficult to relate to. Prince said it wasn’t a failure and that in 30 years people would get it. He was right, look around us now and how the spirituality language has exploded on the scene! Once again, he was correct!
Prince the sage! I remember reading in Mayte’s book that Prince told her he had a ballad that was even better than Purple Rain … and that song turned out to be “Gold.” I like the song even better, knowing how much he liked it.