Run-DMSteve

  • Dude, you’re killing me here

    Anyone can plunge into a creative tailspin, or fail to live up to public expectations, or rush off in directions that alienate your fans. God knows I’ve done all of these. I don’t know what happened to Prince in the years 1987 through 1991, but here are some clues. The…

  • Zombies just want to have fun: A few thoughts on Halloween

    Today I heard “Ghosbusters” (three times on two stations), “Thriller” (twice), and once each for “Spirits in the Material World,” “The Purple People Eater,” “Monster Mash,” “Season of the Witch,” and “Every Day Is Halloween.” From this sample I deduced that Christmas music is always about Christmas but Halloween music…

  • Run-DMSteve is shocked, shocked

    Sign O’ the Times Prince 1987 Back when I worked for Seattle Weekly, I had a conversation with our music editor, Bart Becker, about the fragmentation of commercial radio. Each Seattle station was locked into its own fenced-off musical world. Some formats had Reader’s Digest condensed playlists – Classic Rock…

  • Play that funky music, white boys

    The Best of Rare Earth 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection Rare Earth 2001 [Editor’s note: Last week I took on Prince’s Parade. Next up is Sign ‘o’ the Times, which requires more thought. Also, the World Series is about to start. While I’m doing all this extra thinking about…

  • Women not girls rule my world

    Parade Prince & The Revolution 1986 If I were a sensible person, I would’ve listened to Prince’s complete works first, identified continuing themes, drawn some tentative conclusions, and then, armed with this global perspective, returned to his debut and started the project. NFW. I didn’t do any thinking at all,…