True masters can focus: in art and strategy

I was once a huge Prince fan.

I still am, to a certain extent, but for a period of my life I was a fan on the level where I bought obscure bootleg albums with poor sound quality just to hear a song I hadn’t heard before.

At his (arguably) creative peak, in the mid 80s, his musical productivity was on a genius level. He produced famous hits like “When doves cry”, “Kiss” and “Purple Rain” but he also wrote hit songs for other artists under various pseudonyms while at the same time filling up his famous vault with hundreds of unreleased songs.

His first album came out in 1978 (not counting his appearance on the 94 East album Minneapolis Genius — which I of course own on vinyl) when he was just 19 years old. Prince plays all 27 instruments on the album, giving a hint of his musical talent at such a young age.

Clearly, Prince mastered music at the highest level.

And yet, when you listen to some of his best songs, they are remarkably… simple.

“When Doves Cry” is basically just a drum machine, a synth melody and that guitar.

And can you make a more bare, simple and almost naked pop song than “Kiss” from the 1986 “Parade“ ”album?