(Credits: Far Out / Allen Beaulieu)
There’s a mystical quality that comes with any great songwriter. Some people might have the best moments of their career fall out of the sky, but the important part of any great tune is making even one person you don’t know realise that they are being seen by someone. No one can take that away once a song is out in the world, and while Prince had more songs than he knew what to do with, there had to be some divine quality behind him putting together some of his most famous tunes.
Outside of being one of the greatest craftsmen in terms of recording, ‘The Purple One’ never forgot the power of a great song. He could have easily spent the rest of his life playing technical jazz and messing around with anything he could get his hands on, but there was nothing that gave him the jolt of making that one pop song that no one else had thought, whether that was ‘I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man’ or ‘Little Red Corvette’.
But in the 1990s, his glitz and glamour persona wasn’t exactly the coolest thing in the world. People had started to get more earnest with their music, but if there was still room for people like Michael Jackson on the charts, Prince was going to make new music and manage to do it better than anybody else.
Even though albums like Emancipation were insanely long, it was nice to finally see him having fun again. The start of the 1990s was all about him churning out the last of his contract with Warner Bros, so despite albums like Chaos and Disorder being fantastic, it was easy to tell that his heart wasn’t in it all that much. He only had new music to keep him afloat, and he knew that everything would be fine once he listened to ‘Luka’ by Suzanne Vega.
While Vega is more known these days as the ‘Tom’s Diner’ lady that created one of the biggest earworms of the 1990s, ‘Luka’ is a far more introspective song. Since her big hit had to rely on DNA to help push it over the edge, this piece of early 1990s singer-songwriter rock is the kind of music that was right up Prince’s alley, albeit with a much simpler approach to it compared to his extravaganzas.
Though he could be tight-lipped about some of his favourite artists, Vega remembered he sent her a note saying that he was forever grateful that she got the attention she deserved, stating, “Dearest Suzanne, ‘Luka’ is the most compelling piece of music I’ve heard in a long time. There are no words 2 tell u all the things I feel when I hear it. I thank God 4 u. – Prince.” But at the time, there was probably a lot more truth that hit home with ‘The Purple One’ in Vega’s tune.
It sounds warm and inviting, but the entire story of ‘Luka’ is far from happy. This is a tale about how physical and emotional trauma can affect a family, and considering Prince was going through his separation from his record company, it was easy to see him as the same kind of kid who was being abused day in and day out, with nothing for him to do about it.
But that’s what all great music should be about. The casual fans might only look at their favourite songs as something they can throw on and vibe to whenever they get home from work, but for those actually committed to the craft, this was an emotional lifeline that happened to have a melody over the top of it.
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