Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic (1999)
Like Partyman channeled Prince’s inner Joker (or Gemini), Prettyman is a comic-book exaggeration of his inner Narcissus. Initially written for Morris Day, Prince said: “it was so funky, I kept it”. And he’s not wrong. Buoyed on the wind from Maceo’s horn, Prettyman flies to the heights of The JB’s finest. The lyrics are as funny as Movie Star, another song reclaimed from the pile marked for The Time frontman, and the line “when no-one’s around, I smell myself” is deserving of an Emmy in itself. The extended version may only be a minute longer but includes the missing kicker: the sound of the mirror smashing. A punchline that tells you Prettyman may not be the fairest of them all.
Like so much of Prince’s music that is now being re-evaluated and newly appreciated, this song deserves such treatment. A couple of years ago, I wouldn’t have said this: But the whole Rave album deserves more respect too.