For You (1978)
Just As Long As We’re Together is the Bayeux tapestry of early Prince history. An illuminating trip through his initial studio excursions. The song started life in 1976 as an instrumental called Jelly Jam and ended up as his second single and (running time-wise) a sixth of his debut album. For two years it was constantly rerecorded, increasing in size and complexity with each iteration, and was used as a showreel of the youngster’s virtuoso chaos magick to secure a record deal. He even rerecorded it live in front of record executives to prove his one-teen-band status. As his foot-in-the-door, it may be the most important song in his entire canon and although it was soon eclipsed by more natural and mature displays of his talent, Prince greedily piles his plate with enough disco chops and funky licks to feed Earth, Wind and Fire for a lifetime.
