Parade (1986)
The utter ridiculousness of creating this ranked list comes into sharper focus when I have to consider songs like this. How can you compare this reservoir of loss, this reminder of grief, next to the sheer funk lunacy of Sexy MF or iconic spectacle of Purple Rain? It’s like ranking emotions. All are part of the full kaleidoscopic experience of life and should be embraced, not compared with each other and found wanting. But it’s too late to question the premise now. Sometimes it Snows in April was much loved before Prince left this realm but has become imbued with a new metaphysical aura since. In Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy writes about the date of Tess’s death being “a day which lay sly and unseen among all the other days of the year, giving no sign or sound when she annually passed over it; but not the less surely there.” Tess is frustrated at not knowing what she considers to be the most important date in her life. When you find out that Prince recorded his mournful requiem on 21 April 1985, the pre-anniversary of his own passing, you wonder if he, at least on some level, knew his? The song was written years before – at one point it was on the tracklisting for his debut album – but something compelled him to go into the studio on that particular calendar date and put it to tape. Prosaic answers seem inadequate. It was his first week back in the studio after wrapping up a five-month tour, plus he had already alluded to the song earlier that month by using the phrase “sometimes it snows in April” in a released statement saying he was quitting live performing. If, as has been suggested, Christopher Tracy is a coded name for Christ, Prince may have pulled the title out of storage around this time because of a controversy surrounding the final show of his tour, the one said to be his last for “an indefinite period of time” (although in actuality only two months). Local religious groups were outraged that this concert had been moved to Easter Sunday and the resulting news coverage may have reawakened Prince’s own Easter elegy and caused it to became one of the first songs worked on when back in the studio later that month. It’s just a coincidence that the dates match. But the song seems too powerful for mere coincidences. We weave myths to make sense of the irrational but unfortunately Sometimes it Snows in April will always be a reminder of the inexplicable: a Princeless world.
Please provide your source for this statement: “The song was written years before – at one point it was on the tracklisting for his debut album – but something compelled him to go into the studio on that particular calendar date and put it to tape.” (To my knowledge, “April” didn’t exist during the ‘For You’ sessions.)
Page 267 of The Beautiful Ones:
“Another iteration of the For You track listing includes “Sometimes it Snows in April,” a song that would reappear on his 1986 album Parade.”
It was news to me too.
Wow! That fun fact gives “April” a bigger gut punch. I’m thankful that I was able to watch Prince take the rule book, rewrite it, and rip it to shreds before strutting into the afterlife in his high-heels. (By the way, it’s been fun reading which certain songs mean the most to you.)
Haha. I knew that one would be controversial but I couldn’t lie, I find it a little twee. And the thing about I wrote about the spiders is 100% true.
Yeah, that story of the spider crawling in your ear creeped me out too. I appreciate how “Starfish and Coffee” has a gentleness that Prince didn’t often display outside of a romantic setting. I’m guessing Cynthia’s autism reminded him of the epilepsy he had as a child. If that’s true, then it’s a beautiful tribute. (I also like his ‘Sesame Street’ performance of the song. I would’ve loved to have heard a children’s album from him.)
Thanks for reading. I started it in 2016 as a way to cope with a sudden Prince void. I love hearing that others are following along.
Oh, I know you’ve been working on this one for some time. When I was writing my 30th anniversary tribute on ‘Sign O’ the Times,’ I came across your page. You had “Starfish and Coffee” at #409, and I thought to myself, “Now there’s something you don’t see every day!” Since then, you’ve had my attention because “Starfish and Coffee” is a Top 50 all-timer for me.
Still following along and always loving it, currently relistening to Parade and specifically this song. Damn.. it hurts and helps during tough times. Keep up the great writing.