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Welcome back to our #Princetwitterthread. Today we look at LETITGO from the Come album, please check out the truly superb previous and upcoming threads
Before we begin, as ever, I am entirely indebted to @deejayumb and @edgarkruize The attention to detail, depth, knowledge, passion and dedication of these threads has never been more important.
I would also like to beg everyone’s indulgence a little towards the end of this thread to get a little personal, it’s not something I usually do, but to quote the great @darlingnisi its all about #lessonsfromtheprofessor
Before we begin let’s clear up a little issue 
LETITGO really stretched Prince’s use of One Word titles for Come, he was definitely committed to it! I like the idea of each track being an experience just like the Gold Experience which is Come’s shiny, attention-grabbing rival twin that Prince urged us to place our focus on.
Deciding where to begin with a Prince song is like looking in a mirror, you only see what you heart feels at the moment.
But like choosing your first Prince Album, it doesn’t really matter where you dive in as long as you enter the Purple Pool. The enduring joy of Prince is the ability to take a personal experience and make us all experience it through our unique mental prisms.
There is a line from the superb earlier track on this Album ‘Space’ which has embedded today’s song LETITGO into my life.
Ever since a dear friend gifted me this lifesize Promotional cutout, Prince has metaphorically watched over me, frozen in time in the Come era, that moment of momentous pain and change. I personally think you can see the physical and mental toll the fight with WB had upon Prince.
When people see the cutout and indeed my Prince room, there’s usually just one question. Why Prince? Why him?
I could give you a 1000 reasons about the way his music makes me feel, his genius, his emotional expression, his creativity but the truth is these are all secondary reasons why I admire Prince...
The reason I admire Prince is his bravery. To be even more succinct, I admire Prince because he was Fearless and LETITGO proved to me that the one thing record companies feared, was a fearless artist.
Alan Leeds however very much disagrees with me 
Prince could very easily have kept with the Diamonds & Pearls format favoured by Warners, endless promotion, big production value videos, big launch singles and blockbuster tours but…
Prince always acted without fear, from the carnality of Dirty Mind, the vibrant colours of Around the World in a Day to the ethereal epiphany of Lovesexy
Letitgo is about walking away, not in a flash of pique or heat of passion but reflecting on your past, critiquing it and charting a new course. This was a stoically determined Prince, the decision for the future firmly made in his mind.
Prince was walking away from not only his record label that had nourished him from the very beginning and shared a journey that changed music history but also his very name.
The very fact that Prince recorded this track under the name Prince despite having changed his name to a symbol over eight months previously adds to the reflective nature of the track. Self-examination is the hardest and yet truest ally.
Right from the very start with the sample of Vanity’s Outtake Vibrator/Poem/Orgasm stating ‘ready or not here I come’, Prince was in a strange way at peace after the war with WB
Prince was dead and so the Artist could now reflect upon him from a distanced viewpoint and he held no punches.
“All my life I've kept my feelings deep inside
Never was a reason to let somebody know”
Never was a reason to let somebody know”
Prince was the ultimate professional, work was his lover, his mistress, his wife, his muse and his spirit guide. He spent his nights in the studio, skilfully carving tracks from the granite of his souls experiences.
Paisley Park was itself Prince’s own abstract internal Pleasureland in concrete terms but one often wondered if enough people came to Paisley Park to play with Prince? -
Stay right here for part 2!
Stay right here for part 2!
“Lover here, lover there,
Who cried? Who cared? Foolish pride
Never was a good seat at any of this man's shows”
Being a desirable, once in a generation genius draped in the finest clothes Paisley could produce ensured that Prince was an irresistibly eligible bachelor
Who cried? Who cared? Foolish pride
Never was a good seat at any of this man's shows”
Being a desirable, once in a generation genius draped in the finest clothes Paisley could produce ensured that Prince was an irresistibly eligible bachelor
"Until now all I wanted to do is
Do do do what I do, and
Bang bang bang on the drummer
And love so-and-so"
Do do do what I do, and
Bang bang bang on the drummer
And love so-and-so"
"All my life this heart's been under lock and key
My curtains were drawn there wasn't nobody home
Trigger here, Trigger there,
everybody's high except for me
Better off dead if I couldn't be alone"
My curtains were drawn there wasn't nobody home
Trigger here, Trigger there,
everybody's high except for me
Better off dead if I couldn't be alone"
Despite the fame, glory, success and celebration, Prince was still in many ways an outsider, a jukebox with a heartbeat in a gilded platinum cage.
Prince had tired of the corporate machine, no-one would have blamed him if he had chosen to become a legacy act but for Prince freedom was everything and the name he had created now owned him.
There was only one way to escape..LETITGO, let the name, the fame, the game, everything go. People thought it was purely a way to extricate Prince from his contract but Prince noted wryly ...
“I wish it was that simple, man. O.J. would be doing it and walking free, right.”
“I wish it was that simple, man. O.J. would be doing it and walking free, right.”
"I'm ready for the real
Give me something I can feel"
Give me something I can feel"
Tired of playing a role for executives and accountants, it was clear Prince was convinced he didn’t need the label, he had a Purple Army ready to support him, (now 3 million strong!) Warners would regret the divorce hearing Prince’s song ringing in their ears when he was gone.
23)After 4teen years (1980?) and tears I've longed to sing my song’ and finally he had moved past the venom of Had U and Dinner with Delores into a more stoic phase.
LETITGO was recorded on 16th March 1994 and wasn’t in time for the first submitted version of the Come album to Warner Brothers which does make you wonder if the track was a direct response to a rather acrimonious board room meeting.
This is where Prince became somewhat dichotomous, on one hand he was definitely uninterested in Promoting any tracks from Come much preferring to promote the embattled Gold Experience which would launch him as the Artist, however Prince was adamant that LETITGO was a clear hit
Although as Prince would later sing
" Heavy rotation Never made my world go 'round
Commercialization, commercialization of the music
Is what brought it down"
" Heavy rotation Never made my world go 'round
Commercialization, commercialization of the music
Is what brought it down"
Written and produced solely by Prince with backing vocals from Kathleen Bradford, Eric Leeds added some flute, Ricky Peterson some keyboards, Michael B Nelson some Trombone with his NPG Hornz members Steve Strand, Dave Jensen, Kathy J and Brian Gallagher.
Musically the snaking, lead line of LETITGO is the stickiest of burrowing ear worms, Prince was never truer when he sung that this song will ring in your ears where you are gone. The drum drops slip into gear like a Lamborghini committing to overdrive.
The little swirls and builds at the beginning, the rumbling, deep earth bass and those gorgeous, sumptuous flecks of guitar are sublime The chorus, call and refrain with Prince’s vocals being answered with a bouncy pulse pull this track into a truly strange, mesmerising ride.
There is truly something mind-altering about this track especially as the vocoder announces ‘come a little closer’
As ever Prince’s backing vocals, criminally underrated, just hang in the air vibrantly with elegant poise. The closing section with it’s perfectly carved, almost discordant solo would arguably resurface again in a different form on the New Power Soul track ‘The One'
When I first heard LETITGO on the radio, the DJ said that it was one of those tracks that he would enjoy if it was even 4 times longer, I cannot disagree.
It was clear from the start that Warners believed in the track and there is an exorbitant amount of remixes that spun off from the track and a video (well, sort of).
The video was comprised of clips from the 3 chains of gold video but actually works surprisingly well as a storyline video for the track showing how Prince’s frustrations and anger had been building over the past few years. http://videos.sapo.pt/ghqlNTdqN0CTfbtiHFiI
The remixes had no direct input from Prince and often this allows the remixing artist to really explore and embrace their own vibe and interpretation, a good example would be Mark Moore’s/William Orbit The Future and Electric Chair remixes
The remixes included two tracks which were actually identical, the Caviar and Cavi Street edit. Q.D III (Son of Quincy Jones remixed some of the tracks) whilst Chronic Freeze, Young Soldier of Time, Gerald G Bomb Baillergeau and J swift joined the party.
Of particular note is the Sherm Stick edits which use the Dorothy Parker motif which adds a certain depth and history to the track.
Teasingly there are still unreleased versions
Ultimately this track is about change, rebirth, reflection, regret and hope. Prince was a changeling, from his music to his fashion to his philosophy. Prince never feared changed and this was ultimately the biggest change of his career and his life. Stay here for Part 3!
Please forgive this personal moment,
I am not someone who usually believes that things happen for a reason or coincidences are messages but LETITGO has resurfaced in my life at exactly the right moment.
I am not someone who usually believes that things happen for a reason or coincidences are messages but LETITGO has resurfaced in my life at exactly the right moment.
The Life-size cut-out or Prince at the time of his rebirth has been staring at me for weeks now. The sense of closure and rebirth feels to be surrounding me.
For me it’s a rebirth that brings me full circle back to the start of my online Prince journey because ‘I'm ready for the real’, My heart is aching to LETITGO
I miss losing myself in Prince’s world of music as much as I used to, I also miss my first Online Love of Youtube.
I miss losing myself in Prince’s world of music as much as I used to, I also miss my first Online Love of Youtube.
So as from today, I will be closing my Instrgram Account, NightChild Reveiws Facebook account, My Personal Facebook account and leaving the Prince Army Facebook group (which has been a true privilege) and in one week freezing my Twitter account.
I have had so many wonderful, beautiful experiences from the Prince community, and I am forever indebted to every single one.
Part of this is due to my Autism which I discuss here in this Prince-related video. The average life expectancy for someone with low-function Autism is 39.5 and with high-functioning (me) 53.8, I’m 45 now. We are 7 times more likely to take our own lives as well.
LETITGO really brought home to me that one of the key features of Autism is my inability to LETITGO, I obsess, ruminate, circle within OCD and social media for all it’s wonder was worsening that Simplifying my life makes a huge difference and LETITGO is becoming my saving mantra.
After posting my Autism video, I received truly special message from Susannah Melvoin discussing Starfish and Coffee and the connection to Autism, which made my month.
MY new forever home will be my Youtube Channel which you can find via the link below, I finally feel the freedom to do what I do and just let the vibe take me wherever Prince’s music does. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqzrMC6P9Pdf091a16jicww/
Thank you for this chance to put ‘The Nightchild to bed’ (well, partially anyway!), I feel a thousand times lighter and brighter. Now I know what he was trying to tell me over the past few couple of years, lay back and let your feelings show.
Be brave, don’t fear change, follow your own course and most importantly LETITGO
I’ll leave you with a great live version of LETITGO and urge you to check out the other remarkable threads from truly remarkable people. Thank you
