Prince covers serve a dual purpose. One, they tend to be pretty great canvases for artists to do whatever they want — a testament to the strength of The Purple One’s songwriting. And for fans locked out from streaming the songs by the late legend’s notorious stinginess with his own catalog, they can be the only way to hear the song legally, period.
Lambchop, the Nashville folk experimentalist who landed on our best folk albums of 2016 list, mellow out one of Prince’s most straightforward rock songs and replace the original’s new-wave-y instrumentation with a bass guitar and a piano that leaves their version sounding like an auto-tuned lounge singer’s shout-out to the music of his college years.
The FLOTUS band covered the song as a way to promote their upcoming tour and it’s pretty great. Have a listen of top.
Of course, if you just want to hear the original (and don’t subscribe to Tidal almost exclusively for the purpose like yours truly), you may soon have the chance. According to reports by the New York Times, all of the major streaming services are hoping to launch the Prince catalog on their respective platforms. The launch is being tied into the Prince tribute at the Grammys, with the possibility that Spotify might even advertise the newly acquired music via a commercial during the actual broadcast.
Of course, to do all this would require slicing straight through the Gordian knot of Prince’s estate and all the heirs and rights issues that entails. It might be easier to catch Lambchop on tour. Check out the dates below:
01/25 — Reims, FR @ La Cartonnerie
01/26 — London, UK @ Roundhouse
01/27 — Saint Lo, FR @ Le Normandy
01/28 — Brest, FR @ La Carène
01/29 — Rennes, FR @ Antipode
01/30 — Paris, FR @ Tranbendo
01/31 — La Roche sur Yon, FR @ Fuzzy’on
02/01 — Vendôme, FR @ Le 3ème Volume
02/02 — Nimes, FR @ Paloma
02/03 — St. Etienne, FR @ Le Fil
02/05 — Erlangen, DE @ Markgrafentheater
02/06 — Luzern, CH @ Sudpol
02/07 — Geneva, CH @ Antigel Festival
02/08 — Zurich, CH @ Schauspielhaus
02/09 — Utrecht, NL @ Tivoli/Vredenburg (Cloud Nine)
02/10 — Groningen, NL @ Oosterpoort
02/11 — Brussels, BE @ Botanique
02/12 — Mainz, DE @ Frankfurter Hof
02/14 — Vienna, AT @ WUK
02/15 — Munich, DE @ Kammerspiele
02/16 — Mulhouse, FR @ Génériq Festival
02/17 — Dortmund, DE @ Konzerthaus
02/18 — Berlin, DE @ Heimathafen
02/21 — Cologne, DE @ Gloria
02/22 — Hamburg, DE @ Elbphilharmonie (sold out)
02/24 — Malmo, SE @ KB (Kulturbolaget)
02/25 — Stockholm, SE @ Fasching
02/26 — Oslo, NO @ Parkteatret
02/27 — Copenhagen, DK @ Vega
02/28 — Leipzig, DE @ Felsenkeller
03/01 — Mannheim, DE @ Capitol
03/02 — Linz, AT @ Posthof
03/03 — Ravenna, IT @ Bronson Club
03/04 — Avellino, IT @ Auditorium del Conservatorio
03/05 — Rome, IT @ Auditorium Parco della Musica
03/22 — St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway Nightclub
03/23 — Iowa City, IA @ The Mill
03/24 — Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
03/25 — Ann Arbor, MI @ The Ark
03/27 — Toronto, ON @ Great Hall on Queen Street
03/28 — Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
03/30 — New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
03/31 — Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
04/01 — Washington, DC @ U Street Music Hall
04/02 — Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
04/07 — Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
06/02 — San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
06/03 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Bootleg Theater
