"If I was anything, I'd be the water in your bathtub"

I'm embarrassed. Yesterday was Prince Rogers Nelson's birthday. No doubt he's happy: this time he's bolstered his recent cred with a pretty good new album (which happened to be his first number-one debut ever).

Listening to a trove of his b-sides this morning, as well as outtakes from the never-finished Dream Factory project, it hit me how much pleasure Dirty Mind, 1999, Purple Rain, Parade, Symbol, Emancipation, and – supreme among them – Sign 'O' The Times have given me over the years. Near-misses like Controversy and Around the World in a Day still perplex; crap like Graffiti Bridge and Diamonds & Pearls still provoke (no one's made much sense of Lovesexy, which is to say: it's about time someone did).