More on Prince's new song "Cause and Effect" - and a little tease

Posted at 11:25 AM on February 25, 2010 by Jim McGuinn

"Prince has some new unreleased music and he'd like to know what you think of it."

That is one sentence you never expect to hear when you pick up your phone. But that's what happened to me last week when Prince's rep called to tell me that Prince had been busy in the studio and wanted to extend his love for 89.3 The Current by giving us a new exclusive song to play. "He wants to know if you think the music is appropriate for your radio station." Talk about listening anxiety! What if I hated it? What if it was a terrible song? Thankfully, one listen to "Cause and Effect," the new Prince song that The Current will debut on Friday 2/26, allayed my fears. While it's virtually impossible to know on first listen if a song will be the next "When Doves Cry," it was clear by the first chorus that I was listening to a musically re-energized Prince, who was playing guitar with a vengeance unheard by the majority of his fans in years, or at least since that Super Bowl performance in 2007.

We're a musical community in the Twin Cities and at the Current, and our most famous ex-pat has returned home to rejoin us - I'm excited to have Prince back and hope he continues to immerse himself into our scene. As to whether "Cause and Effect" is "appropriate for The Current," as Prince wondered, well, I guess that's ultimately up to you - our listeners.

In the meantime, here's a teaser clip with some of the guitar work at the end of the song (click the link to go to the site):
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/music_blog/archive/2010/02/princes_new_son.shtml