Why Prince's The Beautiful Ones Might Be The Best Power Ballad Of All Time
Sometimes I see something that gets me thinking and I just have to write about it.
I was on Facebook and this came up in my Facebook feed:
Tricia is an old friend of mine, and The Beautiful Ones might be the best power ballad of all time. Here’s why:
For starters it’s AWESOME. Let’s get that out of the way. One of the best songs off the best album by the best individual artist of all time? That alone leaves only one contender in the title track Purple Rain right? And I’m not saying The Beautiful Ones is a “better” song, but I’m choosing to focus on it here because A) Tricia’s post got me thinking about it B) I feel like it and C) It’s not on ANY list of top power ballads. Anywhere. And when you see some of the garbage that’s on these lists you’ll agree this post needed to be written. Harden My Heart by Quarterflash??? REALLY??? How is that even a power ballad? Here are 5 of them if you’re curious:
“Best Power Ballads: 45 Lighters-In-The-Air Classics”
“50 Best Power Ballads of All Time”
“The 40 best power ballads of all time”
“50 Greatest Power Ballads in Rock History Ranked”
”The Top 25 Power Ballads”
I’m pissed.
Okay so what’s a “power ballad” you ask? It’s basically a slow tempo jam with big powerful sound - usually a love song of some sort. Big drums. Big guitars. Big vocals. Big drama.
The Beautiful Ones checks all of those boxes in spades.
Why Prince's The Beautiful Ones Might Be The Best Power Ballad Of All Time
His Purple Highness gets right to the point off the jump - cooing in that falsetto that just kills: “Baby baby baby - what’s it gonna be? Baby baby baby - is it him or is it me?” And only Prince can pull off asking so casually “Would that be cool?” if they got married... Then at about the 3:20 mark things take a turn. Time to make the decision! “Do you want him? Or do you want ME? Cuz I WANT YOU!” The song builds and builds to the point of the screaming impassioned pleas with the Linn Drum snare sound and the guitar leads weaving in and out of the vocals… “I may not know where I’m going babe, I may not know what I need, but one thing - one thing’s for certain babe - I KNOW WHAT I WANT” Down on his knees…testifying his love, pouring it ALL out! Steven Tyler kiss my ass. It’s so powerful, and then it recedes and it’s over. Chills. As much as I love the song Purple Rain I’m not sure it hits quite the same way as that minute and a half does. And you know it’s coming the whole time up until that point. I don’t know man…. I guess if you know you know.
Okay, so I got caught up. I do love Steven Tyler even if I don’t love I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing which is on a lot of those lists. Sorry about that. He didn’t deserve that. And fine, okay - maybe Purple Rain is actually the best power ballad ever. I did say “might be” in the title of this post…
And yes. Keep On Lovin’ You, Faithfully, I Wanna Know What Love Is, With Or Without You etc…. I get it - those are all great. But it’s The Beautiful Ones.
H.E.R. covered it at the Prince Grammy tribute which I thought was amazing - I love H.E.R.
Hey and by the way if you disagree with this stop for a second: Have you spent a lot of time thinking about what song wears this crown? You’ll die on the power ballad hill? Let it go. Let The Beautiful Ones have this. It’s worthy. Those other power ballad lists can pound sand. Do people post screenshots of Asia’s The Smile Has Left Your Eyes on Facebook? I don’t think so.
Paint a perfect picture…..
I have spoken.
M10 Social is owned by Doug Cohen in West Bloomfield, MI and provides social media training and digital marketing services from the Frameable Faces Photography studio Doug owns with his wife Ally. He can be reached there at tel:248-790-7317, by mobile at tel:248-346-4121 or via email at mailto:doug@frameablefaces.com. You can follow Doug’s band Vintage Playboy at their Facebook page here. You can also visit our other business Detroit Jerky at the website www.DetroitJerkyLLC.com!
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