Is it okay to hate the original?

New rehearsal footage and a supposedly previously unreleased 1984 recording of the original "Nothing Compares 2 U" by Prince (and the Revolution, or the Family, or whatever, I'm not that up on the Principedia) just appeared on YouTube, on the same day that Minnesota officials said no criminal charges would be filed related to Prince's death from a Fentanyl overdose (supposedly, he thought he was taking Vicodin, and Vicodin is much less dangerous than Fentanyl, similar to cobras being much less deadly than boa constrictors).
The video is a required watch for Prince's dance moves, on really tall platform shoes no less, but the arrangement (which appears to include a pipe organ and a clarinet) is way too intrusive compared to the later Sinead O'Connor cover.  So I don't know who took liberties with the commercial arrangement, stripping it of all the scrim and washing clean the guitar stains (with massed human voice, like Gregorian chant) and molassesing the tempo down to the point of funereal, but, if it was Sinead, we've spent way too much time since the SNL Pope-in-half discounting the perfect fit of her voice (and her obvious genetic descent from Irish keening) to this song.  See Prince's later appearance on Ellen (or his duet with Rosie Gaines) to see how, even in his able hands, it just never improved.
I have no idea what versions YouTube will let me upload, so you may be on your own finding them, but definitely check out the original to see how sometimes great ideas just need a better messenger to convey them.  Music is so much richer for Prince, not only because he was Mozart and elastic-legged and multi-talented and fearless and all that, but especially because he was generous with his compositions.

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