On August 23, 1984, at the Republican National Convention nominating Ronald Reagan for re-election to his second term as President, Ray Charles closed out the ceremonies with his soulful rendition of “America the Beautiful,” a version that he had made popular through his 1972 release A Message from the People. The original song, long celebrated as a popular alternative to the American national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” celebrates American greatness, prosperity, and Providential favor—all themes Reagan effectively exploited during his presidency. Less than a year later, Prince released the album Around the World in a Day, featuring the song “America,” which borrowed both a musical and lyrical phrase from “America the Beautiful”’s chorus: “America, America, God shed His grace on thee.” However, in Prince’s “America,” the soaring chorus was transgressively rendered with a growling lead guitar, verses warned of the perils of inequality, and the chorus includes both a prayer and a warning: “Keep your children free.” In an almost Hendrixian way, Prince’s interpolation of “America the Beautiful” had turned a patriot’s anthem into a citizen’s jeremiad against the perils of Reagan-era policies, with a call to government and society to live up to its democratic ideals, or suffer a divine and political chastisement. To date, “America” was Prince’s most explicit, but not only, critique of state power. Beginning with a close examination of “America,” this presentation seeks to draw out Prince’s often overlooked political concerns during the first decade of his career, and challenges us to appreciate Prince’s early artistic voice as citizen.

Zaheer Ali is a historian and scholar of 20th-century United States and African-American history. He is currently the inaugural executive director of the Lawrenceville School’s Hutchins Institute for Social Justice. As an adjunct lecturer at New York University, he taught a Spring 2017 course titled, “Prince: Sign of the Times,” an examination of Prince’s life and legacy in American history and culture. He’s presented his scholarship on Prince at conferences at Yale, Salford University in Manchester, England, and the University of Minnesota; and is currently developing the Prince Syllabus, exploring the life and work of Prince as a catalyst for social change.