The Prince Thread.

swears

preppy-kei
I searched for one, but there doesn't seem to be a Dissensus thread dedicated entirely to Prince. So I thought I'd start one. Uhhhh....I'm not much of a writer, so I'll link to this Face article from 1983.

http://carolcooper.org/music/prince-83.php

Yeah, so I've always been a bit of a fan, but over the last couple of years he's really grown on me. My favourite track would probably be "Head" it's the perfect mix of New-Wave stiffness and freak-funk.

So....any love for Mr Rogers Nelson?
 

Poisonous Dart

Lone Swordsman
The Minneapolis Sound...

I'm a huge Prince fan, he's probably one of the most influencial musicians, writers and producers of the past 25 years...and he was heavily influenced by James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Sly & The Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Parliament/Funkadelic and several other R&B/Soul/Rock legends....I was a HUGE Micheal Jackson fan as well up until 1984..then I REALLY got into Hip Hop heavy. I the time it took for MJ to release another album after "Thriller", Prince made "Purple Rain", "Around The World In A Day", "Parade", "LoveSexy", and "Sign O' The Times" while producing and writing a VAST AMOUNT of seminal classics/hits...by the time "Bad" was released I was like "Michael who?"...not to mention I liked Prince more because he had more women than I'd had hot meals...I also suspected MJ was afraid of women...guess I was right, huh? LOL. One.
 

swears

preppy-kei
A big part of the appeal of his music for me is how much fun technically-proficient music can be, it doesn't have to have anything to do with self-indulgent prog wankery. His vocal range, his fiddly guitar licks, the pitch bending keyboard solos, the arrangements, they all add to the joyousness of the music, particularly for me, someone that's grown up on programmed patterns (nothing wrong with that of course!)
I'd like to think the next big thing won't be afraid to shine in that respect.

Poisionous Dart: I was a big fan of Jacko as a kid, just before all the -ahem- allegations.
 
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ahh happy days. I remember having all his records up to sign of the times and including sheila e, vanity, appolonia, jesse johnson, the time, alexander oneill, morris day and followed the course of jam and lewis

That sign of the times dvd has go to be the greatest show ever with purple rain as one of the greatest rock n roll movies and if ever you wanted to know what the 80's was about, just relive that movie.

What sold me from the start was his keen fashion sense. I'd also like to add i wanna be your lover as another of his 5 greatest tunes.

For me he kinda lost it after sign o the times.

RESTECP
 

Poisonous Dart

Lone Swordsman
Music changed drastically....

After the Sign O' The Times Era the industry, the music, and the technology that was used to make the music ALL changed drastically. For one Rap records RARELY sold more than Gold and that music started gaining a foothold while Rock sales began dropping slowly. I hold that era of 1984-1988 in high esteem in Pop/R & B music...Pharrel Williams, SA RA Creative Minds and several other production teams are pulling their sounds from this era RIGHT NOW. One.
 
good point P-dart.

I've always rated Pharrells production values but his compositions have always seemed weak, like if he didnt have a wealth of Prince (among others) back catalogue to draw inspiration from he'd be nothing. I guess his album has shown that, not feeling it. A pretender to the throne or the emperor really is naked me thinks.

Prince though, will go down as one of the greatest ever. In terms of the whole package wrapped up in a little bundle, no one even come close.
 

swears

preppy-kei
good point P-dart.

I've always rated Pharrells production values but his compositions have always seemed weak, like if he didnt have a wealth of Prince (among others) back catalogue to draw inspiration from he'd be nothing. I guess his album has shown that, not feeling it. A pretender to the throne or the emperor really is naked me thinks.

The great thing about those early Neptunes productions was the fact that they were making these sparse programmed beats (Superthug, Got Your Money, Caught out There, etc) that were influenced by 80's funk and soul like Prince and Rick James, but taking away a lot of the warmth and groove. The fact they weren't playing live instruments made it sound fresh.
A strong example of this is the first edition of the NERD album with the keyboard beats. It sounded so un-nineties, cold and stark. As soon as they re-recorded it with session musos, it just sounded cheesy. (The second version of Lapdance sounds like Limp Bizkit) In gaining a more "natural" sound, they'd lost what had made them distinctive.
 

DJ PIMP

Well-known member
Went on a Prince bender a little while ago and it freaked the shit out of me seeing the ghost at the start of the When Doves Cry vid (in the steam to the right when he gets out of the bath). I'm certain I never noticed it as a kid.

Rewatched Purple Rain - awesome!. Like the guy in the vid shop said, its almost frightening how 80s it is.

Amazing artist.
 

Buick6

too punk to drunk
Prince is a legend, pure and simple. I have his best of. Purple Rain and Raspberry Beret are terrific songs. I remember seeing his video clips for Controversy ni the early 80s, and he had these lesbo chicks, a black dude in suspenders and a White Doctor on keyboard. They were like a black version of Devo, then he went into that weird 'Paisley' period, that was interesting as it sounded nothing like that retro-paisley underground neo-60s stuff that was trendy at the time! I really like the 'Gold Experience' album ' Endorphin Machine' is one of the best neo-glam-glitter tracks since the 70s.

Part of the problem is that Prince puts out so much material, it's really hard to pick the shit from the clay. He really knows how to write some tacky, drecky ballads and soppy R&B choons. But he also pulls out some mega-funky rockers. The best bet is to stick to his hits.Yep.
 

swears

preppy-kei
Part of the problem is that Prince puts out so much material, it's really hard to pick the shit from the clay. He really knows how to write some tacky, drecky ballads and soppy R&B choons. But he also pulls out some mega-funky rockers. The best bet is to stick to his hits.Yep.

Well, I have a hard time listening to all his material after Lovesexy, but up until that point I could happily listen to the previous albums all the way through. Especially the run of five albums from Prince up to Purple Rain. I reckon he could do no wrong '79-'85.
 

Dubious Alias

New member
First thread that I HAD to contribute to!

I absolutely adored Prince when growing up - as a teenager with an openly racist step-dad it was brilliant to see that there was another way of being.

As for the music I think sticking to 'the Hits' misses a lot of the gems - having been through a little Prince revival a few months ago I realised that 'Pop Life' was one of the best songs he ever wrote, and that 'Erotic City' is so danceable it hurts - and I doubt they turn up on many of the compilations.

bx
 
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blunt

shot by both sides
"Prince smells of music."

I can't for the life of me remember who it was that said that. It was someone like ?uestlove, I think.

Anyone, it's one of my favourite quotes, and fairly sums up the man himself. He's probably one of the most prodigious musical talents of our time, regardless of musical genre or milieu. And I count it as a blessing that he was around to soundtrack my youth.

Someone put Purple Rain on the stereo the other week, and I hadn't heard it for years. It brought tears to my eyes; for the boy that I was, and the man I would become, etcetera). Sorry, as baby approaches, I'm getting increasingly sentimental...

And it's a pleasure to see him return to form. "Black Sweat" is easily one of my favourite tunes of the year. Awesome.
 

swears

preppy-kei
I absolutely adored Prince when growing up - as a teenager with an openly racist step-dad it was brilliant to see that there was another way of being.


That's sucks, I actually got into Prince 'cause my parents had a couple of his albums in the CD collection.

blunt said:
And it's a pleasure to see him return to form. "Black Sweat" is easily one of my favourite tunes of the year. Awesome.

I like some of his more recent singles like Black Sweat and Musicology, but I can't get into the later albums at all.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
prince from 88 onwards is pretty erratic. though saying that, graffiti bridge has a lot of his best post-88 stuff, mainly just because its material that was meant to come out in 96 but got shelved. even though his albums have varied a lot since then, hes usually had at least one or two really great songs on each one, even in the 90s, its just that theyve come surrounded by a lot of material thats either terrible has promise that is somehow ruined. .

i think a lot of why his modern output is so bad though is that he either lacks the discipline, or still thinks that everything he records is brilliant (either that or he just has no idea of whats good and bad anymore which seems most likely). it doesnt help that he became such a follower in the 90s. i dont really know exactly why prince had such a steep decline, but ive personally given up expecting him to have a new 'peak period' or be as brilliant as he once was. hes 50 now - he has the right to be as bad as he wants to be!
 

Poisonous Dart

Lone Swordsman
Oh Christ!

I was recently lent the infamous Black album by a friend last night (unreleased 1987 project were Prince pretty much derided rap and it's entire culture over 7 horribly produced and uninspired "songs"...I wish I could erase the experience from my mind a la "Total Recall" or "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind"...anyways, here's an Okayplayer.com thread about Pharrell and Timbaland and which one of them has *ahem* "borrowed" more liberally from Prince over the years...I have this discussion AT LEAST 3 times a week with friends/acquaintances/strangers in record stores.

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=5&topic_id=898846&mesg_id=898846&page=

One.
 

mms

sometimes
prince from 88 onwards is pretty erratic. though saying that, graffiti bridge has a lot of his best post-88 stuff, mainly just because its material that was meant to come out in 96 but got shelved. even though his albums have varied a lot since then, hes usually had at least one or two really great songs on each one, even in the 90s, its just that theyve come surrounded by a lot of material thats either terrible has promise that is somehow ruined. .

graffiti bridge has quite a few songs from sign o times, lovesexy era, joy in repetiton, can't stop, we can funk etc.

agreed about always having some good tracks on his albums. but there was a time that even the tracks he didn't put out were better, more exciting and experimental than most people's actual albums.

the black album has some amazing moments on it, it's dense and filthy.
he derided rap on one song not 7, and that's the worst song, funny he derided rap in such a shite song.
there are some brilliant, twisted songs on that, even the funk jam 2 nigs united 4 west compton is great. there were some well interesting things going on in princes head at that time. camille and his whole lady thing, sign o the times which swung erratically from syrupy ballads to the most perverted alien funk on the planet, that was his last great album but lovesexy's ecstacy jesus thing was pretty exciting too.

i liked him cos he was such an alien not black or white or girl or boy, but a horny bugger as well which appealed to express the desires of teenage me.
he could walk in uninvited to any genre and princefy it and make it his, make it stranger in a way only he could.

His drum programming was second to none, weird and off, he always did brilliant 12"s and singles with really good extra tracks, so he was collectable and you felt like delving into his music was an invitation into a closer understanding or something a bit exclusive. He never gave interviews and always seemed very polite and well dressed.

don't really care if pharell or timbo take some ideas or whatever as their own ideas are strong enough to accomadate some of his tropes.
 
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blunt

shot by both sides
i liked him cos he was such an alien not black or white or girl or boy, but a horny bugger as well which appealed to express the desires of teenage me.
he could walk in uninvited to any genre and princefy it and make it his, make it stranger in a way only he could.

I'm speechless. mms has it. Spot on :)
 

Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
Investigating his early stuff, I downloaded Dirty Mind the other day, and it was a bit disappointing. But in general, yeah, he's the man obviously.
 

swears

preppy-kei
....here's an Okayplayer.com thread about Pharrell and Timbaland and which one of them has *ahem* "borrowed" more liberally from Prince over the years...I have this discussion AT LEAST 3 times a week with friends/acquaintances/strangers in record stores.

Yeah, and Pharrell's "sexy sexy sexy" hook is nicked from Cold Blooded by Rick James.
I think the neps have their own sound though, as long as they stay well away from the "real" instruments.
 
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