Prince!!

dimerocks

I have over the last 6 months really really grown to love prince. It all really stems from singing a song to a barmaid in a restaurant in Andorra and somehow managing to hit all the notes. Anyway since then i have really gotten into him. Picked up Emancipation at the weekend. Whats the views on prince here and any recomendations?? I think i could listen to Purple Rain all day if I don't get more stuff.

Doctor J

That song wasn't Kiss was it?

I liked Prince at the end of his Prince era and beginning of his symbol era (Sexy MF, My Name Is Prince, etc) when he was really starting to go nuts though most people don't like that part of his career. The older stuff is quality too, I don't really dig any of the new stuff though.

Edja

Good God!?? What age are you????? I was a huge fan of his back through the 80's and 90's!!! Saw him in Pairc ui Chaoimh in July 1990 on the eve of the world cup final! Class!! Must say, I do a mean acoustic solo version of Purple Rain!!!

kinaldo

dimerocks wrote:

I have over the last 6 months really really grown to love prince. It all really stems from singing a song to a barmaid in a restaurant in Andorra and somehow managing to hit all the notes. Anyway since then i have really gotten into him. Picked up Emancipation at the weekend. Whats the views on prince here and any recomendations?? I think i could listen to Purple Rain all day if I don't get more stuff.

I'm a Prince nut that owns all 30+ of his albums and hundredrs of bootlegs. I even have a Prince tattoo although maybe I went a step too far there. Anyway, I think to really appreciate him u have to go the whole hog. He has so many albums and covers so much ground (funk, rock, pop, soul, jazz you name it) it can be quite daunting but it's an incredible journey. I've been collecting his stuff for about 6 years now and I'm still discovering new songs every day some of them real gems from his massive vault of unrelased material. Listening to Prince has also introduced me to other music like Sly and the Family Stone, Rick James, Teena Marie, Funkadelic etc. Some of his side projects like Jill Jones and The Time are quite incredible.

For someone who's new to Prince I recommend u start in the 80's, all essential albums imo.

Sign O' the Times is generally considered his masterpiece. I consider it the greatest double album ever released.

1999 was originally a double album, before it came out on cd. Very heavy on synths, very funky. Essential.

Dirty Mind was his first masterpiece. Very short and demo like.

Parade took me a long time to get into but it's an incredible album, very highly rated by prince and non-prince fans, but not prince himself.

The Black Album is a non-stop funk workout, but it's out of print. Easy to find on ebay. Legendary story behind it.

Lovesexy and Around the World in a Day are both great albums if you like all the others and are really into Prince. Not for everyone though.

If u enjoyed Emancipation then you'll love The Gold Experience. Also out of print but easy to find on ebay.

Don't bother with the rest of his post 80's work until you've heard his classics. He was equally prolific but the standard dropped. Some of the stuff he released during this period is still very underrated.

There's one great compilation, the 3cd Hits/B-Sides. Worth owning for the b-sides alone. Most of the songs are edits that's my only real beef with it. Brilliant liner notes. What ever you do, DO NOT BUY THE VERY BEST OF PRINCE!

You should check out some of the hundreds of videos and live performances available to view at housequake.com.

Hope this helps.

Earthhorse

kinaldo wrote:

I even have a Prince tattoo

Is it actual size?

Boggles

Earthhorse wrote:

Is it actual size?

Haha. Jaysus reminds me of that guy on Alan Partridge "I'm just a fan Alan"

Prince was indeed a legend, but now is a has been. Hard core Prince fans have started washing their hands of him, especialy since he started charging $300 dollars for his gigs in the States and only playing his crap new material.

Boggles

dimerocks wrote:

singing a song to a barmaid in a restaurant in Andorra and somehow managing to hit all the notes. Anyway since then i have really gotten into him

Important question is: Did you get into the Barmaid???

Drummo

Raspberry Beret (sp) is an animal tune!!!

MagnumForce

Boggles wrote:

Important question is: Did you get into the Barmaid???

Thats what i wanted to know too!

Agent Steel

kinaldo wrote:

I'm a Prince nut that owns all 30+ of his albums and hundredrs of bootlegs. I even have a Prince tattoo although maybe I went a step too far there. Anyway, I think to really appreciate him u have to go the whole hog. He has so many albums and covers so much ground (funk, rock, pop, soul, jazz you name it) it can be quite daunting but it's an incredible journey. I've been collecting his stuff for about 6 years now and I'm still discovering new songs every day some of them real gems from his massive vault of unrelased material. Listening to Prince has also introduced me to other music like Sly and the Family Stone, Rick James, Teena Marie, Funkadelic etc. Some of his side projects like Jill Jones and The Time are quite incredible.

For someone who's new to Prince I recommend u start in the 80's, all essential albums imo.

Sign O' the Times is generally considered his masterpiece. I consider it the greatest double album ever released.

1999 was originally a double album, before it came out on cd. Very heavy on synths, very funky. Essential.

Dirty Mind was his first masterpiece. Very short and demo like.

Parade took me a long time to get into but it's an incredible album, very highly rated by prince and non-prince fans, but not prince himself.

The Black Album is a non-stop funk workout, but it's out of print. Easy to find on ebay. Legendary story behind it.

Lovesexy and Around the World in a Day are both great albums if you like all the others and are really into Prince. Not for everyone though.

If u enjoyed Emancipation then you'll love The Gold Experience. Also out of print but easy to find on ebay.

Don't bother with the rest of his post 80's work until you've heard his classics. He was equally prolific but the standard dropped. Some of the stuff he released during this period is still very underrated.

There's one great compilation, the 3cd Hits/B-Sides. Worth owning for the b-sides alone. Most of the songs are edits that's my only real beef with it. Brilliant liner notes. What ever you do, DO NOT BUY THE VERY BEST OF PRINCE!

You should check out some of the hundreds of videos and live performances available to view at housequake.com.

Hope this helps.

Great post. I've always been wondering where to start in terms of Prince. Cheers mate.

Drummo

kinaldo wrote:

I'm a Prince nut that owns all 30+ of his albums and hundredrs of bootlegs. I even have a Prince tattoo although maybe I went a step too far there. Anyway, I think to really appreciate him u have to go the whole hog. He has so many albums and covers so much ground (funk, rock, pop, soul, jazz you name it) it can be quite daunting but it's an incredible journey. I've been collecting his stuff for about 6 years now and I'm still discovering new songs every day some of them real gems from his massive vault of unrelased material. Listening to Prince has also introduced me to other music like Sly and the Family Stone, Rick James, Teena Marie, Funkadelic etc. Some of his side projects like Jill Jones and The Time are quite incredible.

For someone who's new to Prince I recommend u start in the 80's, all essential albums imo.

Sign O' the Times is generally considered his masterpiece. I consider it the greatest double album ever released.

1999 was originally a double album, before it came out on cd. Very heavy on synths, very funky. Essential.

Dirty Mind was his first masterpiece. Very short and demo like.

Parade took me a long time to get into but it's an incredible album, very highly rated by prince and non-prince fans, but not prince himself.

The Black Album is a non-stop funk workout, but it's out of print. Easy to find on ebay. Legendary story behind it.

Lovesexy and Around the World in a Day are both great albums if you like all the others and are really into Prince. Not for everyone though.

If u enjoyed Emancipation then you'll love The Gold Experience. Also out of print but easy to find on ebay.

Don't bother with the rest of his post 80's work until you've heard his classics. He was equally prolific but the standard dropped. Some of the stuff he released during this period is still very underrated.

There's one great compilation, the 3cd Hits/B-Sides. Worth owning for the b-sides alone. Most of the songs are edits that's my only real beef with it. Brilliant liner notes. What ever you do, DO NOT BUY THE VERY BEST OF PRINCE!

You should check out some of the hundreds of videos and live performances available to view at housequake.com.

Hope this helps.

Brilliant! Thanks man!!!

kinaldo

Boggles wrote:

Haha. Jaysus reminds me of that guy on Alan Partridge "I'm just a fan Alan"

Prince was indeed a legend, but now is a has been. Hard core Prince fans have started washing their hands of him, especialy since he started charging $300 dollars for his gigs in the States and only playing his crap new material.

his last tour for Musicology was a greatest hits set and finished up as the highest grossing and second most watched (after Madonna) tour in America. Madonna charged higher ticket prices but Prince had a much less expensive overhead and played a lot more shows. His recent album 3121 debuted at number one on the billboard charts.

his previous tour, One Nite Alone, was in 2002 and comprised of mostly new material mixed in with a handful of hits and medleys. He played The Point and I got tickets for €70. The show lasted 3 hours and he then put on an aftershow in Spirit on Abbey Street.

Simply put, the guy is a legend. He can do what he wants and nobody can touch him.

garthv

Wait....you people have actually listened to his music right?
You guys need to get out more.....

stevejazzx

Prince plays the guitar like noone else. he never looks at the fretboard. Just hits every note evey time and I've seen him live 3 times and it's always the same, perfect.

He's also a lovely pint sized pianist. Plays some nice jazzy piano from time to time. Has surrounded himself now with phenomomal musicians, some of thew worlds finest modern guys, crossing genres of mostly funk and Jazz. Live shows are nothing but pure musical excellence.

Problem with prince is lyrically he's been ever more eccentric and in some cases just plain uninteresting of late.

He is perhaps too active with new material seeping from him on a daily basis. His released studio material again especially of late is way too over produced, too squeaky, the rawness of live performances is what IMHO should be getting released, if it was he would have really positioned himself as an irrefutable modern musical force. As it stands however too much medicore album material makes it to the final cut which is heavily scrutinised by modern magazines who want like Prince but who just can't dig some of the daft material he comes out with.
A genius, no doubt but a flawed master at best these days.

Album wise, Sign of the times is nice, good even but Parade is truely his finest work.
Sign of times tour is possibly his greatest tour however because at that time music for lovesexy, sign of the times, around the world and Parade was being used together so a Phenomenomal song list transpired.

The double LP sign of times had many greats notably The ballad of DP, Adore, If I was ur girlfriend, and the title track, but none of the tracks really captured the timelessness of Purple Rain, but rather continued strongly in style of the latter half of the rain album with bouncy funk grooves, for e.g 'I wanna be a star' from Purple Rain would've fit lovely onto the SOTT album.
What prince did however with the album befro SOTT, Parade, was become a true artist. The albums plays alomst continuosly (like Lovesexy) but is wonderfully themed throughout, Princes first high concept album to really come off.

The satndard throughout the album never receeds, whereas SOTT for all it's wonderful music has some dodgy moments, with Play in the sunshin and hot thing, & the love it or hate 'Starfish and Coffee'(I love it BTW).
But what really pushes Parade into the top spot for is Originality.

These days Prince is accused of rehashing funk grooves around willy nilly which I must say that I partly agree.

Post PRain from 85-89 Prince soft funked out(with the notable exception of the 'Black Album' where Prince s dark alter ego hard funks himself into a funk so to speak, a possible lashback to easy listening grooves of the sign of the times era). The transition form SOTT to lovesexy was too seamless with more of the same coming out the weee man. No new music, really. The lyrical content of both those albums is not as strong as Parade, but nontheless infinitly better than 'Ronnie speak to Russia' from his early career).

Ironically, parade was made before SOTT and yet feels much more mature.

Princes best known song (Purple Rain) song is outdone by 'kiss' which becomes one the centuries most well know songs, but that's as far as Parade goes in terms of notoriety. Most non Prince fans are probably not even aware of its existance.
Under the Cheery moon is an odd and lovely song from Prince. "If I don't find my destiny soon I'll die in your arms under the cherry moon" a sample of the better lyrical content of a maturing artist, something he lets go of a bit on SOTT.

Continuing there is even a beatiful instrumental half way 'Venus De MIlo' which segueways briallantly after the manic but excellent 'Life can be so nice'
which again underlined the albums originality and it's break from groove based tunes.

There is another sparkling oddity 'Do you lie',a kinda traditonal french sounding tune reharmonized with Princes peculiar musicality.

Mountains(a b-side on the partyman single) is a short escape from running theme and is a bouncy rhythmic thing with a memorable percussion intro. This just about fit s into the running, but in truth sounds as tough it belongs on another cd though after all these years of listening it just fits.

Unquestionably for me, in the top three of Princes finest moments is the Timeless ballad 'Sometimes it snows in April' which finishes off the Parade album, the has dreamy one minute intro and some features some f princes best and most heartfelt signing with Wendy arpeggiating those lovely chords and lisa harmonizing, it is quite pssibly his best song although there are many contenders to this throne.

All in all a just about flawless albumn and endears me most to one of my musical idols.

Prince best bits compendium:

Parade
Acoustic guitar album the truth (4 cd on crystal ball)
Live guitar solos, notably Purple house on his rave dvd and while my guitar gently weeps tribute.
After show gigs. any of them..stuff of legend.
One night alone, a live performance on cd...feauturing a huge mix of prince styles.

Some of his Best Songs of the eighties.

Sometimes it sonws in april.
Beautiful ones
Condition of the heart
The cross
Purple rain
I wish u heaven
Question of you
1999
when you were mine

To finish, a musical legend whose output is vast. Altoguh quantity may not mean quality with Prince it was pretty close.

P.S Has ayone released more material than Prince?

kinaldo

stevejazzx wrote:

P.S Has ayone released more material than Prince?

Not in modern pop music, but yes there are a few with Frank Zappa being the most notable. David Bowie comes close.

Great post btw, although I personally disagree with your assertion that Parade is better than SOTT, and some of your other recommendations. That Rave dvd should really be avoided. Nobody ever agrees on Prince's best work though, he has something for everyone.

stevejazzx

kinaldo wrote:

Not in modern pop music, but yes there are a few with Frank Zappa being the most notable. David Bowie comes close.

Great post btw, although I personally disagree with your assertion that Parade is better than SOTT, and some of your other recommendations. That Rave dvd should really be avoided. Nobody ever agrees on Prince's best work though, he has something for everyone.

The 2000 dvd(is it rave, it think it is) is good in parts, there a good verion of purple rain on there aswell although i do prefer the live in las vegas, some nice playing on there and some line with renato, eric leeds, macio etc.

kinaldo

stevejazzx wrote:

The 2000 dvd(is it rave, it think it is) is good in parts, there a good verion of purple rain on there aswell although i do prefer the live in las vegas, some nice playing on there and some line with renato, eric leeds, macio etc.

They have their moments but overall I find both of those dvds tacky with poor editing. The Sign O' the Times movie is great, but the ultimate Prince live releases for me is Livesexy 1 and 2 (which features an 18 minute version of Purple Rain) and the 1986 Birthday gig (not released but broadcast on tv and easy to find) featuring Prince and "the counter revolution" at their funkiest and most James Brown-esque performing songs off Parade and Around the World in a Day.

pastabrown

i can not believe no one has metioned the symbol album, it is a master piece and i am very fussy, you wont belive your ears

Boggles

kinaldo wrote:

his last tour for Musicology was a greatest hits set and finished up as the highest grossing and second most watched (after Madonna) tour in America. Madonna charged higher ticket prices but Prince had a much less expensive overhead and played a lot more shows. His recent album 3121 debuted at number one on the billboard charts.

his previous tour, One Nite Alone, was in 2002 and comprised of mostly new material mixed in with a handful of hits and medleys. He played The Point and I got tickets for €70. The show lasted 3 hours and he then put on an aftershow in Spirit on Abbey Street.

Simply put, the guy is a legend. He can do what he wants and nobody can touch him.

I don't want to touch him. Could you provide a link for those figures, find it hard to believe the likes of the Stones, U2 & Aerosmith are been out grossed by Madonna in North America.

His new music in my opinion and the opinion of many others is crap. I would not go see him in concert now because he has stated that he not playing anything from his back catalog. I've seen him 3 times in his prime thou and each time was brilliant.

How can he be the highest grossing and second most watched, if Madonna charged more and was the most watched?

dimerocks

NO i didn't get into the barmaid but trust me that was a good thing. I did however get free drinks everytime iwent there. And yes it was Kiss. Still taking in Emancipation what with it being a 3discer but love it so far. Prince really really is a filthy man. And to the person who saw prince on the eve of the 1990 world cup final... i was four...prince would have warped my fragile little mind.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yajy_1T-7MU&search=dave%20chappelle%20prince
Briallaint prince related thing.

stevejazzx

pastabrown wrote:

i can not believe no one has metioned the symbol album, it is a master piece and i am very fussy, you wont belive your ears

the symbol is probably my second favorite album alright....although it's hard to judge, but I've probably listened to that more than any other....morning papers is a great song and it's full of weird n wonderful music like chains of gold a kinda prince bohemian raspody....sexy m.f the ultimat funk rap crossover song that noone has gotten close to since....and seven is a forgetten classic, yeah amazing album there!

Dr. Loon

I got into Prince about two years ago and spent most of that time getting live stuff. It's only recently I started actually collecting the albums. He's a pure genius is all I can say. I recently got The Rainbow Children, which has some great funk on it. I'm all about the funk ya see. I'm still coming across alot of his material and it never disappoints. As a musician I find myself amazed at some of the things he does.

Also, apart from being a great guitarist, he plays pretty much everything very proficently. Drums, bass, percussion etc. There's a great clip floating about of him playing with Tom Petty and numerous others, doing While My Guitar Gently Weeps... he rips the sh*t out of them all with an amazing solo at the end. 3121 has a few good tracks on it but I think the world was expecting a bit more really. Still... genius. Any music fan who hasn't checked him out any further than Purple Rain and Kiss needs to, and any musician or producer or engineer could do well to simply listen and take in the influence.

Gordon

What's the story with the Black album on vinyl? I used to have that and was told that it was rare but I have a horrible feeling I don't have it any more Great album too.

kinaldo

Boggles wrote:

I don't want to touch him. Could you provide a link for those figures, find it hard to believe the likes of the Stones, U2 & Aerosmith are been out grossed by Madonna in North America.

Not the most informative article, I'm sure there's thousands of other links if you're interested enough to google. I lie not.

http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/31/news/fortune500/yir04_concerts/index.htm

His new music in my opinion and the opinion of many others is crap. I would not go see him in concert now because he has stated that he not playing anything from his back catalog.

His new music has sold well and received a lot of positive reviews. Prince says a lot of things and he's said that about his back catalogue many times before.

How can he be the highest grossing and second most watched, if Madonna charged more and was the most watched?

Prince played a lot more shows than Madonna. More people saw Madonna and she took in more money due to higher ticket prices and significantly larger venues, but Prince grossed more as he had very little overhead costs (stage crew, lighting, dancers etc.)

kinaldo

Gordon wrote:

What's the story with the Black album on vinyl? I used to have that and was told that it was rare but I have a horrible feeling I don't have it any more Great album too.

The original pressings that were pulled are worth a lot. They're few and far between and are serious collectors items. The 1994 limited edition reissue and bootleg copies are easy to find cheapo on ebay.

sceptre

kinaldo wrote:

Prince played a lot more shows than Madonna. More people saw Madonna and she took in more money due to higher ticket prices and significantly larger venues, but Prince grossed more as he had very little overhead costs (stage crew, lighting, dancers etc.)

"Gross" doesn't take account of overhead, just raw money taken in. That's the whole point of "gross" as opposed to "net".

It's probably been over a decade since I was listening to Prince in any great amount (though I've been playing quite a bit of the more catchy stuff lately), there was so much stuff going on in the late 90s on the alternative-labelled scene, as well as good music from the 70s I needed to catch up on, that I got far more into that and the midget dropped off my radar. So the squiggle album was the last one I've really taken the time to listen to properly at all (despite having pretty much all of the later stuff stacked in a box somewhere, I've just never had the time) and Diamonds & Pearls was the last one I listened to more than a few times. Even having the occasional radio show a few years ago, where I took great delight in referring to Prince as "the artist currently known as pretentious wanker" (my own group found it hilarious, the station manager wasn't impressed with either that or lots of other things said) it was all the old stuff I played when he got a look-in.

The big hits are obviously the main ones you'll hear on the radio - Purple Rain's a great guitar anthem, Raspberry Beret much underrated as a summer choon, and the energy of 1999, I Could Never Take The Place... and Let's Go Crazy (as examples) largely unmatched by funk-driven performers. Meanwhile tracks like Sometimes It Snows In April and 4 The Tears In Your Eyes are remarkably sad and both underrated and underplayed. While I like guitar rock and pep as much as the next chap with too much music and not enough time to listen to it properly, it's the last grouping of slowish tune-driven tracks (heck, call them ballads, that's pretty much what they are) that have always held the main fascination for me in the music the guy has produced.

I realise Manic Monday was just written by Prince but for someone of my age (or anyone wlse who remembers the 80s but didn't get to vote until the 90s) it's among the strongest opening piano pop of any charting singles since they started keeping records of who was buying what and you can't talk about the more popular music written or performed by Prince without mentioning it. Pretty much the perfect pop record and it wouldn't have happened without Prince partly ripping off 1999 to write it.

Emancipation's been sitting near the top of the "to listen to" pile for months (it sat for years in a crate in my middle room where I played bits of it occasionally) so I guess I'll get around to listening to it eventually. Ditto The Gold Experience (I've only ever listened to two tracks from it, though I've a silly amount of versions of The Most Beautiful Girl In The World). Actually, let's talk briefly about that one. Keeping in mind that Prince started his recording career by making what I tend to call layered tracks - not just putting different instruments together on the mixing desks the way most tracks tend to be recorded but laying them on top of each other like trifle (think Sgt Pepper Beatles or late-sane Brian Wilson) - The Most Beautiful Girl, schmaltzy as it may be (and is) is a beautiful layered track and just about reaches the point where it's perfect without being overproduced and appears to be a feature of the mid-90s stuff or at least the mid-90s stuff that I've managed to listen to. Nice when it's done well and from the stuff I've heard, appears that it was done well.

Best album's still Parade in my view, though I've never been all that pushed about Kiss. Funky, catchy, too long, don't like the arrangement and I don't think it suits the album.

Call Me Jimmy

Seeing as this is in the Rock/Metal forum, I suggest his second album, "Prince". It is absolutely class and is probably the most "rocky". It includes songs like "Bambi", "Sexy Dancer" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover".

It's defo one of my favourites (I find it almost impossible to have a 'favourite' album of Princes, i's all good!)

kinaldo

sceptre wrote:

"Gross" doesn't take account of overhead, just raw money taken in. That's the whole point of "gross" as opposed to "net".

haha ok I was pretty hammered when I wrote that but my point was he made more money. My original statement is inaccurate and makes no sense. I'll fix it now so.

Edit to say it can no longer be edited. Meh.

Diamonds & Pearls was the last one I listened to more than a few times.

Possibly his worst commercial effort imo, yet it still remains one of his biggest sellers way ahead of masterpieces like 1999, SOTT and Parade.

I realise Manic Monday was just written by Prince but for someone of my age (or anyone wlse who remembers the 80s but didn't get to vote until the 90s) it's among the strongest opening piano pop of any charting singles since they started keeping records of who was buying what and you can't talk about the more popular music written or performed by Prince without mentioning it. Pretty much the perfect pop record and it wouldn't have happened without Prince partly ripping off 1999 to write it.

Totally agree with u there. Classic pop song.

Emancipation's been sitting near the top of the "to listen to" pile for months (it sat for years in a crate in my middle room where I played bits of it occasionally) so I guess I'll get around to listening to it eventually.

Disc 2 is probably the strongest, and it also contains arguably his greatest song of the 90s in The Holy River.

Ditto The Gold Experience (I've only ever listened to two tracks from it, though I've a silly amount of versions of The Most Beautiful Girl In The World). Actually, let's talk briefly about that one. Keeping in mind that Prince started his recording career by making what I tend to call layered tracks - not just putting different instruments together on the mixing desks the way most tracks tend to be recorded but laying them on top of each other like trifle (think Sgt Pepper Beatles or late-sane Brian Wilson) - The Most Beautiful Girl, schmaltzy as it may be (and is) is a beautiful layered track and just about reaches the point where it's perfect without being overproduced and appears to be a feature of the mid-90s stuff or at least the mid-90s stuff that I've managed to listen to. Nice when it's done well and from the stuff I've heard, appears that it was done well.

Well said. The album version of TMBGITW is very different to the single version he released, and most would agree it's not as good. Amazingly I still don't own the single, and I have about 10 other mixes.

You should check out the 4CD Crystal Ball album. U won't find it in shops as it's now out of print but u can download it on his npgmusicclub website or pick it up very cheaply on ebay. It contains 3 cds of previously unreleased and heavily bootlegged classics such as Crystal Ball, Dream Factory, Days of Wild and Crucial. The 4th cd is a highly rated acoustic album called The Truth.

stevejazzx

kinaldo wrote:

Possibly his worst commercial effort imo, yet it still remains one of his biggest sellers way ahead of masterpieces like 1999, SOTT and Parade.

I would probably class chaos and disorder and musicology lower than diamonds and pearls.

kinaldo wrote:

Disc 2 is probably the strongest, and it also contains arguably his greatest song of the 90s in The Holy River.

disc 2 is possibly strongest but 'holy river' as greatest song of the 90's hmmmmm, it's up there alright.Soul Santctuary on there is one of my favorite although I heard some unknown guy along wendy/lisa were goign to sue him for stealing it. Morning papers is up there for me also along with a host of others.

kinaldo wrote:

Well said. The album version of TMBGITW is very different to the single version he released, and most would agree it's not as good. Amazingly I still don't own the single, and I have about 10 other mixes.

version with eric leeds as a b side to purple medley is my favorite

kinaldo wrote:

You should check out the 4CD Crystal Ball album. U won't find it in shops as it's now out of print but u can download it on his npgmusicclub website or pick it up very cheaply on ebay. It contains 3 cds of previously unreleased and heavily bootlegged classics such as Crystal Ball, Dream Factory, Days of Wild and Crucial. The 4th cd is a highly rated acoustic album called The Truth.

the truth is excellent, a must for any prince fan.

kinaldo

sceptre wrote:

Best album's still Parade in my view, though I've never been all that pushed about Kiss. Funky, catchy, too long, don't like the arrangement and I don't think it suits the album.

Funnily enough Prince was once quoted (around the time of Graffiti Bridge in Rolling Stone, I think) saying that there was nothing on that album he's particularly proud of, that it was rushed and that he'd never make the same mistake again. I find it amazing he thinks so little of Parade. Maybe it's because it was the final Revolution record and the last time he performed most of those songs live was just before he disbanded them. Too many bad memories perhaps. A real shame because the live shows of that era were some of his best ever. He still performs Kiss to this day but has never settled on a definitive arrangement. He even tried to give it away to Mazerrati like he gave other hits such as Nothiing Compares To U to The Family and Manic Monday to The Bangles. Personally I love the song, although I prefer the extended 12" version.

stevejazzx

kinaldo wrote:

Funnily enough Prince was once quoted (around the time of Graffiti Bridge in Rolling Stone, I think) saying that there was nothing on that album he's particularly proud of, that it was rushed and that he'd never make the same mistake again. I find it amazing he thinks so little of Parade. Maybe it's because it was the final Revolution record and the last time he performed most of those songs live was just before he disbanded them. Too many bad memories perhaps. A real shame because the live shows of that era were some of his best ever. He still performs Kiss to this day but has never settled on a definitive arrangement. He even tried to give it away to Mazerrati like he gave other hits such as Nothiing Compares To U to The Family and Manic Monday to The Bangles. Personally I love the song, although I prefer the extended 12" version.

thats mad...I saw a interview in a guitar magazine where he was going on about parade as one of his better moments but funnily it had no guitar bits on it....possible exception of the funky kiss chords