Was Prince actually a bit shit?
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pattycakes_
Can turn naughty
firefinga
Well-known member
There was a time (mid 80s, around 84, 85) when people were claiming a contest for the biggest male pop star of the world between Prince and Michael Jackson
That said I only know his hit songs, have seen "Purple Rain" once (didn't impress me much) and didn't care much further.
Sign O the times however is a great song.
That said I only know his hit songs, have seen "Purple Rain" once (didn't impress me much) and didn't care much further.
Sign O the times however is a great song.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
short answer: no
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
longer answer
I'm not objective in anyway. I love Prince. I remember every detail of where I was/what I was doing when I heard he died, like people did with JFK.
when his voice soars off wordlessly into the stratosphere toward the end of Purple Rain...it's like sitting under the vaults of a cathedral listening to a choir soaring up to god
dead on. idk if I'd agree with mimic, but chameleonic in the sense of ambiguity. everything about him was slippery and ambiguous - his voice, his sexuality and gender presentation, the whole world of purple, paisley, symbols and signs of the times. that idea of an entire world, and the world itself, will appeal to some people more than others. MJ was for everyone in the way highest level pop music is; Prince was for anyone, but not everyone.
absolutely there's a ton of filler. but Prince at his best - I Wanna Be Your Lover, When Doves Cry, Kiss, Nothing Compares to U, etc - is among the most essential music of the last 50 years. no one else was ever so devastatingly, minimally funky. therein lies Chicago house, Theo Parrish, anyone who ever did a whole hell of a lot with not very much.
but ya not for everyone and fair enough. in ancient times he would have been a shaman or a griot or a mystery cult leader, communing with that other world and cryptically passing it's secrets on to the masses.
I'm not objective in anyway. I love Prince. I remember every detail of where I was/what I was doing when I heard he died, like people did with JFK.
when his voice soars off wordlessly into the stratosphere toward the end of Purple Rain...it's like sitting under the vaults of a cathedral listening to a choir soaring up to god
dead on. idk if I'd agree with mimic, but chameleonic in the sense of ambiguity. everything about him was slippery and ambiguous - his voice, his sexuality and gender presentation, the whole world of purple, paisley, symbols and signs of the times. that idea of an entire world, and the world itself, will appeal to some people more than others. MJ was for everyone in the way highest level pop music is; Prince was for anyone, but not everyone.
absolutely there's a ton of filler. but Prince at his best - I Wanna Be Your Lover, When Doves Cry, Kiss, Nothing Compares to U, etc - is among the most essential music of the last 50 years. no one else was ever so devastatingly, minimally funky. therein lies Chicago house, Theo Parrish, anyone who ever did a whole hell of a lot with not very much.
but ya not for everyone and fair enough. in ancient times he would have been a shaman or a griot or a mystery cult leader, communing with that other world and cryptically passing it's secrets on to the masses.
pattycakes_
Can turn naughty
Man, Black Sweat live was something else. The band were playing so tight. Think it was Cindy Blackman on drums. Prince did this bass solo that was just phenomenal. Felt like he put the whole arena in a trance. That synth worm. Freaky.
My oldest sister LOVED Prince and has all his albums up to Lovesexy. I once snottily turned down an offer to go see him at Wembley with her and her smoking hot friend Debrina, on the grounds it wasn't The Pogues, or that my punk/thrash cronies would disown me, or some similar idiotic reason :slanted:
Definitely NOT shit - I don't like huge amounts of what he did but there was surely much, much worse around at the time. Not really keen on the ballads or stuff like 'Little Red Corvette', or when he goes a bit 'Kids From Fame' showtune-y... prefer him when he was in electro mode: 'Make Up' by Vanity 6, Controversy, 1999, DMSR, etc are great.
Last year, I was also listening to loads of the early '80s unreleased 'Vault' stuff - sounds way more raw and has all these lyrics he couldn't get away with on WB. Kinda refreshing to hear a 'parallel universe' version of the satyr, where he specialised in sleazy, electroid songs about bum sex and jealous girlfriends slicing up their rivals' faces.
Parade is one of those LP covers that always remind me of Our Price window displays in the '80s, along with Like A Virgin and Iron Maiden's Killers.
Definitely NOT shit - I don't like huge amounts of what he did but there was surely much, much worse around at the time. Not really keen on the ballads or stuff like 'Little Red Corvette', or when he goes a bit 'Kids From Fame' showtune-y... prefer him when he was in electro mode: 'Make Up' by Vanity 6, Controversy, 1999, DMSR, etc are great.
Last year, I was also listening to loads of the early '80s unreleased 'Vault' stuff - sounds way more raw and has all these lyrics he couldn't get away with on WB. Kinda refreshing to hear a 'parallel universe' version of the satyr, where he specialised in sleazy, electroid songs about bum sex and jealous girlfriends slicing up their rivals' faces.
Parade is one of those LP covers that always remind me of Our Price window displays in the '80s, along with Like A Virgin and Iron Maiden's Killers.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
O the follies of youth
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
+ agree electro//funk Prince is generally best Prince
tho tbh I have a soft spot for (some of) the ballads. He had such a gorgeous voice, like a torch singer but again w/that gender ambiguity/otherworldliness, that it was often enough able to redeem what in lesser hands would have been mediocre or just straight garbage.
tho tbh I have a soft spot for (some of) the ballads. He had such a gorgeous voice, like a torch singer but again w/that gender ambiguity/otherworldliness, that it was often enough able to redeem what in lesser hands would have been mediocre or just straight garbage.