5/19/86 Parade - Prince & The Revolution - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I know I'm early but damn...

Where do I begin. Hard to believe it was 20 years ago that my mother took me to Camelot music here in Charlotte to buy this tape. There I was, young enough to still fit at the bottom of the grocery cart, when I damn near fell out of it when the beginning of Life Can Be So Nice came on my Walkman. Talk about not seeing something coming from a mile away. Sound took on new meaning for me as a kid when you have an album like this to go along with a book report, Sunny Delight or some field trip to the zoo.

I don't know where to begin or end about it. I can say its Clare's strings but...that's not it. I can say its how the first 10 minutes of the album are greater than most people's debut, sophomore and junior albums combined but...that's not it. I can say its the last 30 seconds of Mountains when the fucking sky opens up after a final yelp but...if I described it, I'd be bastardizing what it is. Everything and nothing at the same time. So effortlessly brilliant that no words will ever capture it as they shouldn't. The true culmination of all the things I'll never be articulate enough to put into words. I remember my aunt getting the vinyl version of the album and me being fascinated by one side being black and the other being white (I was young people).I played it this weekend from front to back, as the album requires, and no matter how familiar I think I am with it, something always pops out at me and makes me smile like the first time in the produce section at Food Lion. I look back with so much romantic nostalgia about this album, its almost as if it doesn't exist and is just a figment of my warped imagination. Was dude *really* that sick and were people *really* that clueless so soon after he got their attention?

I could wax poetic about how monumental, influential and criminally overlooked an album this is but I won't...lol. I'm not that fascinated by seeing my own words. Though this album, like pretty much all of P's catalog, was mostly him, it reigns as the crowning achievement of "The Revolution" brand. Not only did it give birth to one of his top 3 best tours of ALL TIME (behind Lovesexy and SOTT) but EVERYONE was at the top of their game. It would be two more years before I experienced the first of over 20+ Prince concerts but this album was some "other shit." This was as far as Prince could push The Revolution and did they go out with a bang!

I refuse to make a favorite Prince list of anything but if I got the first 10 Prince albums remastered, this is the first one I'd play. Why? So I can hear the keyboard bassline to Life Can Be So Nice in all its intended glory.

I rarely post here anymore damn if this ain't cause to celebrate 40 minutes of a 28 year old genius doing what came naturally.

Supa...Livewire...let your stance be known!!!!!

Peace,

Soulive (formerly GN2000 on the black and purple org)

you know, I hardly psot here anymore either (although of course I love reading the threads)...but you've inspired me. Parade, I can honestly say, is one of Prince's most underrated funky albums. Everytime I listen to Anotherloverholenyohead I get goose bumps from how funky it is with all of the voices repeating the same lyrics at different times in different melodys--FUCKING BRILLIANT! And then the bass line for New postition--get the fuck outta here! Now that is Prince at his funkiest. One of the best bass lines he's ever created!!! If you have the album but never heard the 12 inch of Mountains, then you ain't heard the album! When Eric Leeds horns come in after the part where the song normally ends on the albu,, to me it's like the song is just beginning again! And don't even get me started on Sometimes it snows in April. Arguably Prince's best ballads of all time (although I'm a bigger sucker for 'Adore').

So thank you soulive for inspiring htis post. And Happy Birthday Parade!

-phunk

First Prince's album that I've bought spring 1986, I remember listening to it again and again , it didn't sound like anything that I knew then ( I wasn't aware of the Beatles psychedelic sound )- well only ATWIAD- in August this year P & the rev was the first (real) concert of my life and it was fantastic ( I've seen Susannah and Jill behind the scene ). It's a timeless masterpiece ( could have been even better with the addition of Splash, AMD and others but it's another debate). A forever thanks to Prince, W& L for sometimes.
*

I could pontificate for days on how much I love this record, and how I feel it's the true crowning glory in Prince's output.

It still sounds like no other Prince album, and no other album all together. The album goes off in a million and one different directions, but is one of the most cohesively enjoyably records Prince has ever made.

One of the greatest albums ever.

Parade is definiatly an acquired taste of an album.but i think one of his best and continues to be my favorite prince album ever.i like the movie to

Overrated.

"Think inside out."

Wow, is it really 20 years since I bunked off school and was waiting at Tracks record shop in Hertford at 9am!!

I rushed home, shut the windows and doors and turned the stereo up. I loved it. I remember hearing the intro to New position for the first time, and the production quality was so good I though someone was banging on the door or something.

Not my firm favourite album, but one that holds a special place in my heart for the sheer excitement of rushing home with a whole album, where I had only heard one track previously!

Cloudbuster said:

Overrated.

20 years ago, oh my god. I was 15 back then, and bought it on the first day of release (gee, how fanatic a teenager can be...)

I am still awestruck by that album. The beginning of "I wonder u" still amazes me, and I still have no idea how he created that sounds.

Way up there with the best Prince albums. Not one weak track.

And the tour was awesome!

Happy to have experienced all that. Wonder what musicians create that awe and surprise in the kids of today....

Christopher said:

Cloudbuster said:

Overrated.

oh no you didnt!!!!1111

"Think inside out."

Cloudbuster said:

Christopher said:

oh no you didnt!!!!1111

You know I'm only kidding. I love the Parade album.

FABULOUS! My all-time fave, the album that really made me pay attention to music in general (how it's made, what the sounds are, certain studio trickery, what to do & what NOT to do, etc), trying to reach the plateau that is Parade. Hard to believe (if it's true) that he didn't much care for this album himself. I understand he felt rushed to make it & didn't think he had enough time, but dammit man! If this is "rushed", more people need to rush themselves when creating. But then again, "This is Prince." Yeah, i know...

OH YEAH...i bought it the first day out, too!

Its a great album, I still miss my copy. i didnt buy it until 1995, because in 1986 I was only 10 and got $5 a month allowance.

come on guys. You gonna make me cry.....

20 years, damn...

this one has always been one of my favorite prince albums. it's the most adventurous and free of all his recordings,imo. it's the sound of the Mediterrean in the springtime. just glorious! you can hear the breeze off the water in clare fischer's string arrangements.


in my top 3 of along with dirty mind and 1999.

a gem.
[Edited 5/18/06 6:03am]

Fucking brilliant album. Five stars out of five.

Is there a single other album in music history that so perfectly captures the spirit and magnificience of a Spring afternoon? Within the first ten seconds, you know you're hearing something completely unique and fresh. Parade is one of his most daring and experimental albums. Oh, and it just so happens to have one of the single greatest pop songs of all time on there too.

Waitin for my copy to come soon

And this thread is great!

Definitely one of his best from the 80s!

.....

I remember riding the bus to the mall to get the tape the first day it came out and I couldnt even listen to it at home because my jam box was broke. I had to listen to it on the cassette player in my moms car!! I remember I sat in the garage in the car listening to it over and over....and damn it was hot that day!

i havent listend to this from start to finish in a while and was amazed at how much wendy and lisa are vocally on this beast..



the only reason that i pulled it out was because of the "list your fav wendy and lisa album" thread in associated artist..and a couple wisearses listed Parade as their favorite...so i searched my collection, wipped it out and have been playing it in heavy rotation for the past couple weeks.

Chile!!! Don't get me started.

Everytime I watch the "Life Can Be So Nice" performance at the Detroit Birthday concert, I just can't believe how excellent this album was.

It was innovative, the musical arrangements, the fact that you put it in any category. Definately one of my favorites.

soulive said:

As a tribute, I think I will break out my "Mountains" outtake video...20 years

"A united state of mind will never be divided
The real definition of unity is 1
People can slam their door, disagree and fight it
But how U gonna love the Father but not love the Son?
United States of Division"

According to all the stuff I've read, Parade was released on March 31st...

(but go ahead and celebrate anyway...)

Happy Birthday Parade!

I love this album!!! It defines freedom in my mind. I could go on but I'd just be repeating much of what everyone else has already posted.

Thinking about it though, I cannot remember buying it. I remember I bought Purple Rain and 1999 on the same day and I bought ATWIAD the day it came out and was one of those who did not get it at first but now LOVE it. But I can't remember buying Parade.

Christopher said:

Cloudbuster said:

You know I'm only kidding. I love the Parade album.

make me get it started up in here....

"Think inside out."

soulive said:

nothing to add that hasn't been said.