Continuing an album a day recollection of what it was like to first listen to Prince - here is the second release.

PRINCE

Whether by design or happy coincidence this self-titled album is truer to the artist Prince would become that his debut. Again this is an album that I didn’t buy until well into my Prince journey, and whilst I knew the singles I wasn’t overly familiar with the other tracks until much later.

I WANNA BE YOUR LOVER is quintessential Prince. It’s all here. An infectious grove, a melodic hook, a passionate vocal, and a beautiful layering of instruments in the production. The way the track builds to the bridge and then takes a decidedly left turn, it almost splits the track into two songs, with the latter being a dirtier funk and the former being a beautiful slice of pop. It’s almost as if Prince looses himself in the new groove and has abandoned the original song.

I remember thinking the first time I heard WHY YOU WANNA TREAT ME SO BAD? it was a little bit try hard, but I can’t deny its appeal, even if it is a little bit play by the numbers.

SEXY DANCER again is a song that almost on first listen says destined to be a classic. The funky bass that underpins the track is creeps up on you by stealth. Once again the track feels more like a party Jam than a fully fleshed out song, and for me that’s the appeal of the track. Every few bars it seems to change its mind on where it’s headed with the final few minutes of the song moving into a joyous Rhodes solo. Prince at his unstructured best.

As a kid I never really got into the Prince ballads, and I can remember skipping WHEN WE’RE DANCING CLOSE AND SLOW when it would play. Once again this feels more like an exploration in an artist finding his way than a fully-fledged song.

The way I felt about WWDSAS carried over to WITH YOU. Again it just seems a little bit generic and maybe more expected as a ballad. Once again I was reaching for the fast forward button, and sad to say I still do.

Thankfully, any concerns about the rest of the album fading off to generic balladeering were knocked out of my head with the opening strains of BAMBI. The song just has this raw passion about it that is echoed in the soaring guitar and vocals that it’s hard not to be drawn in. Major props for Prince for laying down the whole bi-lover vibe on here, something I doubt many artists have tried to tackle, let alone one two records into a career.

Sadly Bambi was followed by STILL WAITING. And again I would just shake my head in dismay and wonder where the promise of the previous track had gone.

And as if to see that I was paying attention Prince pulls out I FEEL FOR YOU. The song still holds up as a favourite (thanks in part to Chaka Kahn’s masterful cover) and just has a happy vibe that seems to leap off the groove and take over your body. You can really start to see how accomplished Prince is as a musician, although not overly tricky, the song holds together so perfectly and seems to show someone beginning to understand the crafting of a perfect piece of pop.

Closing out the album with another ballad, I felt like Prince was just torturing me. Maybe he wanted to be seducer as well as sexual predator. But IT'S GONNA BE LONELY just didn’t grab me and listening now it’s not as saccharine as I recall, and the drum pattern with the tom rolls is a hint to how he would program that classic prince drum machine beat in the future.

All in all the album for me has some glimpses of the purple funk we would soon expect from Prince, but it feels too unbalanced with the generic ballads.

Swa
[Edited 6/18/09 0:52am]
[Edited 6/18/09 20:24pm]

GREAT post, Swa!

Did you do this for every release up to TRC? I hope you'll continue to post them, as I am especially interested in hearing your thoughts on each of the albums from '81-'88.

bluefish said:

That is the plan - one release a day, and I'll add my thoughts through to Lotus and MPLS.

Glad you are enjoying them. But by no means are they meant to be the be all and end all of the discussion. Just a starting point to get other's views of hearing the albums back in the day.

Swa

the whole PRINCE album is great,

I Wanna Be Ur Lover
Bambi
Sexy Dancer
I Feel For You

these are amazing and the rest is good too

I discovered Prince in 1983, the 1999 album and later I bought the earlier albums, and I really loved what I heard, memories..

I still love 1978-1995 deeply

good review keep em coming

nyse said:

Thanks - they will be. But my hope is that they are starting points for others to share their recollections or views on the music.

Swa

Great album, I wanna be your lover sounds so much better in its 6 minte funked out glory, Sexy Dancer, Bambi, Still Waiting and I feel for you are the other stand outs. Why I feel for you wasn't released as a single after Lover is beyond me, it would have been a hit.
More muscality and hooks than For You and its great that he really rocked on stage at the time. Whats amazing is how different his next album would be. His music and image changed, this is Prince's bye bye to the 70s sound as Dirty Mind was totally 80s.

Solid B effort

Can't wait for your review about DIRTY MIND, one of his best ever

Prince was so different waay back then and so was his music. Imho, his voice and the music was so "virgin". Funky, yes always, but different. Clarity is still here and so is the Funk. Prince just seemed soo innocent and hungry to share his talent with so many folks. Good to hear how creative his music and sound has evolved. I think he keeps a bag full of candy to this day. and be Wild (just a lil).

1. I Wanna Be Your Lover
I love this song, nice energy, we start hearing more of the synth in his music
2. Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?
Another high energy one, nice rocker,
3. Sexy Dancer
Punk Funk, you really start hearing his own sound coming thru
4. When We're Dancing Close And Slow
The feel of this is another one of those empty bright rooms with big windows
5. With You
It's ok, not a song I see in his future genre
6. Bambi
This is straight up Classic Rock, I love the raw feel, reminds me of Lisa, song about a young 'lesbian' Prince is attracted to
7. Still Waiting
One of the first in his many unrequited love songs, love the piano/keyboard sound
8. I Feel For You
I don't like this version, the song lyrically is hot, Chaka Khans make is spicy
9. It's Gonna Be Lonely
nice tempo, one of my favorite slow/mid-tempo songs

The album: our 1st taste of Purple (the name)

Is it me or is there a hint of "Still waiting" in Whitney Houstons "Saving All My Love For You"?

'dre

Love it Love it Love it.

Huggiebear said:

Just posted DIRTY MIND - now keep in mind I ma trying to go back to the time that I first listened to it, so songs such as UPTOWN that come and go in favour with me, didn't really hit home initially. Be interested to see what you think.

Swa

I'm glad Dirty Mind gets all the love it does, because it deserves it. however, when people talk about what a breakthrough and a leap forward it is, I feel like they're doing the first album a disservice.

This album was surely a big improvement over For You and I think it prefigures the "minimalist" sound that Prince will use into the '80s. At first I was pretty cold on the ballads and to a degree I still am but I think that "It's Gonna Be Lonely" was the first classic Prince ballad. It's not quite fully cooked but all of the elements that made his future ballads great are there. It was also great to hear a bit more of his "rock" side with tracks like "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and "Bambi." I also gotta mention how great the twelve inch version of "Sexy Dancer" is. Hopefully someday soon (maybe in 2014?) we will finally get a cd release for that song.

I remember hearing songs from this album on the radio. Generally the radio would play the singles that were realased and he got heavy rotation on the R&B stations. But at night, Detroit DJ, the Eletrifying Mojo would let loose on us and I would hear the ballads too.

Still Waiting and It's Gonna Be Lonely were the reason I bought Prince. Both of those songs resonated with me being a young girl always in love with one of the older boys that hung around with my older sister's crowd. "People say that I'm too young," Ohhhh.

While 1999 was the first album that I bought period, I ended up buying all of the others before Purple Rain was released. And boy or boy I loved them all. So I really got to know the whole album in 1982, but by then I couldn't get enough of Prince. I would only occassionally skip With You. Everything else on that album was perfection to me. The Ballads, The Rock,The Pop, The Disco, I thought it was brilliance. And surprisingly I didn't feel the need to hide any of it from my Mom. I think that is because I had already been shocked by Let's Pretend We're Married on 1999. That made everything on Prince seem really tame.
[Edited 6/30/09 15:22pm]

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[Edited 12/9/09 8:41am]

mzkqueen03 said:

huh huh Prince fans should remember Prince wore blue jeans during the Parade era too I think they are Princed out though with buttons on the side
This is the only one I can find right now, but they are jeans

as well as the SOTT jeans/jacket

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[Edited 12/9/09 8:42am]