Having just listened to the 2-LP version of Diamonds and Pearls, which was released in Europe but apparently not in the U.S., it seems pretty clear to me that Prince sequenced the album with the relatively new CD format in mind, and that the LP sequencing was an afterthought. The album is notably shorter than 1999 or SOTT and doesn't really work as two LPs. If LPs had still been the dominant format in the US, I doubt that Warner would have accepted Diamonds and Pearls as a double album. This led me to wonder, how would the album have been sequenced if it had been cut back to a single LP? What tracks would have been included, and what would have been left out? Of course, only Prince knows for sure what he would have put together under those restrictions. But it seems like an interesting experiment to try to make it work as a single LP. Each side would have to make sense separately, and each would have to be under 25 minutes. This is what I came up with:

Side A (23:44):

1. Thunder (5:45)

2. Gett Off (4:31)

3. Willing and Able (4:59)

4. Strollin' (3:46)

5. Diamonds and Pearls (4:43)

Side B (22:35)

1. Cream (4:12)

2. Money Don't Matter 2 Night (4:48)

3. Insatiable (6:37)

4. Live 4 Love (6:58)

That puts the total length at 46:19, a couple minutes longer than Lovesexy. I don't know whether that would have sold any better as a CD, but I think it would have been a stronger work if Prince had still been forced to work within LP constraints. I like the killer combination of Thunder and Gett Off to start Side A, and Cream would make a nice opener for the B-side, in my opinion.

Thoughts? Anyone want to suggest a different configuration?

What's the configuration on the LP? I looked it up on Princevault but it's not showing.

Side 1

Thunder 5:45

Daddy Pop 5:16

Diamonds and Pearls 4:43

Side 2

Cream 4:12

Strollin' 3:46

Willing and Able 4:59

Gett Off 4:31

Side 3

Walk Don't Walk 3:06

Jughead 4:56

Money Don't Matter 2 Night 4:48

Push 5:56

Side 4

Insatiable 6:37

Live 4 Love 6:58

I would take Thunder, Diamonds and Pearls, Money Dont Matter tonight, Insatiable, Cream and Gett Off. And them i would add I wonder, Get Blue and Open Book. To me the above songs are what it should have been. There are only 6 worthy songs on the album for me, and then if you add the best unreleased material from that time.

Graffiti Bridge was the start of Prince's lack of quality control and this album is another example

Side 1

Thunder

Walk Don't Walk

Cream

Diamonds and Pearls

Willing and Able

Side 2

Gett Off

Money Don't Matter 2 Night

Insatiable

Live 4 Love

mynameisnotsusan said:

Side 1

Thunder 5:45

Daddy Pop 5:16

Diamonds and Pearls 4:43

Side 2

Cream 4:12

Strollin' 3:46

Willing and Able 4:59

Gett Off 4:31

Side 3

Walk Don't Walk 3:06

Jughead 4:56

Money Don't Matter 2 Night 4:48

Push 5:56

Side 4

Insatiable 6:37

Live 4 Love 6:58

That Side 1 is pretty good huh? This album kinda trails off after "Willing and Able" for me. Never been a fan of "Gett Off".

[Edited 3/31/11 2:36am]

SquirrelMeat said:

Side 1

Thunder

Walk Don't Walk

Cream

Diamonds and Pearls

Willing and Able

Side 2

Gett Off

Money Don't Matter 2 Night

Insatiable

Live 4 Love

this! perhaps strollin' would fit on side two as well.

always thought that d&p would make a decent 8 or

9 song album, kinda like his 80s albums.

just take the horrible stuff off and you're left with a

pretty decent collection of songs.

mynameisnotsusan said:

Side 1

Thunder 5:45

Daddy Pop 5:16

Diamonds and Pearls 4:43

Side 2

Cream 4:12

Strollin' 3:46

Willing and Able 4:59

Gett Off 4:31

Side 3

Walk Don't Walk 3:06

Jughead 4:56

Money Don't Matter 2 Night 4:48

Push 5:56

Side 4

Insatiable 6:37

Live 4 Love 6:58

It was Side 3, above all, that convinced me that Prince wasn't thinking about the LP sequencing when he decided on the order of the tracks. It just doesn't make sense to listen to, in my opinion. It has one strong track on it, but I can't see people playing that side much unless they loved everything on the album.

When I bought the CD in 1991 I didn't like it much, mostly because I thought Prince was being a follower rather than a leader in incorporating so much rap. I liked the use of rap on Lovesexy and the Black Album, but this seemed a bit much. Now, I have come to appreciate several of the songs more, but I'm still not a huge fan of the rap tracks.

[Edited 3/31/11 3:43am]

A side

Thunder

Willing & Able

Diamonds & Pearls

Strollin

Money Don't Matter Tonight

B side

Gett Off

Cream

Insatiable

Live 4 Love

Side A

Live 4 Love

Horny Pony

Strollin'

Willing And Able

Cream

Side B

Daddy Pop

Money Don't Matter 2 Night

Diamonds And Pearls

Gett Off

Thunder

Funny, I bought D&P on CD the day it was released and never knew until today that it was actually a double album. How long can a single album be, what is the total running time for D&P and would simply pulling Jughead be enough to get it to fit?

alandail said:

Funny, I bought D&P on CD the day it was released and never knew until today that it was actually a double album. How long can a single album be, what is the total running time for D&P and would simply pulling Jughead be enough to get it to fit?

D&P is just over 65 minutes long. A standard LP can hold about 22 to 26 minutes of music per side. Prince's LPs usually came in at under 45 minutes. Since Jughead is under 5 minutes long, eliminating that one track would not make it fit on a single LP.

I think the people who bought D&P as a double LP did not get a very good deal, unfortunately.

Hmm. Had it been just a single LP release I think he would have edited some of the songs. For example, the intros to "Thunder" and "Live 4 Love" are quite long and there's a lot of slack on many of the songs on the album in its released form.

I quite like the track configuration of the top post, but I'd still try to squeeze in either "Daddy Pop" or "Push" in there somehow. With just those nine songs included the overall pace could have been a bit too mid-tempoish throughout.

[Edited 3/31/11 9:46am]

alandail said:

Funny, I bought D&P on CD the day it was released and never knew until today that it was actually a double album. How long can a single album be, what is the total running time for D&P and would simply pulling Jughead be enough to get it to fit?

I don't think it was made with vinyl in mind.

There was a clear shift in production from Prince from 1990. CD was finally outstripping vinyl sales and it seemed that Prince, and his usual inhability to censor his own output, started to fill the new media.

He had been limited to 45 mins in the 80's so now that he had 70 mins to play with, he was going to damn near fill it.

For Prince, CD's potentially gave him the ability to put out a damn near double album of material with every release. Just as he always wanted. It was only when he fell out with WB that he stated cutting back to vinyl length albums to honour his minimum contractual comittment.

Sadly, I think the advent of CD actally makes the 80's albums seem so strong. Prince was forced to be selective, as WB didn't want double albums (P had to fight for 1999 and SOTT).

Grafitti, D&P and symbol would all have been stronger albums had P been forced to reign them in.

I find it weird that there are so very few strong outtakes from this period. Pretty much every good song he wrote during this era ended up on the GB, D&P and albums. I'd say "Allegiance" is the only circulating outtake that could have been featured on an album release. Some people may gush over stuff like "Open Book", "I'll Do Anything" and the like, but I just don't see that type of material fitting any of those albums.

novabrkr said:

I find it weird that there are so very few strong outtakes from this period. Pretty much every good song he wrote during this era ended up on the GB, D&P and albums. I'd say "Allegiance" is the only circulating outtake that could have been featured on an album release. Some people may gush over stuff like "Open Book", "I'll Do Anything" and the like, but I just don't see that type of material fitting any of those albums.

preface: I don't like "Open Book"... I might be the only person here who doesn't.

Prince was active as ever during the period, recording almost an entirely different Diamonds and Pearls than the one you hear today. Remember, most of us were shocked when we heard "She Spoke 2 Me" which is a song from that time that no one knew about until its 1996 release. So, there's tracks there. Just as much if not more than before. However a lot of attention from 1989-1992 went to producing sideshows, er, acts and playing with the new Maxi CD single format. You see his output look a bit more similar to the 80s around 1993/the tail end of 1992.

SquirrelMeat said:

Side 1

Thunder

Walk Don't Walk

Cream

Diamonds and Pearls

Willing and Able

Side 2

Gett Off

Money Don't Matter 2 Night

Insatiable

Live 4 Love

This looks about perfect to me.

Side 1

Thunder

Daddy Pop

Walk Don't Walk

Diamonds And Pearls

Willing And Able

Side 2

Gett Off

Schoolyard

Cream

Push

Insatiable

Spinlight said:

novabrkr said:

I find it weird that there are so very few strong outtakes from this period. Pretty much every good song he wrote during this era ended up on the GB, D&P and albums. I'd say "Allegiance" is the only circulating outtake that could have been featured on an album release. Some people may gush over stuff like "Open Book", "I'll Do Anything" and the like, but I just don't see that type of material fitting any of those albums.

preface: I don't like "Open Book"... I might be the only person here who doesn't.

Prince was active as ever during the period, recording almost an entirely different Diamonds and Pearls than the one you hear today. Remember, most of us were shocked when we heard "She Spoke 2 Me" which is a song from that time that no one knew about until its 1996 release. So, there's tracks there. Just as much if not more than before. However a lot of attention from 1989-1992 went to producing sideshows, er, acts and playing with the new Maxi CD single format. You see his output look a bit more similar to the 80s around 1993/the tail end of 1992.

You might be right with that one. I just always assumed "She Spoke 2 Me", "When The Lights Go Down" etc. were written and recorded after the Symbol album.

I've just always felt that a lot of his energy was sort of wasted on the Paisley Park artists. It was almost as if he was deliberately writing unimaginative material for them.

i always liked "schoolyard" a lot and thought it would have been a nice song to have

on the D&P album instead of jughead or push.

most people seem to hate "schoolyard" with a passion, but i like it. the melodie of it

and the vocal delivery, somehow it just klicks for me.

and remember, most of the D&P album early demos sound shockingly bad, with the

ultimate album versions being pretty good tunes. so i think with an official release,

after a bit of work, "schoolyard" would have been a very good song.

the rest of the D&P outtakes are just too silly or reworkings (glam slam 90) etc etc.

novabrkr said:

Spinlight said:

preface: I don't like "Open Book"... I might be the only person here who doesn't.

Prince was active as ever during the period, recording almost an entirely different Diamonds and Pearls than the one you hear today. Remember, most of us were shocked when we heard "She Spoke 2 Me" which is a song from that time that no one knew about until its 1996 release. So, there's tracks there. Just as much if not more than before. However a lot of attention from 1989-1992 went to producing sideshows, er, acts and playing with the new Maxi CD single format. You see his output look a bit more similar to the 80s around 1993/the tail end of 1992.

You might be right with that one. I just always assumed "She Spoke 2 Me", "When The Lights Go Down" etc. were written and recorded after the Symbol album.

I've just always felt that a lot of his energy was sort of wasted on the Paisley Park artists. It was almost as if he was deliberately writing unimaginative material for them.

I feel you. I think the acts he was working with at the time were not worth the money he spent promoting them. Specifically, I'm not even sure what he was seriously thinking spending almost 2 million bucks making videos, an album, and doing promo for Carmen Electra. What?? Why? Why that much? He fucked trillions of proteges by then but all of a sudden Carmen is worth 10 times the attention? Weird.

D&P would have made a great e.p (maxi) type release.

1. Diamonds And Pearls.

2. Cream.

3. Strollin'

4. Willing And Able (video version)

5. Gett Off.

6. Walk Don't Walk.

7. Money Don't Matter Tonight.

8. Insatiable.

I see Daddy Pop and Jughead are long gone!

I feel kinda sorry for Push, it's goofy, but I always liked it. I suppose Cream & Gett Off have to be there, though I'm not a fan.

NouveauDance said:

I see Daddy Pop and Jughead are long gone!

I feel kinda sorry for Push, it's goofy, but I always liked it. I suppose Cream & Gett Off have to be there, though I'm not a fan.

It's funny--Push and Jughead seem like exactly the same song to me. I guess Jughead stands out a little bit more as being sillier. It's like Push's flak jacket.

Thunder

Cream

Strolling

Willing and Able

Walk don't walk

Money don't matter

Live for love

Insatiable

Jughead, Daddy Pop and Push can come after the 3121 silent track lapse but unfortunately, the factory doesn't have enough vinyl to burn Gett Off onto it.

Do what you want to Gett Off, but I swear to god don't you touch Cream.

Spinlight said:

Do what you want to Gett Off, but I swear to god don't you touch Cream.

I agree. Cream is an absolute classic!