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Thread started 05/04/11 12:35pm

princeiscool

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What if NewPowerSoul was the Black Album?

Pretend NewPowerSoul was the album shelved instead of the Black album. I truly believe it would have garnered as much critical praise and fevered bootleg mania as BA. What BA had going for it, and fueled it, was it's story...Prince having this spiritual epiphany to halt the BA, the spooky electric/Camille thing, copies of the record being so rare and being worth so much money, etc.

Also Prince was still commercially successful and among those years that many orgers think were his peak. But put all that aside....

If NPS started circulating in bootleg form, after being pressed and shelved, in the same manner as the BA, in 1988, or possibly even in 1998, I think a majority of fans and critics would be going crazy over it. It's actually quite similar to the BA...short in length, one ballad, a party record and funky as all hell!

As much as alot of people dog on it and say NPS is Prince by the numbers, plastic drums, and him not even trying, I disagree. NPS has lots of very different and creative musical ideas, lots of horns, lots of weirdness(and I mean the kind we love Prince for), and once again, funky..funky...FUNKY!!!! Even the dogged on cover art harkins back to Parliament type cover art.

What do you think? Take it out to your car, drive, crank it up, and tell me you ain't lettin' your head bob!

p.s. fan since 82, hardcore since 87

[Edited 5/4/11 12:40pm]

"this is where the PURPLE PARTY PEOPLE be"
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Reply #1 posted 05/04/11 12:40pm

BlackCandle

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TWO ballads...
"Had to get off the boat so I could walk on water..."
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Reply #2 posted 05/04/11 12:45pm

princeiscool

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"The One" and ? "Shoo B Doo" or "Wasted Kisses"? I always just considered them mid-tempo.

[Edited 5/4/11 13:06pm]

"this is where the PURPLE PARTY PEOPLE be"
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Reply #3 posted 05/04/11 12:45pm

DJTricky

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princeiscool said:

What do you think? Take it out to your car, drive, crank it up, and tell me you ain't lettin' your head bob!

I have it in my multi changer atm, and i must say I love it more now than I did in 98. I like it when he's funky and like u said about the head bob, it's a disc for that.

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Reply #4 posted 05/04/11 1:06pm

BlackCandle

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princeiscool said:

"The One" and ? "Shoo B Doo" or "Wasted Kisses"? I always just considered the mid-tempo.



No. Until U're In My Arms Again...
"Had to get off the boat so I could walk on water..."
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Reply #5 posted 05/04/11 1:07pm

Genesia

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Warner Brothers never would have approved that piece of crap.

We don’t mourn artists because we knew them. We mourn them because they helped us know ourselves.
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Reply #6 posted 05/04/11 1:13pm

princeiscool

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BlackCandle said:

princeiscool said:

"The One" and ? "Shoo B Doo" or "Wasted Kisses"? I always just considered the mid-tempo.

No. Until U're In My Arms Again...

yeah, i guess I can see where you're coming from...but over all a funky party record. I mean there is nothing as sinister as Bob George on there, but if I can remember right, didn't he record some of the black album to play at Paisley for Sheila's B-day?

"this is where the PURPLE PARTY PEOPLE be"
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Reply #7 posted 05/04/11 1:21pm

NouveauDance

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I don't get these threads. NPS was recorded by the Prince of 97/98 - with all the experience and previous output - these songs wouldn't exist as they are had they been put together from a bunch of 86/87 odds n sods.

If you're asking if NPS had been withdrawn in 1998, would it have achieved the same status as TBA did in 1988, the answer is no.

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Reply #8 posted 05/04/11 1:54pm

princeiscool

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NouveauDance said:

I don't get these threads. NPS was recorded by the Prince of 97/98 - with all the experience and previous output - these songs wouldn't exist as they are had they been put together from a bunch of 86/87 odds n sods.

If you're asking if NPS had been withdrawn in 1998, would it have achieved the same status as TBA did in 1988, the answer is no.

I understand, things went down as they did, the BA is part of the great Prince history and trust me, I was caught up in the Black Album fever as much as anyone else. Stepping back from the BA after all of these years though, it seems to me that most of the fame surrounding the BA, was more about the albums story than it was about it's content. We were waiting for it, we didn't get it, Alphabet St. had "Don't buy the Black Album. Sorry." in the video, articles came out about 4th, 5th, 10th generation dubs of it and it became a quest for Prince fans to acquire it and become part of the club of those who had it. Critics were hailing it as a masterpiece and how it was a shame that most music fans would never hear it.

Nowadays, the fame continues over the legend of Prince's epiphany, how he saw the word "God" that night, how he may have been trippin' on E, etc. etc.

Years later, it was released with little fan fare, and if I can remember right, critics or the general public were unconcerned. The story was no longer hot other than for P fans. I guess what I am saying is that NPS, imo stands up against the BA. I love both records, and I thinking if NPS was shelved in 88, we would be shaking in our shoes to get it. By 1998, the internet was starting to push music in a different direction.

"this is where the PURPLE PARTY PEOPLE be"
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Reply #9 posted 05/04/11 1:56pm

TheFreakerFant
astic

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Totally disagree. This is like sacrilege!

If NPS was shelved mosts fans would applaud. The Black Album was genuinely good and imaginitive, its one of my favourite albums....

[Edited 5/4/11 13:57pm]

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Reply #10 posted 05/04/11 2:02pm

NouveauDance

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The fact of the matter is, TBA is a cracking album, where as NPS is pants.

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Reply #11 posted 05/04/11 3:09pm

princeiscool

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BlackCandle said:

princeiscool said:

"The One" and ? "Shoo B Doo" or "Wasted Kisses"? I always just considered the mid-tempo.

No. Until U're In My Arms Again...

Oops...sorry, BlackCandle, my bad...when you were saying "Until U're In U're Arms Again", I kept thinking of "When U Love Somebody". Must have been a brain fart. LOL

[Edited 5/4/11 15:10pm]

"this is where the PURPLE PARTY PEOPLE be"
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Reply #12 posted 05/04/11 3:41pm

802

NPS should have been shelved. nod

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Reply #13 posted 05/04/11 5:07pm

SUPRMAN

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Genesia said:

Warner Brothers never would have approved that piece of crap.

eek

I don't want you to think like me. I just want you to think.
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Reply #14 posted 05/04/11 5:08pm

SUPRMAN

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NPS is one of my favorite Prince albums. Top Ten.

I don't want you to think like me. I just want you to think.
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Reply #15 posted 05/04/11 5:24pm

nevaneaux

NPS is a great album. Period. I loved it then and I still love it now!

"Boy is lonely on a burning hot summer night, he's looking for some action, he 's looking for a fight"
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Reply #16 posted 05/04/11 6:43pm

IstenSzek

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NPS would have made for an amazing EP. But as an album,
it is heavily flawed.

The Black Album is just a great record, start to finish.

I don't think any shelved and then leaked album by prince
Would have gotten any real attention beyond 1995.

Amongst a big group of fans, sure, anything unreleased is
always "fantastic" etc.

But in a world where the general public is oblivious and a
large portion of his 1983-1992 former fanbase hardly kept
interest post "the hits/the b-sides", not even a phenomenal
prince album would get even an inkling of the attention the
Black Album got back in the day.

That album was traded on tapes and sold at bootlegmarkets by
And to people who didn't even care about prince. People just
wanted to hear what all the fuss was about. And that's not
even counting his actual fanbase.

This day and age, he's lucky if people beyond his fans are
gonna take a second look at his albums. Sad but true.
and true love lives on lollipops and crisps
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Reply #17 posted 05/04/11 6:59pm

WatchThemFall

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NPS = very underrated.

Personally . I think we are all Boring with No Lives cause all we do is talk about Prince,Criticize and Gossip. I need a Horny Man is what I Need and probably so do most of yas. We are Sexually Frustrated what we R... Amen..!!! - zelaire
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Reply #18 posted 05/04/11 9:55pm

ufoclub

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let's make a crappy EQ'd version and see how it feels as a bootleg.

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Reply #19 posted 05/04/11 10:23pm

PurpleHigh

I think the difference is that the Black Album had that all important but evasive ingredient: character. New Power Soul...didn't, IMO.

The Black Album was just so...out there. Prince not just namedropping super models, but explicitly writing songs about them and their furry melting things. Prince going batshit crazy and recording one really weird, disturbing track...at least we wondered if it was his voice. (Bob George made the Black Album great, I feel.) And then all the hoopla and rumors surrounding the shelving of the album made the stories about seeing God and evil albums and whatnot believable (to the believers, at least). All of the commotion would have been just strange and contrived, a mere publicity stunt, had it been directed at NPS. Centered on the Black Album, you really had to wonder what the heck was going on.

This isn't to say NPS doesn't have its merits; I can't really say, it's been years since I've given it a spin. I remember it being loud and party'ish, but just not really interesting. Just my opinion.

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Reply #20 posted 05/04/11 10:42pm

ufoclub

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Black Album is still to me, Prince's crowning album. The one I just can't knock in any way. The one that obsessed me. The one that truly seemed original and not pandering to ANY current trend of that day.

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Reply #21 posted 05/04/11 11:02pm

novabrkr

ufoclub said:

let's make a crappy EQ'd version and see how it feels as a bootleg.

lol

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Reply #22 posted 05/05/11 12:39am

databank

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NPS is one of my favorite prince albums ever.

I think the only reason it's so unpopular is because it's one of Prince's most "R&B" album, and a lot of Prince fans r white folks who listen to Radiohead lol

It's the only possible explaination, as it's, in terms of pure funk, one of the funkiest thing prince has ever done.

A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/
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Reply #23 posted 05/05/11 1:11am

novabrkr

So why do those white folks that listen to Radiohead like Prince's other "R&B" albums then?

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Reply #24 posted 05/05/11 1:54am

databank

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novabrkr said:

So why do those white folks that listen to Radiohead like Prince's other "R&B" albums then?

They don't lol

A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/
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Reply #25 posted 05/05/11 7:06am

purpledoveuk

If Prince had told us not to buy NPS or it was, as you say, just a bootleg then maybe it could be forgiven....as it stands it marks the start of mediocrity and 'it doesn't matter, theyll buy anything' attitude to Prince (even the tours since have simply been Greatest Hits).

Good job it didn't come out when BA did...Prince would have missed the lucrative Batman deal and he would never have been offered that record- breaking valuable contract back in 92/93....then what would he have had to bitch and moan about for nearly 20 years
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Reply #26 posted 05/05/11 1:40pm

princeiscool

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its really more of a what if....not really which album is better. I like both albums. My main thing is that they were handed to the world differently. You're right, TBA was out in 88, but it was famous and genius before most even got the chance to hear it. Plus all the drama behind it.

NPS on the other hand was released at a time that most people didn't give a care. Then again, when TBA was released officially, it was at a time where most people didn't care. I've never looked at the numbers, but I would take a leap of faith to say that both NPS and TBA probably sold similar

amounts just out of the gates, and that was to hardcore fans and completists. And they are probably still the ones buying them if either are still in print.

thanks to those who have stepped up to the plate for NPS. And for those who think any Prince cd shouldn't be released, thats a shame. I didn't care for several songs on Rave, but very much appreciate the oppurtunity to jam to songs like undisputed, tangerine, Rave, and one of my all time favorite P songs, "Strange But True."

[Edited 5/5/11 13:41pm]

"this is where the PURPLE PARTY PEOPLE be"
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Reply #27 posted 05/05/11 1:55pm

princeiscool

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ufoclub said:

let's make a crappy EQ'd version and see how it feels as a bootleg.

LOL. The bad thing is, when the official release of The Black Album came out, it really didn't sound much better. I have a bootleg version of it on cd that I got around 1990, and the sound quality is far superior to the official one.

"this is where the PURPLE PARTY PEOPLE be"
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Reply #28 posted 05/05/11 6:43pm

rialb

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databank said:

NPS is one of my favorite prince albums ever.

I think the only reason it's so unpopular is because it's one of Prince's most "R&B" album, and a lot of Prince fans r white folks who listen to Radiohead lol

It's the only possible explaination, as it's, in terms of pure funk, one of the funkiest thing prince has ever done.

I think your theory is deeply flawed. I suspect that many of Prince's white fans, even those that listen to Radiohead, enjoy albums like The Time and What Time Is It? which are two of the funkiest albums he has ever done. For me it's just a weak album filled with poor songs. If Prince wants to deliver a funk album that's fine as long as the songs are great. Also, the prince album is usually hailed as one of his best albums of the '90s and it's got a lot of funk in it.

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Reply #29 posted 05/06/11 12:36am

gunner82

ufoclub said:

let's make a crappy EQ'd version and see how it feels as a bootleg.

biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin thumbs up!

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