imago said:

Let's look at this, shall we?

Diamonds & Pears : 4 top 10 hits (2 #1s), and the most albums sold since batman.

: 2 top 10 hits, media recognition, and airplay as well as MTV and Arsenio spot.

What charts are you quoting here, I thought the placements (Billboard) were

Gett Off #21 Pop

Cream #1 Pop

D and P #3 Pop

Insatiable #76 Pop

Money .... #23 Pop

Two Top 10 hits, 2 Top 30s and one flop

Seven #7 Pop hit

My name is Prince #36

Sexy Motherfucker #60 something

The albums were not as successful as you said but quite successful, also D and P sales were inflated, actual global figures were closer to 5 million and Symbol sales 2 - 2.5 million as many CDs were unsolds.

are you seeing it? Yes, that's right.... Tony M. is missing in the failures, but an ingrediant in the sucesses.

Prinice needs Tony M. back desperately.

NoVideo said:

it's sterile; the whole album is too slick and plastic. there is some good material there but most of it has no spark

CD 2 alone would be a great album

CD 1 has good moments .. but think its prince trying to be comercial an safe .,. which aint how we know him ..

CD3 has a great last few songs .MY COMPUTER onwards he is on the top of his game .. an FACE DOWN is great

i agree .. it seems to lack the spark an freshness an excitement of THE GOLD EXPERIENCE/CHAOS ... an most of the songs aint produced to the same standard

there was a slight production dip on some of Emacipation,NewPowersOul, Rave, an 20ten

.... aint much soul in a built in keyboard beat an basic keyboard backing music

WHITE MANSHION demo .. SLAVE no soul musically ..

singles coulda been

MY COMPUTER (catchy as hell chorus .. and very well produced track)

THE HOLLY RIVER wise choice cos its a great track ... but aint sure it was single material as much as some of the others

SOUL SANCTUARY .... Catchy . pretty .. different

GET YO GROOVE ON an edit coulda been a hit ... but aint great

PurpleJedi said:

I remember geting all psyched for "Betcha By Golly Wow"...the FIRST cover by the artist of artists...and then I hear it and...

It was Prince doing karaoke.

I could've done without it. Same with "What If God Was One of Us".

I agree.Imo,Prince should have never started doing covers.The only great remake of "Betcha By Golly Wow" was done by Phyllis Hyman in the mid-70s.

DreZone said:

Why it "failed"? Simple, OVERKILL.

two 3-disc CD's in a row (or together wherever you were), I think British journalist Paul Gambaccini once said it best in '91 that Prince releases too much music to make market sense.

FYI the standard of Platinum was already changing by that point...

The promotion for it was phenomenal in Prince terms, but with the name change hype, Crystal Ball and his ancillary NPG releases of Exodus and Goldnigga not too long before, lest we forget WB releasing "Chaos & Disorder" (a SEVERELY underrated album IMHO) not too long before Emancipation,

There was just too much to take in... consumer or mark.

'dre

Emancipation was simply too much music.The general public cannot absorb that much new music from an artist.I think a 3-CD set of new music from any artist wouldn't do very well.

How, exactly, did Emancipation fail? Because it wasn't one of Prince's biggest sellers? Considering it was THREE discs -- and who but diehards have the patience for that? -- it did quite well.

Artistically speaking, Emancipation is better than anything he did in the oughts. Only the Rainbow Children equals it.

mltijchr said:

whatsurname said:

not so much dislike as a bad choice for a first single.

i.e. here's prince celebrating his "freedom" from WB, puts 3 hours of music

together and his first single is.........(drum roll)

a lame ass cover....(sound of album imploding)

i hear you all on the tragedy surrounding Prince's child and his unwillingness to promote

in general. i'm just saying trade those 3 singles with some other choices and that album

wouldn't have ended up in the bargain box for $5.

I agree with this.

then a few years later.. he did just about the same thing with "rave unto the joy.."

leading that "next great 'symbol' album

(produced, of course, by "prince"..)

with none other than that ICONIC "prince hit"

"the greatest romance"..

you'd have thought that he would have learned a lesson from "emancipation" in terms of what the "lead-off" single should be..

but no.

besides, Prince is - & always has been - better & smarter than everybody else..

oh well.

by the time "new power soul" came out in '98, I was done with him.

Hmm, still posting here? I guess it depends on how you define "done."

SoulAlive said:

PurpleJedi said:

I remember geting all psyched for "Betcha By Golly Wow"...the FIRST cover by the artist of artists...and then I hear it and...

It was Prince doing karaoke.

I could've done without it. Same with "What If God Was One of Us".

I agree.Imo,Prince should have never started doing covers.The only great remake of "Betcha By Golly Wow" was done by Phyllis Hyman in the mid-70s.

I think his vocal is gorgeous. Smart first single? No.

mynameisnotsusan said:

SoulAlive said:

I agree.Imo,Prince should have never started doing covers.The only great remake of "Betcha By Golly Wow" was done by Phyllis Hyman in the mid-70s.

I think his vocal is gorgeous. Smart first single? No.

The vocals are fine - but a bit "strained"...I don't know if that's what he was going for, but I didn't like it. However, the composition of the song itself was too mechanical. There was nothing "Prince" about it really. Any live band at a local bar could've produced that sound.

I dunno...that's my opinion on the matter.

I remember when Emancipation came out, there was ALOT of hype, and a local top-40 radio station was giving a way a Prince guitar and stuff...they ignored "BBGW" and were playing "Holy River" (I heard it more than once on there) but by the time Prince got around to actually releasing the video and stuff, everyone had moved on. Too little, too late I would say.

Maybe cause that goofy commercial he used "Wuz up!" trying to look gangsta

dubiousraves said:

mltijchr said:

I agree with this.

then a few years later.. he did just about the same thing with "rave unto the joy.."

leading that "next great 'symbol' album

(produced, of course, by "prince"..)

with none other than that ICONIC "prince hit"

"the greatest romance"..

you'd have thought that he would have learned a lesson from "emancipation" in terms of what the "lead-off" single should be..

but no.

besides, Prince is - & always has been - better & smarter than everybody else..

oh well.

by the time "new power soul" came out in '98, I was done with him.

Hmm, still posting here? I guess it depends on how you define "done."

yes.. "done" in the sense that since 1998:

I have bought no new or original music that he's put out since then (e.g, rainbow children, musicology, rave/joy fantastic, etc.)

I have not wanted to attend any of his shows whenever he came through town

& the only "news" or other "contact" I have about prince is here on the org.. & for a long time

I didn't come to the .org.. & when I did, it was mostly for "non-prince music" & "associated artists"

though I no longer follow prince nor am into him like I was from 1981-96.. I'm not angry with him.. he certainly doesn't "owe me" anything for all the support I gave him in the past. we don't know each other & probably never will meet, & that's alright too. he's doing his thing the way he wants to do it, & either people dig him or they don't. I don't anymore.. & unless he starts making music like he did in the early & mid-80s.. & he starts eating red meat again

&

starts cussing.. I probably won't be into him again.

indeed - I don't expect any of the above 3 things to happen.

fortunately, there are other good musicians & singers in the world

who define themselves by more than the music they play

& who are less full of themselves..

so I suppose that - for your benefit, dubiousraves - I could have used a better word than "done" when describing my level of interest/interaction with this entity who calls himself "prince".