When I first started getting into Prince, in my mid/late teens and into my early 20s, I used to love the whole "mystery" games that he would play. Prince has never done things normally, and that's part of the allure. There's always this constant game of "tease" going on from him to his fanbase. But now in my early 30s I'm getting a bit tired of it.

Really Prince? You want us to play this game with you? You really want us to think that 3rdEyeGirl is a not an official outlet, but a bootlegger? You want us to think that that was a real cease & desist letter? How stupid do you think we are? Or perhaps you know that we know that, and are still playing it for some ego-pumping trip? Who knows. All I know is that I'm getting tired of playing this pre-album, pre-tour game of tease. Just announce what it is you're planning on doing, and do it!

Look at Bowie. He has a new album coming out. What does he do? He announces: "Hey I have a new album coming out and here's the first single", and everyone's happy! But no... With Prince we have to go through the motions playing the game of tease... Drips of info from Dr. Funkenfairy, drips from fake twitter accounts etc., "Something big is coming y'all!"... Righteo...

That stuff was cool in the 80s/90s. But nowadays it seems rather immature, bordering on the stupid. I wish he'd realise that not all of his fans are teenage girls. Or at the very least, that he'd stop treating us like we are.

Who's with me?

Rant over.

i'm with u. he is bordering on embarressing now. Just drop good music and let it speak.

If anybody else brings up Bowie i think im gonna go on a rampage. Prince is Prince. We are Prince's bitchs. Prince is a dick which is why we suck him .whether u agree with me or not u know ur gonna go to concert and buy the album. P is/was (watever u agree) the best which is why we are still fans. We are the equivilalent of Jews of music fan bases. We've been kicked around, scammed, and lashed out agaisnt yet we are still fans. many of us parished but wat's left still tune into dr.funk to hear the latest detail of P's newest endeavor. besides why are yall complaining. If three eye girl is real and not prince then u have u nderstand p for what he did. If she's p then u have to thannk P for letting see videos which he could have kept locked up in his vault. Sure im mad about npgmc, lotusflower, and a bit ticked off at this part but hey what can i do. Write SLAVE on my face lol?

Toejam, I share your sentiments cause I changed over the years and don't get to psyched about his proclamations.

However posing this part 'Why can't Prince just be normal?' in your question is also nullifying your work for the P&B Podcast. The reason he isn't normal probably causes you to do your work (much appreciated by me).

I consider myself reasonably normal and as side effect I don't have a podcast crew discussing my innerworkings.

But I again I share the feeling. We got a lot and also missed out on a lot over the years because of his antics. The carrotdangling and mystic for the cause of mystic is a tiresome.

^Haha. I hear you. It's a blessing and a curse. It just gets annoying sometimes

riocoolnes said:

besides why are yall complaining. If three eye girl is real and not prince then u have u nderstand p for what he did. If she's p then u have to thannk P for letting see videos which he could have kept locked up in his vault.

You make some good points riocoolnes. And you know, probably up until recently I would have agreed with this "Well Prince could have just not released it and then you'd be sorry!" kind of thing. But the reality is, at least from my POV, the tracks themselves are quite average, and not really worth the tease afterall. It's not like this stuff is making me froff at the lips with anticipation!! I mean "Same Page" has a nice little groove and hook. But it's nothing that demands repeated listening. And then there's those silly naive, preachy lyrics... Ah, and now I'm ranting again. Boy I miss my Prince optimism. I think I'm getting old

toejam said:

But now in my early 30s I'm getting a bit tired of it.

Wait until you're in your early 40's, it's not tiring, it's really fucking irritating.

TheEnglishGent said:

toejam said:

But now in my early 30s I'm getting a bit tired of it.

Wait until you're in your early 40's, it's not tiring, it's really fucking irritating.

LOL - I'm 43 and was thinking the exact same thing this morning. The thing that gets me with all the drip feeding and drfunkenberry stuff is that it only really matters to the people who come on here.

To the rest of the world, Prince doesn't release stuff anymore, is largely irrelavant and just a "great live show".

I'm bored with all the games now, and mostly because the music that follows all the teasing is mostly disappointing when it finally arrives. I didn't much care for Laydown before, and now I have an extended version - whoopy bollocks. And as for the Bambi (33 year old song) clip, we know Prince can play that sort of guitar solo in his sleep.

Why not release "Same Page" to worldwide radio as the brand new single to promote the new album?

Prince once sang "Don't you miss the feeling music gave you, back in the day?"

Damn right.

I don't often post in threads like this but "drip feeding tease" made me chuckle a little...

The thing is I still love the music. I thought 20Ten was good and Lotus was one of the best discs he's ever released, I love RNR Affair, (Jame Lewis mixes aside!) and thought the Screwdriver studio snippet sounded really good. The only disapointment for me in the last ten years musically has been the Musicology album and even that has some great tracks.

Maybe its tiresome, but for the younger up & coming fans who keep discovering his music, it could be a way to lure them more.

I'm on the same page as you in the sense that direct communication line is more suffecient, but this has always been his shtick, starting with the Owen Husney marketing campaign.

I think the reason he doesnt give specifics is that he doesnt know what he is actually going to do. Instead he hopes to do big things, but then loses interest, or gets involved with something else, or whatever. That seemed to be the case back in 2009 with LotusFlow3r. At least in 2004 he really delivered. We'll always have that...

Harlepolis said:

Maybe its tiresome, but for the younger up & coming fans who keep discovering his music, it could be a way to lure them more.

Yes, those 6 people are who he needs to be entertaining.

Shafty said:

TheEnglishGent said:

Wait until you're in your early 40's, it's not tiring, it's really fucking irritating.

LOL - I'm 43 and was thinking the exact same thing this morning. The thing that gets me with all the drip feeding and drfunkenberry stuff is that it only really matters to the people who come on here.

To the rest of the world, Prince doesn't release stuff anymore, is largely irrelavant and just a "great live show".

I'm bored with all the games now, and mostly because the music that follows all the teasing is mostly disappointing when it finally arrives. I didn't much care for Laydown before, and now I have an extended version - whoopy bollocks. And as for the Bambi (33 year old song) clip, we know Prince can play that sort of guitar solo in his sleep.

Why not release "Same Page" to worldwide radio as the brand new single to promote the new album?

Prince once sang "Don't you miss the feeling music gave you, back in the day?"

Damn right.

Yeah, I really have to agree with you there, and I'm going to have to make another comparison with Bowie. I don't care that it's been 10 years since Bowie last released music, that's not really the point. The point is, David Bowie just released a new single +video and almost everyone is talking about it, all news outlets have picked it up, your random average person on the street probably knows about it. And then look at Prince, honestly no one other than the hardcore fanbase are going to have any idea what's going on. Yeah, this 3rd Eye Girl stuff was mentioned on a few articles online but I bet you most of the people who read those articles are Prince fans anyway. The average person has no idea what Prince is doing, or if he's even doing anything. If you talk to any random person, they'll stare back at you blankly and cluelessly, saying, "Dr. Funkenberry? What's that. Never heard of that. Oh, Prince is still making music? I didn't know that."

Before I end my rant, I'd like to say that being as obscure as he is, he is fucking lucky that he even has younger fans like me. Most of the new generation/youth know absolutely nothing about him and they will continue to as long as he remains this way.

I also am growing tired of all the games. But I feel the 2 worst insults are the fact that he's a total hyprocrite with the seame street level of preaching and the constant attack of his fan base for listening or having bootlegs. "Same Song, Different Book" is a really weak song once again exploring his current narrow minded dogmatic view. Whats more insulting is that if he's so hardcore into his religious beliefs, why even perform "Bambi" a song he says is a blantly about a lesbian and his quest to change her sexual way of thinking . It doesn't matter if he doesn't sing the second verse or curse it's the overall theme that technically if he's so JW shouldnt even perform. The same with "Screwdriver". Once again using sexual innuendo to make a song clever. He changed "The Cross" to the "The Christ". He stoped wearing a crucifix and went on a rant about idology and symbolism negating that christ was impaled. Well then who's the one that once(and still )represented himself with his own symbol and performs on a symbol stage. Who has the Jesus complex Prince ?

Now on point number 2. Stop blaming your fanbase for the proliferation of unreleased studio material. It was the majority of the people that were closest to you that leaked all of that material. Not us. If you should do anything, ENFORCE THE COPYWRITE ON THE RECORDINGS YOU DO OWN. It's really weak that people are pressing NPGMC material, rare HIT & RUN singles and out of print music you do own. Im sorry but your not really a Purple Yoda, more of a Purple Palpatine.

What color is money today.

Big Chick

"Security ensuring thee"

TheEnglishGent said:

toejam said:

But now in my early 30s I'm getting a bit tired of it.

Wait until you're in your early 40's, it's not tiring, it's really fucking irritating.

Totally agree. Just focus on the music and let that speak for itself. Quality will always sell.

Shafty said:

TheEnglishGent said:

Wait until you're in your early 40's, it's not tiring, it's really fucking irritating.

I'm bored with all the games now, and mostly because the music that follows all the teasing is mostly disappointing when it finally arrives.

This doesn't help either...

VictoR3mix said:

Shafty said:

LOL - I'm 43 and was thinking the exact same thing this morning. The thing that gets me with all the drip feeding and drfunkenberry stuff is that it only really matters to the people who come on here.

To the rest of the world, Prince doesn't release stuff anymore, is largely irrelavant and just a "great live show".

I'm bored with all the games now, and mostly because the music that follows all the teasing is mostly disappointing when it finally arrives. I didn't much care for Laydown before, and now I have an extended version - whoopy bollocks. And as for the Bambi (33 year old song) clip, we know Prince can play that sort of guitar solo in his sleep.

Why not release "Same Page" to worldwide radio as the brand new single to promote the new album?

Prince once sang "Don't you miss the feeling music gave you, back in the day?"

Damn right.

Yeah, I really have to agree with you there, and I'm going to have to make another comparison with Bowie. I don't care that it's been 10 years since Bowie last released music, that's not really the point. The point is, David Bowie just released a new single +video and almost everyone is talking about it, all news outlets have picked it up, your random average person on the street probably knows about it. And then look at Prince, honestly no one other than the hardcore fanbase are going to have any idea what's going on. Yeah, this 3rd Eye Girl stuff was mentioned on a few articles online but I bet you most of the people who read those articles are Prince fans anyway. The average person has no idea what Prince is doing, or if he's even doing anything. If you talk to any random person, they'll stare back at you blankly and cluelessly, saying, "Dr. Funkenberry? What's that. Never heard of that. Oh, Prince is still making music? I didn't know that."

Before I end my rant, I'd like to say that being as obscure as he is, he is fucking lucky that he even has younger fans like me. Most of the new generation/youth know absolutely nothing about him and they will continue to as long as he remains this way.

!!!! exactly!

somtimes i wished Prince acted normal in some things. i like mysterious things, but it can get annoying. Prince is confusing, very confusing and he is not straight too the point, he does things in his own way... well, that's fine with me, but some stuff annoys me big time. like the fact he has no real site, and the fact that he is SO against things on youtube. we can't even watch a normal video from a live show on youtube. it's gone in less than 24 hours. same goes for his music videos and other stuff. i'm fan of a lot of artists, and most artists do it the ''normal'' way, it doesn't do any damage on their image or what else. look at Bowie, mysterious, but still down to earth. has a normal website, and people that post updates on twitter and facebook.

If you've been a fan long enough (30 yr for me) I would've thought you'd accepted how P operates. Why so much angst about business as usual? I gave up on being frustrated years ago. Why is everyone so disapointed when Prince acts like he always has? Only the technology and communication methods have changed. Who am I to dictate what sort of artist he should be and how he should go about business? One of the things I admire about him the most is that he pursues his vision not matter what. Without that he would never have become the artist we know today.

The phrase "count your blessings" comes to mind. He's one of the most prolific and interesting artists out there. I don't want him to be normal. You can't separate the business Prince from the music Prince. It used to frustrate me when people would critisise Michael Jackson for not being normal. People want these artists to keep producing these works that blow their minds but are disappointed when those same artists aren't normal in other areas. Its there abnormality that makes them special. There's plenty of normal in the world. How boring. It bothered me when, earlier in the year, I'd hear people in Australia critisise P during his Australian tour. He's been here 3 times in 30 years. Just relax and enjoy the opportunity to experience one of the world's greats. Warts and all. Life's too short.

Prince is NOT normal. Never has been. Never will be (and thank Jehovah, God, Jesus, Muhammad and Buddah for that!). Get used to it because it makes being a Prince fan so much easier.

BTW Toejam, no disrespect. I'm a big fan of you and your band Cheap Fakes. Although......I do have a few suggestions on how you guys could improve your act. lol

U get what u get

When u got what u got

If Prince wasn't a knucklehaed

Purple u would NOT!

That said............I agree with your original post.

That said............we won't ever see that from your Purple Host.

riocoolnes said:

If anybody else brings up Bowie i think im gonna go on a rampage. Prince is Prince. We are Prince's bitchs. Prince is a dick which is why we suck him .whether u agree with me or not u know ur gonna go to concert and buy the album. P is/was (watever u agree) the best which is why we are still fans. We are the equivilalent of Jews of music fan bases. We've been kicked around, scammed, and lashed out agaisnt yet we are still fans. many of us parished but wat's left still tune into dr.funk to hear the latest detail of P's newest endeavor. besides why are yall complaining. If three eye girl is real and not prince then u have u nderstand p for what he did. If she's p then u have to thannk P for letting see videos which he could have kept locked up in his vault. Sure im mad about npgmc, lotusflower, and a bit ticked off at this part but hey what can i do. Write SLAVE on my face lol?

Umm in taking in your post your typed something that for a person like me who paints pictures and when I read things, I tend to paint mental pictures,

... I feel like I'm being mental raped, this image is disturbing lol and I'm fighting to remove it

I don't want him to be normal

I want him to take off that suite and put on a cape

or if you keep the suite on take that everyday shirt off and put a ruffled shirt underneath

I wouldn't mind if he uses Alexander Nevermind again, on Andy Allo's album

I don't understand why you spend time posting about him if you are bothered with it.

Why not just check out these last songs and be happy with it? Or dislike them for that matter.

The fact that you are all talking about it, either positive or negative, makes the whole thing a succes. Because it keeps you more entertained than just publishing a song somewhere.

bennett said:

Why so much angst about business as usual?

I hear what you're saying bennett. But I think that's the problem: It's all just "business as usual". I guess I'm just starting to see through the cracks a little more than when I was younger. Sure, the tracks are OK, but the game of tease just doesn't excite me anymore. Quite the opposite, I find it just annoying. But maybe I just need to take a step back from Princeworld for a while and see things from a different perspective...