Maybe he reads the interview and realizes how weird he comes off when he's talking about covers in that manner. He really should try to explicate a bit more what causes his disdain instead of just asking rhetorical questions like "why should there exist several versions of the same song?".

It could be that he just doesn't have the guts the say what's really wrong about the cover versions of his music we've recently heard - they suck. It seems to be something of an "edgy" move to do a cover version of a Prince song by the contemporary mainstream artists and talent show performers. Most of those versions completely miss the point of the original pieces (like what was the case already with that Tom Jones version of "Kiss", although that's nowhere nearly as awful as some of the later efforts).

bashraka said:

http://www.eonline.com/ne...d-maroon-5

Well iti is the number 1 trending topic on yahoo this Friday morning. All press is good press!!!!

Ehhh, this is just Eonline getting clicks for free - they read Billboard snatch a couple of quotes and sensationalise them, bingo.

Prince is full of it though of course - it's not about art it's about cash. If Maroon 5 rolled up to PP with a wad of cash he'd probably let them do a note for note covers album of Purple Rain and call it the greatest honour he's ever received.

Wow. They already distorted his words.

He's quoted as saying, "It was always about Madonna".

What he said was, "It was also about Madonna".

Wow. Just wow.

NouveauDance said:

Ehhh, this is just Eonline getting clicks for free - they read Billboard snatch a couple of quotes and sensationalise them, bingo.

Prince is full of it though of course - it's not about art it's about cash. If Maroon 5 rolled up to PP with a wad of cash he'd probably let them do a note for note covers album of Purple Rain and call it the greatest honour he's ever received.

You know that's not true. Sometimes he does things for large sums of money and sometimes he doesn't. His decisions on who's gotten to use his music have been hardly consistent in that regard.

novabrkr said:

You know that's not true. Sometimes he does things for large sums of money and sometimes he doesn't. His decisions on who's gotten to use his music have been hardly consistent in that regard.

Just hyperbole dude. If Prince can talk bullshit, why can't I!

If you don't speak The Truth on this site who does

NouveauDance said:

Ehhh, this is just Eonline getting clicks for free - they read Billboard snatch a couple of quotes and sensationalise them, bingo.

Prince is full of it though of course - it's not about art it's about cash. If Maroon 5 rolled up to PP with a wad of cash he'd probably let them do a note for note covers album of Purple Rain and call it the greatest honour he's ever received.

purplethunder3121 said:

I love this! If looks could kill.

Prince was letting Trey Songz HAVE IT. Let 'em know, Purple Yoda!

He's not saying anything against Madonna, and it's not about anything recent

(I don't know why they want to try to get things stirred up)

i hate this!

it has finally been a REALLY positive month around here.. .great reaction to the site and new song...

and crap like this gets out now..

who knows what is true... im sure this is just blown up to get exposure...

but he could really LEARN from madonna.. she knows how to keep her rabid fans happy.. and has done a great job in preserving her past while moving forward.

and as far as covers... i NEVER want to hear a damn cover again from P.... so if he comes at us with all that bullshit again, can we throw some rotten tomatoes on stage? i dont want to hear larry graham or misty blue or any other bullshit... and this comment makes my blood boil! so hypocrytical!

but who knows... maybe it is miscontrued...

lets hope this boils over.. i want to keep positive about P this year....

ps - anyone know if he opened his mouth on the gay marriage thing again? or did he learn to STFU on that one until he gets it his answer correct? that bullshit from a few years ago sent me OVER THE EDGE!

trax said:

I Can't Make you love me was Top 20 on the Billboard Pop Hits. Thats pretty big and he BUTCHERED a CLASSIC!!

He didn't butcher s#*^. That's the best version that I've ever heard. Prince put his spin on it and livened up that song. I also prefer his version of A Case of You.

Prince put his oomph on some dry ass songs.

MadamGoodnight said:

trax said:

I Can't Make you love me was Top 20 on the Billboard Pop Hits. Thats pretty big and he BUTCHERED a CLASSIC!!

He didn't butcher s#*^. That's the best version that I've ever heard. Prince put his spin on it and livened up that song. I also prefer his version of A Case of You.

Prince put his oomph on some dry ass songs.

I'm going to disagree with you.

I think that George Michael had a better version.

Prince did a good job, but not excellent IMO.

PurpleJedi said:

MadamGoodnight said:

He didn't butcher s#*^. That's the best version that I've ever heard. Prince put his spin on it and livened up that song. I also prefer his version of A Case of You.

Prince put his oomph on some dry ass songs.

I'm going to disagree with you.

I think that George Michael had a better version.

Prince did a good job, but not excellent IMO.

We will agree to disagree. I have heard George's version as well, and Prince's version is better, *to me*.

MadamGoodnight said:

PurpleJedi said:

I'm going to disagree with you.

I think that George Michael had a better version.

Prince did a good job, but not excellent IMO.

We will agree to disagree. I have heard George's version as well, and Prince's version is better, *to me*.

Do you rate Prince's version above Bonnie Raitt's???

I also think GM did a better version.

PurpleJedi said:

MadamGoodnight said:

We will agree to disagree. I have heard George's version as well, and Prince's version is better, *to me*.

Do you rate Prince's version above Bonnie Raitt's???

Yes I do.

In retrospect, his cover of "I Can't Make U Love Me" might have been the best of the cover versions on Emancipation though. The three other covers are just so IN YOUR FACE that it's hard to consider them as very honest performances (by his standards - which is not to say "La La La Means I Love You" in particular wouldn't be a brilliant composition on its own right).

Love A Case of U but Crimson and Clover makes me cringe.

And Prince sings MJ songs in his concerts! Why make such comments?! He should focus on making good music and making it accessible to us. Love Screwdriver but should have dropped it on iTunes right away so we can buy it. Had to wait months for RRLA to b available on iTunes and people have moved on. He should have dropped it on iTunes after the Kimmel performance. It would have been a hit. Oh well., that's Prince 4 u.

novabrkr said:

Maybe he reads the interview and realizes how weird he comes off when he's talking about covers in that manner. He really should try to explicate a bit more what causes his disdain instead of just asking rhetorical questions like "why should there exist several versions of the same song?".

It could be that he just doesn't have the guts the say what's really wrong about the cover versions of his music we've recently heard - they suck. It seems to be something of an "edgy" move to do a cover version of a Prince song by the contemporary mainstream artists and talent show performers. Most of those versions completely miss the point of the original pieces (like what was the case already with that Tom Jones version of "Kiss", although that's nowhere nearly as awful as some of the later efforts).

Prince is funny when he talks about covers. How many covers does Prince do that you just look at him & say "Why?" That's the problem, Prince is doing it for the quick applause just like every other artist does. And I bet he is so isolated, everyone tells him "That's sounding sick!" Oh man, the sly stone shit is just dreadful. In fact, it's worse than the Sly Stone of today's versions. Don't even get me started on the Zeppelin cover, for some reason I don't think Prince was a Zep head.

I think the best cover Prince did were Temptations and the Santana Soul Sacrifice medley,imo. I'm surprised he didn't do a Najee version of "All Along the Watchtower". Yea, i know...the truth hurts.

[Edited 1/25/13 9:55am]

MadamGoodnight said:

PurpleJedi said:

Do you rate Prince's version above Bonnie Raitt's???

Yes I do.

rainbowchild said:

... but Crimson and Clover makes me cringe.

Trickology said:

Prince is funny when he talks about covers. How many covers does Prince do that you just look at him & say "Why?" That's the problem, Prince is doing it for the quick applause just like every other artist does. And I bet he is so isolated, everyone tells him "That's sounding sick!" Oh man, the sly stone shit is just dreadful. In fact, it's worse than the Sly Stone of today's versions. Don't even get me started on the Zeppelin cover, for some reason I don't think Prince was a Zep head.

Oh, he was apparently quite into Led Zeppelin when he was younger. He mentions them in some of the early interviews.

The Sly Stone stuff comes from his Larry Graham connection, I guess. He was playing some of those songs before the two started "hanging out", but I suppose he just feels his personal history is just somehow interconnected with Sly's / Larry's stuff.

But, yeah, I remember when he did "Everyday People" when he played here live 1½ years ago - I was trying to sing along and be a good fan, but I just had to admit to myself that it really didn't work.

[Edited 1/25/13 10:22am]

Trickology said:

Prince is funny when he talks about covers. How many covers does Prince do that you just look at him & say "Why?" That's the problem, Prince is doing it for the quick applause just like every other artist does. And I bet he is so isolated, everyone tells him "That's sounding sick!" Oh man, the sly stone shit is just dreadful. In fact, it's worse than the Sly Stone of today's versions. Don't even get me started on the Zeppelin cover, for some reason I don't think Prince was a Zep head.

In regards to Whole Lotta Love, he probably self-righteously thought he was taking it back for Muddy Waters & Willie Dixon...

Trickology said:

Don't even get me started on the Zeppelin cover, for some reason I don't think Prince was a Zep head.

Actually he talked about them in the Rolling Stones interview from 1985. IIRC Wendy (or Lisa) introduced him to them. He compared himself to them saying that they would make you feel differently with each album.

MadamGoodnight said:

purplethunder3121 said:

I love this! If looks could kill.

Prince was letting Trey Songz HAVE IT. Let 'em know, Purple Yoda!

Prince was PISSED! His facial expression says it all.

I don't know why Prince is bitching about Madonna. I thought they squashed their beef, and were cool with each other. Didn't Prince call Madonna up onstage or acknowledge her being in the audience at one of his shows?

Prince: "“I do pay performance royalties on others’ songs I perform live, but I’m not recording these songs and putting them up for sale,” he says. “Why do we need to hear another cover of a song that someone else did? Art is about building a new foundation, not just laying something on top of what’s already there.”

This statement annoys me because he seems to be criticizing other artists for doing covers of someone elses songs, yet he does the same thing. You need to take your own advice, Prince, and not do covers of other people's songs. You have a huge catalog of songs that you have written during your career to perform in concert, you don't need to do covers of someone else's songs during your shows. Judging from what I'm reading on this thread, a lot of your fans don't want to hear a cover song anyway. I sure as hell don't. To be honest, I get very annoyed when Prince does a cover of someone else's songs, whether it's on a CD or during one of his shows. I'd rather hear him do some songs that he's never done in concert, or even a new song that he's just written (although his new songs leave a lot to be desired).

[Edited 1/25/13 17:27pm]

bashraka said:

What if Sly Stone, Radiohead and other artists complained in a magazine that they did not like Prince's covers of their tunes in concert or on record the way Prince whines about it. Prince, you do the exact same thing you lament other artists for doing.

Exactly! Prince is a hypocrite for bitching about other artists covering his songs, when he does the same damn thing.

djThunderfunk said:

I love Prince, but, on the subject of covers, he either needs to come clean about what is different about his own released recordings of covers and why he now feels differently, or, shut the funk up. It just makes him look hypocritical at best, stupid at worst...

One Of Us

Betcha By Golly Wow

La La La Means I Love You

When Will We Be Paid

Crimson And Clover

Wild Thing

Every Day Is A Winding Road

Whole Lotta Love

Rock Steady'

Misty Blue

etc....

Yup!