frazetta said:

Fire the writer and director of Graffiti Bridge

how could Prince fire himself?

databank said:

CharismaDove said:

Interesting.. I never knew those bolded points. I think Emancipation might not have been properly promoted after Prince's personal problems in late-1996.. maybe the album had too much sadness associated to it (Mayte and the baby) so he didn't care to promote it any more. Maybe I'm wrong.

.

I also want the 12 albums a year but I think it's crucial for P to succeed. If he hadn't succeeded, we never would have gotten ATWIAD, Parade, or even SOTT. It's because he continuosly made/makes the chart that he was able to continue releasing weird music off such a prestigous label (Warner), and why he continues releasing albums today (profit). Because of Plec's relative failure, I have a feeling we're not getting another album soon... oddly, his low sales didn't seem to bother him in the 2000-03 era (NEWS barely sold 40K and Rainbow Children a little over 500K iirc), but he's seemed obsessed with sales lately. Off topic, sorry.

There is little need for speculation here: the facts are that EMI went into bankrupcy in early 1997, and stopped promoting what was going around at the time as well as releasing singles from said albums. Without the label supporting the project and without any additional single there was little could do. He promoted it heavily right after his child passed at the time of release, doing countless TV appearances and giving more interview than ever, and he toured intensively in 1997: he did his part. Obviously the plan was (for once) to promote the album for a long time until he'd release more music later in 1998, wanted to make a point out of the fact that he could do well as a semi-indie and without WB so he wanted a success (and had one to some extent, but it could have done much better with 5 singles instead of 2, though I'm not convinced by his choice of singles, I am not convinced that Betcha, THR and Face Down -the planned third single- were the most appealing songs when it comes to 1997's audiences, at least in Europe).

Your second comment isn't off-topic: would certainly release more if he didn't care much about sales, he clearly stated in 2011 that the fact that there wasn't any money to make with albums anymore stopped him from releasing them. I think it's a pity, though, for as you point out there was a time, between RUTJF and N.E.W.S, when he changed his strategy and we got lots of music at that time

I wish more singles had been released from Emancipation. The fact that Betcha By Golly as an airplay-only single made No. 31 showed he still had that momentum and the capability in him. And yeah, emancipation had several potential hit singles.

.

I can understand why he wants to be successful, and he wants his albums to sell (the dream of many musicians). Plectrum's arguable failure is a whole other topic, though.

cookypuss said:

Not sure about "rescue" but would "take care" of Larry Graham before he had a chance to fuck with the Purple One's mind. Damn shame.

Really makes you wonder where Prince would be today if Larry had never come into his life.

TASKAE said:

stillwaiting said:

I've probably written a billion posts about this. Revisionist history is fun for me. I could probably make his career better now, but he'd probably rather botch promotion, he'd probably rather have a party with the "Lovesex That's My Jam" Girl, he'd probably rather have both albums tank quickly, he'd probably rather not have any real structured tour...so my interest in this has waned a bit...

But since I like revisionist history...I'd need a time machine

1. Let 1978-1981 be as it was.

2. From 1982-83 maybe just switch "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore" for "International Lover."

3. From 1984...make "The Beautiful Ones" the 3rd single with a unique video that doesn't use the film footage.

4. From 1985 on...Just release an album every 3 years. Let Sign O The Times be the follow up to Purple Rain, make B-Sides live versions of album tracks, let the original b-sides be great album tracks.

And most important...instead of 1 album every single year, stick with the every 3-4 years, and every 10 years or so release HUGE 10-15 disc sets of vault material for the diehards.

What would this have accomplished?

Instead of having a disjointed crowded mess in the Prince section at the Wreckastows, there would have been huge demand for the next release. Imagine Kiss, U Got The Look, and SOTT as the first 3 singles from SOTT...all likely would have hit #1.

Imagine getting a 10 cd set of outtakes in 1995, 1999, and 2004. That's 30 discs of music. Each disc would be 70-79 minutes instead of the 40 minute Crystal Ball discs...

So even though there would be only 6 or so albums after Purple Rain from 1985-2004, there would have been TONS more music released. The major releases would just have him put the best songs out there for the masses, and we would have all the deep cuts to argue about on prince.org. Instead of the public looking at him as a legend, but a legend with a lot of warts, he would have sold a lot more.

But then again, there are those on this site that think crowding the market was the better path.

Just ask U2, Janet, and Michael Jackson...all 3 of who FAR outsold Prince from 1986 on by NOT flooding the market.

Geez, there's a bunch of bad ideas here. Why do people always wanna fix Prince's career

decisions? Around the World In A Day is one of my favorite Prince albums, and indeed it's the album that made me a fan, but under your plan that never would have happened. Also, I like the fact that there's been as many albums in as many years. Why should Prince change his creative output just to suit people who wanna fix his career.

People always hate this idea...

Prince fans REALLY HATE THE POSSIBILITY THAT THEY WOULD HAVE HAD MORE PRINCE MUSIC TO LISTEN TO.

That's the one I don't get. Every single song from ATWIAD would have been released under my plan. Most of them on SOTT or the follow up album. Perhaps "The Ladder" would have been on one of the 10 disc outtake collections....

But yes, most fans on here wanted LESS music from PRINCE....And most COULD NOT POSSIBLY LIVE WITH THE IDEA THAT TONY M WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN IN THE BAND...NO JUGHEAD, NO STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION UNIFORMS prancing around rapping about "Manure."

See, I want the dumb taken out of Prince's career, and since he had more music, he could have released MORE of it without over-saturating the market...

But most fans on here love Tony M too much, and love the fact that he released less music.

CynicKill said:

Speaking rationally Around The World In A Day and Parade NEVER should've happened. Or possibly as non-promoted side project eps. Now they are two of my favorite Prince albums, but strictly speaking from a career building and legacy fulfilling standpoint the albums are just too "out there".

>

If we all admit it Prince has this mental block where he's afraid of real success. I know I know he's had real success after Purple Rain, but a thinking person would've let the Purple Rain succes run its course, start working on a true follow up that would've pushed that momentum even further, and just get down to the business of working an album like it should (talented video directors, releasing the right singles, nice tour, awards promotions).

>

Case in point it doesn't look like the 30th Anniversary thing is gonna happen. From a marketing standpoint having that thing out on the anniversary date would've been a commercial and media cash cow. As it stands it'll hopefully be a good release (you never know with Prince) but it'll fall below the radar. I'm willing to bet money on it.

Maybe an ATWIAD/Parade best-of? Critics would have been divided, but with the right promotion he could have scored an easy 4 or 5 hit singles off it. Also remember UTCM would never have been made = no bad press

herb4 said:

Only thing I would have really done is maintained a quality dedicated website. NPGMC was close. Keeping that going and evolving would have been a good idea. I also think he's missed the boat there with soundboard quality recordings and video of his live material made available exclusively thorough the website. The YouTube and fansite wars are pretty off-putting and tiresome as well.

.

Other than that, he seems to be doing OK.

I totally agree with this. Even a dedicated YouTube channel (is his new one still up? If so, I stand corrected)

TASKAE said:

CharismaDove said:

That made him re-respected in the eyes of the public and popular to admire. It gave him that 'legend' status. But that's not what he was going for with Emancipation+Rave, he was trying to be Pop Star Prince. He ultimately didn't achieve in that regard, so I'm wondering what his Org critics (which includes me at times) think should have happened differently for that to succeed

That moment when you realize that it would be a mistake to respond, because what you'd be responding too is stupid and would just drag you down to the level of people you used to dislike 20 years ago.

.

umm... you do realize that despite how happy you are with Prince's late-90s career, he himself WAS trying to be a pop star again?

frazetta said:

Stop production of Under The Cherry Moon before it started

Fire the photographer prior to the Lovesexy photo shoot

Fire the writer and director of Graffiti Bridge

Fire the Game Boyz before they were hired

Fire the hairstylist up to and around the Come era thru Joy un2

now if only you could convince those Japanese businessmen from 3 Chains O' Gold to stop Prince before he left the building and force him to write his normal name.. and keep it. That whole 'Tafkap' ditty did no favors, no matter how genius I found it

MattyJam said:

I think Rave could've been a legitimate comeback for Prince had things been handled differently. I actually think TGRES had a lot of potential... They just botched its release by putting out the video three months too late. Don't forget back in 1999 music videos still had an impact. The single was not even eligible for UK chart entry, as Arista had put too many remixes on the CD single, which was a great shame seeing as the song was on heavy rotation on UK radio playlists at the time. I remember hearing it on Radio 2 (the UK's most popular radio station) every morning before going to school. I also think Wherever U Go Whatever U Do could've been a massive hit. It was simple, had easily-relatable lyrics and a gorgeous melody. It could've been one of those songs you constantly hear getting whored at weddings and funerals. [Edited 12/8/14 13:17pm]

this is a great answer. TGRES' lack of a music video caused it to slip quickly. And why were the rest of the Rave singles just promotional?? I get that Gwen Stefani's duet wasn't given the green light, but Rave is possibly the poppiest Prince album of all time (ironically released ten exact years after Batman, another supposed 'sellout' album)

I don't know how many more times I'm about to hear,

.

"Prince's career is fine"

"Prince sells out stadiums"

"Prince just reached no. 1 in my country"

.

PEOPLE, Read what I wrote in my original post! You can shout until you're blue in the face about how Prince is one of the most successful of all time, how many Grammys he's won, how he just sold out a show, how his career needs no rescuing but NO WHERE did I say it did.

.

I get that Prince is fantastically successful today and I'm happy about that, he's at a perfect place for a pop star to be at 56 IMO. But like I said in my original post (did anyone even read it, or...?), I was talking about his 'comeback' in the LATE-NINETIES. Say whatever you'd like, but his albums were barely shifting 500K at the time. For albums such as NPS, this was actually kind of impressive. But some of his supposed 'comeback' albums like Rave and Emancipation just did decent when it was obvious he wanted them to do much, much more. All the promotion, all the television, etc... that's exactly why I'm asking that, if Emancipation and Rave are viewed as failures to make a comeback (I've heard this for years), what do Prince fans think should have happened differently to prevent this?

.

Thank you

MattyJam said:

I think Rave could've been a legitimate comeback for Prince had things been handled differently. I actually think TGRES had a lot of potential... They just botched its release by putting out the video three months too late. Don't forget back in 1999 music videos still had an impact. The single was not even eligible for UK chart entry, as Arista had put too many remixes on the CD single, which was a great shame seeing as the song was on heavy rotation on UK radio playlists at the time. I remember hearing it on Radio 2 (the UK's most popular radio station) every morning before going to school. I also think Wherever U Go Whatever U Do could've been a massive hit. It was simple, had easily-relatable lyrics and a gorgeous melody. It could've been one of those songs you constantly hear getting whored at weddings and funerals.

TGRES is a snoozefest.The first single should have been "So Far,So Pleased".It's a strong,powerful pop song.Follow it up with "Baby Knows" and the album might have stood a chance.

CharismaDove said:

cookypuss said:

Not sure about "rescue" but would "take care" of Larry Graham before he had a chance to fuck with the Purple One's mind. Damn shame.

Really makes you wonder where Prince would be today if Larry had never come into his life.

You got that right! And you could replace the word "Larry" with a lot of other words!

I see cookypuss agrees.

SoulAlive said:

MattyJam said:

TGRES is a snoozefest.The first single should have been "So Far,So Pleased".It's a strong,powerful pop song.Follow it up with "Baby Knows" and the album might have stood a chance.

There weren't very many potential hit singles on Rave and certainly not on Emancipation.

On the other hand, seeing how well Scandalous and Insatiable did on the Black Charts (the latter's high position is mystifying to me) , he could have released songs like One Kiss At A Time and Silly Game and scored monster hits.

The Greatest Romance is a good song (especially the single edit, leaving out some stupid Bible lyrics) but is probably too subdued

SoulAlive said:

to me, it is unquestionable that Prince's musical output took a nose dive after becoming a JW. Lyrically it is as if he is backed into a corner and unable to really express himself. For that reason, I would fire the JW cult.

Also, the whole 90's fight with WB and changing his name really hindered his output. We got bastardised versions of albums and contract fillers from WB and over indulgent or wanna-be-a-pop-star-again albums from NPG records. Lyrically it was as if he was backed into a corner and unable to stop mentioning how hard done-by he felt. For that reason I would fire the symbol.

Two major road blocks in an otherwise substantial career. Both could still be rectified if a) he left the cult and came back to reality and b) He stopped acting like a spoilt brat with WB and worked with them properly for the fulfilment of whatever contract he recently signed with them.

Astasheiks said:

CharismaDove said:

Really makes you wonder where Prince would be today if Larry had never come into his life.

You got that right! And you could replace the word "Larry" with a lot of other words!

I see cookypuss agrees.

Damn right. JW's are a twisted evil bunch of freaks. Crazy as the scientologists IMO

I agree with Arjuna, the last post. I believe that is the sentiment with the song Way Back Home. It couldn't be any clearer to me. Just saying.

Arjuna said:

Something, we all should do. Reality is NOT what you see on TV... infact, reality is being right where you are, directly in your now with the simplistic fact that you breath and should recognize the beauty of you and what in how you can share your beauty in thoughts, actions, woods or kind deeds to others for no want in return.

Goldman-Sachs and the 1% are most pleased with this kind of hippie-passive attitude towards the agonizing planet.
Endangered animal species, starting with polar bears and elephants, a little less.

Reality is NOT what's happening at your home.

I'd tell him not to listen to any shite thats peddled on here!

Arjuna said:

What's so bad about waking up every day, giving honor to God Jehovah, checking out the nature he gave ya. Being resounsible about paying the bills and simply enjoying life? The planet (Plan It) God Jehovah did. As we walk on Earth, all was already given in the Garden, perhaps just walking and being in the now of life is the best way to simply put: B Prince is simply walking in the Garden of Now enjoying his life. Something, we all should do. Reality is NOT what you see on TV... infact, reality is being right where you are, directly in your now with the simplistic fact that you breath and should recognize the beauty of you and what in how you can share your beauty in thoughts, actions, woods or kind deeds to others for no want in return. So, sow the truth of peace, because it starts with you, ends with you and begins again with u. Respectfully, Arjuna [Edited 12/10/14 10:45am]

The sentiment is an admirable one. And truthful to an extent. Apart from the whole God/Jehovah aspect which is humanising the life energy of the universe and turning it into a judgemental, rule-making almost "human" entity. But of course as a JW you are not allowed to even question that or any of the doctrines you are told, which change on a regular basis. To the extent that the whole old testament which was once part of the JW mantra is now apparently not relevant and has been rubbished. Incredible.

[Edited 12/12/14 0:12am]

little off topic but here's what he should do now

Prince should go back to touring big arena shows with Npg with his big hits

His career is never gona die cause he's Prince but this new band thing is not really resonating with the masses.

It's no surprise that the new Prince album is outperforming the 3rdeyegirl album..

Stick with NPG and focus on your career instead of trying to push young artists like 3rdeyegirl or Andy.

Give Purple Rain the treatment it deserves..

Put out a good dvd concert full of hits.

and put out couple more quality albums if he got that in him

so ya.. forget Andy, 3rdeyegirl and just come out with it

... without the fro

[Edited 12/12/14 3:38am]

purpleshadow said:

little off topic but here's what he should do now

Prince should go back to touring big arena shows with Npg with his big hits

Were you asleep the past few years?

MattyJam said:

SoulAlive said:

TGRES is a snoozefest.The first single should have been "So Far,So Pleased".It's a strong,powerful pop song.Follow it up with "Baby Knows" and the album might have stood a chance.

I know quite a few of my friends (non-Prince fans) really dug TGRES when it came out. I've always thought of it as a 90s Sign Your Name (TTD). I still believe it could've been a smash and was the best choice for lead single. Its commercial failure had everything to do with a series of badly-timed promotional fuck ups from the label and nothing to do with the merits of the song, which IMO, was Prince's last truly great single release.

Spot on about TGRES - the Jason Nevins Remix was all over UK radio and a lot of non-fans I knew loved it. He did a lot of TV promo for Rave, some of the live performances weren't great but he did seem to be putting the work in when it was first released

skywalker said:

stillwaiting said:

I've probably written a billion posts about this. Revisionist history is fun for me. I could probably make his career better now, but he'd probably rather botch promotion, he'd probably rather have a party with the "Lovesex That's My Jam" Girl, he'd probably rather have both albums tank quickly, he'd probably rather not have any real structured tour...so my interest in this has waned a bit...

But since I like revisionist history...I'd need a time machine

1. Let 1978-1981 be as it was.

2. From 1982-83 maybe just switch "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore" for "International Lover."

3. From 1984...make "The Beautiful Ones" the 3rd single with a unique video that doesn't use the film footage.

4. From 1985 on...Just release an album every 3 years. Let Sign O The Times be the follow up to Purple Rain, make B-Sides live versions of album tracks, let the original b-sides be great album tracks.

And most important...instead of 1 album every single year, stick with the every 3-4 years, and every 10 years or so release HUGE 10-15 disc sets of vault material for the diehards.

What would this have accomplished?

Instead of having a disjointed crowded mess in the Prince section at the Wreckastows, there would have been huge demand for the next release. Imagine Kiss, U Got The Look, and SOTT as the first 3 singles from SOTT...all likely would have hit #1.

Imagine getting a 10 cd set of outtakes in 1995, 1999, and 2004. That's 30 discs of music. Each disc would be 70-79 minutes instead of the 40 minute Crystal Ball discs...

So even though there would be only 6 or so albums after Purple Rain from 1985-2004, there would have been TONS more music released. The major releases would just have him put the best songs out there for the masses, and we would have all the deep cuts to argue about on prince.org. Instead of the public looking at him as a legend, but a legend with a lot of warts, he would have sold a lot more.

But then again, there are those on this site that think crowding the market was the better path.

Just ask U2, Janet, and Michael Jackson...all 3 of who FAR outsold Prince from 1986 on by NOT flooding the market.

Just ask Michael Jackson. Far outsold Prince, but died chasing him. Bummer.

-

Could I play make believe I am Prince's manager and tweak his career here and there to my whims and wishes? Sure, but overall he has had one of the best careers in music history. Who am I to judge?

-

Do wish he'd open the vault though. I'd pay college tuition money for that stuff.

[Edited 12/4/14 20:15pm]

He died. Chasing Prince though? Highly questionable.

udo said:

purpleshadow said:

little off topic but here's what he should do now

Prince should go back to touring big arena shows with Npg with his big hits

Were you asleep the past few years?

it would be much better for his status to return to performing in big arenas. it would work better for him at this stage in his career.

What big stars on his level only do small venue concerts anyway?

[Edited 12/12/14 6:44am]

I'd tell him its 2014 and he's not an Album artist anymore as much as he'd like to think he is.

Because by the time he gets them released he's already lost interest.

He should employ a team in house, designers, people to process orders from online/disbatch etc...


Release his singles on his own label as he makes them released Digitally and limited run vinyls (Say limited to 2500 copies) with a Vault track featured on each as one of the B-sides which would encourage his fanbase to buy into it. He could

Then just tour heavilly like Bruce springsteen does (One of the highest grossing artists because of his touring)

The more he tours the higher his popularity will go.

I'd tell him its 2014 and he's not an Album artist anymore as much as he'd like to think he is.

Because by the time he gets them released he's already lost interest.

He should employ a team in house, designers, people to process orders from online/disbatch etc...


Release his singles on his own label as he makes them released Digitally and limited run vinyls (Say limited to 2500 copies) with a Vault track featured on each as one of the B-sides which would encourage his fanbase to buy into it. He could

Then just tour heavilly like Bruce springsteen does (One of the highest grossing artists because of his touring)

The more he tours the higher his popularity will go.