fusk said:

Truth be told, from the hype, the advance word & the "Oh, this guitar solo had me in tears" nonsense, I expected (read: hoped) for much, much more. This is a woefully underwhelming song that makes We March seem powerful & well thought out by comparison. It will sound better live because Prince is an extraordinary live performer, but the song itself is a well-intentioned disappointment.

The chant is my favorite part. Rights are not easily won, nor easily maintained, they are fought for. Rights need to be constantly fought for. There a whole swath of the US population being denied rights granted to them by the constitution (which was fought for, vilolently).

No justice, no peace.

[Edited 5/9/15 14:50pm]

RJOrion said:

when a black entertainer doesnt use his platform to make social/political statements on behalf of his people, he is called a Tom or Sellout... when a black entertainer does use his platform to make social/political statements, he gets mocked and ridiculed.. and mostly by non-blacks, in both cases.. damned if u do...damned if u dont... let them tell it *drops 2 pennies on the floor*

Huh?

Damn, I wish Rick James were still around.

Let Prince open up with Baltimore and then Rick follow with Mr. Policeman.

"Why don't u stay awhile. See how it's done..."

And at the 3:45 mark, Rick sings "... I'd rather be a funk n roll singer...." (1981)

[Edited 5/9/15 14:57pm]

[Edited 5/9/15 15:06pm]

pRINCE HAS A HEART BUT WE KNOW THIS WILL NOT MAKE A CHANGE IN THIS HEARTLESS WORLD WE LIVE IN......

The hype will soon be over, the cameras will soon stop filming and the MEDIA will move on

to the NEXT 'HOT TOPIC'....)(nothing to see here folks type of attitude)...

BUT

I have to agree with this man's blog 99.9% ...

http://haroldmillerjr.com...only-when/

LOVE4ONEANOTHER

-----------------------------------------------------------

~If you can read this Thank a Teacher~

terrig said:

purplethunder3121 said:

Thank you Mowisse. I'm lighting up already.

Quite typical of late

Mainstream Media loves it

The org hates it

NEXTTTTT

SuperFurryAnimal said:

terrig said:

The chant is my favorite part. Rights are not easily won, nor easily maintained, they are fought for. Rights need to be constantly fought for. There a whole swath of the US population being denied rights granted to them by the constitution (which was fought for, vilolently).

No justice, no peace.

[Edited 5/9/15 14:50pm]

Yes but with rioting and looting the feds will push to militarize and control LE further. Namely they want rioting to bring in martial law, justify militarization of LE. SNIP -OF4S

well thats happening anyway, riots or no....its already happened....really unfair to expect people who are denied their basic fundamental rights by authority to respect the laws and justice system that so blatently isn't applied to them fairly.

zennabell said:

Haven't the people of Baltimore suffered enough!

Pentacle said:

Polo1026 said:

The response to this song is really sad. Every Prince song doesn't need to be some earth shattering piece of art or something.

If you (= Prince) believe something important went down in Baltimore, and you announce to the whole world that you've written a song about, then yes, it better be profound....

[Edited 5/9/15 13:11pm]

Absolutely.

bonatoc said:

ahightthen said:

Beause you, your grey thin hair and your FAT belly could write a better song ?!

Post the lyrix and the link to the upload right here:

Or shut the frog up. 4ever.

Let's have BlackandRising sing us his refrain on mankind and the internet.

Don't have one, and never claimed to, and I don't use the internet to opine on how badly I feel someone else's efforts are when it comes to actually doing something in the face if indifference. All you are doing is complaining. No, whining, actually, about what you feel Prince should or should not have done. When you have the balls to come out and do something concrete about Tamir Rice and the other incidents of this nature, then you can talk smack. As it stands, all you're doing is bitching and moaning about something that you will never stand up to, unless it's on your keyboard, on the internet.

Prince has a history of speaking through song. This is no different than his response to We Are The World, Katrina, 9/11, etc. He can't write a song for every violent incident. Maybe, just maybe, this is a response to the numerouns incidents of violence against black men that has happened recently. He reached a point where he had to speak about it in the way that he normally does. What your'e saying isn't witty, or profound. It's just a long, drawn-out whine typical of this site.

Chew on that.

RJOrion said:

Erotic Dreamer says "Damn, i wish Rick James were still around" ---------- why?...you need some crack cocaine?

is as strong as it gets for me.

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful

It's alright. Nothing outstanding, but pleasant enough. (Should a commentary on police brutality and its social repercussions be pleasant and bouncy? ) Typical of a certain strand of his 'late style', anyway (RnR Love Affair, etc). More of a balm than a call to arms.

The harmonies are the most evocative part of this, I'd say (and, after three listens, the only part I could hum you). It's just a feature of his late style that he often seems unable to write a memorable melody and just kind of talk-sings over the track. I always find that odd, since he wrote very distinctive melodies in his earlier work. Simple melodies, yes, but they were distinctive enough that he could minimalistically craft an entire song around just a short melodic 'loop' and make that work (Erotic City, Love Thy Will Be Done, etc).

Similar with lyrics: there's often a seed of an interesting idea in what he does now, but it sounds like, for whatever reason, he just doesn't have the will to really work on that and develop it into something more powerful; he's more interested in getting it finished, getting it out there, and then moving onto the next thing. That said, I think the lyrics work much better as part of a song than they did in written form.

Still, at least there's not an oblique Sade reference in the title.

"Let's take all the guns away"

Who gets to keep them under lock and key?

7thday said:

"Let's take all the guns away"

Who gets to keep them under lock and key?

here's a thought; Maybe it's not a literal reference to taking guns away; maybe he's commenting on the influx of illegal guns in the AA community, that has to come from somewhere, and how if there wasn't such easy access to weapons, then maybe there wouldn't be so many black men killing other black men in these communities.

If I produced it I'd have had him do the song two ways:

Baltimore (healing mix) - solo prince vocal - piano only - much slower, reflective, pained, falsetto soaring (sometimes it snows in april kind of sad)

Baltimore (anger mix) - solo prince vocal with his own backups & dubs - loud, fast, mean & mad & screaming guitar

make a 'video double single' --- sell them both for 100% of the proceeds to the charity.

the video would intercut scenes from healing & anger mixes as well as flash all the names of those murdered by police to highlight the sadness, injustice and justified anger caused by the blantant disregard for black lives.

im so disgusted with my country...this is a USA prob lem its not local its national.


i can see why mainstream likes the song - its non-confrontational and he tempered that with the chant alot of people will hear it and thats what needed to happen.

[Edited 5/9/15 16:06pm]

I like it

2020 said:

Quite typical of late

Mainstream Media loves it

The org hates it

NEXTTTTT

.

yeah i dunno what mainstream media's problem is... slow news day, maybe.

.

seriously, that fox news reporter cried over a guitar solo? Uh huhhhh...

I was diggin it until the "no justice no peace" chant; the first verse was good and i was waiting for the second after the chorus...but it never came. Seems kind of like a "setup", something for Prince to have the entire audience chant tomorrow.

BlackandRising said:

bonatoc said:

Let's have BlackandRising sing us his refrain on mankind and the internet.

Don't have one, and never claimed to, and I don't use the internet to opine on how badly I feel someone else's efforts are when it comes to actually doing something in the face if indifference. All you are doing is complaining. No, whining, actually, about what you feel Prince should or should not have done. When you have the balls to come out and do something concrete about Tamir Rice and the other incidents of this nature, then you can talk smack. As it stands, all you're doing is bitching and moaning about something that you will never stand up to, unless it's on your keyboard, on the internet.

Prince has a history of speaking through song. This is no different than his response to We Are The World, Katrina, 9/11, etc. He can't write a song for every violent incident. Maybe, just maybe, this is a response to the numerouns incidents of violence against black men that has happened recently. He reached a point where he had to speak about it in the way that he normally does. What your'e saying isn't witty, or profound. It's just a long, drawn-out whine typical of this site.

Chew on that.

I'm chewing nada, punk.

If you knew your history better, you'd know he already state his ultimate position on guns a while ago (Slow Love i t ain't).
And my arguments stand tall.
You're just too lazy to come and have a real discussion.

Petronize me all you want, I'll be here waiting, whining.



More pop-corn, anyone?

terrig said:

bonatoc said:

BlackandRising said:

Don't have one, and never claimed to, and I don't use the internet to opine on how badly I feel someone else's efforts are when it comes to actually doing something in the face if indifference. All you are doing is complaining. No, whining, actually, about what you feel Prince should or should not have done. When you have the balls to come out and do something concrete about Tamir Rice and the other incidents of this nature, then you can talk smack. As it stands, all you're doing is bitching and moaning about something that you will never stand up to, unless it's on your keyboard, on the internet.

Prince has a history of speaking through song. This is no different than his response to We Are The World, Katrina, 9/11, etc. He can't write a song for every violent incident. Maybe, just maybe, this is a response to the numerouns incidents of violence against black men that has happened recently. He reached a point where he had to speak about it in the way that he normally does. What your'e saying isn't witty, or profound. It's just a long, drawn-out whine typical of this site.

Chew on that.

I'm chewing nada, punk.

If you knew your history better, you'd know he already state his ultimate position on guns a while ago (Slow Love i t ain't).
And my arguments stand tall.
You're just too lazy to come and have a real discussion.

Petronize me all you want, I'll be here waiting, whining.



More pop-corn, anyone?

more nothings, but it's telling that you had to go with "punk".

Be that as it may, I know his history; you apparently do not. And the thing is, you have no argument, anymore than my 4 year old has an argument when complaining or whining about not getting something he wants, but can't have.

MinorG said:

I like it and think it is a deliberate attempt to craft a chilled counterpoint to the anger and volatility of the situation. The guitar is very Alexa de Paris and not the flashy aggressive solo I was expecting. It reminds me of sst as well, maybe that's a place that he goes to now in times of distress, a soothing melodic vibe? A dollop of honey to soothe rather than pouring further fuel on the fire. [Edited 5/9/15 15:47pm]

i agree with you.....

terrig said:

MinorG said:

I like it and think it is a deliberate attempt to craft a chilled counterpoint to the anger and volatility of the situation. The guitar is very Alexa de Paris and not the flashy aggressive solo I was expecting. It reminds me of sst as well, maybe that's a place that he goes to now in times of distress, a soothing melodic vibe? A dollop of honey to soothe rather than pouring further fuel on the fire. [Edited 5/9/15 15:47pm]

i agree with you.....

That's what I was thinking...