jaawwnn said:

PeteSilas said:

kurt loder said something profound in his RS review of the album, don't know how true it is, but he said that at the time of PR prince was working to a new fusion of black and white music and that ever since that highpoint, he was backing away from that. So he lauded the album but wondered why Prince wasn't doing his Jimi thing or his Sly thing. He surmised that maybe he just didn't like that level of fame and was either scared or bored by it. Which, oddly enough, all these years later find was true at least in terms of his being so sick of the PR project that he couldn't even go to europe with the tour even though that would have meant loads of cash. He did not like that level of fame.

There's definitely something in that alright. Look what happened to Jimi and Sly (and MJ), there's been some fair amount of writings about the unbearable pressure of representing the entire of Black America on the world stage.

I'm a white european so i'm only looking in on this from across the waters but I think Prince wasn't interested in giving the Kurt Loder's of this world what they wanted from him, and that's fair enough.

that's right, it's something that white fans and critics have no empathy or even consideration for. None. both sly and jimi felt the tension, Jimi was less "black" and more freak than either Prince or Sly but even he felt the call to get back to his roots, fire the white musicians, hang out with black folks. It's a crazy kind of schizophrenia that still happens, just look at what's going on with Kanye West. the died hair is one thing, the light shade contacts is another but it's mostly the mental shit that happens. In fact, i have a black friend, phenomenal guitarist in seattle, I've been meaning to talk to him about some of this stuff because i'm worried about him. On one hand, you know you need to reach people, as many as you can and you might not know what that can do to your soul. As a musician myself, I'm not happy with failure but I wouldn't do the shit he feels he has to. I don't need to be around a lot of people, i definitely don't need to be around white people as I just don't feel comfortable around them (sorry to my white orgers).

imprimis said:

214 said:

It really does, the accoustic guitar at the end is beautiful it should have lasted much longer.

.

Not merely being an early fadeout on the acoustic playing, there is rumor that the album track is only the first several minutes of a significantly longer one.

.

[Edited 2/28/17 17:19pm]

Pardon me, i didn't understand.

No one has mentioned the B side 'How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore'. I consider that to be his best B side. It holds alot of memories for me. I can tell you exactly where I was the first time I heard it. Such a beautiful song.

kingricefan said:

No one has mentioned the B side 'How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore'. I consider that to be his best B side. It holds alot of memories for me. I can tell you exactly where I was the first time I heard it. Such a beautiful song.

i mentioned it.

kingricefan said:

No one has mentioned the B side 'How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore'. I consider that to be his best B side. It holds alot of memories for me. I can tell you exactly where I was the first time I heard it. Such a beautiful song.

Beautiful song, one of his best, i wish it lasts longer.

PeteSilas said:

that's right, it's something that white fans and critics have no empathy or even consideration for. None. both sly and jimi felt the tension, Jimi was less "black" and more freak than either Prince or Sly but even he felt the call to get back to his roots, fire the white musicians, hang out with black folks. It's a crazy kind of schizophrenia that still happens, just look at what's going on with Kanye West. the died hair is one thing, the light shade contacts is another but it's mostly the mental shit that happens. In fact, i have a black friend, phenomenal guitarist in seattle, I've been meaning to talk to him about some of this stuff because i'm worried about him. On one hand, you know you need to reach people, as many as you can and you might not know what that can do to your soul. As a musician myself, I'm not happy with failure but I wouldn't do the shit he feels he has to. I don't need to be around a lot of people, i definitely don't need to be around white people as I just don't feel comfortable around them (sorry to my white orgers).

I hear you. It's a complicated situation over in Europe as well, US culture has such an influence. People from Ireland with an intimate knowledge of LA gang signs you know? Messy.

I was over in the US last year and saw Cameo at their Vegas residency; I was chatting to some old school fans before the show and they were utterly bewildered that some white Irish lads could be fans. I felt a little awkward about it all, didn't want to offend these fans by pretending I understood the band better because I read their wikipedia entry more times. ha. ugh.

It says something positive about the ability for music to transcend a lot of boundaries but it's also not as simple as that, our points of reference for the band were so different. I felt I learnt a lot just seeing how the crowd reacted to certain songs.

[Edited 2/28/17 18:02pm]

it does transcend and affect all peoples, Bobby Womack used to marvel how Elvis shook his community in the early days. You want to know the truth, they all make tradeoffs to be as successful as they are and it isn't just racial, Elvis made lots of compromises and it marked and changed him. I used to think Prince was singular in how he handled it all, not that he handled it perfectly but that he handled it better than anyone I could think of, but I have to now give that designation to Bruce, I think he's done a better job at keeping his head, keeping his integrity, continuing to churn out vital music than anyone I can think of. After listening to his audio bio, i'd say it was his humility that was his most potent defense against the heady stuff of fame. It's almost shocking to hear how modest he is and how limited he believes some of his talents are.