I think people are just picking songs they just don't like and calling it a filler. Orgasm off the come album is a filler. The plan off of the Emancipation Album feels like a filler to me. Wedding feast off of Rainbow Children is a filler

TrivialPursuit said:

"Do U Lie?"

"Life Can Be So Nice"

the piano fluff before "Condition of the Heart"

that stupid ass tag ending to "Temptation"

That's not a lot considering the first 10 years. However, For You overall is sorta AOR schmaltzy stuff. The genius of a kid writing all this is there, but in general, it's not stood up against time that well, IMO. Doesn't mean they're bad songs, and I love me some yacht rock like a MFer, but For You is just a bit too bland for me sometimes.

But after 1988, God help us all.

Lemon Crush

Strollin

Push

Jughead

Arrogance

Shy

Dinner With Delores

I Rock, Therefore I Am

I can't even begin to touch Emancipation, but it could easily be one very very strong 80-minute CD (including cutting the title track).

Even shit like "Get Loose" and "P Control" remixes on CB were filler. And hell, all that empty space in general ...ever figure out the time on those three disks? Look at the length of all the songs, in comparison to 240 minutes available. Does air count as filler?

The examples given here as pre 1988 filler seem the opposite to me. They were all unique songs that didn't just rely on his easy for him traditional funk sound. Now i do agree with you about Emancipation as far as how they sound to me, though I imagine in his mind they weren't filler. After all it was his coming out party from being a slave! Lots of rote R&B there without his usual creativity (on the lesser songs that is).

Yup!

SoulAlive said:

rdhull said:

Hot Thing

I agree.I think this song is too simplistic.The lyrics are lazy ("barely 21....lookin' for big fun").It would have been cool if this song was removed from the album and replaced with the superior,more creative "Wonderful Ass"

NorthC said:

If you start an album with "Come" and end with "Orgasm", I think that makes perfect sense. So... Once again... No filler... [Edited 5/4/17 14:23pm]

Agree to disagree

IstenSzek said:

rdhull said:

RJOrion said:

rdhull said: i could see you saying "Trust"....but the rest of that list?...filler?....nah

Y'all REALLY love Symbol album. I have no idea why though. The whole album could be erased from his repetoire and not be missed.

Damn, Christopher! Damn.

ufoclub said:

Didn't Wendy and Lisa acknowledge that back in the day they all knew that certain songs were home runs, single worthy, and others were filler?

I remember them saying they acted as a control mechanism to stop Prince repeating himself. They said, on one particular example, 'hey, thats a little too When Doves Cry' or words to that effect and Prince would adapt.

Sounds good, but how 'It' got through that scrutiny, only god knows.

Moonbeam said:

rdhull said:

Y'all REALLY love Symbol album. I have no idea why though. The whole album could be erased from his repetoire and not be missed.

Damn, Christopher! Damn.

NorthC said:

If you start an album with "Come" and end with "Orgasm", I think that makes perfect sense. So... Once again... No filler... [Edited 5/4/17 14:23pm]

It's hardly about the song titles; if Orgasm was just the sound of a toilet flushing, would your theory still stand?

I think it's purely about the quality of songs...?

Emancipation is filler from start to finish. In fact, I couldn't brew a decent 1 CD version out of it, hell even no EP.

The New Power Soul album felt like a lot of filler at the time. Initially I liked The One, Come On and Wasted Kisses. I think I like Mad Sex more now, but the rest still feels like filler to me.

of course....he SAID he didnt give the record companies his best tracks

TrivialPursuit said:

brassneck said:

TrivialPursuit said:

"Do U Lie?"

"Life Can Be So Nice"

the piano fluff before "Condition of the Heart"

that stupid ass tag ending to "Temptation"

You are beyond bonkers crazy for putting "Do You Lie?" in a filler list.

No, actually it's just my opinion. I never said anyone had to agree with it. It's a fluffy little song, and that not that strong against anything else on the record.

Ronnie Talk To Russia if by "filler" we mean something that fills my life with good times and happiness.

rdhull said:

Come and Chaos n Disorder seem like filler songs as albums mostly.

During the classic era though:

Glam Slam

The Max

Arrogance

It

Hot Thing

Tick Tick Bang

Trust

Lemon Crush

I'm glad someone else feels this way. It's tracks like those that keep me from seeing SOTT as the 110% masterpiece that everyone feels it is. Those songs are by no means bad, but there are plenty of tracks he left on the cutting room floor at the time that are waaay better. Maybe they wouldn't have made the album quite as cohesive, but they would have at least been more interesting.

mediumdry said:

In one of the many interviews with Susan Rogers she mentioned that Play In The Sunshine was one of the songs that was recorded to fill space between other songs on the album. Now granted, that does not mean the song (or songs recorded for similar reasons) is filler in the sense that it wasn't given effort.

.

In any event, I guess that makes it as close to filler as it comes.

I don't think that song counts as filler, so much as he wrote it specifically to serve as a bridge between two songs that didn't flow together as smoothly otherwise. It definitely takes talent and vision to do something like that, especially when the song ends up as cool as "Play In The Sunshine" did

TheFman said:

NorthC said:

If you start an album with "Come" and end with "Orgasm", I think that makes perfect sense. So... Once again... No filler... [Edited 5/4/17 14:23pm]

It's hardly about the song titles; if Orgasm was just the sound of a toilet flushing, would your theory still stand?

I think it's purely about the quality of songs...?

.

When Come came out, Vanity/Denise had health and money problems. I think Orgasm was specifically added so as to pay royalties to her. Can't see another reason to include it.

.

There are many songs I do not like that Prince released. To me, those are superfluous. Others love them. I mean, half the discussion in this thread is about people not liking songs and others liking them. (How can you not like Tick Tick Bang (both versions) or It?)

.

Are there songs where Prince just didn't work hard on it... even Orgasm underwent a few "versions" (it was Poem before, with some spoken word that was later spread throughout the album), so he did work on it repeatedly. And that is as close to doing a song half-assed as you can get, I think.

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Other examples are the original demos for Kiss and Alphabet Street, of course. (both I love in their eventual versions)

I remember an interview that Prince did in 1982 shortly after the release of 1999.He mentioned an album review where the critic said that "All The Critics...." and "DMSR" are the two filler tracks on an otherwise brilliant album Prince had good reason to be annoyed,lol.I love those tracks!