DarkHorse77 said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

There is a finished Parade outtake (not heard) God Is Everywhere

Yes, I've never heard anything about that one. I did read somewhere that Edwin Konings (sp?) is finishing up a Prince discography book like the ones he did on P-Funk and Sly Stone so maybe we'll know more.

Susan Rogers talked about.
Another Sunday Song

OldFriends4Sale said:

SimonCharles said:

I Wonder U is arguably the best 1:40 of Prince and the Revolution.

I LOVE I Wonder U, just short enough to make you mad with joy

It is. And then there's the extended version which takes the joy you're feeling and pours sunshine and delight all over it...it is simply magnificent.

databank said:

I suspect History will remember Parade as the strongest artistic statement ever made by Prince.

I may be wrong, but when you have been reading fan feedback on this very board for 16 years as I have, the more time passes, the more Parade gets respect

databank said:

I suspect History will remember Parade as the strongest artistic statement ever made by Prince.

I may be wrong, but when you have been reading fan feedback on this very board for 16 years as I have, the more time passes, the more Parade gets respect

I agree.
It is the #1 TIMELESS album of his whole career

This is an album that inspired people like Joni Mitchell Jill Scott Raphael Sadiq the Roots/Questluv DeAngelo etc

Such an odd album. I rarely break it out.

I can never quite wrap my head around it and go back and forth with it but even back when it came out I respected it for challenging me and considered it a step up from ATWIAD. I could tell Prince was something special and that my faith in Purple Rain, Dirty Mind, Controversy and 1999 was not misguided but damn if this record didn't frustrate me somehow. I suppose because it was pushing my boundaries and I was only, what...17 or 18...but even at 50 I still can't quite get a full grip on it.

A lot of it is really noisy and sort of messy but the ballads are great (for a change, IMO). I can appreciate the structual complexity of songs like "Mountains", "Christopher Tracy's Parade" and "Life Can be so Nice"; the weirdness of "I Wonder U" and the blistering funk of "anotherloverholeinyohead" and "Girls & Boys" but the fucking thing often sounds all over the place. We get "Do U Lie" out of nowhere, which no 17 year old kid wanted to hear, the delicacy of "Venus DeMilo" and whatever "New Position" is (even though I like it). The ballads and softer stuff, again, are terrific. I can't help but thing that "old friends for sale", "alexa de paris", "large room with no light" and some of the other outtakes might have improved the album.

Odd, odd record. You can almost hear him transitioning from PR to ATWIAD in real time to this one and then to SOTT where he really blistered us and dropped the fucking mic.

I guess all I can say is I have to be in the mood for it. Oddly, "Kiss" is one of my least favorite tracks on it but even that one is nice, again, when it hits at the right time and I'm in the proper mood. It's impossible to say it sucks because it's brilliant, just not to every taste.

The tie in with a pretty bad film put a tarnish on it too, I think, and sprinkled an undeserved foul odor on the whole production since it was hard to separate the two in the wake of what Prince accomplished with the trifecta of Purple Rain. Meaning...I'll put it this way...if the film were anywhere near as good as the record, I think it might have elevated the album a notch. In the same way that the PR album elevated the film, conversley, UTCM detracted almost as equally from Parade. If Pink Floyd's The Wall film had sucked as much as UTCM, I think the album would have dropped a notch or two amongst fans since it all comes off as a package.

Hope that last paragraph made sense.

[Edited 12/7/17 15:21pm]

GREAT album.

Love or $, Alexa De Paris, Old Friend 4 Sale and All My Dreams would have made Parade a better album.

214 said:

Love or $, Alexa De Paris, Old Friend 4 Sale and All My Dreams would have made Parade a better album.

Agreed. You can say that about a lot of his records but especially this one. He was churing out some great bootleg stuff around this time.

herb4 said:

214 said:

Love or $, Alexa De Paris, Old Friend 4 Sale and All My Dreams would have made Parade a better album.

Agreed. You can say that about a lot of his records but especially this one. He was churing out some great bootleg stuff around this time.

Indeed, from 1999 up to Come.

I wouldn't argue against the opinion that Parade is Prince's best album, as it is extroadinary. What I am more certain about it that it is the album that endeared me to Prince more than any other album. I was wowed by how different it was from all of his other work as well as from any other album ever made. It sounds just as brilliant and creative today as it did when it was released, a trademark of a true masterpiece.

herb4 said:

214 said:

Love or $, Alexa De Paris, Old Friend 4 Sale and All My Dreams would have made Parade a better album.

Agreed. You can say that about a lot of his records but especially this one. He was churing out some great bootleg stuff around this time.

They would have made Parade a better album...still a great album, though...arguably, Prince's best.