lustmealways said:

private joy deserves classic status. madly underrated. masterpiece.

also love that synth riff that kind of counts it in at the start when he played it live.

[Edited 5/4/20 13:30pm]

cERTAINLY IS.

herb4 said:

How "She's Always in my Hair" didn't wind up on ATWIAD as a lead single is one of them head scratchers. It would have made a great opening track for side 2 (or anywhere) and is better than any song on the album.

This was the beginning (or continuation one could argue) of Prince openly fucking with us. Obviously he did it before and always seemed one step ahead of "the game". The difference being that this was on the heels of the massive, world changing bomb of Purple Rain so him playing with folks was amplified.

"Raspberry Beret" is fine and a good song but imagine SAIMH htting radio stations out of nowhere in Spring of 85 similar to what he did with "When Doves Cry". I think that song's inclusion alone would have bumped reviews of the album up a star/number and would have generated a ton of buzz. But knowing Prince, he purposely relegated it to a b-side. He seemed like to feed us gradually, at his own pace, and keep us wanting. Seeking.

Come to think of it, all the b-sides from ATWIAD should have been on the album (Girl, SAIMH, Hello) but Prince was gonna Prince.

God bless him but it's a better record with those songs on it. Maybe not Hello which kind of feels like a b-side but the other 2 I think were more developed as the psychedlic tracks he was striving for and would have made for a stronger album.

Sorry for the rant.

1. That's debatable.


2. I always thought, and still think, putting incredible songs on the B-sides
of his singles was crucial to establish what Prince was about.

Such a strong artistic statement.
Prince's B-sides were an impeccable Trojan Horse to Uptown.
If you thought the B-Side was as amazing as anything on the album,
first you knew the Kid didn't kid about music,
and that he was much more than what you'd expect him to be.

You can't omit the fact that by the eghties, Pop Music was in full industrial mode,
and so most of all others 45rpm B-sides were either the instrumental version,
a song from the same album, or a song from a previous album.
It took years for Jackson and Madonna to equal this generosity.

Consider the stark contrast, speaking of musical genres,
between America and Girl, Mountains and Alexa de Paris,
Sign O’ The Times and La La La, He He Hee.
Everytime Prince says to the potential fan:
"I can go other places, totally opposite. Music is music.".

Prince brought back the sixties way of thinking the record industry (when it was barely one),
and a substantial portion of his hundred of millions records sold are made of singles.
And it's a commercial move, too.
Kids who dig the album gonna buy my singles.
I put out an four songs EP which is a complement to the album.
Collect'em all if you want it.

Man, back in the days I could have an aural love story for weeks
with just one of Prince Maxi-Singles.
How great it was to have an expansion to the album,
not something simply "taken from" something already released.


3. We should have a permanent sticky thread open on
"How I dream to be Prince's manager, Prince's record company,
and Prince himself in some Watchmen’s alternate 1985".
Can we stop this nonsense fantasy on how big he could have been?
Skipper is a legend PRECISELY because he chose to put
"She' Alwawys In My Hair" as a B-side.
He knew how good it was.
And so did we, right?

Recruiting purple Girls and Boys is not something you can put in a bottle.
Please let lesser talents publicize themselves as sugar carbonated soda.
Oh wait, they did.


4. Couldn't have said it any better.

[Edited 5/5/20 8:12am]

Just As Long As We're Together

SantanaMaitreya said:

About b-sides: I remember that in the 80s somebody said to me: "I never play the b-sides of my singles." I thought that was kind of strange, but it wasn't. There was a Belgian band called Soul Sister who in 88 or 89 went so far as to make a single that didn't even have a b-side and they explained this by saying that nobody listens to b-sides anyway. And if I remember correctly, the single was sold for half the price. I remember the story, but I forgot which song it was!

That's how bad the situation was.
It wasn't interesting to buy the single
if you already had the album.

And if you bought the album
after buying the single, there was no incentive
to go back and listen to the single.

We fa.m.n.s always waited for Prince's next single release
in thrills and excitement.

You could fill a 90 minutes cassette of B-sides,
and end up with your own unreleased double album.
Even with his released stuff, Prince could make you feel like a pirate.
Like belonging to his club (never mind the side acts).
One of the ones in the know.