Hey all,

How do people usually do these things? Long-time reader, first time poster. I'm a student at Indiana University who recently had the incredible privilege of seeing Prince at Madison Square Garden on the 12/18 date. It was my first Prince show, and words really couldn't do it justice. I tried, though-- here's the link to my lengthy, disbelieving review over at our student-run blog!

http://www.wiux.org/blog/2011/01/18/prince-and-co-devastate-madison-square-garden-with-welcome-2-america/

Hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!

Also, I guess I should say something about my favorite Prince records (and keep this link floating up on top a little longer!)

My vote for best Prince album ever:

This is a close one, but Parade probably wins it for me, in terms of danceability, creativity, and sheer 20-years-ahead-of-its-time brilliance (if I ever make a record it'll just end up sounding like this album. I've come to accept it.) Dirty Mind is just a shade out of second place--it probably ties, actually--along with SOTT and PR, of course.

My vote for WORST Prince album ever:

I'll be honest, I haven't gotten to listen to a lot of the Symbol material, and I stayed far, far away from Lotusflower after being disappointed by "3121" and "Planet Earth," so I can't judge those albums. But it's Emancipation that really sticks in my craw as the beginning of his God-awful "Prince Lite" stuff. "Jam of the Year" should be prosecuted as a war crime.

(Also, the song "Purple Rain" veers between being really moving and completely overblown and stupid for me. Can't say why.)

Nice review.

You probably don´t know about the Sinbad connection but Prince and Larry Graham were on his show in the late 90s. Sinbad also organized an old school Funk festival where Larry was one of the performers, and Larry and Prince hooked up after one of those shows (they happened to be in the same city, Indianapolis 1997). Prince used to play a lot of GCS songs such as I Believe In You and Hair or The Jam a couple of years before he met Larry.

You should give some of those albums that you dislike another listen. They may not be as cohesive and strong as his older albums but there are lots of gems, even masterpieces, on the newer albums, too.

wescott06 said:

(Also, the song "Purple Rain" veers between being really moving and completely overblown and stupid for me. Can't say why.)

????

Huhhhh????

ecstasy said:

wescott06 said:

(Also, the song "Purple Rain" veers between being really moving and completely overblown and stupid for me. Can't say why.)

????

Huhhhh????

Right?

@Kooleaze:

Thanks! You're right, I had no idea about Prince's history with Sinbad...his announcement as a guest artist was completely baffling to me and my friends. I guess we didn't watch enough TV in the nineties, but then again we were all eight.

I agree, there are some good songs on those albums--I remember particuarly liking "Slave" and "The Human Body" from Emancipation, and "Black Sweat" is the jam. I guess it just boils down to a certain tone that I don't really care for on the later stuff; Prince singing about contentment just isn't as exciting by nature as the former in-song nervous breakdowns and X-rated come-ons. I might dig out Emancipation again sometime though; my friend Luke was urging me to reconsider not too long ago.

@ecstasy:

Ha, I guess that was a bit ungrammatical. I guess if I had to clarify I would say that the sentiment of the lyrics is touching--I heard it at a special time in my life--but all the weight that the song has picked up over the years as Prince's "signature ballad" tends to drown the song when Prince turns it into a corny BIG MOMENT at concerts, which is what I was getting at in my article. But maybe I'm just picky sometimes.

wescott06 said:

@Kooleaze:

Thanks! You're right, I had no idea about Prince's history with Sinbad...his announcement as a guest artist was completely baffling to me and my friends. I guess we didn't watch enough TV in the nineties, but then again we were all eight.

I agree, there are some good songs on those albums--I remember particuarly liking "Slave" and "The Human Body" from Emancipation, and "Black Sweat" is the jam. I guess it just boils down to a certain tone that I don't really care for on the later stuff; Prince singing about contentment just isn't as exciting by nature as the former in-song nervous breakdowns and X-rated come-ons. I might dig out Emancipation again sometime though; my friend Luke was urging me to reconsider not too long ago.

Yeah, Emancipation is a bit hit and miss as is 3121 (the title track, BS and the live version of Fury excepted), and PE all out sucked, but I would give Lotusflower a spin (just the first disk) - it will surprise you!

wescott06 said:

@ecstasy:

Ha, I guess that was a bit ungrammatical. I guess if I had to clarify I would say that the sentiment of the lyrics is touching--I heard it at a special time in my life--but all the weight that the song has picked up over the years as Prince's "signature ballad" tends to drown the song when Prince turns it into a corny BIG MOMENT at concerts, which is what I was getting at in my article. But maybe I'm just picky sometimes.

No, I had understood what you said, but didn't understand why you would call Prince's signature song "overblown and stupid". But thanks for explaining further for the judgement of ur commentary on the fact that it is turned into a shrine-like, aura song during the actual concert. But that is for the old skool fans who haven't heard the song in a while and want to hear it how they percieved it from the film.

I had thought u were calling it that as a whole, but that was my misinterpretation. Thanks for the clear-up