Why are people here saying things like "he didn't have to do a release party, so why complain?" etc., etc. No, he didn't have to do one. Of course. But, when one does announce a release party, and the ads stress that it's live from Paisley Park, I think the rational expectation is that, well, some of the songs from said CD's would be played. When we wait and get a host who knows really nothing about Prince (I was literally wincing as she was going down the hall commenting on the timeline pics), is woefully amatuerish at just speaking into a microphone, Prince giving orders through a phone, and in the end, they play one song from one CD, I think some are well within their rights to bitch and moan. Prince may be able to stay up all night and do as he pleases the next day, but many of us don't have that luxury. So starting late, having to watch the host, and see it wrap after 3 live songs...well, I think that was just a tad unprofessional and worthy of some complaining.

The sad thing is, I know that if I was there, and given the opportunity to host it, I would have probably declined. If they made me an offer I couldn't refuse, then I promise I would've done better. Maybe not a lot better, but it would've been better! I'm no professional actor, but I do engage in public speaking on a very low level from time to time....but I would have been embarrassed for Prince if it was me. I know it would be laughed at as unorganized. But I would've known the band name he's had since 1990, and I would've known who Jimi Hendrix is. And I know who Liv Warfield is. Unless she changed her name to Liv Warners or whatever photochick called her.

A two-hour live stream wherein a band leader performed 3 songs on the release date of a pair of energetic new albums, started late and enlisted the help of a poorly prepared, giddy photographer.

Strange and very disappointing, but also not too surprising.

BlackandRising said:

Why are people here saying things like "he didn't have to do a release party, so why complain?" etc., etc. No, he didn't have to do one. Of course. But, when one does announce a release party, and the ads stress that it's live from Paisley Park, I think the rational expectation is that, well, some of the songs from said CD's would be played. When we wait and get a host who knows really nothing about Prince (I was literally wincing as she was going down the hall commenting on the timeline pics), is woefully amatuerish at just speaking into a microphone, Prince giving orders through a phone, and in the end, they play one song from one CD, I think some are well within their rights to bitch and moan. Prince may be able to stay up all night and do as he pleases the next day, but many of us don't have that luxury. So starting late, having to watch the host, and see it wrap after 3 live songs...well, I think that was just a tad unprofessional and worthy of some complaining.

Prince has almost 40 years in the music business. We're decades past him being a "tad unprofessional". That little skinny motherfucker with the high voice is down right UNGRATEFUL and flat out DISRESPECTFUL! It's just about damn time for more people to stop placating his ass and call it like it is!

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

BlackandRising said:

Why are people here saying things like "he didn't have to do a release party, so why complain?" etc., etc. No, he didn't have to do one. Of course. But, when one does announce a release party, and the ads stress that it's live from Paisley Park, I think the rational expectation is that, well, some of the songs from said CD's would be played. When we wait and get a host who knows really nothing about Prince (I was literally wincing as she was going down the hall commenting on the timeline pics), is woefully amatuerish at just speaking into a microphone, Prince giving orders through a phone, and in the end, they play one song from one CD, I think some are well within their rights to bitch and moan. Prince may be able to stay up all night and do as he pleases the next day, but many of us don't have that luxury. So starting late, having to watch the host, and see it wrap after 3 live songs...well, I think that was just a tad unprofessional and worthy of some complaining.

Prince has almost 40 years in the music business. We're decades past him being a "tad unprofessional". That little skinny motherfucker with the high voice is down right UNGRATEFUL and flat out DISRESPECTFUL! It's just about damn time for more people to stop placating his ass and call it like it is!

Yeah sometimes being eccentric for too long turns into downright foolishness after awhile.

Just watching the replay of this eehh what to call it?

KingSausage said:

YES. And you know he's going to blame WB for the albums not doing better than they'll do. He will say WB failed to promote them. He had a great opportunity tonight. He blew it.

yes, you are right.

commerial suicide, that is what it is. We die hard fans will buy the albums. no one else (no one made it to the end of this lame shit)

i thought it was great. i liked what i heard last night.

SeventeenDayze said:

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Prince has almost 40 years in the music business. We're decades past him being a "tad unprofessional". That little skinny motherfucker with the high voice is down right UNGRATEFUL and flat out DISRESPECTFUL! It's just about damn time for more people to stop placating his ass and call it like it is!

Yeah sometimes being eccentric for too long turns into downright foolishness after awhile.

I don't even see it as eccentricity anymore because that...even I could still excuse. His special brand of bullshit is deliberate and it has finally sunken in crystal damn clearly to me; that he wants OFF the pedestal that he's been on for so very, very long.

I just think it would have been a FANTASTIC opportunity to show what he's about given the cd releases.

Case in point; when I bought my CD's, the sales person flipped them over and over and finally was like "he's still making music and going by Prince again?" Then she proceeded to say how much she liked 1999, PR, Kiss, etc., but she thought he just became some kind of recluse. The cashier was prolly around 35 or so, so not totally out of his demographic, but the fact that Prince is not really on your radar unless he's already on your radar is kind of problematic. A little positive marketing can't hurt his case for real music. The bullshit we saw last night certainly didn't help, and I think he blew an opportunity to reel in alot of people who, having seen that, were just reinforced in their belief that he's on his own little island and not of this world.

BlackandRising said:

Anyone catch when she was walking down the hall and pointed to the Diamonds and Pearls poster and insinuated it was Prince and 3rd Eye Girl?

One thing I didn't pick up on thought was that the backgroud of the album cover are the Purple Rain platinum records.

He should immediately be announcing a major US tour.

ficktyt said:

Anyone catch when she was walking down the hall and pointed to the Diamonds and Pearls poster and insinuated it was Prince and 3rd Eye Girl?

One thing I didn't pick up on thought was that the backgroud of the album cover are the Purple Rain platinum records.

He should immediately be announcing a major US tour.

She didn't "insinuate" it. She erroneously said it, flat out.

[Edited 10/1/14 20:01pm]

Get over yourselves. The so-called "bullshit" you saw last night was a release party not an album-exclusive party. I really liked it, especially the jam sessions and new songs.

Btw, Who do you think is going to tune in to a Prince cd release party in 2014 - after 36+ years of recording music ?? Some woman who isn't sure if he still makes music and goes by "Prince" still ?

He lost his fair-weather fans a couple decades ago. And he's better off without them.

As for the mini-concert and videos, I loved it all and want to hear more.

...Which is why I'll be jamming out to his new cd's in just a few minutes

Thanks Prince and crew!

remko said:

Just watching the replay of this eehh what to call it?

KingSausage said:

YES. And you know he's going to blame WB for the albums not doing better than they'll do. He will say WB failed to promote them. He had a great opportunity tonight. He blew it.

yes, you are right.

commerial suicide, that is what it is. We die hard fans will buy the albums. no one else (no one made it to the end of this lame shit)

I doubt many non-diehards even got to the beginning of it. Nothing starts after 10 minutes? Ehh--they're switching to something else.

XNY said:

Get over yourselves. The so-called "bullshit" you saw last night was a release party not an album-exclusive party. I really liked it, especially the jam sessions and new songs.

Btw, Who do you think is going to tune in to a Prince cd release party in 2014 - after 36+ years of recording music ?? Some woman who isn't sure if he still makes music and goes by "Prince" still ?

He lost his fair-weather fans a couple decades ago. And he's better off without them.

As for the mini-concert and videos, I loved it all and want to hear more.

...Which is why I'll be jamming out to his new cd's in just a few minutes

Thanks Prince and crew!

Actually, yes--I do think that sort of person might just click over. If it's there on the Yahoo news page (which it was in two different stories in the general roll of stories), yeah, they might. I've clicked on feeds (or even decided to click later) for performers I have almost no awareness or interest in, and there's been enough stuff popping up that people might do just that.

.

If they did, well... they got fairly little evidence that the albums were any real big deal, since they'd have been told multiple times that the performers have moved on and can barely be bothered to think about all that old crap.

.

I liked the snippets of new songs--I'm ready for more stuff, even as I'm digesting the new albums (I'm not horribly worked up about NPGQ--but who knows? I might like it when it actually comes out). The performance, when it finally came, was nice enough. But it still seemed like a missed opportunity, especially since the host seemed to be almost as clueless as the woman you guys are referring to. It was a really poor version of the "Love 4 One Another" show, with less music, less script, more time, and way too many hallways.

XNY said:

Get over yourselves. The so-called "bullshit" you saw last night was a release party not an album-exclusive party. I really liked it, especially the jam sessions and new songs.

Btw, Who do you think is going to tune in to a Prince cd release party in 2014 - after 36+ years of recording music ?? Some woman who isn't sure if he still makes music and goes by "Prince" still ?

He lost his fair-weather fans a couple decades ago. And he's better off without them.

As for the mini-concert and videos, I loved it all and want to hear more.

...Which is why I'll be jamming out to his new cd's in just a few minutes

Thanks Prince and crew!

it's great that you liked it, but it doesn't negate that it was, in fact, bullshit. When I see bullshit I call it out as bullshit.

One would think that Prince, joining with WB again, is trying to actually (and this is so crazy!) bring fair weather fans"into the fold. If he just wanted his hardcore base, why not just put it out via the web as he has been doing? Why join with WB? Why tweet about all of the reviews and what not? I'll tell you why, because he's trying to get more people to listen to his music. Last night would have been a PERFECT opportunity for him to pull out all the stops and just once, start on time, have a pro, or someone who could have at least faked her way through the "tour" host the event, show off PP, and then play a few songs. From the newly released CD's. But no. We had someone who sounded like she was giving morning announcements in high school, a studio tour with Prince on the phone, an "interview" with the band where they even had that "what the fuck are you doing" look the entire time, and an uninspired performance with what, 3 songs, two of which I would bet that even the audeince was like, wtf?? So again, you're welcome to your opinion, but remember, so is everyone else. So you should get over yourself, it seems.

I didn't catch the whole thing (thankfully, it seems) since my boyfriend and I were watching Macy Gray at a small club in Cleveland - man, was that a great show.

Anyway, when we got back to the hotel I logged in on my phone and started at the part where Josh was playing that slow song in the studio with Prince on the phone. Silly, for sure, and that photographer-slash-host was cringe-worthy. There is absolutely no excuse to not know the name of Prince's band, or to claim that "Lovesex" was her jam (ha!) or that Diamond and Pearl are somehow 3rdEyeGirl. What an embarassment. Not to mention the fact that (as my boyfriend rightly pointed out) that woman should absolutely not be advertising the fact that she had anything to do with that album cover, because it's awful. And who knows what she means when she says she did the "art direction" for the album, because there's the cover, the back, and the disc itself. There's no booklet even ... so really, you "art directed" a tiny pamphlet. Way to go.

Anyway. To me, the performance was okay, until the rapping started. I even thought PBL sounded pretty good, since they didn't start with the girls chanting the chorus and in fact Prince sang all of it. Such an improvement...and then the rapping started. Good God.

What I found interesting though is that my boyfriend (who is just being exposed to Prince through me), as soon as 3rdEyeGirl's interview and wardrobe show-and-tell began, commented that the three girls looked terrified of saying the wrong thing and getting in trouble. And also, as soon as I saw them, I told him, "Within the next 2 minutes, they're gonna talk about ping pong." And guess what. Sigh.

I would have loved to hear him play something from AOA, because to reproduce anything from that album with the exception of The Breakdown with any kind of authenticity in terms of the way it sounds on the album would require a good deal of skill and effort...and I haven't seen Prince put that much effort into any of his live performances in a long time, which is a shame.

Having said all that, watching them play PBL live confirmed for me once again that I would absolutely kill to get to see a show with Prince and 3rdEyeGirl (instead of the tired old NPG), as long as the NPGQ stays far, far away.

BlackandRising said:

I just think it would have been a FANTASTIC opportunity to show what he's about given the cd releases.

Case in point; when I bought my CD's, the sales person flipped them over and over and finally was like "he's still making music and going by Prince again?" Then she proceeded to say how much she liked 1999, PR, Kiss, etc., but she thought he just became some kind of recluse. The cashier was prolly around 35 or so, so not totally out of his demographic, but the fact that Prince is not really on your radar unless he's already on your radar is kind of problematic. A little positive marketing can't hurt his case for real music. The bullshit we saw last night certainly didn't help, and I think he blew an opportunity to reel in alot of people who, having seen that, were just reinforced in their belief that he's on his own little island and not of this world.

... I thought maybe dancing ..?

CarrieMpls said:

calciumpaul said:

Is the audience at Paisley Park always that lame? People on the front row just STOOD there!

What do you want them to be doing? Juggling?

calciumpaul said:

... I thought maybe dancing ..?

CarrieMpls said:

What do you want them to be doing? Juggling?

I know, I caught that too...

they just stand there will no enthusiasm what so ever?

what's up with that?

Geez, at least look excited...

I know I would!

XNY said:

Get over yourselves. The so-called "bullshit" you saw last night was a release party not an album-exclusive party. I really liked it, especially the jam sessions and new songs.

Btw, Who do you think is going to tune in to a Prince cd release party in 2014 - after 36+ years of recording music ?? Some woman who isn't sure if he still makes music and goes by "Prince" still ?

He lost his fair-weather fans a couple decades ago. And he's better off without them.

As for the mini-concert and videos, I loved it all and want to hear more.

...Which is why I'll be jamming out to his new cd's in just a few minutes

Thanks Prince and crew!

The old Prince is too damn old to act right, argument is back. Since Prince turned 30 that one has been making the rounds. Hear that Prince? They say you too damned old to be successful, lol. Meanwhile Barbara Streisand is looking at a No.1 debut next week, hehe...

funksterr said:

XNY said:

Get over yourselves. The so-called "bullshit" you saw last night was a release party not an album-exclusive party. I really liked it, especially the jam sessions and new songs.

Btw, Who do you think is going to tune in to a Prince cd release party in 2014 - after 36+ years of recording music ?? Some woman who isn't sure if he still makes music and goes by "Prince" still ?

He lost his fair-weather fans a couple decades ago. And he's better off without them.

As for the mini-concert and videos, I loved it all and want to hear more.

...Which is why I'll be jamming out to his new cd's in just a few minutes

Thanks Prince and crew!

The old Prince is too damn old to act right, argument is back. Since Prince turned 30 that one has been making the rounds. Hear that Prince? They say you too damned old to be successful, lol. Meanwhile Barbara Streisand is looking at a No.1 debut next week, hehe...

Age is just a number

Did the tour of Paisley Park only comprise of Maya talking about that mural?

..

[Edited 10/2/14 18:51pm]

rap said:

Did the tour of Paisley Park only comprise of Maya talking about that mural?

No. It also included other hallways, pointing into empty rooms and saying things like "can you believe they recorded the album in there?" and her pushing her way through a crowded room. She read things as she walked by them, like the writing on awards.

Very exciting.

EddieC said:

rap said:

Did the tour of Paisley Park only comprise of Maya talking about that mural?

No. It also included other hallways, pointing into empty rooms and saying things like "can you believe they recorded the album in there?" and her pushing her way through a crowded room. She read things as she walked by them, like the writing on awards.

Very exciting.

Okay. Is it possible view the whole tour?