hey fiveorange, I appreciate that you understood where I was coming from with my post. I really tried to not sound "hateful", & I believe I did a reasonable job of that.


like you, Prince's music talent has never been an issue; he has always had more music ability in his pinky than 95% of all other musicians in the world will ever have.. in their whole bodies, in their lifetimes.

Prince has never come across as a "people person". not that he ever "had to" ; I know he had several problems with his family, with his stepfather when he was an adolescent & I am sure A LOT of that influenced his personality & his way of dealing with (& manipulating) people as he became an adult. then, once he became popular & was able to build this little "Prince world" - from which he has never left - for himself, he knew that he would be able to do basically whatever he wanted to - & of course.. "get away with it."

this being true.. it's no surprise that once Prince was.. minimally.. "threatened" by the "unexpected" success & popularity of The Time, he would eventually be able to do something about that. had Jimmy & Terry not been snowed in & missed their flight, Prince would have found some other way to subvert & divide The Time.

again, as talented as Prince was, he should not have been "threatened" by The Time or any other group. if anything, The Time being as SOLID as they were, that should have motivated him to keep his own game up - which he totally did from '78-87.

I'm sure there are enough journalists who are "constructively critical" of prince ; indeed there are probably several who simply want to outright DISS him without any sort of thought-out criticism. it's very probable that prince ignores the constructive criticism - if he doesn't "attack back" (I don't think he strikes back too often. why do that?)

prince really comes across as : "I am always right, I am always doing the right thing. whenever a problem comes up, it's because someone else messed up !"
I have NEVER read or heard prince say, I have NEVER heard about him saying something like: "well, I was wrong on that 1" or "that was a bad choice/decision on my part"
the ONLY time I have EVER heard him say "I'm sorry" in ANY of his songs was in Strange Relationship : "I'll take all the blame, yo baby I'm sorry.."
I challenge ANYONE to find 2 more - hell, find ONE more - example of where prince said in a song "I'm sorry"..
he has probably said "I'm sorry" in his songs more than he has said "in real life" since 1978!


when I was TOTALLY into Prince from 80-87.. I really thought he could do NO wrong. of course I've never met him, what I know about him I only read in the news or whatever, or from what others who have met him have said..
when the quality of his music started to go down & was less consistent, I began to see him in a more "balanced" way. I "supported" the whole "name change thing", even as the music continued to fluctuate & decrease in quality.. then of course he admitted that the name change was really only to get out of his deal with WB - not the "spiritual epiphany" he initially made it out to be. then there were all the lawsuits against fan-based websites - a few of those were legitimate.

I have not bought ANYTHING he's released since "new power soul" (& that was weak) in '98 & I haven't seen him live since that year either. here's what I say now whenever anyone asks me why I stopped digging prince :

"I couldn't keep up with prince. I could not, I was no longer willing to 'follow the direction' he & his music were taking.."

some people tell me now "but hey! prince is as good as he was in the early to mid-80s, you ought to check him out!"
maybe I should, but I am certain I would be disappointed. he set the bar SO VERY HIGH the "first time" he was Prince - again, the 78-87 era - that I know he couldn't surpass it, much less match it. some people say he is as FUNKY now as he ever was.. but Let's Work is the funkiest song he's ever made.. I know he hasn't made anything that funky since ! not that he should, not that he has to "live up to his past".. he obviously does the music he wants to do.


then, as much as I think prince should do as much as he can to re-form the original Time..
I am sure that he would impose his "no cussin" rule on them.. which would be STUPID.
(already, in fact.. I heard on that TERRIBLY disappointing new Morris Day cd there are 2 or 3 places where cussing was edited out! why??) whenever Morris or the boys wanted to cuss, they did! I want to know who's responsible for "watering down" that aspect of The Time's live performances..


I am NOT holding my breath for a true Time reunion. I would be very happy to simply get my hands on a video or dvd of 1 of their early shows, from either the Controversy or 1999 tours..
(if anybody out there is paying attention to this..!)