A CD-R I've never bothered making:

1. Betcha By Golly Wow
2. I Can't Make U Love Me
3. La, La, La Means I Love U
4. One Of Us
5. Everyday Is A Winding Road
6. When Will We B Paid?
7. A Case Of U
8. Purple House

All his officially-released studio cover versions. Some tracks I don't like (La, La, La..., Everyday...), but some tracks I adore (When Will We B Paid?, Purple House). Your thoughts?

it's a nice idea for a CD.

but unfortunately i think prince's released covers are (pretty much without exception) awful.

not that he's always bad with covers - if we could chuck the following on a CD - say:

'honky tonk woman', 'soul sacrifice', 'miss you', 'jailhouse rock', a version of 'case of you' from the Gold tour, 'whole lotta love' and others, it'd be good.

But unfortunately i think the tracks on the hypothetical CDR in your post are all pretty shit.

nice idea, though.

'honky tonk woman' from undertaker is the only studio prince cover song that i really like. 'a case of you' from ONA is awright - gotta be in the mood for it.

I really like When Will We Be Paid, just that and Honky Tonk Woman are the only covers I listen to really.

Oh, I like La,La,La Means... too, prefer it to Betcha By Golly Wow!

Everyday Is A Winding Road is embarassing.

Anxiety said:

On the other hand, "A Case Of You" from '83 nearly moves me to tears. And I was in love with Joni's original before I ever heard Prince do it, but this rendition just does it for me all the way. This was before he changed the "I'm frightened by the devil" lyric ~ which makes so much difference. He really reveals heartbreaking vulnerability in this song, even just with the sound of his voice.

TheFrog said:

What are you talking about? I think most of the covers he's done LIVE are WAY better than the original. The studio versions are actually better too, for the most part:
Betcha By Golly Wow, I Can't Make U Love Me, La, La, La Means I Love U are examples of A-IGHT covers, but still pretty decent. I think he was really trying to not completely change the originals since they are classics per-say and ppl would be in an UPROAR if Prince decided to change the songs around.

One Of Us is absolutely PERFECT! Way better than the original, 1000 times better than the original!!! Radically changes the song.... Guitar work is amazing, Michael B, Sonny T...damn!!!

Same goes with A CASE OF U and WHEN WILL BE BE PAID...Prince again radically changes the songs and makes them better the original!!! And I like the originals too, but these have way more passion and feeling than the originals.

PURPLE HOUSE, well okay, this one sounds way to RAVE era like and i never like the production during the Rave era, the vocals and guitar are nice, but the rest sounds a bit too dull.

Okay, the utter crap!! EVERYDAY IS A WINDING ROAD, is terrible. FEMI said he worked tirelessly on this song, redoing it over and over again. Definitely overkill. Don't know if its Kips vocals that kill it, or Kirky's production and drumming or Larry's incredibly stupid "rap", or if Prince just got a little too crazy with the guitar effects or whiny vocals. Still, i wish he would redo this...cause I'm sure if he didn't redo it so many times, it would have come out as a better cover. I do try and like it and I DO listen to it pretty frequently and for some reason I do kinda like it, but there is SOO much wrong with this song!!

I like his fonked up version of Everyday is a Winding Road?



guess I'll stand alone on this one again though

rudedog said:

Meh, i disagree. i think "case of u" on the ONA cd is okay as a stand alone song, but is just awful compared to Joni#'s original. Having said that, i think that P's cover on guitar played at some of the Gold concerts was very good indeed. When will we be paid - well, i find the original far better. You don't, and that's fair enough.

and i was actually saying that his live covers (see my examples) were far better than his studio ones.

NouveauDance said:

I have probably never sat through Every Day is a Winding Road once. Might be his worst ever.

I think his covers are o.k. Some are even really good.
But he's so prolific and clever, that he really could've just
saved them for B-sides or something--why put them on an album?

If he was 2 do a covers album, what songs should he do?

Betcha By Golly Wow was butchered. I like Mariah and Sisqo's Beautiful Ones even more than that. I'm not familiar with the original Everyday Is A Winding Road so, having nothing to compare it to, it's okay. He did a great job with One of Us.

A Case Of U is hard to compare. The ONA version is much different than Joni's. I prefer Joni's but the jury's still out on Prince's version in my book. I haven't really listened to it much.

The only cover songs of his I really liked was "Betcha By Golly Wow! and One of Us. Everyday... and La La La... suck monkey balls. I've never heard Joni's version of A Case of U but between Prince's 02 and 83 version, the 2002 one is OK at best. The 1983 version was nice. It sounded like he was feeling the song.