I recently thought about this alot. All things considered, Prince is the best example I know of someone who has been a top artist and top pop success. He's made plenty of mistakes and made a fool of himself alot but he's still fared better than anyone else in his league in terms of keeping in contact with his true talents. For all his shortcomings, he never stopped, anyone else would have went years between albums and turned semi-recluse. Not Prince. The amazing thing to me is that through all the struggles he never got so lost that he couldn't pull off the comeback that he did last year. I always felt he could turn on his star power at any moment, even back in the eighties, and he has always proved me right. When he wants to lay low, he does, when he wants to make noise he does. Not many can do that. Look at Elvis, MJ,Springsteen and all of the mega-stars, success affected them all adversely, killing alot of them in the process. None of them kept in contact with their basic talents as well as Prince did, even on his bad albums there were always vestiges of the real prince. Anyway, on the whole, even though he's done stupid shit, I can think of no one else who has handled success better in terms of maintaining his skills and always being up to his job.

mozfonky said:

I absolutely love your comments on this topic. I totally agree with every word u wrote

XNY said:

This is what I'm talking about. There is a period of time between "jumping the shark" and "nobody giving a squat anymore" where the subject is still okay, but not ridiculously awful yet.

sextonseven said:

Alright, I'll bend to your incorrect definition of 'jump...' but you now think that he is "milking the cash cow" and "no one gives a squat"--then what the hell are you doing here, or anyone at the org for that matter?!...or how about the countless sold out shows he just played this past year in 69 cities?!
Just stop attempting to tame down what you're saying and tell us why you're still here if he's simply 'milking it...and no one gives a squat'??

actually nevermind, we'll just agree to disagree...here at PRINCE.org

XNY said:

LOL, my incorrect definition doesn't include "milking the cash cow" and he definitely hasn't reached the point yet where "no one gives a squat". That's why I'm still here.

For me it was Lovesexy. A real comedown after the brilliant SOTT. That and putting rap in his music is when Prince jumped the shark.

uPtoWnNY said:

I felt exactly the same way after listening to Lovesexy the first 2 times. As a matter of fact, 60 seconds in, I was like, "what the hell?" But on the 3d listen, I found it to be a most exhilarating experience. Prince used to say with Lovesexy, you either had a mind-blowing experience or you didn't, I did.

The people who run this site should put up a poll for this "When did he jump the shark" thing, and we can get an easier view of what people on this site think (as long as it controls for mulitple votes!)

sextonseven said:

...holding his cock. That was my original question. Thanks for totally redefining 'jump the shark'.

I don't like using jump the shark in terms of music....and by the way the Batman album was the shit. I luv the songs, but the first NPG was wack...the dancers were some corny motherfathers. I still can't get over that.

He's jumped it a couple of times :

1) Graffiti Bridge - I gave him a pass on Batman, thinking it was all just good fun and all but its around this time he starts producing with Levi (horrid tinny sound)..then begins trying to care about whats on the charts (New Power Generation is a clear attempt to try to sound like New Jack Swing) and he starts dabbling with mediocre Mid West "rappers"...

2) then the "name change"...although the music started to get back on track in the Gold - Emancipation period..unfortunatly the name change overshadowed the music and noone cared

3) I gave him a pass on NPS thinking it was just once again something to do...then we get the cynical Rave...

4) and finally the biggest let down was TRC (meanspirited, racist, misogynist, closeminded)


hopefully Musicology and the tour success brings him out of the spiral.....
[Edited 1/30/05 7:35am]
[Edited 1/30/05 7:35am]

his biggest career mistakes were, trying to direct his own movies, and not touring U.S. with Parade and Sign of the Times

XNY said:

I don't recall "holding his cock" being part of the dictionary definition of 'jump the shark.'

Like some people already said, I would say when he made Purple Rain because thats what took him to his peak making him a superstar and I think after that, people expected nothing less and nothing different then that.

What's Tora Tora?

Truthfully, I think he had started to "jump the shark" before the name change. Somewhere around the "Batman" and "Grafitti Bridge" time period would be my opinion of when it happened.
[Edited 1/30/05 21:03pm]

OnionJuice said:

well said. Although in my opinion he did exceed the creative energy of PR several times over with SOTT, Lovesexy and the quite a few others. Maybe not as many albums sold but that's not always - and if often quite the opposite-- an indication of an amazing album. IMO...

Prince and Beyonce "duet" at the Grammys

I can honestly say, there is not a single album by Prince that I didn't dig, I love everyone of them. And the comments about the lyrics to P Control, Somebody need to learn how to listen, He was saying don't listen to a sound bite and judge the song, but the song was about women being in control and never becoming a slave. Why do people post things and try to mislead others, clean out your ears. Prince is a Genius, he will not do the samething over and over, every recording is different than the one before, and thats what I like about him, I have been digging him since 1979, saw him for the first time in 83, have bought every record he has released, saw every movie and am proud to say, am not disapointed in any of it. His music and lyrics challenge me to love those around me, not to discriminate, not to judge and to love God. Whats wrong with that? until you walk in someone else shoes, you will never know how their feet feel.