In my opinion, the Graffiti Bridge Soundtrack is one of Prince's best albums. I know, I know it has like, 3 bad songs but out of 17 it's not that bad.

I Can't Stop (This Feeling I Got): A good opener to the album. Pretty easy on the ears, especially the "Yahoo!" ending. A solid track.

New Power Generation: This is one of my all-time favorite Prince songs. It's majorly funky and the lyrics are awesome. Plus it's got one of his best choruses ever.

Release It: Humorous and funky. Majorly drum-driven and the lyrics are pretty damn funny if I do say so myself. I don't really like the rap-ish edge of it though.

The Question Of U: I think we all know that this song is a masterpiece.

Elephants And Flowers: More pop-rock like. Sometimes the lyrics get really cheesy but Prince does a unique vocal style that keeps you interested. Another solid track.

Round And Round: Dear God. Don't get me started on my hate for this one.

Pump 'Em, Funk 'Em: Featuring the godfather of funk, George Clinton! A very nice collaboration. Very "steamy".

Joy In Repetition: Very sexy and soulful (Almost tragic) song.

Love Machine: Terrible, just terrible. The female singer is just awful and her voice grates my nerves.

Tick, Tick, Bang: Why do I like this song? Maybe it's the awesome guitar, maybe it's the broadway-like feel. I don't know why this song has such a bad reputation(And yes I've seen the performance in GB -_-)

Shake!: Very nice, rocking tune by The Time. One of my faves on the CD. A very nice beat and for once Morris is actually singing!

Thieves In The Temple: My all-time favorite on the album. Very dramatic and very electric-dance-rock. <3 it.

The Latest Fashion: I LOVE this song. Why the HELL wasn't there a scene with this in the movie. It would be so fucking cool to see Prince and Morris square off and have a battle. I always imagine it in my head and this scene would have made the movie worth seeing! (Well, maybe not...)

Melody Cool: Shut up you fat old hag. Nauseating beat/rhythm. MELODY OOW is right...

Just Around The Corner: My second favorite on the CD. Just beautiful and The Steeles' background singing couldn't have fit more. I love when Prince explores his religious side.

Graffiti Bridge: Doesn't deserve to be the title track of the album, can get cheesy but it's still very good.

I don't consider NPG Pt. II a real song.

Try to give GB another spin, guys!

sorry one of p's worst albums ! in fact its the only p album i can say i dont like !

joy in rep

the q of u

we can funk (the boot versions r better)

3 great songs , but imo 1 shit album !!!


again sorry !!!

Gohi said:

I gave your thread a chance until the amazing Mavis was disrespected then I stopped reading.

Finnaly!! Someone understans what I have been trying to say!

Ah, I just find Mavis' singing style annoying and her performance is embarassing on GB.

Then again, so are some of Prince's.

-Adds Krystal to "Cool List"-

Funny how you get two titles wrong. I'm guessing you have known this album for a short while? In any case, I agree that GB on its own is not as bad as fans generally think. In some instances, the song is great but the production/arrangement/sound is not that good, a major drop in quality and originality. It was one of the first Prince records where I felt the drum machines didn't feel kind of organic, almost as if they came out of a can. Many of the protégé songs were truly second rate and foreshadowed his uninspired production work for other artists in the 90s... as well as his own future averageness. If it included only Prince songs, I would give it a - B. With the protégé songs, it's a C or - C. Still, I've noticed that non-fans tend to like this album, so maybe we're just too demanding.

Sorry. I have had it for over a year but I keep my CDs in a book and I kinda forgot all the names of the tracks on GB. That makes my argument less compelling eh?

Gohi said:

Umm....that kinda means that you did just get it. I came out about 14 years ago.

And that Mavis comment----hateful.

S

OMG RLY?!?!?!?!? I TOT IS NEW AFTER MUSICOLOGEE!

Hey don't be an asshole. 1 year is enough time to process whether or not I like it or not. Pfft.

Gohi said:

Geez, can you lighten up and learn to take a joke.


(but I wasn't joking about that Mavis thing).

S

I only bought the album for E&P, but just the other night, i didn't feel like getting up to change the tracks, and i listened to it the WHOLE way through, and i have a newfound respect for it. I can't stand that bitch on "Love Machine" though. Who the fuck is that? Sound like a broke ass Camille, i LOVE Joy in Repitition. i never heard it before. I like the way P whispers that rap in "We Can Funk" I just found all this great stuff with the album and i never listened to it the whole way through before. I like it a lot. Kinda makes me want to see the movie again...I haven't seen GB in like 10 years, so i forget how shitty it is. I'd watch it again just to laugh.

glamslamkid said:

Remember to close your eyes during Tick Tick Bang!

All I was saying was to think of this album seperate from the movie and you'd probably enjoy it.

Mavis is overrated and you all *should* know it.

Gohi said:

Mavis is underrated, these dang kids these days.

The album IS underrated!

It's not only the movie that made that happen, but imo also the fact that the whole music scene changed a lot around 1990 and Prince just wasn't that hip in many peoples' eyes around that time!

Don't hate on Mavis! "Melody cool" kicks ass!

Also, I don't know why so many people hate the song "Graffiti Bridge". I think it is one of the best Prince songs ever!!! It is one reason why I became a Prince fan (heard the song on the radio when the album came out and was infected with the little man immediately!).

Album is weaker than NPS.
? of U is worth buying it though.

The tracks by the other artists are good but the Prince tracks are some of his worst.

I love it.....my fav prince album!

Love all the tracks except the title track.

"tick, tick bang" is one of prince's best songs. Most unique too.....


"melody cool" is cool too.....

I dont know the hell ur talking bout--
Melody Cool was hot-- a stun gun in the ass for Mavis Staples career-- whom I love....


I was in kindergarten or 1st grade when this shit came out-- my aunt loved Prince, so I guess thats why Round and Round reminds me of my childhood-- For this reason-- I love its innocence-- reminds me of my own.

and Uh, is "Pump 'em, Funk 'em" in reference to We Can Funk If We Want 2 ? That was one of my faves-- get it right, Gohi!

I have always liked this album. Never could understand the hate people had for it.

The only thing it needs is some more Tevin Campbell. Oh Yeah!

couple of classics here, but the rest of the album smells like " feeties"

Gohi said:

i LOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE Tick Tick Bang!!!! That song is sooooo gay.

glamslamkid said:

Ah-- Methinks I love to read your posts.....I really expected you to say something about a rimjob.

I second the gayness factor of Tick Tick Bang-- Its very CATS if I say so myself...

cinnamonjo said:

@ "CATS"..but anyway, E&P would be the rimjob of the album, everything else is vaginas

the only prince cd i heard and decided not to buy..

a couple good tunes does not make a worthy of purchase album...

Love this CD. There r a few cuts I could do without but as far as a nice CD, IMO it’s diffidently worth having. Love Elephants and Flowers, the ? of U, GB, and J in R. Love Mavis! how can u not like her energy and soulfulness?

cinnamonjo said:

Totally know what you are saying!! I remember when Graffiti Bridge came out I was in 3rd grade. My mom used to watch the movie all the time. They played "Theives in the Temple" all the time on the radio and I used to dance around pretending I was a backup dancer for Prince! LOL that really brings me back! That is when I started figuring out Prince was the one who sang those cool songs like "U got the look" and "I would die 4 U" and all that good shit!

Graffiti Bridge is not one of my favourite Prince albums but I like it because it reminds me when I was in my early teens (I got it in 1992) and I was fu.king obsessed with him!

I really like these songs:
Can't Stop This Feeling I Got
New Power Generation (Parts I & II)
The Question Of U
Elephants & Flowers
We Can Funk
Joy In Repetition
Thieves In The Temple
Still Would Stand All Time
Graffiti Bridge

[Edited 1/10/05 1:49am]

I think the album just spent too long in the making.

For an artist who liked to produce something and get it out there as soon as possible, then onto the next one - he held onto Graffiti Bridge from mid-1987 until it's eventual release in the summer of 1990, having put it on haitus through compiling the Black album, and working on Lovesexy, Rave, Batman and the expansive Lovesexy tour, as well the beginnings of the Nude tour.

The film I'm certain suffered because he wanted to finally make it and make it fast - I think the album ended up as a muddled mixture of ideas and themes.

Essentially, you have a old style Prince LP of 10 songs, plus about an albums worth of related artist tracks, including a handful of songs from Corporate World.

It's just too much of a hodge-potch of the different steps the project took, not to mention everything on the album pre-dates the release except for NPG and Theives.

I suppose it's a testament to how much he believed in the project, but I think Prince is an artist who's work does not benefit from procrastination or being held up where Prince can re-think things, scrap everything and build it all again in another way.

Individually, most of the stuff on Graffiti Bridge is great - the mid-80s tracks are great if a little over-worked in the case of We Can Funk and Can't Stop. The Lovesexy-vibe is alive on Elephants & Flowers and Still Would Stand All Time. And the Time tracks are enjoyable, the Corporate World album as a whole was very strong.

The album as a whole feels light-weight, flowery and very dated. The most fascinating thing about the album is how it is the sum of all it's parts, it shows how Prince works. How he borrows and steals from his own past unused ideas and recycles them.

Some of the ideas for the movie stem right back to The Dawn/the Coco Boys movie project (The Time battling with Prince) - which to all intents and purposes was tacked on to the project in order to get funding from WB, by re-using the battle of the bands idea with the Time and thus turning the movie into a very flimsy sequel to Purple Ran.

From that point of view, it's a fascinating to look at the process it took to get to the final product, but ultimately, it's an album and movie that falls short of what it could have been.

Griffiti Bridge is not underrated, its overrated.