sexkitten04 said:

Parade the album didn't fail commercially-the movie did.

I personally thought Parade was great. But I'm surprised that he didn't say anything about his 90's stuff, like NewPowerSoul or Rave. I mean, let's face it, them albums weren't that good.

You know, there were other artists that have admitted that not everything they've done was great. David Byrne said it. Chili Peppers even mention it when they talk about when Dave Navarro was in the group and when they made "One Hot Minute". It wasn't their finest hour, but it still counts as an experience in their career.

So I asked this about Prince because I hope he does see that even as great of an artist as he is, even he has experienced peaks and valleys.

rudeboynpg said:

Wasn't C&D recorded in the first few months of 1996 around the time that he got married to Mayte and learned she was pregnant?

It kind of makes you wonder doesn't it?

BanishedBrian said:

I think C&D is an underrated masterpiece. I also think the opinions abou that album are very polarized. Some think it's great, some think it's horrible.

vainandy said:

Can't get up. Laughing too hard.

tommysoul said:

What? N.E.W.S. is awesome. It's Expectations that make me scratch my head and say what? (By the way, I appreciate your opinion. Not starting a fight.)

NWF said:

I agree with that...

but why did he create an album that he describes as "dark and unhappy" during this time when he claimed to be so happy?

Parade is a classic album. If you count the fact that it came on the heels of Around the World In A Day, you would understand that the whole period was about experimentation. and the parade shows seem to be a funky precursor to Sott and Lovesexy shows like he was really gettin ready to explode into an untouchable performer anyway i looooove the Parade album.

Artists are always the worst judges of their own work. Alfred Hitchcock reportedly said that he didn't really like "Psycho"

PurpleKnight said:

good point, artists are too close to their stuff to judge fairly either way. Parade is nonstop brilliance in my mind, I love it as most of the stuff he did then. I know Bruce Springsteen was never happy with Born to Run but it's still a classic.

vainandy said:

that has been said before, but I have to go with what I like, the energy that rarely lets up, the quirkiness. "Girls and Boys"=disaster, New Position, all that funk with quirky woodwinds and strings made the album for me, love it, love it love it. His voice was also getting stronger and stronger with each album, his distinctive lower range was clear as a bell. Love it love it, that don't make me gay do it?

vainandy said:

That just shows how much you don't know. "Sometimes it Snows in April" is WIDELY acknowledged as a Prince classic. Just because you don't like Prince dabbling in genres you don't like doesn't mean he shouldn't.

Besides-in 1983 (At 1st Ave) when he premiered the "Purple Rain" material he mixed in Joni's "A case of U". That WAS mixing folk with your beloved pre 1985 era.

Young skywalker said it all.

Parade was a massive hit. Worldwide.

Not only that, but for a young musician at the time, it was totally mind opening to here my hero go from classical through every style of music to the time. I would have never got into the beatles, little richard and everything else if my idol wasn't so eclectic.

Yeah, that's what I did too when I heard some of those tracks.

You have it the other way around. Just because he likes to dabble in other genres, doesn't mean I have to like it. I have my own tastes, likes and dislikes, and a mind of my own just like he does.



That was a live show, not an album. And regardless, if it was or not, everyone is entitled to mistakes.

vainandy said:

au contraire...first ave. '83 was more or less the precursor to pr. a blotter test/taste of what was to come, more or less.

SquirrelMeat said:

Parade sold a relatively disappointing 1.8 million copies in the US.
Parade sold 1.4 million copies in Europe.
Around The World In A Day sold over 3 million copies in the US and 1.3 million outside the US.
Purple Rain sold over 10 million copies in the US and 5 million outside the US.
1999 sold over 1 million copies in the US in 1983 and sold 1 million outside the US (much better than Prince's previous album).

I know exactly what you mean. During the early 1980s, I was strictly into funk and a little rock. In the 1990s, when I got bored with current music as a whole, I started exploring other types of music. Prince's diversity in the late 1980s influenced a lot of what I chose to explore.

If I had a choice of exploring other types of music or keep on throwing down hard non-stop and not have time to stop and explore....I would chose throwing down every time.

BanishedBrian said:

C&D was recorded all over the place from 1993-1996, that and OF4S are both largely compilations of previously recorded material.

I think Prince's comments about it being a dark and unhappy album are referencing his dealings with WB. The compilations were made quickly, with lacklustre artwork and very short album lengths - they're spiteful compilations. I think this is what the "dark and unhappy" quote is referencing.

Which makes complete sense when he compares C&D to the Black Album, since that was also a compilation of tracks, where it was the intent behind the compiling of the material, not necessarily the material on the album itself that was made with spite.

rudeboynpg said:

Exactly Parade was a hit record. Over 3 million sold.

vainandy said:

Prince stayed funky though, I don't really feel he diluted anything. He lightened up on the white rock aspect but I feel he got funkier and blacker from purple rain to sign o' the times. I feel he felt free to get funkier. In spite of the strings, the funk is still great on Parade for me, I love it, without the overdubbed strings and winds it would be just as good, but i disagree with the assertion that many have said, that it is Prince losing his way, Prince getting away from his roots like Elvis did. Spin did a classic article on it, I can't agree though, damn it's so funky. Even now, when I go through long periods without listening to it, i put it on and Wow! You can hear that it was nonstop recording as Per Nilsen said, like a his genius was on full flow and he couldn't stop it. Per said he would go from one drum rhythm to another in recording it, song to song. Personally, I like this album better than Purple Rain and Around the World in a day.

Obviously Parade is a classic.

I think Prince was reacting to the failure of the movie, as well as acknowledging the new direction he had gone in by disbanding the Revolution.

If you look back on his career, Parade is the least funky record, but Kiss is one of hus funkiest songs. Under the Cherry Moon was actually accused of being anti-black and the music of Parade is very European sounding. The man who made The Black Album a year or so later must have been aware of this.

In retrospect, I think he realizes that the album has some classics, that's why he plays them now.

Anyone who thinks that Prince wasn't funky during the Parade era obviously didn't ever see the Parade tour.

Prince has also put down 1999 as being him in "kindergarten". Artists are not the ones to really judge how great their music is. Many times it takes generations and most of the great composers were dead and buried before anyone realized they were any good.

rudeboynpg said:

thats prince's ego talking..if parade was a huge hit he would have been singing a different tune.....