The latest in the series of 'Originals' from the UK's NME (which has included issues on Lennon, Nirvana and Punk) is on the 80's 'The A-Z of The New Romantics'

Prince gets a 6 page spread as the unsurprising entry for 'P'. It includes the orginal 1981 article/interview 'Half a million dirty minds can't be wrong about this man', the ecstatic review of Parade Live from August '86. Also included are the orginal album reviews of Controversy, 1999 and the 'Seriously, Godlike' Parade, as well as single reviews of Little Red Corvette, 1999 and Kiss.

Several Pics complete the package with a particularly great one from Parade Live with the little man in mid-air splits off the piano.

The rest is also a good read for any child of the eighties with similar spreads on Jackson, Madonna, Culture Club, Frankie et al.

It can be found in the large record stores (I found mine in Virgin) or ordered online.

www.nmeoriginals.com

Had it in my hands and then put it back.

HamsterHuey said:

now there's a line not to be quoted out of context

IstenSzek said:

anywayz...i have a copy of the issue of nme with the interview in it from '81 (thanx again, 'nana!)...i might pop in to the bookstore down the street and peek at this one.

i smell a lawsuit coming.

suomynona said:

it always smells like lawsuits...ol' boy might wanna make a few bucks off of a new fragrance...Lawsuit.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

I wonder if it smells like Londell...

IstenSzek said:

I forgot what the topic was for a second

didn't NME fucking trash parade when it came out? 'cos obviously it was one writer, then at the end of year in the writers poll it was the years top album

softandwet said:

indeed they did , their origianl review , by a guy called Barney Hoskyns
(didnt he write a book on Prince , Imp Of Perverse ,later) doesnt give
Parade much credit at all , but other reviewers disagreed and Parade was
NME's No.1 album of 1986 at the year end polls ( and think it was the 40th
best album of the 1980s in a later poll also ).

Heres that original review of Parade from NME by the way:

New Musical Express
April 12, 1986


Sometimes it pisses down in April

I TOOK 'Kiss' as a signal that we were being ushered back into the compressed, airtight funkworld of 'Dirty Mind'. Didn't flip over the song itself - slick metronome sexgospel - but what a relief to hear that funky, flecked, flicking guitar again.

It turns out we're not going back to that springy, spunky sound after all - 'Kiss' is on its own as a throwback to 'Head' and 'Party Up' and 'Do It All Night'. Not that Prince doesn't still have a filthy little mind, of course, just that these days he doesn't speak it quite so economically. It's all mixed he doesn't really know how to express, and that's become a drag.

A few things have changed since 'Around The World In A Day', it's true. For starters, there are no printed lyrics, so i don't have to pretend to have given his twee and icky poems my most careful consideration. Then for seconds there's no purple or paisley stuff on the sleeve - just plain ol' black and white narcissim (another throwback to 'Dirty Mind'). Most important, Prince isn't being such a sourpuss primadonna anymore. There I was thinking the little mulatto Amadeus was on the edge of a breakdown and suddenly he's all happy and relaxed and flirty in the 'Kiss' video.

Trouble is, i actually think 'Around The World In A Day' was the better record. For all its neo-psychedelic silliness it had three great songs, which is about three more than 'Parade' has - nothing here as witty as 'Pop Life', as mournful as 'America', or as anguished as 'Condition Of The Heart'. The worst thing about Prince's "maturity', if we can call it that, is that he has given up writing great songs - songs like 'When You Were Mine' - as a matter of course. I mean, if he can find time to bestow a morsel like 'Manic Monday' on four desperate California chicks who will probably never have another hit record in their lives, surely he could craft the odd decent tune for himself.

Prince, instead of writing simple, succinct, sexy songs, is always trying to save the world, which means that he is never content with anything but grandiose 'Sgt Pepper' albums where all the songs run into each onther and vast orchestras make a lot of superfluous noise. He is a master architect of sound but he will show off and spoil it all. His Rundgren-esque technosoup of Sly and Stevie Wonder is beginning to get very predictable.

The LP opens with 'Christopher Tracy's Parade', a typical fanfare for his highness 'Disneyland soundscape and pretty much a follow-through from the ambience of 'Paisley Park'. Who this tracy fellow is I don't know, though going by the closing elegy of 'Sometimes It Snows In April', I would guess that he is a deceased pal of the Minneapolitan midget's.

'New Position' follows with steel drums, a hard pop-funk beat, and yer basic lewd double entendre. Guitarist Wendy picks up for the strange, brief interlude of 'I Wonder U' (performances seem more democratically delegated this time around: P. isn't being such a spoilt-brat autocrat in his studio playpen) which slides swiftly into 'Under The Cherry Moon', title track of the unpromising-sounding flick for which this LP purports to be a soundtrack. I have seen many moons in my time, but never a cherry moon - how about you ? The song is a kind of kurt Weill lullaby co-authored by (Prince Sr ?) John L. Nelson.

Next up, 'Girls And Boys' is an adolescent 'Lady Marmalade' replete with "sauce" French bits and set to the beat of 'Take Me With U'. 'Life Can Be So Nice' bypasses me completely - a highspirited mess - before 'Venus De Milo' trails away at Side One's end as a slight sliver of mood-muzak, grand piano plus sweeping strings and reeds.

Flip the disc and we're straight back into Prince's booming sytnh beat on 'Mountains', which is a pounding Stevie Wonder/ Earth Wind And Fire epic. The Jazzy, smoochy 'Do U Lie ?' is a pleasant and slinky respite from such pomp.

'Kiss' then takes its isolated place in the remorseless parade of overdone semi-ideas, followed by the melodically beguiling 'Anotherloverholenyohead' (yes, it is a stupid title, isn't it). Finally, the showpiece ballad, 'Sometimes It Snows In April' (an even worse title) ends the record on a folksy acoustic noteand mourns the aforesaid departed Tracy. I feel that Prince is, on the whole, best at this most sentimental and foppishly despolate, but this is appalling kitsch and doesn't work at all.

I dunno. Is it possible, or even advisable, to take Prince seriously ? Do I have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude ? I find this record laboured and trite and self-satisfied and won't be listening to it again.

-- Barney Hoskyns

wow, "the mulatto amedeus", kinda catchy

Barney Hoskyns - what an arsehole.
[Edited 2/10/05 13:27pm]

that was pretty much the attitude towards Parade at the time...the movie gave it a bad flavor....meanwhile it stands up as one of his most original sounding records. Its timeless and looking back, sonically possibly the best he's ever done..

Interesting to compare that scathing review of Parade, one of Prince's most impressive albums, with the fawning that came about after the merely decent Musicology.

BarneyHoskyns said:

Boy, this fucker really did not get it.

squirrelgrease said:

I don't know if you guys are really funny or just plain scary! Anyway, the Parade review included is from the 12th April '86 so at the time of release, is by Steve Sutherland and is one of the most positive reviews of an album you'll ever find (included at the back of one of the biographies 'Slave to the Rhythm' I think). The same guy reviews the Parade shows at Wembley that year in a similarly positive manner.

There is however a review of 1999 by Julie Burchill which will give the more rabid fans among you a chance to slaver and snarl to your heart's content.

That same writer later wrote "Prince, A Pop Life"
A book about Prince's music.

and in this book, he says that Under The Cherry Moon is a masterpiece!!!

well well, whadayaknow!

You bastards!!!!! I'm the one who sent this story to you first. But nooooo, y'all didn't want to print it then.





No justice, man, no justice.

Why do I never see these things in Barnes& Noble?

oh damn i am so pissed now. this asshole really doesn't get it does he? i mean, u ask a non prince fan a prince song title? the three top songs i get and probly always will, is Purple Rain, Little Red Corvette, and KISS! so what the HELL is he talkin about? labored?...damn. i don't get it... or maybe he just didn't.

newpowergeneration said:

Because he didn't like a Prince album or some Prince songs and said so, he's an asshole? Sure, a lot of people dug "Parade", but at least some people thought it was mediocre. I'm one of them and it's probably my least listened to Prince album. Having the opinion that Prince has put out some sucky stuff doesn't make you an asshole. God forbid anyone express an opinion of Prince or his music that disagrees with yours...

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Brings us back to:

"If Prince had a fragrance, what would it smell like?"

DOROTHYPARK said:[quote]That same writer later wrote "Prince, A Pop Life"
A book about Prince's music.

and in this book, he says that Under The Cherry Moon is a masterpiece!!!

well well, whadayaknow![/quote]


On the strength of this post, not very much. Before u guys go questioning someone else's knowledge check your own. Dave Hill wrote A Pop Life, not Barney Hoskins or Steve Sutherland. Barney Hoskyns wrote Imp of The Peverse in which he states 'If the pop press gave a pretty unanimous thumbs up to Parade - this writer seemed almost alone in his doubts...'

sisforscandalous said:

If you read the review above he liked KISS, so no, you don't get it.

that's why i never hear music through critics' eyes.

i am SO getting that!