Prince is one resilient person. I have never heard of someone with so many near career crashes...yet to bounce right back. The only reason that he can is because his music is good...not just merely ok or passable, because if anyone had done the things he did, they would have not careers right now.

What incidents did he bounce back from that just about no-one else could pull off? And is there any other celebrity that has had some amazing career bouncebacks?

I'd have to say that Grafitti Bridge would have killed the career of most.

warners almost let 'im go cuz of dm, according to dez dickerson's book but it didn't happen cuz of the contract p was in with 'em...shall i pull out the book and type up said passage?

What career crashes??!! He's always been the bomb!!

You know why he always "bounces back"? I think it is because he is willing to sacrifice "popularity" to be able to do whatever he wants. That is the thing that I like best about Prince is that he is going to do whatever he wants despite what anyone else thinks. He seems to trust himself and his talent enormously.

skywalker said:

He bounces back because his music is outstanding and it can't be denied. If his music was crap (or if he had started to churn out crap)...he wouldn't have lasted this long. He is also a "free agent" now and can really put out what he wants whenever. But there was a time when he could have gone by the way side.

okay, last call...i just pulled out my copy of my time with prince and i just realized that the bit that i mentioned is like a page/page-and-a-half long.

sure you want me to type it all out or just give ya the gist of it?

Prince Survived:

Around the World in a Day underachieving (great album but it disappointed)
Under the Cherry Moon
Lovesexy bombing (great album but it commercially bombed)
Graffiti Bridge
The buttless pants (just kidding)
Tony M. (not kidding)
The Name Change
The Rainbow Children
NEWS

Any of these might have killed any other artist. No other artist has survived this many career derailments. Noone. Prince is the teflon king!

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

I'd like to know how WB kept P in contract...even though they wanted out.

I thought that "the rebels" was SO good that he impressed the crap out of them....or something like that. There's a story about how Dirty Mind got made.

GottaLetitgo said:

How did ATWIAD derail his career? Or come to near derailment? Same with Lovesexy? Graffitti Bridge (album) perhaps as really no singles made the radio (I think the top song was round and round). Tony M didn't derail his career...not even close. I'd say the Name change and the Buttless pants.

superspaceboy said:

It's odd that an album that goes platinum like "lovesexy" can be called "a bomb".

superspaceboy said:

alright, i'ma do this one verbatim then...here's what went down. from the book:

Later that night, we hung out in Hollywood. Prince wasn't with us. Someone told me something that shocked me--the label folks had offered to let Prince out of his contract earlier in the day.

Prince had a very unusual contract for a new artist at that time. Nearly all recording contracts are constructed in the format of 'initial term plus options'. Hence, if you sign a deal that has the potential of running for a total of 5 albums, you have what's called a 'one-and-four'--in other words, one record is guaranteed, the other four are optional, at the sole discretion of the label. Owen Husney, however, had done a very smart thing. He and Prince's attorney, Gary Levinson, had negotiated a guarantee on the first three records. The label had to record at least three albums before reaching the option stage.

Sales of 'Dirty Mind' were falling far short of the label's expectations. 'Prince' had nearly hit platinum (1,000,000 units sold)--they were expecting the follow-up to do at least as well. Through the end of 1980, sales were not nearly on pace to match the previous record. This, combined with what some in the company felt was a too-radical change of sound and image, made for some skittishness on the part of the company regarding their investment in this mercurial young star.

So, I was told, based on these factors, the label tried to convince him to walk away and sign with someone else that, perhaps, understood his vision a bit better. Prince, once again showing grit and wisdom beyond his years, didn't bend; knowing that they couldn't drop him--he had a guaranteed 3 record deal!


....and there it is, basically in a nutshell. there's a bit more of this. shall i continue?

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Please.

PurpleKnight said:

alright. it's just a bit of a disclaimer, but it's just as much a part of the whole ordeal:

Now, understand, I have no first-hand knowledge of this alleged conversation that took place. This is something that was relayed to me by a reliable party, which supposedly occured during a long limo ride around town that day. Prince never spoke of it to me, nor have I heard anyone from management or from the label confirm this. Maybe it's folklore--another urban legend. But if it did happen, what a story! The record company almost let go of somebody who would go on to become one of the biggest and most influential artists of the '80s!

there ya go.

skywalker said:

I remember reading it was the lowest selling Prince album in the USA since Controversy at one point (this was in one of the older Uptown books).

Are we talking creative or commercial here?

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

That's real interesting - Kinda makes me wonder if Prince would've even got that far today. The industry is a very different place today, I wonder if sometimes artists get dropped before they get to make their 'Dirty Mind'

MetroArea said:

I believe that's commerically. The album was held quite highly by alot of fans and critics during the time. But I know that the tour, despite how remarkable it was, didn't do as well as expected. I don't think it comes from an overproduced set or anything...

UndercovaBrotha said:

Sorry, I should have been more clear here - the "Are we talking creative or commercial here?" remark was about the thread in general. The Lovesexy sales comment was obviously regarding commerciality.

MetroArea said:

He would be fine. Talent like that doesn't get UNNOTICED. He may have been dropped...and probably picked right back up again by someone else.

superspaceboy said:

PHEW!

MetroArea said:

Lovesexy was a huge bomb in the U.S. I don't think it made the top 10 (first album to do that since Controversy). The tour lost a ton of money. It sold out in major cities but played to half empty stadium around the rest of the country. He had a good momentum going after Sign o the Times and had major buzz from The Black Album only to totally fuck it up with the nude cover and weird music of Lovesexy. Believe me, I loved it...but it was not well-received here.

skywalker said:

That's the industry mindset.If your last album sold a million copies,The next album should at least go double platinum.Otherwise it's a failure.Sad but true.

2 things---

I know (no pun intended) that "lovesexy" wasn't well recieved in the US. however, I would love to have a "bomb" that sold as much as it did.



"The record company almost let go of somebody who would go on to become one of the biggest and most influential artists of the '80s!" Dez shoulda said "...biggest and most influential artists of all time!"

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

This confuses me, though. If Dirty Mind was the third guaranteed album in the contract, even with a 3+2 deal, wouldn't the label still have the option to drop him after it?

I was just reading British journalist Dave Hill's Prince biography from 88 - a very well written book that I stumbled across in a used bookstore a few weeks back. He has a brief passage on this episode that includes portions of this quote from Dickerson. Hill states that there were elements in Warner who were pushing to have Prince dumped, but most of the heavy-weights, including Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker, were firmly in Prince's court.
[Edited 2/22/05 20:10pm]

Handclapsfingasnapz thank you very much for writting the text from the book it is much appreciated.

OceanOfViolets said:

same here

GottaLetitgo said:

I know this album gets slated a lot but were you around during the couple of years leading up to Musicology? The album and tour got some great reviews and following on from the failure of Rave... his star critically at first, began to rise. Even if you disagree with this, TRC can't have been a derailment as Rave.. and the previous six years or so had made sure that his career was well and truly off the tracks already.

Like it or loathe if TRC was the beginning of the career resurrection we have seen over the last few years.

vivid said:

I can see what you're saying Vivid. After the "plastic production" years TRC returned Prince's credibility to a lot of critics and fans. But i can also see what GottaLetitgo meant. TRC only reached no.108 on the charts and was gone two weeks later. It wasn't viewed by the public as a bomb, it just wasn't viewed at all. After that album, and NEWS and ONA, I thought Prince was going to go 100% off the mainstream radar. Even Chaos & Disorder and NewPowerSoul made the top 30, and generated a little publicity. With TRC, I thought he was going completely underground. Which I was cool with, 'cause he did some really interesting work in the last few years. But I also have to admit it's nice to see Prince on television and magazine covers. With his current contract deals, I think he may finally be able to do both. Release whatever he wants to the freaks like us over his website, then crank out a 'Musicology' for the mainstream every other year or so.

His personal, experimental releases don't have to be viewed as 'bombs' by the public, who will never know they existed, and his big releases don't have to be seen as 'selling out' by the NPGMC crowd. Maybe 'Musicology,' as a business model, will expand into a whole new creative/commercial era for Prince.

the name change definitely....regarding G. Bridge...made him look self-obsessed and silly.. all this 'prince is dead' rubbish ...I recall the album getting very good reviews