WHo else here loves this album?

I recall my friend telling me that P had new music out...and I was WTF? He just HAD music out with D&P. I was in a so-so phase with P at the time as nothing had really rocked my world recently with him. And it was my roommate Apryl who got it and was really into Melt with U. She got me into it and then the album as well. It was hitting the techno spot I was getting into at the time. Not to mention there were some really good songs...
My Name is Prince
Sexy MF
Melt with U
The Max
7

To name a few. It was also on the cusp of him changing his name (the symbol wasn't really new to me, as I had seen incarnations of it before...i.e 1999 album). I also got to see him tour for the album. It was very memorable (2nd time seeing him)

But strangely this is one of his albums that keeps growing on me. Songs like 3 chains of gold, sweet baby, 2the9's, and Damu U...I have discovered over the years...even recently. I can say that this album pushed me closer to being the Fan I am today (yes there were definite steps and episodes...I was never an instant fan)

Also looking into what this album is about is also intrigueing. The segues were annoying until I found out that there was a whole concept behind this album that isn't really known cuz he reconfigured it.

Anyway, give it up to one of the albums that really was on the cusp of the Dark years and brought about during a time practically changed everything.

Tony M could die a horrible death and I would be indifferent.


Oh, please don't rap Prince.


Other than that, there were a few tracks that I liked.

There is a REASON for the Vanessa Bartholomew segues???

I've never been able to stomach them.

jerseykrs said:

Why are people so against P rapping? It ain't all that bad. And too much hate for Tony M...who sounded like many of the rappers of the day. One would think this was P's rap album.

Nothinbutjoy said:

There's a BIG reason for all of the segues. The album tells the "story" of Prince falling in love witht he Princess and he steals her away...only to be hunted down by the 7 guards the King has sent after him. There is a lot of symbolism on this...and much has to do with the "story line". & takes on a whole new meaning when you know what it's really about.

This is easily one of his best albums, in my opinion.

Prince prefers The Rainbow Children, as do eye.

love

superspaceboy said:

THAT is the REASON??? Nothing deep about the schmarmy lil storyline going on there.

Nothinbutjoy said:

I'm sorry...there are missing segues he cut due to album length. All of them on there...the album is less mysterious and makes more sense. Personally I think...he should have left them all on or took them all off. Had he left them all on people would have hated it more.

Here a ??? WHy Christie Allie? It's just forcing us to deal with her even over a decade after it's release.

A very underrated album, but at least it went platinum. This has much more stronger tunes than Diamonds & Pearls had. It shows the NPG crew working as a group than Prince doing all the dirty work. One of my favorite albums of the 90's.

The album was fine without the "storyline" behind it.

I never saw any mystery to it.

It's a good album, but would have been better without the "plot"

one of my faves!
Morning Papers!

Shorty said:

I remeber him promoting that album on Arsenio.

I tried so hard to get into those Arsenio Hall shows.

superspaceboy said:

I became a fan just after this album came out...so I kinda missed all the hub bub around the album

Painful memory relating to Symbol album. I was out at a record store the night before the CD was released. I saw the guy who was working at the store unloading the new CDs out of a box so the store could display them the next day. I asked the guy if he could hook me up with a copy a day early and he said he would get fired and the store would get fined. I was like "dude" and he was all like "no". Thoughts of violence entered my head but ultimately I slumped out of the store unSymboled.

Getting an album early was a big deal back then before the Internet made it so easy.

As far as the album, I love it but think the concept is flawed. Love individual songs (7, Damn U, Sexy MF, And God Created Woman) and despise the filler. Still one of my favorite overall.

I love this album!

My faves are: "Love 2 The 9's", "The Morning Papers", "Sweet Baby", The Continental", "Damn U", "The Flow", "7", "And God Created Woman" and "3 Chains O' Gold".

Great record!

superspaceboy said:

I like Kirstie Alley. "Fat Actress" is hilarious. I've always thought her voice was sexy, too.

Great album! I really like it but I don't see
why fans always want to match it against Diamonds and Pearls?

Sure they have similar sounds but they are two completely
different albums(which I both love)

I just don't like the segues b/c as I have said before...
Intros, outros, segues, skits, intermissions and all that other crap
are just annoying and unnecsessary on an album of great music
Let the lyrics tell the story
Don't interupt the flow!

PurpleKnight said:

Just about sums it up for me. Wasn't Rosie Gaines originally on some of these songs? I wonder what the album would have sounded like with her input?

jerseykrs said:

OK your first statement made me holla and cackle. Too true.

P rapped MUCH better than Tony M. But not on My Name is Prince (and-I-am-funkee). Sexy MF (real version) is just so fonky I look like a fool listening to it in my car. Makes me want to be a horn player ... that band is sooooo tight on this song. JB must love it.

And P been rappin' well before..."this is for the cab driver who had to drive for nothing at all"...P Control where he tried to match the market and sounded like he wasn't trying so hard.

At least on Life of the Party he's finally nailed a correct reggae/dancehall beat. I felt like my kid brought home an "A" or something. This man is phenomenal.

Symbol album is in the top echelon, but ...

Damn U is classic P. 'Specially cuz he swore to croon it like nobody's business. Daaaaamn U.

i absolutely LOVE this album. it's in my top 5, cuz i can listen to everysingle track and totally not get bored, i just need to be in the mood for that specific style of Prince Music. and, don't flame me for this, but i liked Tony M on both this and D&P. i thought that he added excitment to the records. i think that he gets burned too much here. b/c i think that even though his rapping really isnt magical, it's got soul.

There are a lot of songs I like (enough for a full album) but way too much filler that I have to fast forward through (I have it on cassette). Yet, filler has been all the rage ever since CD's came out. Albums used to have 9-12 songs and about 35-40 minutes of music. Now it seems like everyone has to have 13-17 songs on an album and have it be 45-50 minutes which results in a lot of junk on the album. Prince should have stuck with his nine song per album format. Instead he put together welfare projects for pathetic artists and passed them off as Prince albums (see Graffiti Bridge, D&P, The symbol album). All those albums should have been shorter.

The album has some great tunes but is ultimately flawed, especially due to songs like 3 Chains of Gold. I agree this is a prime example of the CD Syndrome -- if it had been an LP, he would have dropped some of it.
[Edited 5/14/05 18:40pm]

I love 3 Chains O Gold, could do without the rapping like D&P, Morning Papers, God Created Woman, Damn U are some of his very best

Aerogram said:

Yup, this was just one of many bloated, overlong albums released by major artists in the early nineties. Everyone felt compelled to fill up every available minute on a cd - presumably because consumers were likely to feel slighted if they were only to receive 40 minutes of music.

I think Symbol is Prince's most frustrating album: there's about 35 minutes of great material here that ranked as the most exciting music he'd made since SOTT, but it got lost in a sea of sappy ballads and some of the most flat-out embarrassing nonsense he's ever committed to tape.

2 the 9s kinda encapsulates my problem with the album - it starts out wonderfully: good melody, intricate playing, clever vocal phrasing - but then it degenerates into this horrible monstrosity about midway through: tone-deaf rapping, silly chants...a potentially great song ruined. The whole album's like that - moments of genius that are undone by incredible lapses in judgment and taste.

I really need to get this. TOo bad I've never seen it in stores.

On no other album is Tony M.'s musicianship and craft allowed to shine so britely.