Ive always thought of Princes electric period as a reverse to Bob Dylans electric period. Dylan got booed and had his main folk audience seemingly turn their back on him when he plugged in amps and recorded and toured that way, way back when. He started as folk and was the voice of protest acoustically. That is what his core audience flocked to him for and ..what they knew him for. When he came out later in a concert and plugged in electrically with The Band, he literally got the audience's negative reaction live in concert.

Prince to me had his electric phase up until 1986. Thats when he seemningly went "organic" with his music. Sure there were still drum machines but starting with the Purple Rain tour he added sax in the line up, kick drum etc. and seemingly had a more acoustic sound. Ive seen shows like the 1999 tour where the show and instrumentation were electrified and computerized. Of course the shows may be somewhat "colder", but thats what Princes core audience came to know him by imho. He was not Earth Wind and Fire..he was electric church. When he went acoustic with Parade shows (and such songs as Sometimes It Snows..) and others I felt left behind and sort of pissed off. (Opposite Dylans audiences' reaction).

Dont get me wrong...his organic stage showed growth and I enjoy the music. But it took time. But like Ive always said before, he lost his essence of what Prince music was (or the Minn Sound) right after 1999. I remember reading in the essay in TGE years later about how he put his electronic equipment away and threw a for sale sign on it..I freaked. I was thinking oh no..I enjoyed the staccato synths lines used for horn lines..I enjoyed the "cuh" sound of the Lynn drum...I also enjoyed the live organic sound of the NPG as well. The Parade tour boots made me ill--at first. Small Club changes DMSR from the cold electrified synth fried version of the album version and the August 1983 and 1999 tour version. The electric sound was rarely to be heard in it's past form.. the cold electronic sound of early or "vintage" Prince.

But we all received some great music from his growth...it was a cold world out there and for a time Prince's music was just as cold and technologically adapting. Cheers to songs such as Comp Blue, All The Critics, Something In The water, Automoatic, DMSR,...
[This message was edited Sat Jun 1 16:58:16 PDT 2002 by rdhull]

hogwash!!bullocks!!prince is funkier than dylan!!prince is music!where are you from,lad?you need to be musically reprogrammed.bullocks,i say!!

Most of my friend like "rock" prince (I'm in a typical white suburban area) and they like "Lets go Crazy" type stuff.

I won a lot of people over by the following Prince CDR.

1. Interactive
2. Endorphin Machine
3. Damned I I do, Damned if I don't
4. The Beautiful Ones
5. I could never take the place of your man
6. I like it there
7. The truth
8. Alphabet St
9. She Gave her angels
10. Chaos and disorder
11. Empty Room
12. Electric Chair
13. The Cross
14. Gold

SquirrelMeat said:

All of those songs save for Beautiful Ones are organic. Real drums etc. WDC, Beaut Ones and Darling Nikki are all Prince solo--what an album PR would have been if it was just the follow-up to 1999.

It's just funny sometimes how opinions can differ...I love the organic sound of Prince more than the more electronic.
Don't get me wrong, I love songs like "Automatic" but I like a more "old school" sound more.

I have a question: when you say he abandonned this style right after "1999", which albums would you count to this period? Only "Controversy" and "1999"?

Wonderful assessment. I LOVE Prince's electronics. Although he wasn't so prominently electronic after "1999," there are several times when he returned to it on albums afterward. "1999" is definitely the pinnacle of his electro-funk.

When you say "organic", I agree. My disc isn't. But the genral public dont care. That disc made them go "Wow".

Personally, I don't like the organic. Songs like "Shhh" sound live on record. I'd rather hear a "studio" version..

saying that , some songs work, Like "Billy Jack Bitch".

99% of the latest Prince stuff sounds live in the studio. To me, thats not "real music, real musicians", that lazy.

If When Doves Cry has been live in the studio it would have sucked. Live and Studio are two very different things. A "Great" artist conquers both.

calldapplwondery83 said:

Thats the thing though...the old school sound was relegated to Earth Wind n Fire, Ohio Players, Rick James, Commodores etc. Prince was the new wave. Dierty Mind promoted him synths freak status and thats when he became "Prince"..thats what enticed me. That new wave synth way of music. It was different and when I wanted organic I went to Confucnshun, Jacksons, Stones, Zepplin etc. Prince was different and thats what made it special to me.

calldapplwondery83 said:

I include Prince-thru 1999..some of PR. Still waiting has the wailful synth prominant that would have been horns on someone elses record. Just like the extended synth parts on the long instrumental part of I Wanna Be Your Lover... would have been horn riffs instead of synths. But he didnt really "freak" the synth until Dirty Mind. Dont get me wrong..there are organic elements to some of those electrified albums such as Do Me Baby but they were only a part of the make-up of the electrified sound. One thing I remember distinctly..when Parade was about to be released the radio was playing previewed cuts like they always did with Prince event releases. They played Mountains and I freaked when I heard the real horns..I wrote a mini review of it and freaked that there were real horns in a Prince song on wax. We were in for a bumpy ride ever since imho.

Moonbeam said:

Yeah I agree that he never totally abandoned th e electronic vibe...and thank god he went back and revisited some of that..like he did with It and Hot Thing , U Got The Look on SOTT and elements of Lovesexy and Batman. But by Batman he lost the feel of the synth electric sound imho. Ha1 Make s me think one of his questions at the celebration should have included "would you like an electric synth cd from Prince?" as well as asking if we wanted a piano cd. Prince--what about us who were there for that reason?
[This message was edited Sat Jun 1 18:35:38 PDT 2002 by rdhull]

SquirrelMeat said:

No , that is real music. It just isnt vintage Prince. It is Prince with all th e experoience of touring, music making and living..broinging it all home back to the basics..the "warmth" of the millenium(whodathunk it?). TRC is Parade for the 00's. TRC brought back elements of the vintage electronic sound as well. Its all over TRC. It is just Parade-ified.



Prince can do both..and I was about to say "you are crazy" but I hear ya..WDC is perfect studio...most live versions of WDC suck just like NIkki and C Blue live versions--that shit was meant to be served cold in the studio imo.

rdhull said:

In a way, however, I am glad that Prince lightened up on the electronics after "1999" because it makes that album so special. I'm not looking for a "1999" part 2. I'm also a fan of Eurythmics and in their first four albums ("In the Garden", "Sweet Dreams", "Touch" and "1984") they fully explore the depths of the synthesizer. Having taken it to its zenith, they quickly found a new sound before it grew stale. Concurrently, Prince's foray into other tones and qualities make "1999" stand out as his crowning electronic achievement.

Moonbeam said:

I am!!! I was!!! ;lol:



Man 1999 had me feenin for the next step--I felt the next one was going to be electrified synth fried chicken scratch! I felt 1999 was just at the apex and PR was going to be this 17 Days type of groove that was eerie etc. and take it to the top. I was so let down when I purchased Purple Rain..I had waited 2 damn years for electric church and when I took the needle of the record after Purple Rain ended with all those violin strings etc (wtf this isnt Prince music..damn Wendy and Lisa and your influences!) I was close to crying..because after the pop of IWD4U, the experimentalism minimalist of WDC and others, I felt like I had waited for 2 years and all he gave me was this movie accessibile pop shit.

In retrospect you are right--he took it to its apex already..i just didnt know it. Like he said..he gave me(us) what we needed instead fo what we wanted...which in retrospect it turns out that it was a good thing. But sometimes I lay awake at night and look out to the stars and wonder what life would have been like or how life would be different if we had 1999 part two hahahahahahaha.It is one of the mysteries of purple life
[This message was edited Sat Jun 1 18:50:23 PDT 2002 by rdhull]

rdhull said:

Doesn't that make "1999" even more special? I believe "Purple Rain" is worthy of its own adulation, even if it is no "1999."

Moonbeam said:

yes and agreed. I edited my immediate post above.

rdhull said:

Truth be told, I have made my own "1999 Part 2" compiling various outtakes. I call it "Purple Music- the Missing Link" as he had no 1983 album. It contains the following

1. Turn It Up
2. Turn It Up (part 2)
3. Do Yourself A Favour
4. No Call U
5. Feel U Up
6. Irresistible Bitch
7. Wet Dream's Cousin
8. Possessed
9. Extra Loveable
10. Chocolate
11. Purple Music
12. Baby, You're a Trip
13. Moonbeam Levels

It's a nice listen...

Moonbeam said:

Even though some of those are scattered for others etc my address is... kidding

rdhull said:

They are all Prince versions. 8)

Moonbeam said:

Yeah I know..I meant that some of those songs were meant for Vanity 6 and other albums..I think Choc was meant for The Time etc...Extralovable is my shit! Id love to have that in ex qulaity.

rdhull said:

Even so, all are supreme.

Moonbeam said:

Have you heard Lust You Always? Thats some 1999 part 2 material as well.

rdhull said:

Haven't yet. Only the instrumental of it- Divinity.

Moonbeam said:

Thats what Im talkn about..the Instrumental.Im not sure we are talking the same song though ssomeone recently posted lyrics and so eone said Lust U was mislabelled on H2O, Cosmos or Fantasia--I cant rememeber what boot its on. But if its the fast quirky instrumental with alots of Something In The Water type drumming and a persistent synth from Mars then yeah...thats the one. This Divinity that I recall is a slow hypnotic number ..

good thread.

Well, maybe Prince ate cookies during the Electric period!


hey, lets all eat one. and smile:)

Sdldawn said:

[This message was edited Sun Jun 2 1:40:39 PDT 2002 by rdhull]

I understand when someone prefers a certain period or style by Prince, but I can never understand how anyone could say:"That's the real Prince. Only that!"
Maybe it's a good thing that I'm still quite young and haven't discovered Prince until 1997/1998 (The Gold Exp.), this way I didn't get to know him in a certain period but had all the different styles at once.

One thing that makes Prince so amazing to me, is that he simply does (nearly) everything.

calldapplwondery83 said:

Because thats the artist and style that enticed them to become a fan etc. Im not saying and never have said Prince was only an electric artist to me..Im saying he left part of the essence that made him who he was..that made his name.But what I gues I meant was that electric era was "vintage" Prince.



Yes and no.