I can't decide '82-'84 was just so funky, '85-'87 was very poetic and romantic, eye wanna say plush and '94-'96 rocked hard in a funky place

I don't know about prolific as such but 85-87 was certainly his most creative and musically challenging period a lot of the unreleased stuff from that time was at least on a par with what he put out there. I cite:-

Others Here With Us
Rebirth Of The Flesh
All My Dreams
Old Friends 4 Sale
Can I Play With U
Witness 4 The Prosecution
In A Large Room With No Light
A Place In Heaven

as examples

BEAUGARDE said:

Well I am guessing that much was done between 85 - 87. 94-96-??? I mean a lot came out but most of that was finished before that.

Prolific means "recording a lotta song". He always did, always will.

Now if u mean "most creative..."

shaomi said:

He is not that prolific anymore.

P has always been "prolific'. From 78 till now. BUT, I've stated several times in various threads that, in my opinion, P's most FOCUSED period was 81-84. I feel this was P's glory years, simply because P was on a mission. He saw the prize and he strove like hell to get it. After he acheived superstardom with Purple Rain, I feel he became "less" focused. He was focused as hell during 81-84.

blackguitaristz said:

I wouldn't say less "focused" but more "experimental" and "boundery pushing" with music industry and himself up until about '87 or so. It was and has been about getting the music out there.

I wouldn't say he was stiving for any particular thing except getting the songs from his head to the tape recorder and finding out the limits one has with getting that certain sound you hear in your head translated onto tape. I'd say in the beginning years this was easier to do as the songs weren't that complex as they would eventually be. Thgis is also why much of the earlier music sounds "similar" like it was trying to become more than it was and it eventually tapered off and he went elsewhere with it.

superspaceboy said:

How on earth can u know, do u live in Paisley Park? Nobody knows how many songs a month he records nowadays...
[Edited 9/28/05 15:52pm]

shaomi said:

I don't know...but it's not as much as it was. If it were...we'd see a new album by now. Or new music online or something. Unless the next one is another sprawling 3-disk "masterpiece" being held in wait to be unvieled soon.

superspaceboy said:

I don't think it has anything 2 do with anything: Prince releasing music has hardly ever been related 2 the quantity of stuff he recorded. He's "capitalising" on Musicology's success, that's what's happening & nothinbg else. It's quite OBVIOUS that Prince already has recorded more than one new album since 1 year & a half : i don't c any reason why he would suddenly quit recording one song a week.

82-84 Bcos it was the first time, he was in his mid 20's and the acts he did then actually were the most successful.
Eg The Times "What time is it" was there best album and got to 2 on the Black Chart. It also has Gigolos get lonely too- go figure.
Prince also first dabbled with women with the Vanity 6 album, a load of sexually exploitative tosh but so catchy.
Also by 84 he had done the Times 3rd album, Jill Jones album (finally released in 1987), Apollonia 6 and Sheila E's debut album, and had written songs for Stevie Nicks and Kenny Rogers Both were hits. He toured with 1999 for 6 months and the whole time formulated the Purple Rain Movie and recorded 1999, Purple Rain and Most of ATWIAD. He had also given Sheena Easton Sugar walls which was ahuge hit and written most of the familys album.

I rest my case, Prince was cooking in this period. In Jan 1982, he was still a cult figure with one hit 2 his name, by Dec 84 he was the biggest pop star in the world.

hmmm, hasn't he released more tracks in the last 5 or 6 years than in all the 80's?

ufoclub said:

Don't know about that. And considering all the outtakes and stuff he did for The Time and others, I guess he recorded more music back then. That's what this is about, not released songs. But, of course we don't really know how much he does these days, as security at Paisley Park doesn't seem to led any outtakes escape the vaults.

I remember during the LoveSExy error the big buzz was that he had over 500 songs in the vault, polished.


Last year, during and interview with Prince he admitted that there were now several vaults and thousands of songs.

So even though he's not releasing much, and what he is releasing is barely tolerable to some, he's probably still recording like crazy.

All this silence tends to make us fans think maybe he's working on something brilliant. But if S.S.T. is any indication of what's to come, it'll be another sleeper for me.

The Lisa and Wendy years.