New topic
PrintableI hear where y'all r coming from on both sides with regards to ATWIAD. I have grown 2 love that album now, but I didn't feel it initially when it first came out. I was digging on Pop Life and Raspberry Beret and that was it. It wasn't until I pulled the tape out of storage during a move that I got 2 know the rest of that album, and I feel all sillyface 4 not getting it then. I was young, I guess is my excuse. (Oddly enough, I got Parade from the start).
But even though I love ATWIAD now, I think that putting it out right after Purple Rain was a mistake. Ideally, he should have put out a live record from his shows with the Revolution, making a point to include some of the spacier, epic grooves that they threw down with. The live record could have served as a bridge between PR and ATWIAD, letting people know that some interesting changes were afoot. But that's just my theory. I also think the following were significant mistakes. 1- Making an actual movie of Under The Cherry Moon. Parade is 1 of my favorite Prince albums, but think of how much better it would b if it weren't tainted by the film. I'd give UTCM ** 1/2 stars, but it would have probably served Prince and his rep better if the film had never been made. The same goes 4 Graffiti Bridge. 2- Disbanding the Revolution. 3- Releasing If I Was Your Girlfriend as a single. I love the song, but it is 2 weird for radio. 4.1- The whole ecstasy-fueled junking of the Black Album. 4.2- The cover of the Lovesexy record. Again, I dig it, and I think it works. But with a different cover, it could have sold twice as many copies. 4.3- Not having Lovesexy split into various tracks on the CD. That just seemed b*tchy. 5- Not touring the US for so long post-Revolution and pre-NPG. 6- Getting rid of all of his electronic equipment in the early nineties. 7- Getting legal with his own fans and their sites. 8- Bcoming ashamed of his own work thanks 2 his religion. I am not knocking the JWs, because it's a joyous thing when anybody has a happy relationship with the divine, and if it works 4 them, then that's great. But the idea that he's ashamed now of some of his old stuff is so sad 2 me. I find the mesh of sinful and sacred that fuels his earlier stuff so much more interesting and so much more inspirational than his recent material. Anna Stesia speaks volumes more about conflicting desires sitting on the same record as When 2 R In Love than it would on any of the more recent titles, and that's so frustrating. Once upon a time in a haystack of despair; happiness sometimes hard to find, yeah. | |
- E-mail - orgNote -  Report post to moderator |
vainandy said: wasitgood4u said:
vainandy said:
I was first exposed to Prince on R&B radio and was still with R&B radio through all of this. Every now and then, I flipped to pop radio, and MTV and video shows like "Friday Night Videos", "Night Tracks", were all over the place so I was well aware of what was going on in the pop world also. In the early 1990s, when hip hop took over, I took all R&B stations off my dial and switched over to pop stations. The music I was into mostly at this time was underground house. wasitgood4u said: Which is what I said - evrything you've discussed related to "R&B" only. There were other things going on in music - and P was aware of them. He's always had broader influences even if he denies them now (Stones, Joni Mitchell,the whole Rude Boy punk stuff + rockabilly - and these were all from the period you eulogize).  Oh, you are so right! Channels like MTV and pop stations, as well as shows like "Friday Night Videos" and "Night Tracks" were so full of funk and R&B that it's a wonder if "Soul Train" even survived. Finding some pop/rock on these shows was rare because R&B had just taken over them. 
As I said, you're really only paying to R&B and stuff at the top of the charts - in fact, even in R&B you're talking about what was mainstream, and not cutting edge. The main thing about P int he 80s was he seemed always 1 step ahead. I agree with OMiles who said above he was probably just doing what he wanted not TRYING to make trends, but that's what real trensetters do. You're comments above simply prove my point. From the mid- to late-eighties alternative and innovative stuff was getting stripped back (in the early eighties the alternative was synth-oriented, cf Kraftwerk, New Order, Prince etc.). You seem only to have noticed by the time that became the norm (turn of the decade, early nineties), by which time P had in fact moved on to other things. Your citing Milli Vanilli, Tiffany etc. prove the point - these are artists who ride waves with zero creative input and no innovation (I would say the same for Madonna and GM, but there'll probably b dissenters).
Well, here is Billboard's pop, not R&B, top ten singles for the year 1985..... 1 CARELESS WHISPER, Wham! Featuring George Michael (Columbia) (#1, Feb) 2 LIKE A VIRGIN, Madonna (Sire) (#1, Dec 1984) 3 WAKE ME UP BEFORE YOU GO-GO, Wham! (Columbia) (#1, Nov 1984) 4 I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS, Foreigner (Atlantic) (#1, Feb) 5 I FEEL FOR YOU, Chaka Khan (Warner Brothers) (#3, Nov 1984) 6 OUT OF TOUCH, Daryl Hall and John Oates (RCA) (#1, Dec 1984) 7 EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD, Tears For Fears (Mercury) (#1, June) 8 MONEY FOR NOTHING, Dire Straits (Warner Brothers) (#1, Sept) 9 CRAZY FOR YOU, Madonna (Sire) (#1, May) 10 TAKE ON ME, A-Ha (Warner Brothers) (#1, Oct) You are so right again, everything in here is alternative and stripped back. In case you're wondering where Prince was on this chart, "Raspberry Beret" was at number 51.  You're amazing! You don't even READ the posts do you?????!!!! I said that lal you refer to is R&B AND things at the top of the charts. What do you do? Post me a list of the annual top ten???? What are you trying to do, prove me right? I was talking about MAKING trends, not FOLLOWING them. (I'm using caps, so that maybe it wiil sink in... "We've never been able to pull off a funk number"
"That's becuase we're soulless auttomatons" | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
