booyah said:

the beatles influence is obvious, but i think it's also pretty superficial. the real glue of the strong material on that album goes deeper than the decision to go for a beatles psychadelia sound.

booyah said:

No I'm not saying it sounds like John and Paul ghost-wrote those songs or anything. Just that those particular songs are blatantly Beatlesque.

Prince doesn't want people dwelling in the past but he's been doing it since 1985. He's done his damndest to bring The Beatles and James Brown back.

Universaluv said:

i hope it's a way to test the waters for a reissue/remasters series, and i hope it leads to something that's beneficial for everyone involved - WB/rhino, prince, and the fans.

i know, that's asking too much.

I think the org must be messing up again and placing posts with other people's names.

vainandy said:

I wondered about that too. I thought "vainandy has hacked into skywalker's password!"

You mean present fanbase. He has a large past fanbase also.

vainandy said:

Yup, what you said. I thought it was implied, but yeah.

Have to agree with your little essay Anx.

Let's just say that I've had this same conversation with the people who matter,
and the problem is that Prince has very little interest in spending any time
in the vault sorting out what's there and compiling/finishing anything. He did
it once with Crystal Ball, and really has no interest in repeating it, or
wasting time (as he sees it) digging through the past when he could be doing
something new. That's all well and good, but the problem is he won't let
anyone else do it either (and anyway, Prince isn't always the best judge of
what old material should be released or what people actually want).

vainandy said:

I don't think he's even remotely tried to bring The Beatles back. He said himself he'd never even heard While My Guitar Gently Weeps before being asked to play it at the R'N'RHOF. Now Oasis - they've always been trying to bring The Beatles back. I would say that most of The Beatles influence on ATWIAD was channelled through Wendy & Lisa (and others), and that Prince was trying to integrate their sound, not The Beatles.

skywalker said:

I seem to remember the Musicology tour being more about classic Prince than James & Sly, but maybe I missed something. Soul Man was the only song that kind of made me gag. I guess you're all referring to the horn section, which has been a big part of his music since 1986.

Well whoever introduced him to the influence. He should have told them to shut up and play their instruments.

It's like any other problem. It starts and then it spreads and escalates.
.
.
[Edited 1/25/06 14:15pm]

skywalker said:

OK

I agree with him too. I'm just having fun with him because we have fought so much in the past and now we finally agree on something. He's making progress. Soon he'll be bashing Prince with the best of us.

BorisFishpaw said:

figured as much. but certainly he understands a lot of money could come from it and he could at LEAST humor the idea of finding the right people to put an archival project into place. i mean, he has a huge fanbase full of knowledgable people - he has TONS of resources at hand. and i know he likes the money...

Posthumous said:

Oooooh Prince pick me...pick me.....pick me!!!!!



M
[Edited 1/25/06 14:42pm]

meow85 said:

Now THATS what Im talkin about!
Get to the root of the issue---

vainandy said:

Let's not get carried away. I used to argue with you because you'd declare your opinions as facts making statements like, "Prince lost it after 1984". I can dig the fact that you don't like Prince since 1985 and we are at an understanding. However, I'll still maintain my opinion that Prince has done shit since 1984 that has been as good or better than things he did before. I think Prince dabbling in the 60's in 1985 was different than just full out doing a James Brown impression like he has been doing as of late.
[Edited 1/25/06 15:14pm]

skywalker said:

Getting sucked back into this thread, dangit! You make it sound like every song he's done over the past 5 years is a JB rehash. Seriously, it's like 3 or 4 songs at most over the past few years that sound like a "JB impression".

Beyond that there are JB influenced songs, which he's always had.


.
[Edited 1/25/06 15:19pm]

this is leading to an interesting question, at least for me to ask myself: when did i start to recognize the really blatant JB nods and influences in prince's stuff? if anything, i heard more sly, santana, joni and sly on the first three, and maybe we got a little james going on in 'controversy' with 'let's work'...i can hear it creeping in during the 1999 album, and it's all the way there with some of the stuff on 'purple rain' and the monster was out of the cage at LEAST on that tour. not to say that the early albums weren't funky, but i don't hear the blatant JB idol worship that i do on albums post-PR.

just a first thought. i'm sure you all will set me right.

Posthumous said:

Sounds about right to me. Possessed was the first time it really struck me as obvious. Other than that, it seems like his "Jamesmanship" was showcased alot more live than on record.

hmmm.....good point. why should we beg for the old Prince when the only thing he is interested in is moving forward ie new music etc etc. but at the same time he's doing all this homage to his heros. ok that's cool too. contridictory but fine.

well you see the reason why this happens is cuz Prince can. he's done all that innovating. all the pioneering. he doesn't need to do it anymore. plus, i bet that the reason he's still rehashing the JB tributes, is prolly cuz he wants to dive right into something that he never really did b4. we all know he likes to preach (he always has) and this "school is in" thing is his way of preaching.

let's go back so we can move forward.

Universaluv said:

and let me say too that i really don't mind all the nods to JB in prince's stuff...but let's call it what it is, which is derivative. that word gets a bad rap most of the time, but it's just what it is. and it's not the beginning and the end of prince's faults or strengths. like i said..it's just something that KINDA bugs me.