Contemplating a bit more about the horrible lyrics on this album:

- The banished ones? who are that? the one who dont follow your dogmatic, stupid idea's about spirituality? So, we are left out, because whe dont follow what the JW say is right.....yeah, right....

- Men arent fit to rule? no they aint... The pharaoh has a new muse who services him as a good women should? Gee, Prince you better walk in a time machine, and go back to the 1930's.

- You ...Mr rosenbaum (and other jews) have still got your 'family name', we african-americans have suffered worse then you in the holocaust.. Its like comparing apples and pears, it rather shows smallmindness, selfpity, then understanding history, what life is about, what being human is about..
Next to that, can you blame people living nowadays for what happende to slaves a few centuries ago? I dont think so..... so you rather give people a guilty feeling and present yourselve as a 'victim', instead of the person who you really are, right here, right now?

- Accurate knowledge of the christ and father... well, what is 'accurate'? what the JW tell you? so, anyone who is not 'acurate' goes to hell? Might it be the case that youre the one so smallminded thinking there is one road to heaven? Be positive, and respect other people: christians, muslims, buddhists, atheists, whatever you may call them, in their search in life...

Eeeeyep! You are correct!

I love the music on the album, but the Darth Vader voice interludes are so annoying. You can't even understand what he's saying half the time!

I tend to agree with most of what you said in both your posts River and in several ways your interpretation of the album kind of elaborated and articulated some of the reasons why I dont see it as such a masterpiece Prince album, at first when I heard it I dug the warmer live sound as opposed to the plastic sound you mentioned and certainly there are good tracks on the album but after reading threads that people virew it amongst the best of the Prince albums the more I listen to it as an overall album the less I agree with that and in many ways its for several of reasons you stated.

I find the album concept/storyline takes very narrow and almost elitist almost militant us and them type of view , like your either a rainbow children or a banished one kinda like your either a certain religion or an infidel/kafir type of approach. If we for example compare this album conceptually to LoveSexy I find LoveSexy a much more endearing album still positive and tainted with spiritual religious messages but without some kind of inherent religious authoritariism like your either with us or against us.The overdone narration and Darth voice goes too far its like War of the Worlds or something.Again musically several tracks are sympatico and likeable but for example as I showed with comparison to GB if I took the best tracks from TRC and put them beside the best tracks from GB I dont think see TRC as being any better in my oppinion best tracks from each are at least or best as good as each other for example ...
Muse to the Pharoah / Joy in Repetition,
1+1+1 / We can Funk,
She Loves Me for Me / Graffiti Bridge,
Family Name / The Question of You,
Everlasting Now / Melody Cool,
Last December / Still Would Stand All Time,

I see the above tracks as being pretty equal on both sides but as an overall album I slightly prefer GB.
[Edited 1/13/07 6:22am]

comparing melody to everlasting now and GB to she loves me? Honey you're swingin' from th' wrong tree. GB is probably the worst song he's ever written, ' sounds like a bloody reject from a cola commercial!
Everlasting now can't be topped by anything, let alone that agony aunt.
With all due respect senoir, you don't know what you're talking about!

thedribbler said:

Its a matter of oppinion and to be honest I could see several Prince songs musically as sounding like they might be used in commercials I could probably even imagine or see She Loves Me for Me like that but saying I dont know what Im talking about based on your focus on one or two songs is a pretty weak argument or more to the point weak statement as you have hardly provided something worth being called an argument.

Secondly Prince has written several songs that are worse than Graffitti Bridge, I consider Wedding Feast to be amongst them and to put the song Graffiti Bridge in perspective sure Graffiti Bridge is basically a soundtrack anthem a catchphrase for the concept of the movie if you see it in that perspective rather than a popsong on any regular album then you will be swinging in the right tree luv.

Melody is easily as good as Everlasting now they are both just Groove songs go put on Melody now and turn up your stereo real loud if you dont start dancing and singing along and appreciating that awesome voice then call a Doctor cause somethings wrong.
[Edited 1/13/07 6:44am]
[Edited 1/13/07 6:47am]

I like the album but for some reason, my Girlfriend at the time, an NYU grad school creative writing major, made me turn of the cd because of the lyrics on the rap of Muse 2 the Pharoah... she had a bad "reaction"

It's not without merit, but I don't like it.

OskarKristio said:

Wedding' is just a jingle, it's not a song.
There's nothing wrong with songs for commercials as long as the song is good. But this empty headed, naive, north american anthem stuff is an insult to the ears. It shows the worst side of prince. I remember seeing him in a concert in Germany. He was blasting rhetoric, political catchphrases at them, in Ami. english, naturally. He'd probably have got some sympathy with an ami audience, but in Germany where the people, in general, are politically much better informed, and generally much better educated, he was only met with mixed smiles of uncertainty and condecension.
Graffiti bridge recaptures exactly the way I felt at that moment.

The everlasting now is ( in my humble oppion) far better on the aladins' cave DVD. It's prince's talent at its most ferocious! I don't dislike "melody" but it can't b compared to the everlasting.

Last December is the only mediocre song on TRC. I suppose I'm not much of an anthem lover.

Listening to it right now, actually.


It's great for spotting musical tributes to his heroes: Sly on Family Name, Hendrix on Last December, James on 1+1+1=3, etc.


The lyrics are banal and seemed to be reflective of his conversion to JW, but they also contained winks to his racy lyrical past.

If anything, the disc seemed a departure from his canned-beat approach to drumming. john really adds a lot to the album and creative process.

I listened to it twice and it's a interesting album, but I can't listen to it ever again. Between that awful demon voice aka "that Darth Vader shit" and the fact that I feel like I'm being preached to, this is one of my least favorite Prince albums. I will admit that I do like many of the songs, like "1+1+1=3", "Muse 2 the Pharaoh", "The Work", and "Family Name", but I just can't stand being preached to...main reason I don't go to church. Okay, now I have to rant...go. Some other mortal isn't going to be telling me about saving my soul, when that person is living in a million dollar plus house, wearing $500 suits, and driving in a brand new Cadillac. Jesus was poor and many times slept in open fields. If Mr. Religious Man isn't willing to do the same, than he need not open his mouth and say anything to me about my soul. I'll just sit at home and read my Bible if I feel my soul is slipping into eternal damnation. I'm glad I wasn't at many of those Prince concerts where he was asking people if they believed in God, because I would have been the first person telling him to just shut up and play the song...okay rant over.

Efan said:

But it's not suprising when you see how he deals with them in his history and song
. Most of his romantic / lovesongs deal with a possesive view toward women.

ThreadBare said:

You left out the more obvious....Miles and Dave Brubeck...on the title track.
Sly...maybe, James...more on The Work than on 1+1.., Hedrix....not so sure...will listen to it again...any excuse to listen to TRC. One of his best.

I also think the talk here about which tracks they like or dont like is a bit simplistic....the album IMO is not about the individual tracks, nor a hit single, but about the Album as a whole and on that level it truly is a masterpiece. Maybe he should have realeased it as a 1 track cd, just like LS.

bass line from jimi hendrix song messege to love is the same as bass line when guitar solo kicks in last december.

[/quote]

Actually when I consider the album as a whole I tend to give it a lesser rating I mean in comparison to if I would just consider the 5 or 6 tracks that I like. When I look at it as a whole and consider the songs that I dont warm to and songs like Wedding Feast that I find irritating as well as the narration voice and storyline bewteen tracks and over religiosity theme to me these things hold back the album . I consider this album good but not great.

I was wondering:
Did half a million Rwandan's die in a holocaust?

Did millions of Cambodians die in a holocaust?

Genocide.

Didn't Stalin kill off 20 million of his own?

Did millions of Africans die in the slave trade?

Did untold numbers of Native Americans die in the colonization of America?

It's been done to others besides Jews and it's ALL bad.

ART.....should stimulate DISCUSSION. It's done it's job.

It's one of Prnce's best cd's in my opinion. Top 15 for sure.

Graycap23 said:

calldapplewondry83 said:
.

Agree, I think what he is saying in that song is although we know about the sufferings of the Jews, they still have their last names compared to the African/African American descendants of slaves that to this day, do not know theirs and are still walking around with "slave owners' names"...so in other words are we really "free?".

It's also amazing that Prince made a career without using his last name and has been successful at it.

I also agree that TRC was a masterpiece, meant to make listeners "think"so to speak or to bring on discussions/educate listeners about race, history, education and religion in this country. After all, we're still questioning the purpose of TRC aren't we? It's a good thing to be able to at least talk about it, respectfully that is.
[Edited 1/14/07 7:27am]

mistermcgee said:

He's not saying it isn't, Dumbo!

spaceboy said:

He's never been any different, not even when he was a hippy in ATWIAD! Why find fault in this now if not earlier?

2elijah said:

[Edited 1/14/07 10:03am]

thedribbler said:

Right on, brother!
Right on, brother!!

thedribbler said:

How so? He's written a lot of songs about lusting after women, sure, but that's not the same thing. I thought TRC's message about women was shocking after all this time. I don't think he wrote about possessing or dominating women.

thedribbler said:

...thedribbler...I think you mean "sister"...I am a female...but thank you!

(Explanation of my membername: It often confuses people, I picked that name "2elijah" because "Elijah" is the name of a child relative of mine. I used the number "2" in reference to the word "to", so that's how I came up with "2elijah". Anyway, I had to explain that quite a few times at the npgmc site to some ppl over there when the club was open. .)
[Edited 1/14/07 10:27am]

Efan said:

He's always been possessive and dominating, That's the image that comes across, the image he's comfortable with. He has a huge ego, his own fragile world to protect. He's obviously a little fella who tries to make up for his short-comings any way he can! Have u no psychological insight whatsoever?

thedribbler said:

It's clearly not the "image he's comfortable with." However he treats women in his private life, I don't know. I don't really follow it, and the most I hear about it is the rumors that go around this board about how he treated Mayte, Mani, Carmen, etc. But that's totally beside the point. The person he presents himself as in albums (except for TRC) and on stage and in videos is a feminist, or at least it always was up to that point. Emancipation is a good example. Its lyrics present Mayte as an equal, not a servant. And look at all the female musicians he's worked with and put in his band. The video for TMBGITW shows a woman becoming president. Prince made a huge impact being shocking and controversial and overtly sexual, but not as a sexist, and that's what constitutes a large part of his image. Psychological insight might tell me his private life and publicly stated views don't match up, but since I don't care about the former (and Prince doesn't share that much about it anyway), it's not the issue I was talking about.

vegasE said:

Wow. Didn't know that about Miles & Dave. Please, hip me to the corresponding track.

As for the "maybe" to Sly, Prince bit a "run" directly from Sly's "Africa Talks to You" on "Family Name." It's the riff, actually.

Giovanni777 said:

Sorry 2 quote myself here, but it's done 4 reference purposes only...

Just had 2 add that it was also so free, musically, so 2 speak.

ThreadBare said:

Giovanni, you're right: It's great fun.

thedribbler said:

I never said he did, Jump to Conclusions Goofy!