Hi Prince fans

Then everyone would be utterly confused... I mean, what would a MJ song be doing on a Prince album? That's just crazy!

I don't get it.....

BoySimon said:

ditto


and it's Billie Jean! (sorry, pet-peeve) lol.

what if sun was the moon and the moon is the sun???
what if sugar is salt and salt is sweet???

I still wouldn't care!

thebanishedone said:

We'd all be dead.



I guess a lot more women would swallow.

Now I've heard it all!

I never heard the version of 1999 with Thriller on it. Where can I buy one?

Ok, had a laugh to my response to my hastily thrown together thread. Apparently well-liked, it is not. Maybe I will try to explain what I was hypothesizing. Sorry , about the Billie Jean spelling, that is just pure, unadulterated carelessness!

I just think of Prince's career success trajectory. I am the one who started a thread wondering the ramifications of Prince's career if he had started it in another decade.

Could he have been an acclaimed blues giant from the 30s or 40s ala Robert Johnson.

Would he have been the equivalent of a very talented Little Richard if he had come along a couple decades earlier.

Maybe he would have stumbled into Neil Young and started the Mynah Birds instead of Rick James and they would have still been a band to this day. Prince is a bit too young for that to happen.

Anyway, I think Prince's talent has lent him well for the era he began in. A bit of disco to see the end of the 70s, then starting with Dirty Mind surfed the waves of new wave.

Synthesizers, the 80s, how could Prince not fit into this scene better leading to his greatest success! Though obviously Prince was a huge influence on this scene, an innovator not a follower.

Then rap and hip-hop hit in the 90s, Prince tried to ride this wave, but ended up spitting a bit of water on his surfboard. The trousers did not fit. Fitting a circle into a square peg,etc. Success was starting to dim and quality control was loosened up a bit.

Back to Billie Jean (anyone still reading, yes I am going to get hammered again by the readers, I fear). If Billie Jean had been written by Prince and released in 1982 would this have been the gateway to monstrous success that WDC and PR eventually opened up. Though Prince's 84 success did not amount to the success of Thriller from 82 (I think). Likewise, would Micheal Jackson's amazing, transcendent success have occurred if the starting point to that success (in my mind his performance of Billy Jean on Motown) had not occurred.

I am glad Prince did not have the monstrous success MJ had just previous, I think it was way too intrusive for MJ. Also glad P never tried the moonwalk.

Anyway, just playing with hypotheticals that could have changed the landscape of P's career. Hopefully there will be more new P music to listen to soon.

you should make a comic graphic novel of these alternate prince realities.

Bumhole said:

Thats for sure.

runningbear said:

I would have liked it if he would have started NOW rather than the past. Because when I was in hishscool Backstreet Boys were number one and I'M THE ONE who got funny looks for being a Prince fan. Can you IMAGINE BSB thinking I'M rediculous And now that I've graduated this thing called EMO is in and guys are wearing girls pant and wearing eyeliner and its fine. It seems like I'm too early or too late for everything. I mean thos EMOS wouldnt have made fun of me...

I had a bit of an incomfortable Highschool time...

violectrica said:

I'm in high school now, and the same thing goes for me.
It's so hard to find people that understand that I like Prince, or at least are willing to.

RUHip2TheJive said:

Thank you,I know my post was easy to ridicule, as are most hypothetical situations which can be reduced to the absurd, but glad to see a couple of you have risen above.

Hard to imagine Prince breaking in the music biz now if he was just 18 and looking for a record deal in 2007, hardly envision him appearing on American Idol in competition. Though some talented, independent musicians do break through successfully (Hello Alicia Keyes)

carlcranshaw said:

Then MJ would be FIRED thank god.

i'm probably missing the point totally with this, but fuck it. while we are AGAIN on the subject of wacko...i believe that if wacko made records as often as Prince since 'Off The Wall', 'Thriller' probably would not have done quite as well commercially. Put it this way, if Prince done 'Purple Rain' and then said "bollocks to all this, i'm gonna go away for a few years and chill, & be a lazy motherfucka like that Jacko" then kept popping up from time to time just to say the new albums nearly done, then dropped 'SOTT' or 'Gold Experience' for example 6,7, years later, whatever, it would have been a monster of an album. no doubt. if he'd only done a handfull of albums, individual sales would be awesome.
truth is wackos talent dont really compare, he would never be able to write good albums every year or so, fuck me, he's struggling at the pace he does turn them out. by the time hes done, half of it is already sounding dated.
anyway, im outta here

violectrica said:

I was reading in the Tarraborelli biography that MJ was fascinated with that song.

And if the things people say in the Chandler court transcripts are true then he REALLY took it to heart.

It's an impossible to notion to entertain. You can't do the moonwalk in high heels.

I don't think it would have mattered if BJ was on 1999, Prince was not looked upon by the world the same as Mike. Michael had so much history in the biz & was also considered innocent, good boyish (lol). Prince on the other hand might have been too much to swallow (lol)

Prince would not do a girl named Billie Jean. He would re-name her something bizarre like Flavia Nocturna.

LuneCerise said:

yes

Imago said:

bonedaddy said:

Thriller was realesed straight after Destiny (1978), Off the Wall (1979), Triumph (1980), Jacksons Live (1981)
And nothing tells you that Prince would have been successful after Purple Rain if he waited few more years...

i know, cant we just throw the negativity around for a bit, dont need your sensible response! i just get bored hearing Prince and Wacko spoke about in the same sentence, so 20-25 years ago

anyway, to answer the question, it wouldn't have been on 1999, it wouldn't have fit into the album, it would have been shelved as a reject, with all his many hundreds of other out-takes