I'll let you guys chew on this for a while. I gotta read thru my Ecology book for an exam on Tuesday. Between this Thursday and next week, I'll be getting 2 more albums for my collection.
I know which 8 albums I must have in my collection and I'll give u the list in chronological order (not order of preference).

1999
Around the World in a Day
Sign O' The Times
Diamonds & Pearls

Come
Emancipation
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic

There are two albums trying to nudge their way onto my list: Parade & Crystal Ball. And if I feel in the need 4 more Prince music or I want to fill in some gaps, I might get them further down the road.

I think the best approach would be looking for albums to help fill in the gaps I've created with my small collection:
Purple Rain, The Gold Experience, Musicology, 3121

In other words, I'll look 4 1999 & ATWIAD to smooth things over with Purple Rain. Or I'll look 4 Come & Emancipation to fit around TGE. It kinda depends on what I find really... but I figure it's better to go this way rather than getting an album that's nowhere near any of the others. (D&P or ). I had a bit of a difficult time smoothing things over when I bumped between PR & TGE cuz they're 2 eras that are worlds apart... it got pretty ugly.

So I welcome any suggestions/deletions/substitutions/additions. I most likely won't listen to the deletions/substitutions... or I value advice however I can get it.
[Edited 5/4/07 11:17am]

you need to get Parade. no maybes about it. get it.

i recomend "For You"

its a really good album and with classics like "In Love" and "Im Yours" its worth a buy

and than you can buy each album in order and fill in the gaps

I think that you should get 1999 and ATWIAD next, but I say get what you can find because most stores don't have a great selection of Prince cds. Good luck and enjoy the music
[Edited 4/29/07 10:25am]

depends where you live.

in england hmv has loads of prince stuff, so does virgin megastores

InsatiableCream said:

Dude Everyone need Parade! its Excellent in fact i'm gonna put that cd on right now..... Everyone come behold Christopher Tracy's Par-a-ade...Come on Y'all Sing!.

...
[Edited 4/29/07 10:45am]
[Edited 4/29/07 10:47am]

lotus said:

Everyone come behold Christopher Tracy's Par-a-ade

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Actually, It's Come and Chaos & Disorder that 'fit around' TGE. Come, as you know, was mostly reocrded during the same sessions as TGE. C&D, also, contains tracks from that period and shortly after. Emancipation came later and is more or less the beginning of his 'slick plastic' period.

However, even when you buy albums right next to each other you may not be getting anything similar, either. Both 1999 and ATWIAD are worlds apart from Purple Rain, for example, even though they bookend that release. Personally, I'm of the mind that you should celebrate the differences because that is what Prince is best known for... so I'd vote for, in no particular order:

For You
1999
Parade
Sign O The Times
Graffiti Bridge

Come
Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic

a great introduction to Prince's music in the eighties would be SaTim's 12" Archive V2.0, which contains the released B-sides and Extended Versions of the A-sides of all singles until 1989.

Ugh... I hate studying.

I felt like I was underlining/highlighting everything in book.
I've got 2 chapters left to read thru/highlight, so I'm taking a break.

Everyone sure likes Parade, haha. Well, if I happen to find it when I can't find anything else on my list, that's what I'll do. Of course that'll mean getting Under the Cherry Moon... but w/e.

In my mind, Prince's career started with "1999"... and after Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, he disappeared for a while, releasing albums only thru his website, which leaves me with Musicology, his first big release in a long time.
Of course I know there's more to the story than that... but his earliest material [For You, Prince, Dirty Mind, Controversy], I'll most likely never get.

His years as hold the most interest for me since he went thru so many changes. I feel I need to get a lot of the music from that time so I'll have more of an idea of what he was going thru.
And since I'm an 80's buff, I gotta have 1999, ATWIAD & SOTT in my collection. haha

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Prince's career most certainly did not start with "1999"!!!!!

Dirty Mind is one of the greatest albums in his entire catalogue!!

out of your list you should start with Sign O The Times and Come.

Militant said:

haha...
Well, that's what I thought when I first got here. Clearly, there were 4 other albums he did previous to 1999 that I didn't know about.
Still, with that said, they hold no interest for me and I want to focus on completing my collection by filling the gaps around my albums.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

You are making me sad. His first few albums are so good. I hope that you get them after you get the ones you want to get now.

when i got in2 prince i had leant and burned,symbol, purple rain,parade,gold experience and the hits/b sides, after that i got sign of the times and then have got the rest of the albums sequentially from the begining, im up 2 lovesexy now, i cheated with getting 3121 and musicology tho, my next will be batman and the grafeti bridge

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Please do buy Dirty Mind .. it's his best album!
[Edited 4/29/07 12:05pm]

I'll say this.

The albums that aren't on my list of 8 "must haves"... I'm only likely to get if I hear some of the tracks off them and like them A LOT, or I'm in the need of more Prince and say 'what the heck'... I know where I want to go... and most likely, if I get all of the must-haves and want more... I'm more likely to go backwards from 1999 (Controvery->Dirty Mind->Prince-> For You)...

but this won't be for a long time from now. That list of 8 "must haves" is my priority list.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

No, his career most certainly didn't start with 1999. That may have been his first 'major league' recording but to ignore the earlier stuff is really questionable, imo. "Prince", for example, is his first commercial success.

It's especially questionable since you seem genuinely interested in Prince's growth. The period between 1978 when he appeared as a genius neophyte and 1982 where he perfected the "Minneapolis Sound" features more direct, visible growth than anywhere else in his career, bar the eclecticism of Parade and the dizzying arrangement and song structure on .

Now, I won't lie to you - none of those early albums are going to end up being a favorite most likely, but they are worth hearing. Perhaps, you have a good used record store near you where you can eventually pick these things up for $3-5?

Oh, and he didn't disappear after Rave. The Rainbow Children came between it and Musicology and was a normal retail release with a single and promotion (just no one bought it ).



I think it's probably more your own perception of the period that that makes it seem unique, etc... The era has some magnificent songs but it's not extremely notable for it's changes. He, more or less, worked with the same sound through the last half of the 90's, perhaps his longest stretch of not really re-inventing himself or his music. TGE bears more resemblance to and Come and other albums that came before than the ones that have come later.





I'm curious what makes ATWIAD more notable than Parade if you feel yourself an 80's buff.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

No you need to get his older stuff to see where he started and then you will have a much better appreciation for his music. His first 4 albums cover a lot of styles and genres. But for me personally, 1999 is the album I always come back to time and time again. Just do yourself a favor and please do not underestimate his older stuff.

RobDogg27 said:

... or more correctly, do not underestimate ANY of his stuff - because the very album you pass over may end up being the one you like best.

Haha... I feel like I'm really messing with everybody's heads here when I say I'm not interested in his earliest material.

The #1 thing I kept hearing at the very beginning was "go in chronological order"... with what I own now, I really can't do that. Although the "culture shock" from jumping from 80's to late 70's Prince won't be as severe as jumping from 80's Prince to 's sound since they're so completely different.

I think I might have a used record store at a place called "The Crossings" close to where I live. I've only been inside once, but I was looking for animé, not music. I don't know what they have in terms of music... but they could very well have an unusual collection of Prince albums (unusual as in they might have something I couldn't find at FYE or Best Buy... but the local Best Buy isnt open yet).

And my interest in ATWIAD over Parade lies in the fact that ATWIAD came after PR.
What I get next primarily depends on what fate hands me (or in lamest terms, what I find).

I've yet for someone to say "don't get [album name], get [album name] instead". I would have expected that by now.

Any preferences of which albums on my list I should or shouldn't get? In any order? I've no order of preference as of right now.

jtfolden said:

Thank you.

RobDogg27 said:

with Prince, anything's possible. He has managed to surprise me b4... a number of times.

Personally, I love 1999 like I stated above. From what you have so far, what are your top 5 songs of his? Going off that maybe I can give you a better suggestion as opposed to just, I like this...I don't like that...

Oh... tough call... he's got so much material that I love on my 4 albums.
But here's a handful of my favorites

The Beautiful Ones
A Million Days
The Word
The Dance
Te Amo Corazon
Computer Blue
(obviously, Gold & PR= my top 2 favorites)
Dolphin
Cinnamon Girl

I doubt how much anyone can make out of that... with the material I've heard... I've only found 5 songs that I didn't like... and I've heard a lot of his material over the past 3 months months. So I doubt there'd be a great deal I'd be disappointed with

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Hmmm.... I would try SOTT or 1999. SOTT is a lot to take in but I think that you would really like it. However, 1999 will take you away. Just sit back with some good headphones and enjoy the ride. Regardless of what you get you will have a lot to take in.

SOTT is Prince at his absolute peak, it is a must own.

Dirty Mind is also a must own. You really can't consider yourself a fan of Prince until you appreciate the absolute revolutionary nature of that album. It set the tone for everything he did in the 80's without a doubt.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

That is a sacrilegious comment!!!!

From your list, I'd suggest SOTT, 1999, and ATWIAD.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Well, my first recommendation after seeing that list would be for you to get TGE, but you already have that.

Judging by what you've said previously and this list then I think you'd enjoy:

From the 90's:
Come - even more than we'd talked about previously.
- Really, the closest thing to TGE in arrangement/production
...and many will poo-poo the idea, but if you like Prince's more 'guitar pop' style of music, then if you see Chaos & Disorder going cheap/used you really ought to give it a try.
Which all those albums happen to be from the same general time period as TGE.

From the 80's you would probably like 1999 and Sign O' The Times (I'd get SOTT first, as the second half should be very appealing to you). Given you like Te Amo Corazon, then you would probably enjoy Parade.

Off your original list, I might push ATWIAD and Diamonds and Pearls more towards the bottom as I think they're moving away from what it *seems* you like going off that very short list of songs. Rave/Emancipation are a toss up as I don't see anything for against that sound just based on your list.

RobDogg27 said:

Well duh!! haha

Common word of mouth here says that SOTT and 1999 are his best 80's albums (arguably also among the best he's ever done).
Despite the fact I got a mix with 1999 & LRC (the best song of the album, I thought) to avoid getting 1999, I got motivated to add the album to my list.
I've only heard 1999, Little Red Corvette, DSMR & Let's Pretend We're Married... but I like what I hear quite a bit. The songs carry a carefree vibe along with them, making it sound like Prince is more serious in Purple Rain...
therein lies my interest for it.

I want to learn more about Prince as a person thru his music, therefore I gotta fill in the holes I created with my collection. My original objective (to avoid the obsessive life of a completist) was to get the best of his music that I could and be happy with that.
Clearly that isn't going to work for me, haha... I have Musicology & 3121, 2 albums few here would put on any top 10 list of Prince albums... But I'll see what I can find.

Boy I can't wait until the semester's over so I can go home and check out the local places... but right now, I only have enough 4 2 albums at most.