Prince,

You have most definitely been listening to the underground FUNK artists, because I can tell, this is naaaasty. You have brought back the real funk, not that watered down pop-funk that other cats have released over the last decade.

I just got my "Planet Earth" CD in the mail today, and I listened to "Chelsea Rodgers" over and over on my lunch hour. This blows me away- it reminds me of the best parts of all of your funk jams over the last 14 years meshed in to one masterpiece of funk. It's like "Race", "Billy Jack", "Funky Music", "The Everlasting Now", "1+1+1=3", and "Get On The Boat" all rolled into one nasty and tight funky blunt. The horns are razor sharp, the vocals are soulful, the scratch guitar is right in the pocket, the bass is deep and slappin', and the vocals are well thought out and intellectual with the hint of Parliament-Funkadelic in them.

In my opinion, this may be the best funk jam from you since "Kiss", but I personally think this is your best work since "1999". I rank this one right up there with my favorites "Sexy Dancer", "Controversy", and "Let's Work".

ANYONE who hasn't heard this jam yet, go out and buy it or download it, you are missing out on one of the funkiest songs Prince ever made.

Your friend,
Jason Dodson

It's definately the best song on the album. It's like a mixture of disco and funk.

vainandy said:

The first Time I heard this song I thought of Sylvester's song "Mighty Real" but then again it was alot of commotion going on
Anyway when I first got a good listen it didn't move me too much, but the 2 1/2 try I was shakin it like a Juicy Juice! Overall I really like this song now, can't seem to get it out of my brain.

Disco. Not funk. There's a difference.

Pretty good song though.

There definitely is a nice, "4 on the floor" vibe to this one.

Well I just found this website http://www.chelsearodgers.com/. No idea what it may or may not mean. But, they do have Prince's song playing.

I agree 100%

It's average.

hilton02895 said:

Looks like it's gonna be real nice! Is that really Chelsea Rodgers?

I love the 3121 scent.

Nice work, I think it's cool that Prince doesn't abandon fashion. They are inseparable. Prince is the best dressed person I have ever seen, IMO. I think it's because he chooses the best clothes for his style and appearance. It's like me, I'm a big dude, I wouldn't be wearing that stuff because I would look extremely out of place, so I wear stuff that makes me look good, like polo shirts and nice suits. But Prince can wear it because he knows his style, and that's why he is popular with the ladies- confidence.

KidaDynamite said:

(You Make Me Feel) Mighty Real is waaaay faster than Chelsea. The tempo is up there in Sylvester's jam, like up in the 120bpm area?? Something like that. Chelsea is closer to the 100 area, which makes it a groove that people don't have to catch up to in order to dance to it, and manages to not be too slow, like a lot of those "neo soul" grooves did in the early part of this decade. Those neo soul songs were cool, but they don't stomp, and this is a stomper.

herb4 said:

I think it's discofunk, but not disco- David Naughton's "Makin' It" was "disco" .

This is more like when Parliament did "Party People".... it was uptempo funk but not to be mistaken with disco. Or for that matter, look at "Stomp" by the Brothers Johnson. Many would classify that as disco, but it's not, it's discofunk.

this song is already a club banger,

wlcm2thdwn said:

I was very impressed with it. I think you can tell

It's fantastic.

And there are also rock passages and pop passages and jazzy ballad passages and R&B passages, as well as saccharine segues, moments of epic bombast and folky sing-alongs that charm me as completely.

The day Prince starts constructing artificial barriers for music is the day I check out.

But I admit, If I liked the music as much or even less than “Mr. Goodnight”, this album would probably sound more artificially compiled than “Rave”.

Thus the strange dichotomy that is taste.

If you feel something you will likely feel the soul that went into its creation.

If you don’t, it'll probably sound passionless.

it's a funky disco track...but not funk

but i can think of some Chic songs that are a lot funkier

3121Addict said:

Chic? Yeah, they were funky at times. They were disco, but at times, they were discofunk- like in "Dance, Dance, Dance" and "Good Times". I don't think either of those Chic songs are as funky as "Chelsea".

Funk isn't to be put in a box. Anything with a hint of the funk might be funk to the artist who created it. It's just like some people who were making disco back in the day may have been thinking "this is the funkiest stuff I ever heard" when they made it, but to the rest of us, we were like "okay, this is europop". On the other hand, some people made disco music just to be making disco music- you know the ones, those people who just had to have the violin staccatos and the congas because that's what the "cool" people were doing. I mean, Barry White was funky on "It's Ecstacy When You Lay Down Next To Me", but most would classify it as disco. It clearly wasn't, it was discofunk.

I love the funky guitar beat and sound to this song. It took a few listenings to really appreciate it, but I definitely love listening to it now.

FreeSpirit said:

Yes, for some, this kind of music isn't the normal thang anymore. But, for a period of about 20 years, in the "pre 9/11 world" , this kind of music was highly sought after. Thank GOD someone remembers the funk (or disco, or whatever people want to call it). Hopefully, as Brother GC say, "it ain't illegal yet".....

JDODSONandFlashpointe said:

It sounds like you're quite capable of defining musical styles, but people will no doubt be kind enough to help you out should you ever dare color outside their lines.

The person who originally heard this album back before almost anyone else had used the word "funk" in relation to "Chelsea" and also revealed that it was great, perhaps even one of his personal favorites.

I think the person, a music professional, was just being truthful about his thoughts. But I swear this has set off some kind of temporary minor stir. Just imagine the diversity of sound and funk that innocent statement has managed to create?

But being truthful is not really what some are after. They want objectivity. And their definition of objective is for you to simply tell them what they will hear. I mean, music is just like a building, right?

This same early reviewer was also not bashful in expressing his hatred for "Mr. Goodnight". And I'll be damned if that didn't also cause some type of small backlash that eased some of that track’s early pressures, including amongst those who hadn't even read the original thread and were just reacting based on some of its waves.

And I'm told that no one here is ever influenced by what they read!

And I'm mother fu**ing Santy Claus.

Perhaps the best way to write an early review of unheard music is to claim that it's all horrible. It might not be truthful to one's feelings, but it's a hell of way to kill off some people's rather off-the-chart anticipations.

Expectations that I swear, at least upon first listen, "SOTT" couldn't even manage to satiate.

Just imagine trying to shock someone who is 30 or 40 who has almost heard it all by now. Certainly a much more difficult task than coaxing an “oh my god” out of someone 16. So music is relative to the listener? Oh my god!

But what the hell am I saying?

Revisionist history will of course tell you that "SOTT" was genius upon first listen. Hell, forget first listen, I think I remember now that I knew its brilliance upon hearing only 5 notes.

And, of course, to those who think “SOTT” is terribly overrated, that album in quotes in my last sentence should be changed to your favorite album so that I can be seen as an objective writer.

Objectivity = I agree with everything you said!

==I can't edit worth a lick==
[Edited 8/22/07 22:07pm]

prince
chelsea / head (yam who edits)
Relevanz: 4.32%
VÖ-Date: 31.08.2007
Label:

12" U.K.
Funk



and the remixes are already in the works.

That site looks good the CR logo is looking cool.
Love that track, hope it becomes a massive track,
suprised if it doesnt.

herb4 said:

exactly this is not funk ..billy jack bitch, the work pt 1. the everlasting now, musicology, days of wild, hide the bone, the return of the bump squad, exodus r some of the examples of pure funk..not chelsea

JDODSONandFlashpointe said:

i seriously hope u would listen again 2 those chic songs and c where the inspiration 4 chelsea comes from ...

L4OATheOriginal said:

I agree that all of those are funk. But pure funk? None of those are "pure" funk The Work comes closest. But The Work is midtempo. It's not a "stomper". Everlasting is a stomper. 1+1+1=3 is FUNK.

I will concede, as I said, in that I don't think "Chelsea" is pure funk, but it's not pure disco either.

Even Chic wasn't purely disco at times. There are too many labels. Most of us are funky in some way or another.

JDODSONandFlashpointe said:

george said it the best then : "funk can not only move it can remove, the desired effect is what u get ..."

but can u imagine doobie in u'r funk? Woah!!!

"Chelsea Rodgers" reminds me of the funky disco that a lot of females were making in the 1970s such as The Emotions' "I Don't Wanna Lose Your Love", Cheryl Lynn's "Star Love", etc. It's a perfect mixture of funk and disco.

When you really think about it, disco was nothing more than a modernized, speeded up version of funk. So many people like to throw all funk in the same box with James Brown or Parliament but that was funk in it's primitive stages. Funk evolved when disco came around. Many funk groups made disco records. And after disco supposedly "died", the funk in the early 1980s was forever changed with a more modernized sound than the funk before the disco years. A funk song like "Let It Whip" by The Dazz Band in 1982 would have never come about in the 1970s before disco when funk was so jazz influenced with the horns and things.

A lot of people throw the disco label on Chic because of the era in which they came out. However, Chic was a full fledged band and was funky as hell. They continued on into the 1980s also.

L4OATheOriginal said:

"I wanna hear some funky dixieland, pretty mama come and take me by the hand...."