In the downtime between Prince major events, I have been doing some thinking about his career. Does anyone share the belief that P. has some serious ADD issues going on? How else does one explain his overly prolific album output and his tendency to become bored of projects within a couple of months of release. The man literally cannot sit still and there are few if any mainstream artists that come close to his output of material over the last thirty years. But what has so often doomed him is his inability to focus on one aspect of the business or promotion side, tanking projects that could have been successful because he could not bother to take the time to just slow the hell down and play the game.

How would his career trajectory have gone if some crafty doctor had made the ADD diagnosis years ago, gotten the man hooked up on some meds and enabled him to FOCUS? Would he have released 3 more singles on Purple Rain? Would his self-directed movies have been more focused so people outside his brain could have understood and embraced them? Would he have made the realization that whereas record companies are heartless money-grubbing bastards they also made him a very rich man and they can be beneficial in maintaining good will with fans and radio? Most importantly, what would Tom Cruise have to say about all of this?

I am not the biggest fan of Diamonds and Pearls artistically speaking, even though I like it and think it's a well-crafted pop album,but didn't it seem like for a year and a half, he actually FOCUSED on a project. The marketing was exquisite with not a singe wrong move and the album revived his career the first time everybody was saying Prince was over. How different would his career have been particularly in the latter years had he be able to utilize that laser like focus on subsequent works?

You've really thought this out, haven't you?

You make a pretty good arguement and some of this does make a little sense.

But I'd have to disagree with your claim.
I believe that's just the way Prince's mind operates. His mind is always evolving and changing and where his attention is changes a lot too.

Diamonds & Pearls, from what I hear, was a very prolific time in his life. In fact, according to Prince of Paisley Park, he cut many of the songs on the album within hours. All I can think is that he was just in the zone artistically, so things got done quicker. And the NPG did have a big influence on how some of the songs turned out (Daddy Pop, Push, Jughead, Live 4 Love), so with that help, he did get things done quicker.

Why he loses interest in a project and goes onto something else... let's see. He finishes a project when each of the songs are complete and all of the pieces of the puzzle (album) fit together to his satisfication. Once that's over with, he just moves onto the next thing because he's done and leaves the released album move through the charts as they please. He's satisfied with the music he wrote and where it goes on the charts doesn't concern him too much. Because he's always keeping busy.

Why he doesn't promote as much as he should... I really can't argue one way or the other way. He has his own personal reasons. I'm not quite sure if ADD is the cause of that, though.

I'm getting the albums now long after they ran their course and all I care about is getting to know them, the person within the music, and also a little about how they came to be. Whether he promoted an album or not doesn't change how I perceive it.

Maybe I have ADD. I already forgot I started this thread.

...around here we call that artistic. (his ideas are just too big to for organization)

I am not sure that I agree with you. We all like him because he acts different from the others. For example, if you ask a very gifted child to try to behave like everybody else, it could destroy that child. If Eistein do things like everybody did at the time, where will we be now.

imho he is a very creative artist with lots of ideas - who knows what he will do next - exciting stuff

SzeSze said:

I agree to an extent that it is his brilliance that many of us love. But what has bothered me is how he has let his disinterest make stellar output almost immediately obsolete.

Ultimately, I believe the man has got a bitch of a muse to feed and we have all been rewarded by it. But how would his career have been different had he followed more traditional routes for getting his product to the masses?

I honestly believe that spending a lot of time with GOD. can help you to be an endless fountain of energy, and I just look at Prince and think, this guy, has the spirit of music in him.

Tame said:

Yes but how does "Jughead" fit into that theory?

Just playing...

Personally I think that would have made a big difference, because most drugs change the chemical balance in the brain so one of the side effects could have taken away that creative thought.

I just think of that movie "A Beautiful Mind" (I know, that was an anti-psychotic drug - but same difference) and how it affected the mind of whatever that guys name is.

Ritalin might well have killed Prince, let alone his career! Ritalin has been responsible for the death of some children and is akin to giving your kid speed. However, some studies have shown that children respond better to just having Omega-3 fish oil supplements - not only did they respond better on fish oil than Ritalin, but there were no side-effects either.

I think your basic premise, that of Prince being unable to focus is inherently incorrect. No artist would be able to produce a body of work of this magnitude and quality without the ability to focus. Prince focusses on what he is doing, not what he has done. So, in reality, you are actually asking Prince to remove his focus from what he does best (make music and music relevant to the time) and, instead, place that focus on something that dis-interests him - the business.

Either way, Ritalin-enhanced or not, I'd take Prince the way he is any day

This has been beaten to death, let it go