Moonbeam said:

The lyrics on that song are awesome.

mirrorrorrimage said:

That movie came out much after the song (1991, I believe).


By the way, Emma Samms' titties.....

I've always thought Delirious was the weakest track on the album but was a good choice as a single just for the crossover potential and the fact that it illustrated the versatility in P's music. I love DMSR but don't think it would have done much outside of black radio which was already playing it anyhow. I don't think the other songs really work as singles, although I think they're great parts of a great album. In San Diego (or was it an LA station I listened to from San Diego?), at least one R&B station gave "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore" a little bit of play. That opened my ears and after that, the only reason I cared about album singles was for the B-sides!
[Edited 11/5/07 22:02pm]

I remember back in 83 on a very popular black station out here in L.A. called 1580 KDAY. Now, it's a straight rap station, but back when I was little, in the 70's and early 80's, it was the leader in playing r&b and funk. Being cuz it was in L.A., many times it would air songs before these songs got played anywhere else. The station was so popular among such big names in the biz, that they would often drop by and play their new single or new album their first. Anyway, i don't know where else this was played and I wish to GOD I had taped this but this station was playing Prince in concert from his 1999 tour on the radio. They would only do this at night. They would play it for maybe an hour. What struck me though was that it sounded staged. Meaning it didn't really sound "live". I grew up going to many concerts and I myself had already seen Prince live in concert 3 times at this point. Once on his Controversy tour and twice on his 1999 tour. And I mean I had BANGIN' ass seats. All three shows, I was in the first 10 rows in the arena. I would never have seats that good again at a P concert. Although I had floor seats at two of the shows on his Purple Rain tour, they weren't in the first 10 rows. Anyway, by hearing this concert on the station from the 1999 tour, the crowd noise sounded like it was dubbed in over cuts from the album. It was the strangest thing to hear it like that on this station. I would tell a few friends of mine that it wasn't a "real" concert. I KNEW what real concerts sounded like. P's band was loud as a motherfucker and Dez's guitar often sounded wild and P's vocals would fade in and out from his running and dancing and spinning. U would often hear the mic hit the floor or the micstand falling over from P knocking it over. All of that would come through loud and clear if it was truly "live".

blackguitaristz said:

(singing "1580 - K-DAY!") I remember that station! I lived in central California (Lompoc, about an hour north of Santa Barbara) during high school and at the time, that was the only station we could pick up that'd really play R&B. Cameo, Slave, Switch, Gap Band - I heard them first on K-DAY...

I wasn't saying it was out of style in 1982. It wasn't released until about a month after I started my tenth grade year which would have been in the fall. It lasted all through Christmas on through to maybe March or April at the latest. Albums that started in the fall were always out of style by the time the school year ended in May and never spilled over into the next school year because a new album by an artist was made every single school year.

Pop radio drug "Delirious" out all into my eleventh grade year. This was unheard of back then. The only one that drug an album out more than a year in those days was Michael Jackson and the R&B crowd was usually sick of it in the second year.

unkemptpueblo said:

It still amazes me that "Fire and Desire" was never released as a single.That's got to be the most popular non-single that Rick has ever made.Even to this day,it gets played constantly.

Moonbeam said:

It's a fun little song,but come on...there are better single choices on the album "Automatic" and "Lady Cab Driver" would have made better singles,imo

ToraToraDreams said:

Here in the Bay Area,they played the entire song,with no edits.The moaning/sex part might have been shocking to some listeners but it was such a hot groove,nobody really cared.

vainandy said:

In my area,the album remained hot throughout most of 1983,but I noticed that the fourth and final single "Let's Pretend We're Married" didn't get much airplay.I rarely heard it on the R&B or pop stations.Here in the Bay Area,the B-side "Irresistible Bitch" got a little attention though.

SoulAlive said:

I agree with u and Vain. Let's Pretend didn't do shit out here. WB wasted a single on that song, definately. Black stations out here in L.A. at that time played EVERYTHING by Prince, didn't want to touch that song. And didn't. But yeah, they did play "Irresistible Bitch" quite a bit.

How did they play "Irresistable Bitch" on the radio because, at the time, the word "bitch" wasn't allowed on radio. They never played here in Jackson but late at night I could pick up a station from Memphis that played it. They had cut and edited it all throughout the song taking out "bitch" every time it was said. They renamed the song "Irresistable".

vainandy said:

yup...just like Erotic City being edited..

the f word wasn't mention...

funkpill said:

Exactly. But yeah, they edited out "bitch". The dj's didn't ever say the name of the song, they just played it.

funkpill said:

Along with the funkier cuts like Delerious ,DMSR, 1999,Lady Cab Driver. Erotic City,& Irrestitible Bitch All Unedited on the particular station that I listened to at the time.
[Edited 11/6/07 18:44pm]

I mentioned the show Solid Gold in my thread so whp one here remember seeing when P was on there, twice?! I have both episodes on VHS. P performed Little Red Corvette of course on that cramped ass little stage. Then he came back on the show sometime later, when WB re-released the single 1999 and he performed that song. Jill and Lisa for some reason looked pissed as hell at P all through the performance. I was like "Damn, I wonder what did P say to their ass?".

blackguitaristz said:

great to read your threads blackguitaristz, they are the sort of stuff we should all be writing about, brought back great memories reading this and also was very informative, Plz keep it up

blackguitaristz said:

There was some funky attitudes to going along with the Funky music that night. It was quite evident.

Whitnail said:

Thank Whitnail. Very kind words. Excuse the "whp one here" shit. I meant to say "who on here".

blackguitaristz said:

But he still rock that mutha' tho


To me, this was solid proof (no pun intended), that he wanted that crossover audience...That's why he avoided Soul Train for so long
[Edited 11/7/07 16:38pm]

funkpill said:

Pill, PLEASE don't get me started about P running away from Soul Train. I would have LOVED to see him on there when he went on American Bandstand. If he tried that silly ass little girl shit he did with Dick Clark on Don, P would have gotten laughed off staged. Not booed but LAUGHED off. He would have held up 4 fingers and Don would have been like "Lil' nigga, what does that shit mean? Your punk ass better open up your mouth and talk. We don't play that shit on here."

blackguitaristz said:

yup....

blackguitaristz said:

I remember Don sending him a message through Vanity, that if he comes on Soul Train, "You will get interviewed Brotha'"...

I saw both episodes when they originally aired back in 1983 and I recorded them in the late 1990s when VH1 aired old episodes of "Solid Gold" (they had shortened the episodes down to a half an hour). Only rich motherfuckers could afford VCRs back in 1983.

Don't even get me started about Prince not performing on "Soul Train". Do you know how much he could have turned that show out in 1981 if he had come on there and performed "Controversy" and "Let's Work". I could understand him not going on any shows wanting to be mysterious and all but then he turned around and went on "Solid Gold". Damn, I hate when artists want to crossover.

He finally went on "Soul Train" in 1994. Whoopie. Big Thrill. By then, it was no longer "Soul Train", it was the "Shit Hop Train" and the Prince performance was the only part of the show worth recording.

"Automatic" was released as a single...down here in Australia. B-Side was "Something In the Water". Video got good rotation too....but single did nothing on the charts.

vainandy said:

Yep. Vain, he would have had brutha's throwin' up the funk sign during Controversy and Let's Work big time. He would have looked cool too, with Dez and Brown Mark, fine ass Lisa, Fink and Bobby. Don would have been speechless. Same as if he had went on there during 1999 when he SHOULD have went on there and threw down with 1999 and DMSR. The roof would have caved in. Don wouldn't had a chance to interview him. Went on there when it mattered. But instead, P was running from black folks and the Chocolate Cities and running to the suburbs like a motherfucker. He went on there when he felt he needed the black audience cuz the had got sick of his weird ass whack ass shit he had be putting out.