I love this album! It reminds me of the very first time two friends and I drove to Minneapolis. We had that album playing in the car the whole way up and the whole way back (14 hours one way).

myfavorite said:

It wasn't on any album. It's part of "The Hits," which is a compilation.

The instrumental version is also a (damn fine) B-side.

I wanted to like so bad. Unfortunately, many of the tracks on it just went horribly, horribly wrong.

...it's a masterpiece, a wild fusion of P 80's-like music and the modern dance-modern R&B of the early 90's.

I musta had a lot on my mind tonight... or I plain am getting bored

I didn't get into the album much tonight.

Someone said earlier that the album is a masterpiece. It's so close to being a masterpiece that its not even funny, but a few factors (which I've mentioned) have gotten in the way of it reaching its full potential.

My favorite tracks 2night were:

Love 2 the 9's
The Morning Papers
wanna melt with u
7
God Created Woman
The Sacrifice of Victor

I've been meaning to come up with my own mix of beautiful love songs by Prince... the majority of my own version of "The Beautiful Experience" is on this album.
Love 2 the 9's, The Morning Papers, Blue Light, Damn U, and God Created Woman are all possible candidates.

Prince's love songs make up the majority of my favorite of all his songs, which makes a making a mix a difficult task but I'm getting the feeling that this album is the closest thing he's written that could be an entire album of love songs... only 2b edged out by Emancipation, which I hear has a TON of love songs
and actually, this is ultimately where Emancipation begins, with Prince's first love songs 4 Mayte.

And u gotta love her contribution to this album, content-wise and inspiration-wise

With regards to 7 and God Created Woman, Prince's storytelling is brilliant in this album
And "The Sacrifice of Victor" guarantees a smile on my face. I don't got a clue what its about and I don't care

mplsmike said:

Nice!

mplsmike said:

You want to hypnotize us???

mplsmike said:

Oooh,I love this!

Okay, I have to give my LPs a spin or two!

Tame said:

Good post!

There have also been suggestions that this might be a three way marriage, the trumpet like figure being the symbol of music. There is however no clue to this to be found in the really corny soap-opera-like Sacrifice of Victor video (which is the complete story to the album)... I

Musically it is indeed a real mess. A nice mess though , made by Pop Daddy trying to show off he's the master of ALL musical styles. Sometimes sucessfully (Sacrifice of Victor, 7 ( 6 remix being even better!)), sometimes less (Blue Light, 3 Chains of Gold )....

all in all, 2nd best album of the 90's, AFTER The Truth

I have been listening to while I workout for about the last three weeks.

I typically play while working out:

Love 2 the 9s
The Morning Papers
The Max
Blue Light
I Wanna Melt with U
The Continental
Arrogance
The Flow
7
And God Created Woman
3 Chains O' Gold

I get from "Love" to "Continental" while running.

I do like Sweet Baby too.

But lately I have been passing over My Name is Prince, Sexy MF, and Victor.

That run of Love to the 9's to 3 Chains of Gold without the segues would be a great album on its own.

In somewyas I think the "symbol" album to be Prince's most balanced album.

RedKite said:

you know, I think you might be right about this one and with the album's name being represented by a symbol that unites male & female, it's truly approriate

There's all kind of balance in this album. That's why I say it's a perfect way of showing off Prince as a Gemini, which he tends to do with a lot of his music.

It has a nearly perfect mix between songs and songs. I'll probably give Arrogance and The Flow another listen tonight to see how I like 'em now, but by taking out the three songs out of the line-up (3 chains is the 3rd), there's one more song than ...but "Love 2 the 9's" could actually count as both since it changes a little bit in the middle of the song.

I think I might be because I'm getting sick of "My name is Prince" and "Sexy MF"... but "Love 2 the 9's" has never looked as good as it does to me these days.

Aside from a few exceptions, I think this album is a very good representation of Prince as an artist the way I perceive him. That's probably why I prefer songs to his some of his songs (like the first 2, which I mentioned).

This is a little ironic, though. My only thing about "Love 2 the 9's" is that I got no idea what that phrase means and that was part of the reason I couldn't get into it.
I still have no idea what "The Sacrifice of Victor" has to do with any of this, and I don't care... it's and a perfect combined effort between Prince & the NPG.

After tonight, I'm gonna move onto to another album, but I figured I'd ask this while I got this thread up.

I know that there was a storyline in this album that got defragmented with the addition of a song ( a groovy one at that: wanna melt with u).
I've figured out that it's about Prince's romance with the princess of Cairo, Mayte, and he must ultimately protect these "3 chains o' gold" from the 7 assassins that killed the king. During this time, of course, Vanessa Bartholomew is trying to get an interview from Prince.

What I don't get is the lyrics of "3 chains o' gold." This is a song of supposedly epic proportions, but the lyrics seem to contradict the storyline so many times that I don't even know what relevence it has anymore. (In fact, if the lyrics made more sense, there's a chance I might even like the song).
And if the storyline was ultimately abandoned, why have this song on the album at all since these chains are never referred to outside the song? [I'm sure it'd be a much coveted bootleg if it didn't make the album ]

A storyline can still be made through the present songs, but this song and one other, "The Sacrifice of Victor," shed light on the fact that there was a storyline here b4 that now has several holes/gaps in it. The basis concept of "The Sacrifice..." I understand, but what does the sacrifice itself have anything to do with anything?

If anyone can answer my questions, it'd be greatly appreciated.
And yes, I am aware that these songs were used in the context of a promo special called "3 Chains o' Gold"... which I really should have seen when I had the chance

Loved this album front to back!

To me (like many other hard core fans) 'Diamonds & Pearls' was too mainstream for us...great songs but too commercial...the album was for us for sure! It was Prince going bi-polar on us...with a circus of crazy videos and costumes and the films '3 Chains O Gold' and 'The Sacrafice Of Victor' concert where he did 'Eye Wanna Melt With U' and '3 Chains' wearing a canary yellow get up and 'Phantom of the Opera' like half mask...it was wild!!!

There's an incredible 'Arsenio Hall Show' he did during this era that I have on VHS...he sang 'My Name Is Prince', 'The Max', 'Blue Light', and I believe 'The Sacrafice of Victor' (could be wrong on that one)..it was a great episode...He did not do the interview...Sinbad did. Oooh gotta dig this one out!!!

..peace

You made me go pull that joint out. I haven't listened to that thing is easily 10 years. I'm totally serious. It is good but this was the beginning (in addition of D&Ps & Graffiti Bridge) for me of Prince's corniness and him losing his fast ball and edge lyrically and musically

My Name is Prince is awful...no way around it...the rap is weak and the drum programing sounds like I did it.

He recovers nicely with Sexy MF, and the fantastic Love 2 the 9s and Morning Papers

The Max is weak...I remember being very disapointed with most of Princes uptempo RB material of this record and listening again tonight the Max...sucks and so corny

Blue Light...I love this song. He sings it so well. Prince pisses me off because dude can sing in so many styles and his lower register here sounds real real good.

IWMWU, Sweet Baby, and lord have mercy the continental just bad...especially IWMWU and the Continental which Prince actually was going to release as a single. That song sucked then it sounded worse tonigth.

Arrogance is cool...the Flow another weak Rap number. Prince never mastered that. He conquered a lot of generas. He has never found his voice with rap. Awful.

7 - excellent

and God Created Woman - beautiful and thoughtful....he could still write very well lyrically if not consistently

3 Chains - just excellent Prince at his artistic best

Sacrafice of Victor -Funky like doo doo

thanks for posting listening to this again was fun and the strong material is so strong that it makes the duds ok. That has been Ps history at least IMO

Other than the stretch between 1999 and Lovesexy he has always been streaky and uneven. The Symbol Album, Diamonds and Pearls, Graffiti Bridge, 3121, Musicology, Controvery, Dirty Mind (yes DM sorry DM lovers) Some great efforts and on those albums and yes some very very weak ones as well...that sometimes sabatoge the album as a whole.
[Edited 3/6/08 7:21am]

Alexandernvrmind said:

You're welcome.
I'm glad you gave the album another spin after so long and enjoyed it as much as you did.

I can agree with a lot you said.
Much like I did with D&P, I gave the tracks I usually skip another shot the past 2 listens. "Arrogance" and "The Flow" I guess I felt was just filler because it was Prince doing hip-hop. I listen to them and I'm thinking they're not quite as bad as I remember. Both have a certain something interesting about them, but I think they're overall kinda weak. It would be pretty insane, though, if those two songs were more like the others then we'd have a helluva Prince album... nothing could stand up to it except its 80's predecessor

I even gave "3 chains o' Gold" another listen just to see if there's something there. And there is... it pretty much sums up the abandoned storyline of the album in a single song. I just listened to it first and then the rest of the album. Where it's place in the album is part of the problem I have with it because a song that huge should be the last track... and it takes a lot away from "The Sacrifice of Victor." The first time I listened through the album, I wanted out after "3 chains o' gold" because I didn't know there was anything after it I figured it was a good song to end on.

I've been listening to the album for a week... and yeah, I'm starting to get sick of it Ironically, the first 2 I was getting sick of, but after hearing "3 chains o' gold," I liked them more than I have been... but then the other tracks, I'm like okay... im done here.

To me, the songs that have been stars throughout this whole week were wanna melt with u, and the last three I listen to: 7, God Created Woman and The Sacrifice of Victor...

Damn U has had a few little... misses... but it still is my favorite on the album. Though I've really grown to appreciate the 4 songs I mentioned above. The first, I almost decided to never listen to again... but especially 7 and God Created Woman are true stars

It'll be hard to go to Come after this from a happy, love-song-heavy album to one that's a little bit depressing.

It's been years since I played this cd. Maybe I'll give it a spin or two. But, I agree, when it first dropped I was over it.