I was recently talking to a group of musicians at the Red Cat jazz bar in Houston and the subject of Prince came up..they say prince is a great live musician but his inability to work with a producer and open his mind to NEW sounds have made his music stale and uninspired.

basically they all agreed we have seen the best of prince in the 80's.....what we have now is just a shell of the blazing talent we saw 20 years ago?

Do u agree?.....

remember we were discussing studio work not live!

In a word.....No.

Totally agree.

I think he has seen little creative or business reasons to go out on a limb with his newest releases considering the state of the industry and its dependence on recycling younger unproven talent.
Nothing to prove to an uncaring and uneducated audience.

That being said, he has to pay the bills, so one more encore of "Purple Rain" it is.

shayde said:

good point

shayde said:

That makes sense

mirrorbestfriend said:

If you give me the choice to either listen to

1) Prince produced by Timbaland with his prototype beat version No. 485, feat. Justin Timberlake plus 3 guest rappers, and singing nonsense like "tick tack tick tack" over some shitty hookline sounding like my 1986 Casio keyboard

or

2) the "stale and uninspired" Musicology, 3121 and Planet Earth

I will vote for 2) anytime and any day, that's for sure!!!

I don't know if Prince will win either way with this subject. Prince could work with a producer and just like many think it'll bring new life into his music, it could make him sound lame and like he sounds like his producer's music and not like Prince so it could backfire. Many think Prince sounds tired and uninspired but Prince might do something that'll blow all of you who feel this way out of the ballpark. Damned if Prince does and dammed if Prince doesn't.

sometimes some people sound like he's at the end of his career but he's not. He can still work with other producers. But knowing him he might feel he's better of doing it himself..never failed him 2 much in the past

mirrorbestfriend said:

No way, we can't take the genius out of Prince

I think it depends on what you love him for what how big of a fan you are.

If it's strictly for his music, and consider yourself a moderate fan, then I agree that the best of Prince was in the 80's.
If you like him for his personality and admire his journey, and you are a hardcore fan who wants to know everything from the toothpaste he uses, who he's currently sleeping with, then you'll love him more today than tomorrow.

Personally, I say the 80's was the best era but I still like him today.

I know this is a tired subject and i've beat this horse many a times myself, I know that most of us here want nothing more than for Prince to succeed...but that is another deeper question because we all like diffrent aspects of his music, what i like, you may not.
This may just be another dead horse we beat the crap out of.
Maybe we just ask too much of one man, especially as he ages.
Lol, when does it it become harasment,maybe he will sue us all for elder abuse too.
[Edited 6/30/08 15:47pm]

YES!!! i totally agree. it's like a great pitcher who has now lost a little off of his fastball. PRINCE is a great musican but his time was 1979 to 88. PRINCE could do no wrong between writing material for the time, sheila e. and so on PRINCE had classic unrealeased songs and a lot of classic b-sides. PRINCE was at the height of his muse. L4oneanother will keep saying his 90's stuff was near that level. it wasn'T!

rusty1 said:

You're right 90's wasnt great, not that it was horrible, but he peaked in 87 lets accept that and burry this horse.
I think i have moved on and appreciate old man Prince for diffrent things now, like his live performances, and the elder statesman that he is.
[Edited 6/30/08 16:11pm]

No never!

shayde said:

Just like an apologist to blame someone else for the sorry state of his recorded output over the last 10 plus years.

If he had it within him, he'd be making interesting music, no matter who was listening. He does not.

wildgoldenhoney said:

mirrorbestfriend said:

Just like an apologist to blame someone else for the sorry state of his recorded output over the last 10 plus years.

If he had it within him, he'd be making interesting music, no matter who was listening. He does not.[/quote]
so true we need to stop giving prince a sucky music pass

awww lets leave Prince alone, his new music is alright for an old man.

violetblues said:

mirrorbestfriend said:

so true we need to stop giving prince a sucky music pass[/quote]

Name one musician, who has put out as much music as Prince has and still been able to maintain a high level of quality.

The quality of Dylan's material wained in the 70's and 80's
Stevie's music wasn't as great in the 80's as it was in the 70's
Neil Young's music was shit on for about 20 years starting in the early 80's


Prince isn't the only artist who is "past his prime". The quality of every musician's music falls off when they get older.

Michael Jordan can't dunk from the free throw line anymore, but that doesn't mean he's not the best to ever play the game!!!

Paris9748430 said:

Name one musician, who has put out as much music as Prince has and still been able to maintain a high level of quality.

The quality of Dylan's material wained in the 70's and 80's
Stevie's music wasn't as great in the 80's as it was in the 70's
Neil Young's music was shit on for about 20 years starting in the early 80's


Prince isn't the only artist who is "past his prime". The quality of every musician's music falls off when they get older.

Michael Jordan can't dunk from the free throw line anymore, but that doesn't mean he's not the best to ever play the game!!![/quote]

thats the point he puts out too much which alot of is fluff

Paris9748430 said:

Name one musician, who has put out as much music as Prince has and still been able to maintain a high level of quality.

The quality of Dylan's material wained in the 70's and 80's
Stevie's music wasn't as great in the 80's as it was in the 70's
Neil Young's music was shit on for about 20 years starting in the early 80's


Prince isn't the only artist who is "past his prime". The quality of every musician's music falls off when they get older.

Michael Jordan can't dunk from the free throw line anymore, but that doesn't mean he's not the best to ever play the game!!![/quote]

True. It's rare to maintain such a high level of insane creativity that Prince did in the 80's and Stevie did in the 70's. Look at all the brilliant material P released from 1980-1988 (include side projects, b-sides, vault, etc.) and an argument can be made that it was the most fertile period in rock history. The human brain cannot produce that level of genius forever. He still will make the occasional brilliant song or album but that level of excellence is a once in a lifetime happening.

I just wish that his lyrics continued to develop but he has really gotten lazy in this department. At least he is stretching himself live and I find it interesting that he has truly mastered the guitar while his compositional creativity has waned. I always thought that the guitar was an overrated instrument as it relates to his overall musical sound. He started getting more musically conventional when he got rid of the drum machines!

billy joel-1975 to 83
prince-1979to88
elton john 1972-1978
stevie wonder, paul mccartney... PRINCE fans want to say his 90's stuff is at a high level but the reality is that every artist has there peaks and valleys. prince is way past that connection he had with his fans