I really dont think erotic city sounds like it from the purple rain era with the revolution.

i think it sounds like more the batman era

what do u think
[Edited 11/4/08 13:50pm]

Just like trying to slide a certain Prince song into a certain category of music styles, I just draw blanx..

A lot of music and musicians are unique, however, Prince seems to always be on some kind of line that has a little bit of soul, little bit of rock...and as far as era's go....with Prince's music in the late 70's the 80's the 90's and today...Prince just seems to be in a class by himself. And that's what we love about him.

ravein2thejoy said:

I agree. Purple rain had a pop sound to it, light bass or no bass at all, very peppy sounding drum line.

Erotic city sounded like dance music, or the very beginnings of rap with that very heavy bass, the rhythm, the tempo. It sounded very RB/urban as opposed to light sounding let's go crazy, or the rock oriented Beautiful ones. I can't think of any song on PR that sounded that black/urban//RB as Erotic City.

Think of LL Cool J, Going back to Cali, or anything from Whodini, Run DMC, etc. Same kind of tempo and heavy bass.
[Edited 11/4/08 14:13pm]

Of course it sounds like some other material around that time, like Jungle Love, Lets Work, DMSR & 777-9311. Really heavy funk bass. Remember other groups @ that time like Rick James & George Clinton. P & his heavy funk (Minneapolis Sound) was right there leading the way. Erotic City may not have sounded like anything on Purple Rain but it fitted in there right along with the rest of that shit.

It falls outa tune with all the weird voices he embelished the song with. It's downright funk sounds more like the unreleased Possessed than anything on the rock orientated Purple Rain album. The fact it's sound differs so much of the album material sure is the reason it was (I think) never even considered as a contender to be featured on Purple Rain.

Still, it kind of serves as a transitionary song between Purple Rain and the somewhat more funky Around The World In A Day. Often, his side projects (like The Time, Jill Jones and The Family) were often a little preview of where he was going with his own new material and his b-side stuff was amazing work that he considered too good to be lying around but did not fit into an album concept.

BEAUGARDE said:

I think that ss Prince knew Purple Rain's rock orientated sound could lose him some old skool funk fans, he tried to stay true to his 'roots' with this one.

HamsterHuey said:

without the family i don't think parade would have sounded that way

I do like this song, prefer the extended version though.