Do you agree that "21 Nights" was a colossal flop along the lines of the Graffiti bridge movie and NewPowerSoul and 1999 the New master.

I mean seriously, the book was an overpriced vanity staement, I thought it would be a quality volume with a biography and career shots, not a kiss off of Prince in mostly sexual and provocative poses with his latest sex kitten. It was too abstract to be true.
Its already been reduced to $14.99 clearance here and no one is really talking about it anymore (Has Lotusflow3rs been drip fed as excuse to move our focus off this book), seriously we all hyped it for ages here and then everyone myself too, were to proud to admit it was a self indulgent vanity statement.

Do you agree that 21 Nights is equivalent to Graffiti Bridge as a self indulgent flop or worse?

My copy just sits there collecting dust now, its tragic
[Edited 3/1/09 1:52am]

Even the Hawaii picture book seems more interesting.

Huggiebear said:

The clue was in the title ... it wasn't called '50 years' and it was never promoted as a biography with career shots.

I wouldn't call it a fiasco either, let alone his biggest ever. That sounds more like the delay with the online retail of Crystal Ball which left many fans disappointed and ultimately Prince seeking to make amends.

I don't really think there was any significant hype - less than a handful of promotional events globally.

I suspect that, somewhere along the way, the accounts will determine whether it was a business failure for one or more parties, but that hardly matters to the individual purchaser.

From a fan's perspective each will have formed their own view of what to expect. I had hoped it would provide a better retrospective of the O2 residency, but talk of poetry etc suggested this would be unlikely and, as with any Prince project, it's wise never to raise expectations, particularly based on limited information. With many fans able to purchase a glossy photobook and live CD for the price of a CD, I don't think they will be writing it off as a flop or fiasco, even if they were disappointed with the photographs and had hoped for a different setlist.

i flicked through it once and not very carefully at that. all i did
was glance at the picture, most of which are uninteresting to say
the least, and read the lyrics.

the new lyrics/poetry was the only interesting thing along with two
or three really cool pictures. the rest was just...bleh... it failed
to get me hot or cold, left no impression at all.

i have it up on a shelve where i walk past it every day and yet i've
not been tempted to give it another glance, lol.

and to continue the hate, i don't like the cd that came with it either

langebleu said:

very true. i consider the book to be something of an exclusive packaging
for the cd, which is the real flesh of the package.

wether i like the cd or not is besides the point because that is just an
individual taste and i've spoiled mine by having too many O2 shows that
i already heard before this cd came out.

but as a package, it wasn't a bad idea at all.

I love my book, but I've never played the cd.

I'd say that's pretty damn good!

Huggiebear! where IS your sense of fun?!.. i love a bit of fiascoerotia.
that book was pure chickporn

Also, most of the poetry is actually lyrics from his past 2 or 3 CDs, so there was nothing new in that regard, so, yes, we were ripped off BIG TIME!!!!!

Fiasco, no. I think ordering the book through Amazon went quite smooth. Were you a fan through the Crystal Ball fiasco? Now, that was a fiasco. I waited almost a year & 2 girlfriends for that to be delivered to me. Then it was never delivered b/c I had changed addresses by the time he decided to release it & I had to go pick it up from the post office b/c they didn't know where to send it.

Dayclear said:

Pretty funny... I'm the exact opposite. Didn't bother w/ the book, I just listen to the cd.

I only really got it for the cd, the book is just full of useless glossy pictures, I thought it might have stuff to read about how he felt the tour was going and stuff. I can't stop playing the cd but the book...well thats just collecting dust!

langebleu said:

Execellent summary.....I think it will / would have sold very well to Prince fans and non-prince fans ...the live CD was the best way of summing the London shows ...the whole package was great and vaule for money and a good coffee table book which is what it was billed as...

I think people on the org really think that Prince at 50 goes around doing all his own PR ....he does not..FACT.. he employes people to do this and he has had some really bad PR / Legal Advice over the years and "Yes People" around him.... which over the years have messed up some of his projects....Yes Prince has also added to the problems but all PR is a Team effort and so the errors since 1996/1997 have been greater because Prince did not have the Warner Music machine behind him so he and his small teams errors are far bigger in the public eye..
[Edited 3/1/09 10:26am]

I looked at it once and have listened to the CD 3 times.

...in the day-of-age of short attention spans...i really enjoy the book...prince expressed himself VERY well and i NOW understand the message of it's purpose...like everything in this world,some 1's trash is another's treasure...
..mzsexybaby la mentira CLARA SERRANO

The remaindered copies must be massive..lol

I just consider it Prince's most over-the-top, expensive CD packaging in his storied career.

OOP Prince CDs now fetch a pretty decent return on the original investment, so picking up a couple of close-out copies of Indigo Nights and it's corresponding packaging and sitting on them for a few years might be a good idea.

lottielooloo1968 said:

Yes but I am gay, and like big guys, not tiny girls with big breasts, asses, ake up and lips and nothing else. Also too the girls are like 18-25 and hes over 50.
Also the $34.99 American plus postage and packaging I paid translated to $63.56 New Zealand Dollars, a price at which you could buy two full price CDs (31-34.95 now) and an Itunes album is only $13.99. so a colossal rip off
[Edited 3/1/09 14:39pm]

Huggiebear said:

nice ethnic edit

xlr8r said:

Yeah I decided I went too far

It debuted and made an initial (albeit not huge) splash in terms of sales and publicity; he did a few rounds of promotion for it, promotions that didn't really deal that much with the product itself but instead focused on new material; and then he got bored with it and moved on.

Doesn't sound like his biggest fiasco ever. It just sounds like many of his releases over the last 15 years or so.

Do you know the meaning of a fiasco?

"I dont think you understand what that means"-Montoya/The Princess Bride

xlr8r said:

get the quote right " You keep using that word, I don't think it means what you think it means"

IAintTheOne said:

Lighten up Francis, its not a disco 12 inch oldie.

someone explain to me why this thing has gone from 50% off at Borders back to full price? was finally going to pick it up just to have a copy of the disc (which I hate anyway), and the price had gone back up.

I liked the book, some pictures were odd and didnt make any sense but I do wish there were more on stage live shots of him. I dont know why he didnt do the whole thing like that? The cd is pretty good.

Thibaut said:

If that's a flop, then that's a pretty good flop to have. I won't lie, I don't look at the book much. That was more of a collectors item than anything else. The CD was ok but I haven't listened to it since I brought it. Even with all that, I'm still glad I brought it. I don't think it was a bad investment.

I only bought it because it had the CD in it and im a Prince collector anyway. I believe Prince in Hawaii is a better picture book - there are some great photographs in there and they weren't Photoshopped to the extreme like they are in 21 Nights.