TwiliteKid said:

With artists like Dylan and Neil Young, it's really a different story. Usually, their kind of music doesn't take very long to write/record/produce.

Same with most jazz artists - you could take your band into the studio, press "record" and make a couple of albums in just an afternoon if you like...

Zappa, on the other hand, is a good comparison, I think. Just like Prince, his music tends to be complex (technically as well as musically) and demands a lot of time and effort in all stages of the creation process (writing, arranging, rehearsing, recording, mixing, etc).

realm said:

well, he's making that money without having to lift a finger. i guess it's really only annoying for the older fans who already have everything.

IstenSzek said:

Was that released in audio only ? I always thought it was a video release only and that the audio version was a 'fan production'. Also, isn't it a live performance, rather than studio?

I'm not saying it shouldn't be on your list, btw, just wondering which of my lists it belongs on.

IstenSzek said:

Was that released in audio only ? I always thought it was a video release only and that the audio version was a 'fan production'. Also, isn't it a live performance, rather than studio?

I'm not saying it shouldn't be on your list, btw, just wondering which of my lists it belongs on.

Edit - Perhaps I should've read your entire post before diving in with that question.
[Edited 4/11/09 10:10am]

Fortunatly I own one of them.

AsylumUtopia said:

i've edited my post above with some reasons for why i included it. but a lot
of the copies of this album that are now circulating are ripped from the few
cd's that escaped destruction/black stickering.

prince recorded it and put it on a cd to be released with "guitar magazine",
until warners heard of it and forced him to drop the project and destroy the
cds that were already pressed and ready to go.

sometimes a few of those "destroyed" copies turn up on the net. they have a
black circular sticker on the back that covers the entire cd. i don't know
what kind of process that is but it makes the cd worthless i guess. it can't
be played or repaired.

but a few of those cd's, kinda like the black album, escaped destruction. i've
yet to see one pop up on ebay though. but perhaps there have been copies that
i'm unaware of.

later, as part of his contract i guess, it was released on video and laserdisc.
i think back to back with the "sacrifice of victor" show.

but this one is imo a studio album it's just the three of them laying down the
tracks in the studio. that it's "live to dat tape" doesn't mean it's a real
live album as such. i view it as a studio album put down to take in one take.

anyway, all of that adds up enough for me to view it as a genuine prince cd
release.

i have a bootleg and i'm not 100% sure if it's a rip from the real audio cd or from the laserdisc. the sound is great but there is a difference between the two. i can't remember what is was though.

i think counting his protege self produced albums should be included since he wrote them.

Where is Michael Jackson and Madonna?

my prince "official albums" folder contains 44 albums, lol. but i have
included a few that might strictly belong there, altho i think they do.
and i haven't included things like scandalous sex suite or beautiful xp.

01. for you
02. prince
03. dirty mind
04. 1999
05. purple rain
06. around the world in a day
07. madhouse 8
08. parade
09. madhouse 16
10. sign o the times
11. the black album
12. lovesexy
13. batman
14. grafitty bridge
15. diamonds and pearls
16.
17. gold nigga
18. the hits / the bsides
19. come
20. exodus
21. the undertaker
22. the gold experience
23. chaos and disorder
24. emancipation
25. kamasutra
26. the truth
27. crystal ball
28. new power soul
29. rave un2 the joy fantastic
30. the vault..old friends 4 sale
31. the rainbow children
32. one nite alone [piano album]
33. one nite alone...live
34. xpectation
35. c-note
36. n.e.w.s.
37. the chocolate invasion
38. the slaughterhouse
39. musicology
40. 3121
41. planet earth
42. indigo nights
43. lotus flow3r
44. mplsound

the ones in bold could, reasonably be omitted. but then you could argue that
things like "the very best off" or "ultimate" should be included. the only
reason i included "hits-bsides" is because it contains something like 24 or
25 non album tracks. i also didn't include "rave IN2" since it's just the
same album remixed with "beautiful strange" as a bonus.

personally i think both madhouse 8 and 16 are genuine prince albums much in
the way that "xpectation" or "n.e.w.s." are now released as "prince" albums.
if they'd been recorded in the past i'm sure they'd been released under the
name "madhouse". so imo all these jazz albums where he wrote the bulk of all
the included songs and plays many instruments belongs in the prince albums
list.

similarly, "the undertaker" is on my list because prince had pressed that cd
and it was ready to be shipped when warners forced him to destroy all copies.
much like "the black album" was for years just another official album that
was not for sale in stores, i think "the undertaker" is much the same. plus,
it was later released officially on vhs and laserdisc.

"goldnigga", "exodus" and "nps" respectively move more and more into the real
genuine prince album territory. and the first two are included here for much
the same reason as the madhouse album since prince is all over them and the
music is a prime example of his other "real prince" album material of those
eras. his own prints so heavily all over them make them more "prince" than,
say the jill jones or the mayte album which are all prince compositions but
still feel very different in a way.

ok, i'm done now
[Edited 4/11/09 10:06am]

You've made some strong arguments here, but I have difficultly including The Hits/B-Sides, Chocolate Invasion and the Slaughterhouse as official albums, simply becuase the are almost entirely made up of previously available material. They're compililations, not albums.

I agree with you on The Hits/B-Sides.

However, Chocolate Invasion and Slaughterhouse should be counted -- they were offered as album downloads through the Musicology Store, and are NOT represented on this list in any other form (meaning, they are not on here twice).

runningbear said:

Wikipedia says Dylan 33 Studio 13 Live 14 Compilation = 60
Prince 21, 2, 5 = 28

IstenSzek said:

You've made some strong arguments here, but I have difficultly including The Hits/B-Sides, Chocolate Invasion and the Slaughterhouse as official albums, simply becuase the are almost entirely made up of previously available material. They're compililations, not albums.

Se7en said:

I don't see how that changes the fact that they're of previously released material. They weren't conceived as an album, they were simply compiled as a way to offer the tracks to people who weren't NPGMC members in the first year.

I understand that they should be counted towards the total amount of music Prince has released, but if we were to put together a definitive Prince discography, I don't think either of them would belong in the album category (neither should ONA...Live for that matter).

Graycap23 said:

Neither one of them is even close, even if you add the Jackson 5/Jacksons stuff to Michael's total.

Graycap23 said:

Neither one of them is even close, even if you add the Jackson 5/Jacksons stuff to Michael's total.

TwiliteKid said:

You could add up all the Jackson family output and it probably would still not be enough. If you got into a quantity vs. quality debate, Prince's early work alone trumps Michael's solo.

1999 vs. Off The Wall
Purple Rain vs. Thriller
SOTT vs. Bad
The Hits/B-Sides vs. History
...the only one where MJ has the lead is Dangerous vs. D&P

Anxiety said:

Did Bowie work something out such that he always owned them or did he regain them after the time of IP ownership returned them to him?

TwiliteKid said:

Michael has released 34 and Madge has released 11

bboy87 said:

He has not. He's released 12. And Madonna's 11, like I said, does not put her in the running for this particular prize.

The question was "Has Prince released the most music?" but it seems that any answer other than NO meets some opposition.



You can't believe how ignorant that sounds. I would argue that their lyrics take longer to write than Prince's, and are more genuine. You are discounting an entire genre of music because of your "perceived" idea of how long it takes to make.





Some could say the same things about Prince. Madhouse/Xpectation/CNOTE/NEWS/ONALive?

You're exactly right Se7en. It seems our friend RealMusician is unaware of the stories about how quickly Prince works. I wish people around here get their facts straight before they offer opinions.

RealMusician said:

are you serious?

once you've got the genuine archtectural composition it isn't that hard to
fluff it up with a keyboard here or a tangerine there.

a good example might be "u're gonna c me". do you think that took long to
pimp up from the one night alone version to the mplsound version? i think
not.

anyway, that's still an absurd comparison.

TwiliteKid said:

They are counted as "albums" because Prince compiled them that way and sold them that way through his official website at the time (NPGMusicClub/Musicology Store).

Your point that they're of previously-released material . . . they were, but not in album form. To your point, any NPGMC songs that did NOT appear on either album are just random catalog songs - like SST, Song Of The Heart, and F.U.N.K.

TCI and Slaughterhouse would appear on a Prince discography, for sure.

As for ONA:Live . . . it would appear in his discography, but I would not classify it as an album.