Wall said:

he hasn't done anything? not one thing of significant merit since 88 Wall. thats 21 years. you've stuck around that long with no satisfaction? that's sad within itself.

I think the most interesting prince is from "1999" (the album, not the year) to "lovesexy". All the albums and the b-side of this years are full of inventions, great voice, fortunate pop-tune.
My love for prince decreased album by album after lovesexy, until 1996-2001 years. The "chaos and disorder, emancipation, crystal ball, the truth, the war, one night alone, xpetation, the rainbow children, news..." era was really funny and nice. Lot of material of a pop musician tring to enjoy with music in different ways. I think NEWS is the real "last work" of prince. It closed a period like a big dot.
The musicology-planet earth years are the baddest, for me. Prince trying to imitate prince, pop tunes without joy, boring funky-photocopy of himself.

The last work is more interesting, imho. lotus is scoordinate and lazy, but is more genuine that the previous 3 put together. mplsound is prince having fun. some tunes are killing. prince having fun in a record, it is a long time I did not hear this.

No, I'm happy prince do not stopped himself after the gold experience. brrr


f.

Are you people serious?! Some of you actually hate his post 1995 music so much that you feel it's damaging his legend and you'd rather he had retired? Wow, that's a trip. I don't like every single thing he's put out since that time but there are a lot of great songs (and shows) that I wouldn't want to sacrifice for the sake of how his career is seen by a broader audience. If for no other reason, I wouldn't want to always have to wonder "what if" like I do with Hendrix and other artists who either died or retired too soon.

miexedeyes said:

Don't take this the wrong way, but... that is some bat-shit crazy internet right there.

If he stopped in 95, thebrother would be like 2pac, there would be like a double album of stuff each year (With so called songs he recorded b4 he died) like 2Pac he must have been rapping continously in the 6 months before he was shot, to justify all the "R u still down" style albums coming out.

Huggiebear said:

but in prince's case it would have been true.

tricky2 said:

Yeah It wouldve been ok, then we wouldnt have been given "life of the Party"

A bit of a weird, purely hypothetical question.

I mean, did Paul McCartney stop recording (and performing) after Let it Be?

Did Van Morrison stop after releasing Into the Music?

Did REM stop as a band after Automatic for the People?

I mean, when music is both your profession and hobby (and a device for selfexpression), why would you simply stop at a certain time?

It is inevitable that 'true' musicians go on with doing what they love, even if the press or their fans say their best years are way behind them.

Another option is putting and end to your life,to create (in retrospect) a short, legendaric career. Look at Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jimmi Hendrix and Nick Drake for example.
But when you care about yourself, why should you?
And, imagine if Hendrix had still been alive nowadays, maybe he had reached a point he was releasing one mediocre album after the other. Who knows?...

Riverpoet31 said:

I totally agree with you. Why stop doing what you love just because not as many ppeople dig it as they once did. I touched on the Hendrix example before too. Even in his short career, fans had started to complain about the direction his music was going. He felt pressure to continuously perform "Purple Haze" and "Foxy Lady", play with his teeth, ect. Undoubtedly, if he had lived, the dissatisfaction wouyld've continued from some people. However, I would've loved to have seen what he would've sounded like throughout the 70's, 80's and beyond, even if he would've done some things comparable to Miles when he went through his fusion faze. I never got into that but I'm glad he didn't just quit.

miexedeyes said:

You have some serious talent! In all seriousness you are my favourite poster on the Org.

Love peace love.



Genius!

squirrelgrease said:

PEJ said:

Even I don't agree with that

I stopped being a P fan in 1993, came back in 2006.

I think he didn't care.

I disagree.

I have more respect for him for leaving Warner Bros and going out on his own.

Prince is still learning how to get his music out without a major record company and how to make good business deals.

The fans have benefited the most from all of this because we got so much music from it all.

Riverpoet31 said:

Almost without a doubt. But his disco album in 1978 would have been one of his best....
[Edited 4/20/09 11:14am]

Man imagine he woulda stopped in 1988

He'd been a MF'in legend

RedKite said:

The guy has been in the business for 30 years and "on his own" for more than a decade. How long is it going to take him to 'learn' how the business works?

RedKite said:

He's still only releasing about one album-per-year or so. Not really that much more output than he had during the WB years.

ummmm in 8 years time:

Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic
The Rainbow Children
One Nite Alone...
One Nite Alone... Live
It Ain't Over
Xpectation
C-Note
N.E.W.S
The Slaughterhouse
The Chocolate Invasion
Musicology
3121
Planet Earth
Indigo Nights / Live Sessions
Lotusflow3r
MPLSound
[Edited 4/21/09 12:17pm]

He would probably have recieved a great reputation for his career 1978-1995 if he had quit at that time. But of course it would've been a complete disaster for us fans. Especially in hindsight. Think of all the gems that he composed after 1995 that would never have seen the light of day.

you can argue all you want about his music not being as good as the 80's and early 90's (which i dont agree with btw) but there is no doubt he is a better musician than he was in the 80's and he was a great musician even then....

Selling 3 cd's for the price of one is about $?

If Prince stopped in 1995


Half of the org would have bugger all to moan about

tricky2 said:

I would yes at least he actually kept his word for once

I don't see a single reason why he should have stopped in '95. There's a huge amount of quality tracks after that point and up until the present day, imo.

The only "problem", if there is one, is that I think he had a severe problem controlling his own output and with self-editing from Emancipation through TRC and up until, but not including, Musicology.

Prior to '95, WB laid in place a few valuable restrictions on how/when Prince released music and while Prince surely thought this was restrictive I think it gave him more time to devote thought on proper album configurations and other challenges. Once he was released from his contract, everything more or less came out at a whim. Imagine if Mayte hadn't slowed him down with that whole 'recovery from studio addiction'.

He finally seemed to "get it" with Musicology, I think.

jtfolden said:

He was controlling back in the 80's as well. Former employees stated such.

I don't think he never will get it

Personally I don't see why any artist would or should retire.

They are not athletes in direct competition or letting down their teammates once they lose a step.

Art is just expression. Artists can keep expressing their whole lives, and we're lucky if they choose to do so. Once you've established legendary status like Prince, everything is part of a great body of work, even if each individual song isn't genius. It's all part of the story.

If we don't connect with it anymore, that's fine, but what is Prince going to do without music? Cross stitching?

I think Prince will only ultimately get the respect he deserves when he dies, unfortunately.
[Edited 4/25/09 11:36am]

Shhhhh, you mustn't say that.

Prince,.....look at me.

tricky2 said:

Could you explain to me why you think he seems to be about the money?
I've read that a few times in here and to be honest, lots of things can be said about Prince but not that he's about the money. Only that iPod thing seems extravagant.
I'm no expert on this but he doesn't have a recordlabel that promotes him so he looses a lot of money there compared to other artists.
He gave Planeth Earth away for free and his latest 3 cd's are being sold for 12 dollar which is about 8,95 euro. That's more the price for 1 second hand cd.
He gives some performances to promote himself and that's it. Every once in a very long while he performs for some rich guy who pays well, which seems normal to me.
What am I missing?

I agree with u Wall.