Militant said:

or it means that a black man has to get naked & sit on a goddamned flower before you'll notice him.

ElCapitan said:

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Prince was just as popular here prior to Lovesexy as he was when that record came out.

Militant said:

''you americans'' ''us europeans''
just seems a bit prejudice

Zinzi said:

It was a tongue-in-cheek remark. I'm married to an American, for the record

But it's not entirely inaccurate to suggest that the USA is, overall, a far more conservative country than most places in Europe.

meow85 said:

Militant said:

just referring to the comments in this thread pointing out that Lovesexy was his first #1 album in the UK and how crazy Europe went over the tour.

Zinzi said:

It isnt prejudice, it's the truth. American's have more of hang-up with sex then Europe. We are okay with violence but we are really more conservative reagrding sexual mores' than Europe. Our movie business, video game industry is proof positive of that.

xlr8r said:

media isnt proof positive of what the average american thinks
you could only have proof positive if you have a accurate census

I've just discovered this album. I've owned it for a long while, but never payed it much attention. It's quite good.

I've got to be honest, as shallow as it may be, the cover probably IS a reason for it's limited success. Not for me, but in general. I can see a lot of people just not wanting to take that thing to the counter. That's just a guess though, I was a tyke when it came out.
[Edited 9/6/09 0:24am]

Oh my Lovesexy was amazing, timeless, a definite high point in Prince's career. If he brought out Lovesexy now, people would be creaming in their pants. This is Prince on the top of his form, such a positive feeling, so much joy, so much funk, color and creativity - this is an amazing acheivement and it will forever be a major part of my life - viva Lovesexy!

xlr8r said:

Bar the Germans of course. Every violent video game is heavily edited before release there. Which always makes me smile slightly.

American porn is crap too. Far too glossy and vanilla. Now German porn on the other hand is wild. Too much butter though...

America is Conservative, all we ever hear about is all these born again christians, and family values and the fact half the states still ban homosexuality, where as Europe has always been about liberality and pan sexuality and places like Sweden, The Netherlands and even the UK are known for their loose morals and easy going ways, whereas in America u get hung on everything. Yet some Americans are as liberal as they come, America is a big place ranging from open minded San Francisco to super conservative Almoretta county in Tennessee and the militant conservatism of Texas.
Prince is hardly black on that cover, he could pass for white with his metal style hair do and cafe latte coloured skin

I don't even know if Lovesexy wasn't received good, I have no numbers for recordsales or concertsales.

I can only speak for myself and I remember that many people had the cd here in the Netherlands, can't remember anyone having problems with the cover.

I loved the cd and didn't find it shallow but different, different from PR, ATWIAD, SOTT. I could relate more to those cd's. Lovesexy was definitely an emotional cd but in a religious way. The god thing was not for me, I'm not religious but I felt his emotion deeply on this cd and therefor I loved it, a very spiritual feeling and very good songs.

Only negative thing was that I couldn't skip the songs and put my favorites on repeat.

And for the concerts, the one that got broadcasted on tv, the Dortmund one. I taped it when it got broadcasted live on tv, somewhere in august 88. I had just returned from camp with school.

This concert got broadcasted soooo many times after that, on French tv, Belgian tv, German tv, everywhere, over and over again (I know because I kept on taping it and stopped since I had it so many times )
If people didn't like it, they wouldn't have broadcasted it that much, right?

ElCapitan said:

Oh I feel you. But don't forget, Prince had been focusing on Europe for a couple of years prior to that - the overall sound of Parade and UTCM being set in France, the SOTT tour being Europe-only, etc. It's not that he wasn't popular prior to Lovesexy, but the market was tougher back then and if you wanted a #1 album you actually had to work the market a bit and do more PR.

I think the fact that Prince worked it so hard in Europe from 86-88, probably cost him some momentum in the States, he should have taken the SOTT tour to the US, etc, etc, etc.

But I think it helped him in the long run.

Many other big US stars never focused on Europe and because of that they have never had any visibility outside of the US. I mean there's people that sell/have sold millions of records in the US and yet the general population here in the UK and Europe have never heard of them or if they have heard of them, they couldn't name a song by that person.
[Edited 9/6/09 6:00am]

Militant said:

I completely agree.

I'm actually quite bemused by how many fans on here seem to have a problem with that album cover. Female singers parade around practically butt naked on MTV on a daily basis... At least the Lovesexy cover is a piece of art. WTF is there to be embarassed about? I'm a straight guy, I bought Lovesexy when I first became a Prince fan around 12 years ago and it never even occured to me to be embarassed handing it over the counter.

Some of you really need to loosen up a little....
[Edited 9/6/09 7:28am]

So when is the Lovesexy tour coming out on dvd?????

Militant said:

Likewise, most of the US wouldn't know *insert random euro music star* from Wally Safford.
[Edited 9/6/09 10:48am]

Black folks thought he sold-out because he was curbing his devious ways..

(Now, that is a shame..The holy people loving sin like that.).

Most of those sinners are "saved" now..lololol..

Growing-up in ATL, I remember a certain black station playing Housequake without editing the profanity...

Lovesexy was too pop for the brothas and other hipsters, and Prince really wasn't himself..

A concept CD without a real jam to rock the clubs..

No offense to The Lovesexy Band, but folks feel that Prince works better alone in the studio..

Some white folks wondered where "those white girl were"..

(They never knew that W&L had solo CDs..lol Hypocrites!)

Later-on in High School, some white girls in one of my classes gave all the credit for his success to Wendy & Lisa..lol. (And they were hard-rock chicks).

I said, "What about Dr. Fink?" He's still there!

I see that this "element" lives-on..here...


"Wendy & Lisa got white folks on his side visually..

His best work is alone (or with players who follow his lead, and have no ambitions to push their ideas and style through his music: Miko, Levi, Sony T. Bland, Doctor Fink, John Blackwell, Eric, etc.)




(And that is really all the music industry is about.. Clubs and Dancing)


Prince gave The U.S. a movie of a tour that they would never see..

(Always have to take care of your first customers..)


The picture on the cover, and the outfits did not help either..



YHWH = Elohim Yahoshua = King

Frederick96 said:

the interesting thing about record stores not carrying the album is that the cover is actually done tastefully, and is very tame compared to album covers that would come shortly after. I had a hard time buying it initially because I was a 13 year old male and I had would have had to buy it at a mom and pops record store in one of the worst areas of Chicago, didn't have the nerve to get it at first. Looking back, the cover is a trip, but not really a big deal when you think about it.

MattyJam said:

The whole spiritual rebirth theme of the disc actually makes the cover image quite appropriate. We're naked when we're born, aren't we?

Honestly, I only take issue with one aspect of the cover. The fact that he took the time to shave or wax his legs all pretty and smooth, but left that bear rug growing on his chest and left his eyebrows go natural.

The reception in DK was very enthusiastic as well as in the rest of Europe.
I remember one reviewer, who - in a danish national paper -broke the paper's normal ratingsystem, by giving Lovesexy 10 out of 6 possible stars!

The album cover! I mean come on.

abigail05 said:

I agree with about 79%

TheKing662 said:

The fact that you make filler threads shows why you're such a terrible poster.

And this a thousand times better than your other threads because it's actually a good question.

xlr8r said:

It's interesting that our(America) sexual mores are heavily influence by the European Puritans at the beginnings of this country as the US

joseph8 said:

That would not deter the success of the album as a whole

a combination of too much change, and too quickly, I know I was still expecting more from the SOTT double album plus the tour and the whole project got scrapped

then the Black album pulled another let down

then Lovesexy, I bought it with no problem, but I strongly believe the concept wasn't easy to follow, a bit too religious at the time too

OldFriends4Sale said:

At the end of the day, America still spawned Prince. Advantage USA.

ElCapitan said:

prodigalfan said:

This, right here is a very interesting debate. America seems like a land of extremes, why is that?

Lovesexy happened just before my first proper break-up. Coming out of that relationship I started listening to that album due to the fact the girl I'd been with had been so into it (oh heartbreak).

This started my love affair with all things Prince. Some have said it's a weak album. How so? For me it's one of his finest moments: an album that can be played through without having to fast forward. And there aren't many albums like that in this world.