I have tried hard, very hard and so hard to like this album, but I can't, there is just so much filler and stupid Jehovah Witness messages. I can only listen to four songs on the album (They are 1+1+1=3, She loves me for me, Last December and The Sensual everafter, and I love their beats and musicality rather than their sentiment), and I must wonder, what was floating through Princes head when he wrote this turd fest.
What I hate about the Rainbow Children
1. He plays the slowed down voice of God (Most songs)
2. Extremist born again Christian sentiments
3. Anti - Semitism (Family Name)
4. Sexism (Muse to the Pharoah)
5. Stupid ass artwork on the sleeve
6. The fact is drags on for fourteen songs
7. The fact it proves how much of a narrow minded superstitious plonker he had come since his days of sexual liberation and dilettantism.
8. The fact he wa sinfluenced, by washed up born again Larry Graham (He makes Tony M look like Sheila E in comparison)

Now I know I am going to get some hate here, but save it for another thread, u don't agree, I respect that, but save your venom for somewhere else, otherwise if you can't stand the Rainbow Children either tell us about it. ( I am waiting for you Ernest and Imago)

i love it. start to finish. ok, there are a few moment when you
hear him state stuff and you go "wtf?" but i take the whole album
as a parabel. musically it's one of his best albums ever and for
the most part, i don't mind the lyrics.

Huggiebear said:

When I saw the title of this thread I thought it was going to say you couldn't understand the venom for this album.

I too am not a huge fan (each to their own taste) for similar reasons.

I'm not at all religious but I can tolerate religion in Princes songs....however TRC is a whole new level, it's preaching disguised as music to me and that doesn't sit comfortably.

I also find Prince slightly offensive when he compares himself with the plight of black slaves...he's about as far removed from that struggle as you can get. The 'which is better'Holocaust Vs Slavery' section was also a little uncomfortable.

For me it's a very hard and difficult album to listen to - by thatI mean hardgoing and not musically enjoyable.

There are some good Prince songs on there (1+1+1=3, She loves me...Last December etc) and these tend to be the ones where Prince the musician is mire evident than Prince the Preacher.

Thereare also some musical atrocities on there like Everywhere, The Wedding Feast etc.


In truth it's just bad luck that I don't lime it probably - religion holds no interest for me, heavy handed techniques aren't going to change that particularly when I'm paying for it

It could of course be partly psychological - when I first heard ut through NPGMC it was all one long track, NPGMC were screwing me over and I was living with my Wifes grandparents whilst our first house was sorted...bot the most positivity inducing scenarios.
[Edited 10/20/09 1:53am]

purpledoveuk said:

How so?

1+1+1=3 has that "theocratic order" nonsense, too.

xenon said:

I never recieved the Rave CD,

Prince promised a number of World Tours during the NPGMC years and only one happened...went to get my priority tickets and there was no record of my membership, tickets sell out and my membership is back up.

A number or perks (C-Note etc) were emailed out to members, I never got them....yet curiously they had no problem sending me emails about buying things or new memberships.

On top of that there were if course the shortcomings that everybody experience....Horny Pont without swearing, Thieves in the Temple etc all being classed as NEW tracks

purpledoveuk said:

Didn't that all occur after TRC came out? (Rave remix was before but I thought the rest was after)

Yeah sorry - I was just saying how they messed me about in general.

purpledoveuk said:

No probs, wasn't really important and it had absolutely fuck all to do with the thread! I was just curious.

squirrelgrease said:

Wasn't i theocratic void, still u r right (I get into the Erotic city beat with that song, not the Religious Brainwashing101 lyrics)

LOL

Nah it's defineyely "order" he wasted 5 minutes of the crowds life talking about it at gigs around that time.

Just another little bit of nonsence to make himself look smart and us ignorant.

Yeah baby Im talking about the Crangomantralistic Custard....you've never heard of it,

always makes me laugh when he says stuff like " who's digging the theocratic order tonight" and thousands whoop and holler like they have the first fucking clue.

Same with purple rain.."put your hands up if you know what I'm singing about tonight". Thousands of sweaty hands waving in the air...all attached to the arm of somebody asking the person next to them what the song is about
[Edited 10/20/09 3:33am]

IstenSzek said:

Co-sign.


If you concenctrate too much on the lyrics and actually forget that Prince has always been a searching, daring human being (I guess he was just as offending back in the 80's to some people, just not to us, because we started loving him for being that way. But imagine how many people thought he was worshipping the devil or bad for our children by dressing, singing, dancing and talking the way he did) you are going to miss loads of great musicianship, melodies, rhythms and chord-progressions. Especially on The Rainbow Children.


Whether you agree with his lyrics or not, he can do them and still be the best. His name is Prince and he is funky. Whether you like it or not.

purpledoveuk said:

Haha yeah and that "leader or follower?" nonsense too where his fans say whatever he wants to hear. He basically bullies his crowd into acknowledging Jehovah via musical chants.

I agree with the original poster, there are some cool grooves and melodies at times but way too much ignorant dogma to go along for the ride with. Rainbow Children also signifies the beginning of his Vegas-lite jazz-funk sound thats still going strong. Not a positive shift IMO.

But which is better, Slavery or Holocaust; there's only one way to find out.....


FIGHT!!!!!

purpledoveuk said:

purpledoveuk said:

well, he clearly says "holocaust aside", so beyond the holocaust,
which is outside of the equation, "many lived and died".

"but when all truth is told, would you rather be dead, or be sold"

which is a valid question. it doesn't put down the holocaust victims
or belittle the horrors.

what he does say, and he has a valid point imo, is that people who
were sold in slavery endured horrors as well. not the same horrors,
but on a humanitarian level, something just as bad.

he should have known not to mention the holocaust, but that's just
prince for ya. he smells controversy and he just can't leave it
well enough alone.

but at the end of the day, without defending prince or being some kind
of blinded fam, i truly don't think prince is saying anything to the
effect that the holocaust was not as bad as it was. that's what people
are making it out to sound like.

..
[Edited 10/20/09 5:31am]

IstenSzek said:

Exactly.



Then again, Prince has said so many things. So many artists have said so many things in the past... You put it the right way - he smells controversy and he is good at building it up.

But what he is best at - and that's what we're here for - is the music, ladies and gentlemen. The music.

It was in part due to TRC that I actually fell in love with Princes music again. From about 96 onwards I had started to get a bit bored with Prince, I was still buying all the music and going to the shows but it just wasn't doing it for me the way it had in the past.

There were parts of Rave that I enjoyed but when NPGMC launched and we started getting the Ahdio shows and High/Chocolate Invasion/Slaughterhouse tracks I really started to enjoy being a P fan again. And then later that year I heard TRC for the first time and it blew me away, I fell in love with it on the first listen. I really couldn't give a shit what the album was about lyrically (we all know that Prince talks bollox!), it was the music that did it for me.

IstenSzek said:

I know, im sure Prince wouldn't be so stupidas to try and compare.

My main issue with this us, that to me,it's Pribcd jumping on the bandwagon....he's suddenly, after all those years, decided to label himself 'black' and therefore seems to convey that he himself had somehow directly effected by slavery ad though they slapped the shackles in him.

Many won't agree but if seems to belittle it as it's just another tool Prince used to get controversial...he isn't,never wad and never will be a slave in any shape or form. At best he's an extremely well paid slave who signed up for slavery and got everything that was promised.....that's called "a job"

1. He plays the slowed down voice of God (Most songs)
2. Extremist born again Christian sentiments

I don't think Jehovah's Witness fall in the same category as born again Christians
3. Anti - Semitism (Family Name)

4. Sexism (Muse to the Pharoah)
Sexism? that ain't nothing new for Prince music
5. Stupid ass artwork on the sleeve

I love the artwork, something between ATWIAD and theRC artwork would have been even more 'Prince' like, and I loved his dark broading image in the middle
6. The fact is drags on for fourteen songs

I love the Rainbow Children(song) groove
Everywhere is my favorite
Digital Garden gives me some good guitar work

Hell, fuck those stuffy old prudes. Those people weren't his fans, we are. Yeah, it's cool to offend the stuffshirts and the more offensive the better, but it ain't cool to offend your own fans.

Venom Damn! that's hard

I love The Rainbow Children easily in my top 5 Prince albums.

except for the weird 'feast / marridge' bit, reminisent of some awful musical - i really like TRC. love the family name. couldn't care less with what it is about.
[Edited 10/20/09 11:36am]

Dave1992 said:

The music is the only way I can enjoy The Rainbow Children. Family Name is a great jam, but I find the lyrics disturbing. Slamming one ethnic group to make another feel better is just divisive. For most of his career, Prince always seemed to want to bring people together (see his diverse audiences at live shows), but TRC showed me it was the end of an era.

Great album

Well I could've quite happily kept my vitriol to myself, but as you've asked us to share, how can I not?

I loathe this album.

When people say that, musically, he explores new areas I really haven't a clue what they're talking about. I don't hear it. All I hear is that laid back jazzy funky tripe that he can wallop out any old time, and it's fine when he does some jazzy noodling live (or without the ghastly lyrics), but 74 minutes of it, clinically digitised and devoid of life, is more than I can take.

I like challenging music - even if it turns out not to be to my taste - if it's well constructed then there is value to listening to it. And therein lies the problem with TRC for me - although it's a challenge for me to listen to, whenever I try I get the distinct impression that it was far from a challenge for Prince to make, that musically he stays well within his comfort zone, and basically just tossed it out. Well, if he's going to make me sweat listening to it, he damn well better've put some sweat into making it, and I don't think he did. Maybe that's a little unfair, given that Prince's comfort zone is fairly expansive, but musically, I just find it boring. Too boring to listen to.

The one song on it that I would like to be able to listen to more often is Family Name, because the guitar work is good, but I rarely get to the good bit, all that akashic butt-cheek clenching crapology gets to me and I end up switching it off (usually about the 7 second mark). I have no interest in religion, so over the years I've developed a sort of filter where I can gloss over the god bothering, but it doesn't work with this. Pity really, because musically it's the high point of the album. If, lyrically, he had some message that he felt important to deliver, wouldn't it have been better served being delivered with some memorable music?

But the real problem for me is the lyrics - pretty much all of them. The music needs to be a damn sight better than that to allow my god bothering filter to kick in, and even then it's impossible to ignore the constant Jehovocoder.

If there was an instrumental version, with every last word of those irritating, cringe worthy, shameful, juvenile, insulting, crass lyrics removed (and the bloody annoying Darth Jehovader voice of course), I'd give it a spin occasionally. It would make perfectly serviceable background music.

When people say it's his ultimate concept album I guess I can agree with that - but that's really not saying much - the competition for that accolade amongst his previous (or subsequent) work is non-existent, he simply can't do 'concept', and I wish he wouldn't try.

On this album more than any other, Prince really is a cloth brained whiner. *

Ain't no room to disagree? I think you'll find there damn well is.

* You will of course have spotted that "cloth brained whiner" is an anagram of "the rainbow children". This footnote is therefore irrelevant, much like TRC.

The Rainbow Children is one of my favorites.