Just listening to this song now and everytime my head bobs so hard. This is a song only Prince can make. So orginal, so fresh, and still sounds good 14 years later (wow, it's been that long). Love it how the beat changes, love the whole Captain Crunch bit.

My only problem is that it's followed by The Holy River. Straight doo doo. it Should never have made any record.
[Edited 1/12/10 10:47am]

I dig "Joint 2 Joint". I think that off the Emancipation album, this song stood the test of time without sounded AS dated, as opposed to alot of the other tracks on there.

But I LOVE "The Holy River"! It is on my list of top Prince songs.

I Love Joint 2 Joint tooo! It`s a badass song imo. I`ll have to disagree w/ u on The Holy River tho. While it`s not my fav track simply b/c I`m not a Jesus freak, it`s still a dayum good song as a whole, especially that guitar solo...woah!

I do love rocking out to Joint 2 Joint tho.I can`t ell u how much I`ve listened to that song on repeat when it 1st came out

It's a draw for me. I do like the song in general. However, it goes on a bit too long for my tastes. Now I love some Prince jams when they're a bit longer (like Automatic, Do Me Baby, etc etc). But this one is messy. The tap dancing, the rapping, the weird bass part at one point (a lot of those Emancipation songs go in a weird direction toward the end). It's one of the few songs I want to edit down a bit and hone down to a good jam.

Yeah, it's good but it's not good enough to justify its length. The need for every disc to be an hour long made lots of Emancipation songs overstay their welcome. I enjoy it for a few minutes, but I rarely listen to the entire song anymore.

Joint 2 Joint has got to be my favorite song on Emancipation
and I love when the different parts of the song meet at the end.
Very cool.
I have always sliced the (horrible)rap part out of it though as most
Prince songs.
Once the rap is gone the song sounds like it never should have been there
in the first place.

Efan said:

TOTALLY. I think many songs have those tag endings just for the sake of stretching the time out. "Damned If I Do", "White Mansion", "Jam Of The Year", "In This Bed I Scream", "Sex In The Summer", etc, are a few examples. It isn't very creative to keep stretching out a song for the sheer sake of a timing gimmick. (And what a rip that a CD holds 80 minutes, but he only put 60 on it. Emancipation could have been a MUCH stronger album with 2 full disks, trim a few songs, and cut a few others all together (ie The Plan)) Disk 3 is full of shiz that is way too long, like "Human Body" and "New World". It's just BORING after the first 3 minutes.

I alway thought this track was wildly over-rated. I remember at the time of release some fans going ga-ga over it, hailing a classic and proof he hadn't lost it. I think it's boring, over-long for the sake of making it "suite"-like.

Wake me when it's over.

*ducks*

On a cd that I made I have The Continental following Joint to Joint love them both

Stone cold genius

larksanders said:

I, too, love J2J...but Holy River...huh? Holy River is one of his best. Very spiritual, very honest. There are some songs on Emancipation that aren't his best work, but Holy River is not one of them.
On that same train of thought, Emancipation (disc) II is a near perfect disc all on its own, start to finish.

ernestsewell said:

You just said he shouldn't stretch out a song to make it fit the 60 minute limit but he should've added more songs to the album to make it fit an 80 min cd...? Don't water a song down, but do water an album down?
To be fair, Emancipation is not a perfect album. I think it would've made an amazing two disc CD --mixing I and III, and leaving II untouched.

XNY said:

No I never said that. Please read it again.

Let me show you what I said. I said "Emancipation could have been a MUCH stronger album with 2 full disks, trim a few songs, and cut a few others all together".

He had three disks of 60 minute each. That's 180 minutes. Two disks, full, would have been 160. That's only 20 minutes difference, which is about 4.5 songs. Trim the fat from the songs I listed, cut a few others totally, and we could have had the bulk of the Emancipation material in a stronger, more cohesive package (like the original Crystal Ball vs. SOTT).

Even the CB that was released was a total waste of space. He wanted to "clean up that black/bootleg market a bit" (his own words), but yet he filled the disks with some remixes and already released tracks (like "Good Love"), instead of filling up a disk with bootlegged material. Disk 1 was 49 minutes, Disk 2 was 49 minutes, and Disk 3 was almost 50. 2.5 hours. That's 150 minutes. that's two full disks right there, with 10 minutes to spare. He's just bad at compiling albums that way. We know he's prolific (creating a lot of material in a short amount of time). Why not share it, instead of .....eh. Fuck it.


.
[Edited 1/12/10 10:42am]

NouveauDance said:

Gotcha!

ernestsewell said:

Ernest, I can feel you on the weird bass part. But I think that adds to it's charm. You are so right about some songs on Emancipation just being long for the sake of being long. However, I love every second of In this bed eye scream.

XNY said:

Different strokes for different folks. I remember when he talked about releasing that as a single I was likt WTF is wrong with you. The Holy River such a cornball song. I can't even listen to the whole thing, it hurts my ears. I understand the lyrics are honest, but the song as a whole ranks up there with Grafitti Bridge.

if were ever naked in the same machine we can kick it baby joint 2 joint

nyse said:

Killer Song! Great lyric too.

One of the strongest songs on Emancipation!!

NouveauDance said:

A snoozefest.

Can someone explain what the phrase Joint to joint means.. ..

I like the idea of this song...except the "Sex Me," background vocals ruin it for me. I actually rate this song in Prince's bottom 5.

I like joint 2 joint

I like this song. I would like it a LOT MORE if it didn't have that annoying tap shit in it. That drags this song way down for me.

Favorite Emancipation cut by far. A very smooth, laid back groove and verse the first third...I could loop that part for a good 15 mins to drive to. That said, I like the song FOR the quirks in it: the rap verse is funny ("don't lick dicks cuz fire sticks to flame"), lol, although I never did like her voice. Of course, many on here are just anti- 90s rap altogether, so whatever. Dig Savion's tap, the changes too...and from around 4:00 on, it goes to a nice harder level, sloppy in a good way. The beginning of the guitar riff has a cool native american flavor to it--my girl used to love that and the 'Soy milk',

Different strokes, as always. I have great memories of driving to that track.

PS- How people can bag on 'The Holy River' is beyond me, but cynicism is what it is.

ernestsewell said:

dont do it...

lotusboy said:

Don't try to school me son. LOL I've already successfully edited Diamonds and Pearls and , "Everyday Is A Winding Road", and "Temptation". I'll whip Emancipation into a much more cohesive, fun, and interesting album.

Love it and it still sounds great

Don't know how many times I've listened to that song!
great workout music

Great, interesting song. You do have to be in the mood to totally absorb it, but what's wrong with that? Not every song is meant to be a quick 4 minute burst of pop songcraft and structure.

I like it for what it is and wouldn't want it changed.

And the bass part is one of my favorite elements of the song. All the components play to the themes of connecting "Joint to Joint."