**fam disclaimer** This is not intended to be negative, as I'm sure it will be seen. I'm not saying I could do better or that his music is broken, it's just a little editing exercise.

But we have all read so many criticisms of his music, but very few are actually constructive. Many of us are writers, musicians, and could easily be that editor that Prince so often could benefit from.

So instead of just saying "it sucks" how about a specific suggestion of how to fix something you're not crazy about. Either lyrical, musical, sonic, etc.

I'll start:

I quite like the song Last December, but the beginning has always bothered me a little. He says:

"If your last December...[big pause]...came what would you do?"

I have always wanted him to say

"If your last December came...[big pause]...what would you do?"

It's such a simple change that makes the meaning of the lyrics more obvious and more conversational in the context of the music.

anyone else?
[Edited 4/29/10 14:18pm]
[Edited 4/29/10 14:21pm]

The ending of Strange Relationship where it gets clinical, robotic and evil. Wish he Extended that out and vamped on it.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

thanks for playing along (even if it was just out of sympathy)

Yeah there are a few instances of wishing it went on longer

Forever in My Life--right when the fade out happens there's some acoustic guitar that would have been nice to hear a bit more of, maybe even earlier on in the song.

NDRU said:

I'm here to protect you from the children of the corn who will surely bear torches at the mere thought of changing God's word and law

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

NDRU said:

LMFAO. That was funny.

SPOOKYGAS said:

See, the torches have arrived

Prince isn't perfect and he could benefit from a lot of things. A producer for one.

I've "fixed" most of the songs I had minor issues with. I've noted my Tony M. edits. I recently updated those with fixing "The Max" and "Gett Off" to erase him totally from those songs. He only remains on "Push" a little bit, and once or twice in "Live 4 Love". He's on "The Sacrifice of Victor" too, but those "contributions" were minor to begin with.

I took most of the rapper out of "I Rock, Therefore I Am" on Chaos and Disorder. I edited some of the tracks on Emancipation as well, taking the rap out of "Da Da Da", and shortening other songs. There's a lot of silly talking in "Get Your Groove On" and weird breaks in "Jam Of The Year". I trimmed those down and left it to just music. I trimmed a half dozen other songs too, at least.

I also made some great cuts in "(There'll Never B) Another Like Me" and "Chocolate Box". Some of them just had dry drumming with no real instrumentation or interest. When I cut those things down, they were much stronger songs. That's saying a lot from me because I don't particularly care for MPLSound.

I trimmed the fat on . The weird sound at the beginning of "Blue Light". The guy talking at the beginning of "The Sacrifice of Victor" (what IS sacrifice?). The talking between "My Name is Prince" and "Sexy MF". The talking at the end of "Damn U". I trimmed out all of those things. I cut the segues, and "Arrogance" too. When you hone down that fat, the album becomes ALL about the music. It's amazing to just hear the songs, no rapping, and no story telling.

Took that dorky ending off "Temptation" too.

ernestsewell said:

[Bait snip - luv4u]

SPOOKYGAS said:

Same old act from you.



.
[Edited 4/29/10 15:57pm]

SPOOKYGAS said:

[Bait snip - luv4u]

SPOOKYGAS said:

Liar. That wasn't sarcasm but filthy gas

I wouldn't touch anything except for taking all the horns off the Chaos & Disorder album.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Let's put it in perspective.
Tiger Woods has a coach, it doesn't mean the coach plays better golf than him.

Let's add another perspective.

Prince was asked who was qualified to criticize his music and he answered something along the lines of "anyone, just give me something I can use."

ernestsewell said:

So you basically shortened, right, not actually editing out specific tracks (like the rapping)?

One lyrical thing I never quite understood was from Dolphin (again a great song)

"You can cut off all my fins but to your ways I will not bend
I'd die before I'd let you tell me how to swim
And I'll come back again as a dolphin"

But it seems like a time frame oddity as he was already describing being a dolphin.

Maybe I just am missing something?

NDRU said:

Yes, and no. It depends on the track. "Sexy MF", and "My Name Is Prince" etc are shorter because the raps are cut out. However, stuff like "Gett Off", and "The Max" are the same length. I simply brushed over his parts with an instrumental part of the song. Looking at my editing, most are shorter in some regard, opposed to him being erased out. "Gett Off" and "The Max" would be really odd songs if the chorus were taken out because of him. But to erase him out leaves the song length intact.

NDRU said:

i always felt the chorus was a cheesefest id change that to something less darksided and ungodly

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[Edited 4/29/10 16:37pm]

NDRU said:

I mentioned this on BlueFish's podcast when Militant was on, and we covered The Gold Experience. I said that I am not some Prince savant, but when I heard "Dolphin", I got it. I understood it.

It's all a euphemism or metaphor. It could have been anything, animal or otherwise, but he used a dolphin. He's talking directly to Warner Bros, and they're enforcing rules that he saw as restrictive and unrealistic toward an artist. "Cut off fins" means to impose rules (like only releasing 1 album a year), but Prince still insisted to do it his way. "I'd die before I'd let you tell me how to swim" - pretty simple. He'd rather die than be told how to create music.


.
[Edited 4/29/10 16:47pm]

my ex and I used to do this all the time. not just for Prince though. tracklists, single choices, video ideas, etc.

one of my personal, long time ones would be regarding singles


1) every single, at least in the 80's & 90's, should have had both an extended version and a b-side. he had enough unreleased material for every single to have a non-album b-side, be it a studio outtake, a live cut, an instrumental jam, whatever. and you know damn well he sat around making up extended remixes for half the tracks on his album. or they were 7 or 8 minutes long to begin with before he started taking the knife to them to fit them on an album.

2) all of his singles, at least starting from 1999 onward, when he got really hungry to crossover should have been a double A-side (yes, even with an unreleased b-side). one side for pop/rock radio. the other for r&b/urban radio. he had the goods to do it. they started doing this a little bit with D&P and and by simultaneously releasing Diamonds & Pearls and Insatiable, and 7 and Damn U. i understand Warners hesitation with flooding the market, but they could have had fewer actual singles to press and promote, but still marketing to his entire audience at once.

NDRU said:

I will avoid the obvious jokes about the shagger and say that some people are taught and others are self taught...there is a big difference in the mental process...do you honestly believe that Prince, after all these years would change the way he makes music because some 'fans' think its worth a try?

Prince is Prince, what U get is a Prince project, U can either take it or leave it..what is one man's poison is another man's food.

ernestsewell said:

Say what? So are U trying to tell me its not a song about an actual dolphin, to think all these years I thought it was a tribute song to Flipper.

SPOOKYGAS said:

Um, lighten up. This is a thread for discussion. Only you believe anyone here thinks Prince is going to give a shit

NDRU said:

You are.

As for describing being a dolphin, here's some help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor

As for the lyrics you describe, well: the whole song is about the same things than "Pearls b4 The Swine" on "One Nite Alone...": the way Prince is misunderstood and rejected by people despite his message of love and positiveness. "People" including his fans as well as journalists, media people and, considering the context when "Dolphin" was released, his then record company.

The dolphin is a symbol of freedom (see "metaphor" article above). Prince claims that he's sending a message of love and wonders how beautiful his words need to be in order to reach every heart, and then complains that people who hastly judge him won't be able to understand said words. Then we jump into the chorus you are referring to, where Prince asks
If i came back as a dolphin (i.e. free of the whole "Prince" imagery and clichés) would u listen 2 me then, would u let me be your friend, would u let me in? (i.e. instead of judging me out of preconcived ideas u have about me)
U can cut up all my fins but 2 your ways i will not bend (i.e. you can criticize me, make me sound like a bad man and try to prevent my music from being distributed/played) but to your ways i will not bend (i.e. i will never behave like you'd like me to or play by your rules), i'll die before you tell me how to swim (i.e. i'll die before i change my ways to fit yours) and i'll come back again as a dolphin (i.e. i'll find new ways to play my music and spread my gospel, and in the context in which the song was released, i'll come back as an independant artist named and i'll be free of the whole "Prince" mythos: this particular idea echoes a similar one in Endorphinmachine, expressed by "every now & then u must defend ur right to die & live again", which means "one regularly has a right to reinvent oneself and to be judged on what he does now instead of preconceived ideas and past actions).
I could explain the rest of the song but i take it that you've got the idea ^^

ernestsewell said:

yeah I get that, and the dolphin part has specifically represented to me an animal that performs tricks for crowds

My specific question is simply about maintaining a consistent time frame through the song

"I'd die before I let you tell me how to swim"--already a dolphin
"And I'll come back again as a dolphin"--not yet a dolphin

ernestsewell said:

I don't think it's ONLY about WB. It's certainly a message to them but not them only. I think Prince wanted to make a statement to everyone who was criticizing/misunderstood him and his so-called "weird" ways: WB, journalists, people in general and some of us fans.

SPOOKYGAS said:

no of course I don't think he would change it, this is for my amusement, not his benefit

NDRU said:

I don't see that the Dolphin is ever compared to a trained animal. More that he wouldn't be turned into one. And they could kill him and he'd return as free even though he was a free creature when they cut off the fins.