What in your opinion is the most Myterious Prince era? You can base it on anything, the music he made at the time, his fashion, anything you want.

For me it has to be the Come era.. The whole vibe of that album, the clothes he wore..not to mention the whole "Prince is dead" thing.

[img:$uid]http://991.com/newGallery/Prince-The-Sacrifice-Of-55497.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Prince_Come.jpg[/img:$uid]

Anyone else agree? Or is there another era more mysterious to you?

Come does it 4 me, weird time!

Most mysterious was probably 1993-1996. He was playing shows, but he was really silent in the media in a lot of ways, probably depressed (as it has been documented and reported by those around him), and riding out the TAFKAP jokes and public lashing in the media. His music reflected a darkness as well. It was also one of his most prolific and funkiest periods in music.

It was a huge juxtaposition in 1996-1999 when the WB contract ended and he came out yammering on and on to Oprah, Chris Rock, Mel B., The View girls, on morning shows, on TRL, and more.

ernestsewell said:

Most mysterious was probably 1993-1996. He was playing shows, but he was really silent in the media in a lot of ways, probably depressed (as it has been documented and reported by those around him), and riding out the TAFKAP jokes and public lashing in the media. His music reflected a darkness as well. It was also one of his most prolific and funkiest periods in music.

It was a huge juxtaposition in 1996-1999 when the WB contract ended and he came out yammering on and on to Oprah, Chris Rock, Mel B., The View girls, on morning shows, on TRL, and more.

Hmmm yeah, and Come is easily his darkest/gloomiest album IMO..It's really weird because you had such a happy sounding album in the Love Symbol album (atleast it sounded happy to me) one year before Come..Other than My name is Prince, Sacrifice of Victor, I found it to be a lighter album of his.

I guess the whole Warner Bros thing and Name change thing was getting to him.

[Edited 8/13/10 20:11pm]

2000-2003: The Rainbow Children Era. Although still very visible, he became VERY conservative in many ways, providing an interesting contrast to the prior 20 plus years.

@ Ernest---Agreed about 1993-1996. Unique era but some really funky stuff

PurpleColossus said:

ernestsewell said:

Most mysterious was probably 1993-1996. He was playing shows, but he was really silent in the media in a lot of ways, probably depressed (as it has been documented and reported by those around him), and riding out the TAFKAP jokes and public lashing in the media. His music reflected a darkness as well. It was also one of his most prolific and funkiest periods in music.

It was a huge juxtaposition in 1996-1999 when the WB contract ended and he came out yammering on and on to Oprah, Chris Rock, Mel B., The View girls, on morning shows, on TRL, and more.

Hmmm yeah, and Come is easily his darkest/gloomiest album IMO..It's really weird because you had such a happy sounding album in the Love Symbol album (atleast it sounded happy to me) one year before Come..I guess the whole Warner Bros thing and Name change thing was getting to him.

happy? :\ No way. It's easily one of the darkest and heaviest, My Name is Prince, I Wanna Melt Wit U, the Flow, The Max, 3 Chains, Sacrifice of Victor. All very angry songs (by Prince standards).

For me, the idea of Prince being mysterious was the early days of his career, back when he seemed to do very little in the way of interviews.

I remember being in awe of the guy who was selling millions of albums, playing big sold out tours in large venues, and at the same time being a total mystery (at least to me), he was like this otherworldly untouchable thing. The other bands/artists i was into around the same time (the 80's) seemed to be everywhere as far as promotion was concerned, every week there was a new interview in a different magazine. But with Prince ........nothing. And on the rare occasions when he did do an interview, it was like it was an event, something special, people paid attention and were eager to hear what he had to say, to be privy to a few minutes into his world. Now, and even back in the 90's, Prince "talking" seems to happen almost as often as a new album is released. And it's not just one interview, it's five or even more. Now we know what movies he watches, what flavour of smoothie he prefers blah blah. I understand that he is trying to sell his product, and quite rightly so, but i just wish he could go back to being more the enigma he used to be, it just seemed to make the music, the tours etc all the more interesting. Maybe i should just stop reading the interviews.

I agree with MikeyB71, when the album was all we got. I'm a fan from the US, so no full on Parade tour, no SOTT tour, and no Nude tour. There were what? About 3 interviews from Rolling Stone and the televised MTV one? I moved to Minneapolis in 1991 and that all changed for me. Going to Glam Slam/Paisley Park twice a week when he was in town for a few years, and the endless shows and new music. I still thought he was mysterious up until about 1996 when the whole "Oprah" thing happened. He was more accessible in those years to me than any others (91-96). Prince was popping out new songs left and right during that time and very willing to let them be heard. To the OP, those pics are from the Act II tour in 1993. I guess you could still call them Come era pics, since all of the Come songs were done by then. When Come was finally released in 1994 he had the Gold look.

no fucking way is the 90's the most mysterious. The 80's when he never gave interviews and played with the few he did give. By the 90's people who wanted to read interviews, by him and others close to him and knew who he was. Before that he was as mysterious as any rockstar. He never really lost it but most of it's gone. I don't think anyone can really know him, or Elvis, or any superstar. Superstars have something that sets them apart from humanity, whether nature or nuture created it I don't know.

1986 - Don't buy the black album simple as that. end of.

BobGeorgetheoriginal said:

1986 - Don't buy the black album simple as that. end of.

The Black album was not completed, assembled, promoted, pressed, mastered, or on any release schedules in 1986.

Simple as that.

End of.

BobGeorgetheoriginal said:

1986 - Don't buy the black album simple as that. end of.

maybe for you but not for me. Prince had established the foundation of what his style and influence had and would be by then, so the music wasn't really new and different like the earlier albums and he also still did a couple interviews by then. I mean, obviously he was human by that point. I remember a time when everything about him was godly and mysterious, was he gay? was he intelligent or stupid? Male or female? Evil or decent? To top it off, he created some of the most potent music ever by anyone. I don't know if i agree with suzanne rogers or not, but she says the black album was the point where Prince stopped relating to his era. I didn't really go crazy for it but it was ok. Lovesexy is ok too. I mean, not bad but not like the earlier stuff where every song was mindblowing.

anyway, for me, the 1999 era is his best and most mysterious with purple rain coming a close second. Genius artists like him, or Elvis' sun sessions have a way of just conveying an entire world with the music. I mean, even the cover for 1999 matched the music, bleak, industrial, cosmic, mysterious. He was never better as a creative force. And even the confusion at the age i was at looking at the feminine ass on a man made an impression.

COMPUTERBLUE1984 said:

2000-2003: The Rainbow Children Era. Although still very visible, he became VERY conservative in many ways, providing an interesting contrast to the prior 20 plus years.

@ Ernest---Agreed about 1993-1996. Unique era but some really funky stuff

Was it mysterious though? I don't think it was.

BobGeorgetheoriginal said:

1986 - Don't buy the black album simple as that. end of.

Pretty easy not to since it wasn't written or conceived for another 2 years.

Yeah, I'm not sure if the 2000's as a whole have much Mystery to them IMO, although I have to admit TRC was a very different album coming from him. In the 2000's is when he really started dress more "normal" as well..He did more interviews as well I think.

The whole Graffiti Bridge era comes second to me, with the film really adding to that Mytery of him

[Edited 8/14/10 7:17am]

[Edited 8/14/10 7:19am]

skywalker said:

COMPUTERBLUE1984 said:

2000-2003: The Rainbow Children Era. Although still very visible, he became VERY conservative in many ways, providing an interesting contrast to the prior 20 plus years.

@ Ernest---Agreed about 1993-1996. Unique era but some really funky stuff

Was it mysterious though? I don't think it was.

Mysterious in a sense of a subdued kind of way. He didn't seem to have the same fire in his belly after he left WB. He dabbled on the web, still toured, got married/divorced and had some other personal issues relating to family, but by 1999 Rave Un2 The YEar 2000 concert, he seemed bored out of his skull and a somewhat bitter. When I saw his Hit N Run tour in Atlanta in April of 2000, it was really a precursor to his next project(Rainbow Children), but the energy was just not there.

His delving into the JW religion created new found challenges for us as fans as it relates to some of the material he was putting out, but he evolved to someone far more conservative. The conservatism in his new found persona provides something of a mystery (to me anyways) and musically speaking, I was almost expecting the Rainbow Children concept to branch out for a few more albums, but he abandoned it in favor of returning to prominence with Musicology.

ernestsewell said:

BobGeorgetheoriginal said:

1986 - Don't buy the black album simple as that. end of.

Pretty easy not to since it wasn't written or conceived for another 2 years.

Dec 7 1987.

COMPUTERBLUE1984 said:

skywalker said:

Was it mysterious though? I don't think it was.

Mysterious in a sense of a subdued kind of way. He didn't seem to have the same fire in his belly after he left WB. He dabbled on the web, still toured, got married/divorced and had some other personal issues relating to family, but by 1999 Rave Un2 The YEar 2000 concert, he seemed bored out of his skull and a somewhat bitter. When I saw his Hit N Run tour in Atlanta in April of 2000, it was really a precursor to his next project(Rainbow Children), but the energy was just not there.

His delving into the JW religion created new found challenges for us as fans as it relates to some of the material he was putting out, but he evolved to someone far more conservative. The conservatism in his new found persona provides something of a mystery (to me anyways) and musically speaking, I was almost expecting the Rainbow Children concept to branch out for a few more albums, but he abandoned it in favor of returning to prominence with Musicology.

Again, I don't see this as "mysterious". He did interviews, he opened up Paisley Park for fans to hang out, etc. I thought he was very accessible and perhaps not cryptic enough.

The whole vibe after SOTT and before the Lovesexy tour took off was the most mysterious mythical Prince era for me. It had Lovesexy as a head scratcher in it's art and sound, it had bootlegs of the Black Album going around...

But then even during the Lovesexy Tour... he was so conceptual and crazy, putting out the I Wish U Heaven 12"... that just was so great and it had the peach and black b-side by Camille.

ufoclub said:

The whole vibe after SOTT and before the Lovesexy tour took off was the most mysterious mythical Prince era for me. It had Lovesexy as a head scratcher in it's art and sound, it had bootlegs of the Black Album going around...

But then even during the Lovesexy Tour... he was so conceptual and crazy, putting out the I Wish U Heaven 12"... that just was so great and it had the peach and black b-side by Camille.

ya but the music wasn't as fresh and innovative for me as 1999 and he also broke his silence several times. For me, the earlier era will always be the real prince just like elvis from 54 to 58 will always be the real elvis.