really can't decide. They're both masterpieces in their own right. I love the suite like Computer Blue which, to me, is a better version of Something In The Water, which is awesome 2! Little Red Corvette and Internation Lover are amazing, my 2 favs, with their sexual metaphors. But the metaphors in When Doves Cry are amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Erotic City is also my favorite song so....... I wish in 1983 Prince made a CD with these songs

1. Let's Go Crazy

2. Little Red Corvette

3. Delirious

4. The Beautiful Ones

5. Let's Pretend We're Married

6. Erotic City

7. D.M.S.R

8. Computer Blue

9. When Doves Cry

10. Automatic

11. International Lover

12. Purple Rain

That would have been the greatest abum ever made.

aardvark15 said:

really can't decide. They're both masterpieces in their own right. I love the suite like Computer Blue which, to me, is a better version of Something In The Water, which is awesome 2! Little Red Corvette and Internation Lover are amazing, my 2 favs, with their sexual metaphors. But the metaphors in When Doves Cry are amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Erotic City is also my favorite song so....... I wish in 1983 Prince made a CD with these songs

1. Let's Go Crazy

2. Little Red Corvette

3. Delirious

4. The Beautiful Ones

5. Let's Pretend We're Married

6. Erotic City

7. D.M.S.R

8. Computer Blue

9. When Doves Cry

10. Automatic

11. International Lover

12. Purple Rain

That would have been the greatest abum ever made.

No need to use the PR songs

this could have been the greatest album ever made:

1999

LittleRedCorvette

Delirious

Let's Pretend We're Married

DMSR

Irresistible Bitch

Extra Lovable

Moonbeam Levels

Lady Cab Driver

All the Critics Love U in NY

International Lover

Purple Rain, 1999 has got the godawful track Free.

Purple Rain is underrated by hardcore fans a bit because it is overrated by the general public, but it's still an incredible album. I'll have to go with 1999 though because it is the first Prince album I really got into and just more fun and funky.

.

[Edited 6/17/11 8:10am]

FunkiestOne said:

Purple Rain is underrated by hardcore fans a bit because it is overrated by the general public, but it's still an incredible album. I'll have to go with 1999 though because it is the first Prince album I really got into and just more fun and funky.

.

[Edited 6/17/11 8:10am]

very true

njin said:

FunkiestOne said:

Purple Rain is underrated by hardcore fans a bit because it is overrated by the general public, but it's still an incredible album. I'll have to go with 1999 though because it is the first Prince album I really got into and just more fun and funky.

.

[Edited 6/17/11 8:10am]

very true

also, it's clearly the most adventorous/edgy mainstream pop/rock soundtrack of all time. Not a safe album, at all...

[Edited 6/17/11 8:20am]

Purple Rain all da way.

I don't like Automatic, Let's Pretend We're Married (but in music video P. is sexy), International Lover (stupid lyric), Lady Cab Driver (the same as IL). I really like only Little Red Corvette, Free and Something in The Water.

daPrettyman said:

JoeTyler said:

PURPLE RAIN

1999 is a masterpiece, but it is NOT an easy album to diggest; in fact, the songs 6, 7 and 8 are slighty bleak, lesser and uninviting. If only he had replaced those songs with Irresistible Bitch, Extra Lovable, and Moonbeam Levels; if only...

Wow! I don't think I've ever heard "Automatic" referred to as "bleak."

If you were around in 1982/1983 (I don't think you were by looking at your profile), you would know that those songs were very cutting edge. In fact, "Automatic" used to get quite a bit of radio play in major markets (so did DMSR, Lady Cab Driver and International Lover). I don't recall hearing another r&b/pop artist getting their ass beat on record before "Automatic."

The only ones that I found hard to digest were "Something In The Water" and "All The Critics." When I first got the album, I didn't get those trax, but probably a year later, I finally got it and fell in love with them.

My thoughts exactly. 1999 over PR IMO as well. And I still pump up the volume on "All The Critics" to this day.

1999. No contest for me.

Hate picking but 1999.

"Automatic" is my favorite Prince song

SoulAlive said:

"Automatic" is my favorite Prince song

Really??!

I've always loved Automatic. D.M.S.R. goes hard. Int'l Lover is a Do Me Baby type of song, (love those too). 1999, easily. Hands down. Purple Rain wasn't what I was expecting from Prince when it came out. At all. Outside of the Beautiful Ones, I hardly listen to it.

I have to agree with SoulAlive. "Automatic" is way up there in terms of Prince songs to me. Hell almost the entire track listing of 1999 was great.

eireboy34 said:

SoulAlive said:

"Automatic" is my favorite Prince song

Really??!

SoulAlive said:

eireboy34 said:

Really??!

eireboy34 said:

SoulAlive said:

Why so shocked?

[Edited 6/17/11 10:10am]

Timmy84 said:

eireboy34 said:

Why so shocked?

[Edited 6/17/11 10:10am]

I can understand that someone might like the song..but an absolute fave??!

Each to his own though......

Shafty said:

daPrettyman said:

Wow! I don't think I've ever heard "Automatic" referred to as "bleak."

If you were around in 1982/1983 (I don't think you were by looking at your profile), you would know that those songs were very cutting edge. In fact, "Automatic" used to get quite a bit of radio play in major markets (so did DMSR, Lady Cab Driver and International Lover). I don't recall hearing another r&b/pop artist getting their ass beat on record before "Automatic."

The only ones that I found hard to digest were "Something In The Water" and "All The Critics." When I first got the album, I didn't get those trax, but probably a year later, I finally got it and fell in love with them.

"Automatic" is one of the finest electro pop funk jams ever.

This is the album for me that needs the remastering treatment soonest.

Grab the vinyl reissue. It's worth the money.

I'd say PR is a more perfect album from beginning to end. I find 1999 a bit uneven, and with the length of the tracks it's more like a collection of 12 inch singles.

But 1999 may just have better songs.

When I was young, I had a tape of my brother's record, and it only had 1999, LRC, Delerious, LPWM, DMSR, & Automatic. That was nothing less than 6 classics in a row.

eireboy34 said:

Timmy84 said:

Why so shocked?

[Edited 6/17/11 10:10am]

I can understand that someone might like the song..but an absolute fave??!

Each to his own though......

I initially asked "you DON'T like it" before editing.

NDRU said:

I'd say PR is a more perfect album from beginning to end. I find 1999 a bit uneven, and with the length of the tracks it's more like a collection of 12 inch singles.

But 1999 may just have better songs.

When I was young, I had a tape of my brother's record, and it only had 1999, LRC, Delerious, LPWM, DMSR, & Automatic. That was nothing less than 6 classics in a row.

Yeah PR was a better sequential album (and I think that was really Prince's intention). With 1999, it was GREAT SONGS. But to be honest 1999 sounded like a concept album in a way...

For me nothing beats Purple Rain, it's the ultimate Prince album, very strong from beginning to end.

but.......... 1999 is fabulous too,

I think I rate both 10/10

ItsGonnaBLonely said:

These albums are equal to me. I like them just the same each one is missing something though. 1999 is missing extralovable. And PR is missing electric intercourse. PR was a perfect follow up in was far superior. But if weren't for 1999 hit little red corvette. Prince would have never possibly achieved the success of PR. [Edited 6/17/11 11:21am]

Technically I think fate played its cards real well because something like 1999 definitely sowed the seeds for Purple Rain. It was that double-TKO combination that finally took Prince from cult hero to superstar.

NDRU said:

I'd say PR is a more perfect album from beginning to end. I find 1999 a bit uneven, and with the length of the tracks it's more like a collection of 12 inch singles.

But 1999 may just have better songs.

When I was young, I had a tape of my brother's record, and it only had 1999, LRC, Delerious, LPWM, DMSR, & Automatic. That was nothing less than 6 classics in a row.

See, I think that's what makes it great...it doesn't really follow rules. Sign O' times was also 'uneven', but was also one of his greatest imo. PR is GREAT true enough, but it's also the least listened to album in my Prince collection.

GeminiBrown said:

NDRU said:

I'd say PR is a more perfect album from beginning to end. I find 1999 a bit uneven, and with the length of the tracks it's more like a collection of 12 inch singles.

But 1999 may just have better songs.

When I was young, I had a tape of my brother's record, and it only had 1999, LRC, Delerious, LPWM, DMSR, & Automatic. That was nothing less than 6 classics in a row.

See, I think that's what makes it great...it doesn't really follow rules. Sign O' times was also 'uneven', but was also one of his greatest imo. PR is GREAT true enough, but it's also the least listened to album in my Prince collection.

well, I am certainly not going to argue with you. 1999 might be his best album

For me, 1999 hits higher peaks than Purple Rain, but isn't as consistently provocative. So, as a whole, I prefer Purple Rain.

I can't believe how a Prince fan can not like Automatic! Isn't that what makes Prince the mysterious, out-there, quirky, synth-driven Mpls-sound funkgod he is?

I mean, Automatic is probably the most trippy and haunting song ever written; it's so on point, it sounds so perfectly cock-sure - every single lyric, the delivery ("why do I love you so much? Have mercy..."), the synths in the "get ready to take off" part, the ending when it all settles down and you get back to Earth after a trip through every quadrant of the Universe. This is as close as a musical artist will ever come to "perfect" - every note in that song has a reason to be there, and every note that was left out had to be left out.

Automatic is Prince at his best. I'm sorry for having to sound so extreme, but I have to say it: If you don't "get" Automatic, you don't "get" Prince.

1999 for pretty much its non-commercial value

Purple Rain is absolutely brilliant from the commercial standpoint