Prince is an amazinly versitile producer and Iam not questioning that, but sometimes I feel it would benefit Prince if he let someone else completely take over when it comes to production. Yes some people have helped Prince on the production side (Levi, Ricky Peterson, Wendy and Lisa probably) but otherwise its all his decision LOL and we love him for that, but still.....

Songs that Prince has (partially) ruined from a production standpoint:-

"Gold" (the intro and outro segues are God awful)

"When doves cry" (a little too long, and yes Iam aware of the single edit LOL but the album version could of used a little trimming)

"Arms of Orion" (ending goes nowhere and fizzes out. Get Cheesy producer David Foster in and Prince probably would of had a smash hit. At least he learned his lesson with the song "diamonds and pearls", which has a great end coda).

"Strays of the world" (the change of tempo.I dont hate it, just wish it wasn't there)

"I rock therefor I am" (ok its an average song but the ragga rapping is too much. Cut them out).

WDC is too long?

The single edit is a fucking crime against music.

NouveauDance said:

I disagree with the OP on Gold and When Doves Cry.

ARock said:

NouveauDance said:

WDC is too long?

The single edit is a fucking crime against music.

Well said...

some odd choices you made .

STRAYES OF THE WORLD

i love every second of it

GOLD the album version is perfectly edited

the intro is a seperate track .. so if u dont like it just skip

WDC

I would sooner listen to the edit

but if in the right mood the album version is pretty cool

THE ARMS OF ORION

Nevermind editing it .. just delete the whole track .. its cheesy boyband predictable stuff

I LOVE U IN ME from the same period had way more balls .. the rappinf was a better song

I ROCK THEREFORE I AM ... I agree with u. the rapping is awful .. but i think it was intencially an ugly pice of work .. as it was on CHAOS .. but its a track i usually skip

in my opinion the tracks that coulda been edited way better

are

GET YO GROOVE ON ... had hit potential .. if it didnt have so much jamming ... an woulda been better with real DRUMS an a band .. rather than keyboard

FAMILY NAME

this is seriously funky .. an catchy ... but thats only if u stick around for 3 minits of warm up ... I think it shoulda had the chorus one more time aswell

PURPLE RAIN .. the strings at the end .. waste of life to listen to .. its ok cos its at the end of the album ... but when its anywhere else .. then SKIP is needed after the MAIN song of it is over

EVERYBODY LOVES ME

Ouch .. this is very poorly stuck together an edited ... the whole thing shoulda been scrapped an redone

HOUSEQUAKE ... the LIVE version .. kicks the studio versions arse royally ... the 1st time id ever heard HOUSQUAKE was when i saw SIGN OF THE TIMES movie ... I really dug it .. I was looking forward to playing the studio version when i got the album .. bUT when I played it .. it was rubbish in comparison an was hollow an weedy ... as is PLAY IN THE SUNSHINE ... both of them songs were very kick arse live ... I think he shoulda caught that live energy an band sound on record .. cos the KEYBOARD based studio versions sound like half arsed demos that barely get off the ground

its almost the same with WHEN U WERE MINE an SHES ALWAYS IN MY HAIR

Hearing them WITH BAND .. is way better .. the keyboard thing dont always work best .. especially for ROCK tracks .. that he rocks live

The longer prince sits on materal, the more he tinkers and over produces it, Endorphine Machine being the worst example.

Walk in Sand - I know this track gets a lot of jokes from some of us (including moi lol) but I didn't like the way he produced it at all... and maybe Prince thought it wasn't nothing to improve on since he moved on to Sea of Everything soon after the drums crash lol

beestonpoet1981 said:

HOUSEQUAKE ... the LIVE version .. kicks the studio versions arse royally ... the 1st time id ever heard HOUSQUAKE was when i saw SIGN OF THE TIMES movie ... I really dug it .. I was looking forward to playing the studio version when i got the album .. bUT when I played it .. it was rubbish in comparison an was hollow an weedy ... as is PLAY IN THE SUNSHINE ... both of them songs were very kick arse live ... I think he shoulda caught that live energy an band sound on record .. cos the KEYBOARD based studio versions sound like half arsed demos that barely get off the ground

its almost the same with WHEN U WERE MINE an SHES ALWAYS IN MY HAIR

Hearing them WITH BAND .. is way better .. the keyboard thing dont always work best .. especially for ROCK tracks .. that he rocks live

As crazy as I'm about it, I've never really dug it live, he seemed awkward to me in most of the live versions I heard. I agree with you about the rest, especially "When U Were Mine"

That First Avenue 82 V2.0 is just pure bliss

SquirrelMeat said:

The longer prince sits on materal, the more he tinkers and over produces it, Endorphine Machine being the worst example.

I was shocked when I heard "Can't Stop This Feeling I Got" and "Tick Tick Bang" in its original form. Why in the cold hell would he tamper with them?

On the other hand, I think what he did with "Feel U Up" was a huge improvement.

Vict0r said:

I disagree with the OP on Gold and When Doves Cry.

I the production on those 2 classics as well.

Fury the live version is so much better

A lot of really great songs have strange production that's unnerving.

It's a fine line between thinking they ruined the song or made them work though.

Case in point, the guitar cut ins to the intro and washes of synth sounds in "She's always in my hair" is one.

Timmy84 said:

Walk in Sand - I know this track gets a lot of jokes from some of us (including moi lol) but I didn't like the way he produced it at all... and maybe Prince thought it wasn't nothing to improve on since he moved on to Sea of Everything soon after the drums crash lol

A maxipad can only absorb so much.

SquirrelMeat said:

The longer prince sits on materal, the more he tinkers and over produces it, Endorphine Machine being the worst example.

agree!

i miss the raw, edgy, simplicity of earlier work like kiss, something in the water, WDC, Alphabet street, erotic city 1999, not too many complicated instuments crammed into these songs... yet infectious and heavy on beat...grows on you...now a days i can do without

over produced stuff that just blends in with the regular crap on the radio right now.. gone are the days when u hear a beat & know its Prince without even hearing the vocals : )))

[Edited 7/26/11 7:26am]

sound like some of yall should audtion to be a producer u know more about prince music than he does being he wrote it all i guess your vision is better

There is a lesson to be learned here.

An artist's job is to create, not to cater.

Even if they wanted to, the latter is impossible - which this thread clearly shows.

cbarnes3121 said:

sound like some of yall should audtion to be a producer u know more about prince music than he does being he wrote it all i guess your vision is better

Its much easier to see the flaws of others than the flaws in yourself.

If Prince let go for a while, I think the results would be very surprising.

SquirrelMeat said:

cbarnes3121 said:

sound like some of yall should audtion to be a producer u know more about prince music than he does being he wrote it all i guess your vision is better

Its much easier to see the flaws of others than the flaws in yourself.

If Prince let go for a while, I think the results would be very surprising.

As we can see in this thread: what one person considers a "flaw", might be greatness to someone else.

So just whose opinion should Prince follow? Who has the right answer?

SquirrelMeat said:

The longer prince sits on materal, the more he tinkers and over produces it, Endorphine Machine being the worst example.

This was the example I was going to give as well. It got lost in the pile on.

I LOVE Gold. I think it is a great song.

Purple Rain didn't need the outro. OMG it is the worst ending to an album possible.

Personally I thought Temptation was too over the top and didn't need the chat with God at the end.

GB edited album...

As Billy Corgan sings in 1979, "no excuses need be made"

SquirrelMeat said:

cbarnes3121 said:

sound like some of yall should audtion to be a producer u know more about prince music than he does being he wrote it all i guess your vision is better

Its much easier to see the flaws of others than the flaws in yourself.

If Prince let go for a while, I think the results would be very surprising.

people are free to express their opinions and have healthy expchange of ideas and comparisons of likes and dislike..nothing wrong with this FORUM...we are all drawn to Prince & his music MOSTLY because of his earlier, SIMPLER stripped down work... so i understand how most feel when they cant gat a "fix" of that sweetness anymore... just diluted, overproduced stuff (maybe made in China).

Earlier, Prince was like a dope dealer who came on the scene with that new raw shit that got everyone hooked.

Like raw uncut cocaine (Prince's earlier work) now being mixed & diluted with baking soda and stretched. His reputation and customers decline.

[Edited 7/26/11 11:22am]

[Edited 7/26/11 11:23am]

[Edited 7/26/11 11:25am]

[Edited 7/26/11 11:27am]

3232 said:

we are all drawn to Prince & his music MOSTLY because of his earlier, SIMPLER stripped down work... so i understand how most feel when they cant gat a "fix" of that sweetness anymore... just diluted, overproduced stuff (maybe made in China).

Earlier, Prince was like a dope dealer who came on the scene with that new raw shit that got everyone hooked.

Like raw uncut cocaine (Prince's earlier work) now being mixed & diluted with baking soda and stretched. His reputation and customers decline.

Sure, that's a good comparison, from your point of view.

The difference, however, is that the dope dealer's main agenda is simply to sell his product. If people buys it, he's successful. If they don't, he has failed.

An artist's agenda is, primarily, to express him-/herself. Selling units is secondary. An artist has no obligation to meet our demands or expectations - in fact, that would rather be the opposite of art.

Many people enjoyed the "Rocky" series. Still, they don't demand that Sylvester Stallone play a boxer in every movie he makes.

RealMusician said:

SquirrelMeat said:

Its much easier to see the flaws of others than the flaws in yourself.

If Prince let go for a while, I think the results would be very surprising.

As we can see in this thread: what one person considers a "flaw", might be greatness to someone else.

So just whose opinion should Prince follow? Who has the right answer?

You answered the question yourself. Its opinion, so there is no right or wrong.

SquirrelMeat said:

RealMusician said:

As we can see in this thread: what one person considers a "flaw", might be greatness to someone else.

So just whose opinion should Prince follow? Who has the right answer?

You answered the question yourself. Its opinion, so there is no right or wrong.

Exactly.

Still, everyone seems to claim that they know exactly what's "wrong", "missing", "flawed", etc. in Prince's music, and that if he would just let someone else be his producer, all of those things would be "corrected".

As if there was some kind of general consensus about how the music should sound - that everybody knows about, expect Prince himself...

ludwig said:

Fury the live version is so much better

RealMusician said:

SquirrelMeat said:

You answered the question yourself. Its opinion, so there is no right or wrong.

Exactly.

Still, everyone seems to claim that they know exactly what's "wrong", "missing", "flawed", etc. in Prince's music, and that if he would just let someone else be his producer, all of those things would be "corrected".

As if there was some kind of general consensus about how the music should sound - that everybody knows about, expect Prince himself...

No, everyone else is having an opinion. No one is claiming what is right or wrong.

In the end, it is simple...Kiss ass

RealMusician said:

3232 said:

we are all drawn to Prince & his music MOSTLY because of his earlier, SIMPLER stripped down work... so i understand how most feel when they cant gat a "fix" of that sweetness anymore... just diluted, overproduced stuff (maybe made in China).

Earlier, Prince was like a dope dealer who came on the scene with that new raw shit that got everyone hooked.

Like raw uncut cocaine (Prince's earlier work) now being mixed & diluted with baking soda and stretched. His reputation and customers decline.

Sure, that's a good comparison, from your point of view.

The difference, however, is that the dope dealer's main agenda is simply to sell his product. If people buys it, he's successful. If they don't, he has failed.

An artist's agenda is, primarily, to express him-/herself. Selling units is secondary. An artist has no obligation to meet our demands or expectations - in fact, that would rather be the opposite of art.

Many people enjoyed the "Rocky" series. Still, they don't demand that Sylvester Stallone play a boxer in every movie he makes.

Yep! Artist's launches website, stick u with a considerable fee for joining, promise goodies(t-shirts) but never delivers...

with Prince, the almighty $$$ is his main agenda.. always bitching about being ripped off but at the same time ripping off his fans.`