Prince lost his way after the 1979 to 1988 period. He built his image and sound album to album. When prince made the huge mistake of not touring for "sign o' the times'. That became a turning point in the wrong direction. Lovesexy didn't sell that well in the u.s. and he didn't know what to do from there. prince wasn't the trendsetter anymore. Prince made the batman soundtrack because he knew that would sell very well. I would've never thought he would ever have rappers in band. So do u think prince panicked after lovesexy failed?

It's difficult to say wether he panicked or not. Fact is: he gave up on his artistic integrity from one minute to another to be commercially successful again.

I think panicked is an understatement. Listen closely to Lovesexy, how can you not sense the desperation and loneliness in every note of those songs, especially When 2 R In Love and Anna Stesia? By the sound of it, he was in the middle of a full-on meltdown. The end of the 80's and his waning relevence probably just made it worse. Enter the NPG and the rest is history.

SOTT was a critical success and it had hits, but he'd lost people in the US by that point.

The SOTT film came out of that kind of a concept where people thought you could do closed circuit events like Wrestlemania, and have a film tour for you without the expenses. He wouldn't have wanted to play smaller venues, and it was clear his popularity had dropped off.

I would have written became 'increasingly frustrated' instead of 'panicked'... and I would go further and say it had less to do with sales and more to do with America 'getting the message'. Lovesexy is an album that appears to describe intense personal turmoil and soul-searching, or at least the farago (spelling?) of the release does. There was a picture from the Lovesexy Tour of Prince on stage, retreating into a cloud of dry ice and a quotation that ran "if only I could get one person to understand" - or something akin to that. The US leg of the Lovesexy Tour seemed to confuse Prince and upset him. There is a part of me that truly believes that if US had 'got' Lovesexy then we would not have had Graffiti Bridge in its released form. Prince obviously felt the need to revisit the 'message' of Lovesexy so much that he threw so much of the original Graffiti Bridge project overboard it became an incoherent mess and not particularly enjoyable to watch.

Then the sales thang occurred, then we have D&P and sales are restored, then we have the mess of the name change, etc... and then we have fans becoming 'increasingly frustrated'. I wonder what is going on in the other trouser leg of history? The one in which the US 'got' Lovesexy.

Could be why he took on Batman.....I wish though that he still went ahead with the original config of Rave as that would have done well IMO. Its a great tracklist.

I'm not sure if he "panicked" but it seemed like,by the late 80s,he was getting really frustrated with his situation.The public was having a hard time keeping up with him and his record sales were hurting.There's nothing wrong with the quality of his music from this period.He just made several career mistakes that did alot of damage.

Releasing the wrong singles....not bringing his SOTT tour to the States in the fall of 1987....posing nude on the cover of Lovesexy and releasing a lame second single,etc.

I felt really bad for Prince in 1988.He had an amazing album in stores that the masses were ignoring and many of his Lovesexy tourdates were not soldout

SoulAlive said:

I'm not sure if he "panicked" but it seemed like,by the late 80s,he was getting really frustrated with his situation.The public was having a hard time keeping up with him and his record sales were hurting.There's nothing wrong with the quality of his music from this period.He just made several career mistakes that did alot of damage.

Releasing the wrong singles....not bringing his SOTT tour to the States in the fall of 1987....posing nude on the cover of Lovesexy and releasing a lame second single,etc.

I felt really bad for Prince in 1988.He had an amazing album in stores that the masses were ignoring and many of his Lovesexy tourdates were not soldout

ironically in uk his star burned as brightly as ever, those lovesexy shows were salivated over by critics and fans alike.

robertgeorgeakabob said:

SoulAlive said:

I'm not sure if he "panicked" but it seemed like,by the late 80s,he was getting really frustrated with his situation.The public was having a hard time keeping up with him and his record sales were hurting.There's nothing wrong with the quality of his music from this period.He just made several career mistakes that did alot of damage.

Releasing the wrong singles....not bringing his SOTT tour to the States in the fall of 1987....posing nude on the cover of Lovesexy and releasing a lame second single,etc.

I felt really bad for Prince in 1988.He had an amazing album in stores that the masses were ignoring and many of his Lovesexy tourdates were not soldout

ironically in uk his star burned as brightly as ever, those lovesexy shows were salivated over by critics and fans alike.

treehouse said:

SOTT was a critical success and it had hits, but he'd lost people in the US by that point.

True. People forget that Around the World in a Day wasn't the Purple Rain pt. 2 that the masses wanted.

Add to that, for the most part, the entire Under The Cherry Moon project was clouded with the stink of the film's box office/critical flop. I mean, that album barely sold more than 1 million copies in the USA. Can you imagine that? Prince was just two years out from one of the most successful albums ever, and Parade barely squeaked out platinum status in 1986.

skywalker said:

treehouse said:

SOTT was a critical success and it had hits, but he'd lost people in the US by that point.

True. People forget that Around the World in a Day wasn't the Purple Rain pt. 2 that the masses wanted.

Add to that, for the most part, the entire Under The Cherry Moon project was clouded with the stink of the film's box office/critical flop. I mean, that album barely sold more than 1 million copies in the USA. Can you imagine that? Prince was just two years out from one of the most successful albums ever, and Parade barely squeaked out platinum status in 1986.

You picked up where I wanted to

ATWIAD could have made a bigger mark if he sold it right, it was a good album. And if you wanted to take people on a journey with it you don't just release it and not do much to support it. He knew he wasn't releasing PR #2

But he was still huge

the Parade era was big, he still had Sheila E as a protege and that was an extension of his 'kingdom' the album Parade could have sold much more if he didn't try to do the Morris & Jerome thing in the movie, but even if he did the BIGGEST mistake was to not have live musical performances. When I saw the trailer I just knew there would be band performances and it looked really exciting. Of course the pull the best clips to make the trailer look good.

And I don't care what anyone says. the masses don't like too much fickleness, too much change. Disbanding the Revolution at that time was the wrong time. And the kingdom shrunk because one of your most popular protege bands was not going to be able to PROM a very good album that showcased some seriously mature 'purple music' (another thing that could have happened with the Family)

Yes I agree...the Batman album was a sellout. And not a very good album either.

I agree 100% that the biggest mistake of his career was when he didn't tour for "sign of the times". If he releases icnttpoyn as the second single and tours right away. that album would've sold between 3 to 5millon copies

So the man releases an album but doesn,t tour it, and now he tours without having an album...

He woul save so much energy and stress if he acted like the others and do what has always worked... album then touring. No wonder why we can't follow the guy, he can't even follow himself.

Poor baby,

funkomatic said:

It's difficult to say wether he panicked or not. Fact is: he gave up on his artistic integrity from one minute to another to be commercially successful again.

That's spot on, now-a-days he's not caring but, back then he was and you could tell ...

Prince did what he did, the majority of the world got it, what the US wanted was a Springstein play the hits type performer tryed and tested shmaltzy bullshit repetative performer.

Lovesexy said fuck that!!, in 2011 you got what you wanted,and still you all moan.

Panicked? Um not so sure about that, hard 2 even imagine actually

But something defintley changed in him after the LoveSexy flop. But I think it had less to do with LoveSexy flopping & more to do with all his bad choices finally catching up with him. P didnt play it safe, & it had its damages.

However Im please with all his 80's work & some which were trashed then, or highly acclaimed albums now so...? P didnt really sellout, I mean sell out to whom? Himself? thats ridiculous. P does what ever he wants, if he sold out we would have never seen the likes of albums like GB or TGE Oh & I like the Batman album Electric Chair HELLO!!!

OldFriends4Sale said:

skywalker said:

True. People forget that Around the World in a Day wasn't the Purple Rain pt. 2 that the masses wanted.

Add to that, for the most part, the entire Under The Cherry Moon project was clouded with the stink of the film's box office/critical flop. I mean, that album barely sold more than 1 million copies in the USA. Can you imagine that? Prince was just two years out from one of the most successful albums ever, and Parade barely squeaked out platinum status in 1986.

You picked up where I wanted to

ATWIAD could have made a bigger mark if he sold it right, it was a good album.

Parade was yet another retro direction.

There just weren't any songs you could get bare chested, oil yourself up and clean the house to. Then Cherry Moon let everyone down ....nuff said.

ATWIAD sold about as well as it could have, considering sales probably came from people who were buying the new Prince record no matter what. Maybe some people heard Raspberry Beret and became Prince converts for the first time, but I'd bet most of those were in Europe.

It didnt fail in europe.....cuz we understand that shit......we got it from the get go....usa 2 slow:evillol:

There's only so much artistic "exploration" you can do before eventually you have to pay the bills.

Don't get me wrong though, I love Lovesexy, The Black Album, and pretty much everything he did around this time. Looking back, I wish Prince had been a little wiser with money and resources (not producing an album for every other girl he dated) and used his fortunes to bankroll even more creative releases of his own.

And to the earlier post about "the public couldn't keep up with Prince anymore" . . . that's a total fam statement.

treehouse said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

You picked up where I wanted to

ATWIAD could have made a bigger mark if he sold it right, it was a good album.

Parade was yet another retro direction.

There just weren't any songs you could get bare chested, oil yourself up and clean the house to. Then Cherry Moon let everyone down ....nuff said.

ATWIAD sold about as well as it could have, considering sales probably came from people who were buying the new Prince record no matter what. Maybe some people heard Raspberry Beret and became Prince converts for the first time, but I'd bet most of those were in Europe.

It's been said on the Org before, but Purple Rain was almost what you'd call a "fluke". Those sales figures and stats (singles/album/tour/movie) happen once in a lifetime - and for Prince, it was 1984. Unlike MJ - who tried so desperately to recreate and outdo Thriller (which didn't happen either) - Prince went in all different creative directions after Purple Rain.

Others have mentioned that Prince was an independent artist trapped in the body of a major label pop star. He had the creativity of someone with something to say and a home studio to get it out, but also had the conspicuous consumption curse of the "star". A true Gemini, these two sides are still fighting each other.

OldFriends4Sale said:

Disbanding the Revolution at that time was the wrong time.

Y'know, I'm a Revolution stalwart here on the Org. That's really my favorite Prince era, and I always get into it with folks on this board who really don't like them. But you know what, the band he replaced the Rev with was AWESOME. If Prince would have toured SOTT and sold that band more ... Heck if Prince would have toured PARADE band in the states, he would have had much more of a popular impact.

Beyond that, Lovesexy was a bit stiff. The actual Lovesexy tour was exciting, but it was kind of overchoreographed. I dunno.

Then there are the fans that wanted 1999 pt. 2, and got Purple Rain instead. Can't please everyone, and as we see, P does what he likes. ATWIAD and Parade are my least favorites from the 80's anyway. With the exception of Pop Life, some B sides, and Anotherloverholenyohead, I don't care much for this time period. I prefer SOTT, and Lovesexy over those two.

JudasLChrist said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Disbanding the Revolution at that time was the wrong time.

Y'know, I'm a Revolution stalwart here on the Org. That's really my favorite Prince era, and I always get into it with folks on this board who really don't like them. But you know what, the band he replaced the Rev with was AWESOME. If Prince would have toured SOTT and sold that band more ... Heck if Prince would have toured PARADE band in the states, he would have had much more of a popular impact.

Beyond that, Lovesexy was a bit stiff. The actual Lovesexy tour was exciting, but it was kind of overchoreographed. I dunno.

I'm not just talking about the band but the 'relationship'

When a time period from 1984-1986 we see a triple increase in musical creative output (and good stuff at that) then the (social/musical)environment is probably the ground for it.

I LOVE the SOTT band, but the SOTT band overall didn't 'help create' that music. I don't think Sheila E Boni Boyer Mico Cat and the 2 male dancers had the song writing/composition to build a music foundation with Prince.

+ Prince 'Paisley Park' 'Uptown' 'Erotic City' got seriously downsized.

I LOVED seeing Sheila E. on drums behind Prince, but I prefer seeing her up front, front her band. We lost out on videos/performances of her 2nd best albums with some seriously good music.

+ Jill Jones was released but not 'associated' with what was happening with Prince like before

That's what I mean with 'wrong time'

i wish he had released the Black Album instead of Lovesexy. Just delay Lovesexy by 6 months. Then do the tour.

ufoclub said:

i wish he had released the Black Album instead of Lovesexy. Just delay Lovesexy by 6 months. Then do the tour.

yeah sorta like ATWIAD & Parade

ufoclub said:

i wish he had released the Black Album instead of Lovesexy. Just delay Lovesexy by 6 months. Then do the tour.

I still think he should have released The Black Album and Lovesexy as a double concept album. One side dark, the other side rebirth. Black on the front, naked on the back, and the gatefold inside describing the story of Camille, just like the tour.

SquirrelMeat said:

ufoclub said:

i wish he had released the Black Album instead of Lovesexy. Just delay Lovesexy by 6 months. Then do the tour.

I still think he should have released The Black Album and Lovesexy as a double concept album. One side dark, the other side rebirth. Black on the front, naked on the back, and the gatefold inside describing the story of Camille, just like the tour.

great idea!

SoulAlive said:

I'm not sure if he "panicked" but it seemed like,by the late 80s,he was getting really frustrated with his situation.The public was having a hard time keeping up with him and his record sales were hurting.There's nothing wrong with the quality of his music from this period.He just made several career mistakes that did alot of damage.

Releasing the wrong singles....not bringing his SOTT tour to the States in the fall of 1987....posing nude on the cover of Lovesexy and releasing a lame second single,etc.

I felt really bad for Prince in 1988.He had an amazing album in stores that the masses were ignoring and many of his Lovesexy tourdates were not soldout

From Sign O The Times on, releasing the wrong singles had everything to do with the drop-off in his popularity in my opinion. Correct choices were made with D&P releases but can't think of any others.