Um, can we get back to talking about Purple Rain and how the Prince camp (yeah, I said it; "CAMP"!!!) worked on it before/after offering it to Stevie?!

Let's keep the racial he said/I meant to orgnote land. Moving on.....

The people that dont like TGE probably dont like rock music very much. To me this is a masterpiece cd. I love it and its my favorite. Got to cut those guys some slack though because alot of Prince fans like him for his R&B stuff. To me his R&B stuff is weak but pop/rock is strong. To each their own. At least they bought it right?

V10LETBLUES said:

PippiL said:

...Whoa, seriously?

The Gold Experience?!! That's one of the most epic things Prince has ever done.

*clutches the pearls*

I think stupid music, lyrics and attitude can be charming, like most pop music. But these two albums stand out in that they wear their stupidity cockily on their sleeve. Stupid, arrogant and ignorant all in their own package.

People can play down the stupidity of the lyrics, (which I can), the unoriginality of the music (which I can) The cockiness (yeah)....but there is something so cringe-worthy about the total sum of their parts that I just cannot stand. But that's' just me. (and apparently most of the record buying public)

But back to "Stand Back" most everything he did in that era was so great. He was on a roll. Most everything he wrote in the 80's has an that certain something that still resonates 30 years later.

His 90's work was immediately forgettable. Hopefully immediately forgettable. Some of his 90's work you needed to scrub out of your ears.

Really? If it weren't for the 90's stuff I wouldnt even be a fan. So are you saying I should not like Prince at all? I dont care for his 80's stuff with the exception of a handful of songs. The 90s were where is was at for me. Wow. I guess Prince really sucks then and I should reconsider my opinion of him

DreZone said:

PippiL said:

...Whoa, seriously?

The Gold Experience?!! That's one of the most epic things Prince has ever done.

*clutches the pearls*

You gotta be Joking! Epicl Fail more like... hyped TGE about it never being released, with that much hype, it better be a banger of an album..

So he gives us the Beautiful Experience feature-length video which includes "Days Of Wild" and "acknowledge Me" - arguably the most powerful tracks from that feature - only for it to NOT be released on TGE - what a gyp, had to wait for his greatest misses (and to some, greatest fail) "Crystal Ball" for anything to surface....

Then we get a cut down version of "Billy Jack Bitch" and a track which was recorded for "showgirls" and probably one of his lamest album closures, which I felt considering the album was called "The Gold Experience", a closing song with the lyrics "All that glitters ain't Gold" may as well be saying the whole thing was an overhyped anti-climax!

However "Shhh" and "I Hate U" could be it's saving Grace....

but for me... this album is merely a contribution to the integration of "Come" and "Exodus", the former being the FAR superior and the most underrated...

Finally as for TRC, isn't that one big musical proverbial JW door-to-door watchtower pitch/appraisal, appealing primarily to Prince puritans and musicians as opposed to the general consumer (I think it's fantastic personally - thought for accessibility in the noughties, Musicology hands down!)

That's my story and I'm sticking to it...

Sorry for the off-tangent , we were talking about Stevie Nicks or something.....?

'dre

Prince addressed why Days of Wild wasn't on there in the song Face Down.

Told 'em he wanted 2 sing a song about a black child goin' buck wild
And they just laughed in his face
Talk 2 your lawyer but U got no case
What U need 2 do is keep your place

i.e. he wanted to release Days of Wild on tGE, WB wouldn't let him.

[Edited 8/25/11 8:08am]

Wow. This thread quickly went from being about Stevie Nicks and Prince-- to Wendy and Lisa's input on Purple Rain to reviews of the Gold Experience and Days of Wild.

Getting back to Stevie...I remember she described having Prince in the studio: He heard the demo of Stand Back, and in just minutes stepped up to a synthesizer and played the chords that are now on the official release of Stand Back. She said she was blown away by his keyboard playing.

He came in, whipped out these great chords, and then left. She added that the she and Prince lost touch after that happened.

I always liked that story.

XNY said:

Wow. This thread quickly went from being about Stevie Nicks and Prince-- to Wendy and Lisa's input on Purple Rain to reviews of the Gold Experience and Days of Wild.

Getting back to Stevie...I remember she described having Prince in the studio: He heard the demo of Stand Back, and in just minutes stepped up to a synthesizer and played the chords that are now on the official release of Stand Back. She said she was blown away by his keyboard playing.

He came in, whipped out these great chords, and then left. She added that the she and Prince lost touch after that happened.

I always liked that story.

They didn't really lose touch right after that, though. She was at the Purple Rain premiere and they interacted more after that (which she wrote about in her song "A Thousand Days").

Mars23 asked me to let everyone know that he can't get to this thread right now, but he will shortly.

In the meantime, he asks that everyone refrain from anymore comments and debate on the reported bit above. Please just focus on the original topic.

XNY said:

Wow. This thread quickly went from being about Stevie Nicks and Prince-- to Wendy and Lisa's input on Purple Rain to reviews of the Gold Experience and Days of Wild.

Getting back to Stevie...I remember she described having Prince in the studio: He heard the demo of Stand Back, and in just minutes stepped up to a synthesizer and played the chords that are now on the official release of Stand Back. She said she was blown away by his keyboard playing.

He came in, whipped out these great chords, and then left. She added that the she and Prince lost touch after that happened.

I always liked that story.

She also said that no other keyboard player could play the part... even using two keyboard players.

Reminescent of when Matt Fink said that he couldn't play the synth part to "I Would Die 4 U".

Prince's playing is to tight, that one could think that it was arpeggiated or sequenced. Nope. Prince recorded most everything on most every album LIVE.

~G

First song Prince put out that many people heard "Controversy".

The big crossover hits were "1999" and "Little Red Corvette"

alexnvrmnd777 said:

Um, can we get back to talking about Purple Rain and how the Prince camp (yeah, I said it; "CAMP"!!!) worked on it before/after offering it to Stevie?!

It is a bit stunning how little info we have on this song. We know when it was recorded, but other than that all we have is some testimonials by band members, like Matt Fink talking about urging Prince to do a Bob Seger-like song, Bobby Z remembering he heard Prince "playing the chord changes of the song during a rehearsal in Cincinnatti in December 1982" (that must have been 12 December 1982, when the 1999 Tour stopped at the Riverfront Coliseum).

And then there's basically nothing until Prince & The Revolution perform the legendary Minnesota Dance Theatre benefit concert on 3 August 1983 at First Avenue.

Inbetween those two events there must have been the rehearsal Wendy & Lisa talk about, the one where a bunch of raw ideas came together and resulted in "Purple Rain".

But there's no evidence of a studio recording before the 3 August 1983 concert? Isn't that a bit odd? Granted, the basis for several other songs was also recorded there: "Electric Intercourse", "I Would Die 4 U" and "Baby I'm A Star", but we also know there is a demo for "Baby I'm A Star" from late 1981-1982.

And if Stevie Nicks is to be believed, Prince had recorded an instrumental demo of "Purple Rain", which he would have sent her shortly after the recording session for "Stand Back".

I can only hope that somewhere there's a huge stash of unknown documentation (a paper trail) which contains so much more information on all those songs and more. One can only hope that someday he'll regain his senses and open his vault to a select few music historians, so they can attempt to fill in the gaps. If a mega-corporation like LEGO is willing to open its vault to fans who are documenting every set ever released, surely Prince can do the same...

Prince loves mystery more than anyone else, but with so many people so close to one another, sooner or later the complete story will be told. At least I hope so.

early Nicks:

early Prince:

This thread title is inaccurate. She didn't say he wrote Purple Rain for her, he just offered her an instrumental which, after she rejected, he later did more work on to become 'Purple Rain', that's different in my book.

Also, this doesn't disprove that W&L had input either, Stevie is talking about what sounds like an early instrumental/demo.

[Edited 8/25/11 10:40am]

(see the post below) So the title of the news item seems to be wrong. It should be more like "Prince sent Stevie Nicks a demo of a song that later became Purple Rain".

If Lisa came up with the chords then she should have been credited as a co-writer - just in my opinion. However, I don't think Prince was necessarily legally obliged to do that if he himself came up with the lyrics and the melody. The chord progression of "Purple Rain" works really well, but it's not the only thing that makes the song a classic. They're pretty basic power ballad chords to be honest. If you take those chords as a starting point it's not hard to imagine a song that would turn out to resemble stuff like "It's Gonna Be Lonely" or "Free". It could have resembled just about any other ballad in the end. "Purple Rain", however, is an unparalleled piece of music.

[Edited 8/25/11 10:46am]

TheFreakerFantastic said:

This thread title is inaccurate. She didn't say he wrote Purple Rain for her, he just offered her an instrumental which, after she rejected, he later did more work on to become 'Purple Rain', that's different in my book.

Also, this doesn't disprove that W&L had input either, Stevie is talking about what sounds like an early instrumental/demo.

[Edited 8/25/11 10:40am]

Sorry about stating in my post what you've already stated in yours. You seemed to post this comment while I was typing mine.

at some of the comments in this thread

HotGritz said:

at some of the comments in this thread

at over people having disagreements.

IshmaelB said:

HotGritz said:

at some of the comments in this thread

at over people having disagreements.

Disagreements are a part of life but there's no reason to be ugly about it.

Stevie Nicks did a whole lot of blow back in the day. Could be she's got her facts a bit distorted.

Stand Back is a cool song.

edited to add : make that a TON of blow.

[Edited 8/25/11 11:21am]

frazetta said:

Stevie Nicks did a whole lot of blow back in the day. Could be she's got her facts a bit distorted.

Stand Back is a cool song.

edited to add : make that a TON of blow.

[Edited 8/25/11 11:21am]

@ the edit

I do love the keyboards on Stand Back. Stevie looks hot in the vid too.

novabrkr said:

TheFreakerFantastic said:

This thread title is inaccurate. She didn't say he wrote Purple Rain for her, he just offered her an instrumental which, after she rejected, he later did more work on to become 'Purple Rain', that's different in my book.

Also, this doesn't disprove that W&L had input either, Stevie is talking about what sounds like an early instrumental/demo.

[Edited 8/25/11 10:40am]

Sorry about stating in my post what you've already stated in yours. You seemed to post this comment while I was typing mine.

LOL great minds think alike!

errant said:

and practically the producer of the Gold Experience.

- He is credited as ´additional keyboards´ if I remember well. But those keys made it more cheesy. Gold is one of my fave albums, but could have been a lot better if some parts werent so overproduced.

GustavoRibas said:

errant said:

and practically the producer of the Gold Experience.

- He is credited as ´additional keyboards´ if I remember well. But those keys made it more cheesy. Gold is one of my fave albums, but could have been a lot better if some parts werent so overproduced.

Didn't dude like practically produce "I Hate U"?

2elijah said:

Spinlight said:

Prince's music crossed over before W&L joined the band? You're wrong. Lisa joined the band in 1980, prior to Prince's music crossing over, and Wendy was on tour with them as early as 1981 (but who knows if it was earlier or longer depending on how open they were about their relationship with Prince).

While Prince may have -wanted- to cross over, he did not cross over without W&L.

Furthermore, people who defend the idea that Prince truly came up with the Revolution records by himself are in denial. There are numerous accounts of the true facts spread not only in this thread above.

Get over it. He crossed over before W&L, you are in denial.

With who? I am a huge Prince fan. I listened to him from DAY ONE> but most of my friends didn't catch up until basically Purple Rain. Littel Red Corvette and 1999 opened the door, but most people piled in AFTER that. SO yeah, they definitely added to a look that opened more doors. He even worked that look for all it was worth

ufoclub said:

Prints said:

The W&L quoutes are confusing. One sayin that P came up with the melody and chords and this one says that they should be credited.

I believe that Prince has not credited them and other collaborators/band members on many songs, because he is a control freak. Now some poeple are pissed of about not recieving royalties. I can understand that, but I think that Prince controled his output a lot and I believe in that we will never know how these songse were actually recorder. Maybe if Prince, engineers and The Revolution all would discuss this in one book or interview.

It will not change anything for me, if Prince's output was smaller on PR song. 99,5% people don't care either that Thriller wasn't written by MJ or that I will Always love you was not written by Whitney - but these song will be forever seen as the signature songs of those artists.

It sounds like it could be that Wendy came up with the idea of striking the chords, solo, as the beginning moments of the song, and that has steamrolled into her coming up with the chord progression.

it couls be anything...lol. You're just making stuff up as you go....

meanwhile I do like Stand Back. I wish Prince had taken more credit for those songs- People always are shocked when I tell them he wrote Manic Monday.

Zannaloaf said:

meanwhile I do like Stand Back. I wish Prince had taken more credit for those songs- People always are shocked when I tell them he wrote Manic Monday.

BlackAdder7 said:

stupid little things...

Benmont Tench is/was with Tom Petty....with whom she recorder stop dragging my heart...

interesting about Stand Back, because Prince receives no album credit, if im not mistaken...is that prince playing guitar on the track, and/or synthesizer?...

When it was originally released, Prince didn't get the credit. But in later compilations and on ASCAP/BMI, he got songwriting credit.

I don't think he played on the finished recording. if you can find a copy of "Timespace", her greatest hits from '91, she writes about it.

It sounds like he had the basic idea for Purple Rain down in '82 the way he had Raspberry Beret in '82, but prob. just basic chords. Pulled the song out during the movie (we can assume some of those songs were 1999 era, embryonic though), and Wendy explained in the Purple Rain bonus disc what her contribution was. Prince gets complete songwriting credit for it, so it's a non-issue.

I thought there was another song Prince and Stevie worked on that was unreleased though.