There are so many you should get but I think the ones that you NEED to get are

Dirty Mind (he had two albums before this but this is when it REALLY started, a masterpiece imo)

1999 (my favorite Prince album, it's simply essential for a fan)

Sign o' the Times (considered his best and it might just be even though I prefer 1999 and like Dirty Mind just as much as Sign)

SIGN O THE TIMES AND THE GOLD EXPERIENCE

Controversy said:

SIGN O THE TIMES AND THE GOLD EXPERIENCE

Your screen name is controversy, and you don't recommend it?

You can probably guess what my recommendations are:

1. Controversy: 4 absolutely fantastic songs (in his top 20), plus the others are good

2. 1999: Lots of interesting lyrics, musical experimentation

Lovesexy and The Hits & B-sides are a close behind third and fourth.

Emancipation89 said:

funkomatic said:

They are more open-minded because they don't understand that music does not come from nowhere. It's a product of time and evolution. Art has its certain place in history. That's why it's totally absurd, if people claim that a new album would have done as good as an old one in the past.

I'm a bit confused and I don't agree with the bolded. Some artworks take decades or centuries to be truly understood or appreciated. Just because something was famous and loved by many at certain period of time, doesn't necessarily make it 'good'

There's no contradiction. It's about an objective place in history. Art can't be judged without context.

I'd go with Dirty Mind and The Gold Experience.

Sign o the times, is an essential purpose, but its a double album and some unscrupulous cahins may cahrge you double album price, next get Dirty Mind or 1999. Leave his recent stuff until last.

I just realized that I should ask -- what kind of music do you like? and what are you looking for? Primarily funk? rock? pop? stripped down? orchestrated?

Given the range of P's music, I think you should get 2 fairly different albums. So my new recommendations are:

1. Controversy or 1999: Prince's classic mlps sound albums, great funk song writing, cool experimentation

2. Lovesexy, Sign of the Times, or The Hits & B-sides: Shows of some different sides of Prince, SotT & TH B-s show a lot of range. Lovesexy is perhaps his best concept album.

And if I hear back from you about what kind of music you're looking for, I could tailor those suggestions mores.

Enjoy!

1999 and Sign o the Times. Definitely.

1999

Around The World In a Day

or

For You

Prince

or

New Power Soul

3121

funkomatic said:

Emancipation89 said:

I'm a bit confused and I don't agree with the bolded. Some artworks take decades or centuries to be truly understood or appreciated. Just because something was famous and loved by many at certain period of time, doesn't necessarily make it 'good'

There's no contradiction. It's about an objective place in history. Art can't be judged without context.

So what is it that you're trying to say, new albums may never be as good as the old ones?

Prince

Controversy

start from the beginning like I did after Purple Rain...

For You

Prince (self titled)

then...

Dirty Mind

Controversy

1999

Around the World in A Day

Parade

Sign Of the Times

The Black Album

LoveSexy

Graffiti Bridge

Diamonds & Pearls

(symbol album)

Gold Album

Chaos & Disorder

Emancipation

Crystal Ball

New Power Soul

Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic

Musicology

One Night Alone (live box set)

News

3121

Planet Earth

Lotus Flower

MLPS Sound

20Ten

Bet I messed up on this list > plus missed TONS of other rare stuff inbetween >

1999, no doubt. My second choice, Sign O' the Times or ATWIAD.

1999 and Sign o The Times for sure. BUT I got The Hits/B-sides when I started getting into Prince after I got Purple Rain. That was killer because I got snippets of all the eras (at the time) and then sought out whatever ever albums that had singles that initially caught my ear.

Emancipation89 said:

funkomatic said:

There's no contradiction. It's about an objective place in history. Art can't be judged without context.

So what is it that you're trying to say, new albums may never be as good as the old ones?

No. What I'm trying to say is that you need to look at the bigger picture (including the past) in order to make an opinion about something. People who don't know about music history or Prince's back catalogue are not able to judge new material properly. They wouldn't even realize if a song is just a lame copy of past achievments.

I'd go for Dirty Mind and 1999.

Dirty Mind is brilliant, fairly easy to digest and marked the beginning of the great things that were to come.

1999 is probably my most played record, some would say that many of the tracks are overly long, but I actually could handle another 10 mins of songs like D.M.S.R, Lady Cab Driver and International Lover. An absolute belter of an album.

I was in this place a little more than 4 years ago, asking the same questions. I asked for advice before even going to a wrecka stow, haha... and I had about a month of prep time beforehand too as I was away at college without a car.

There were a couple of intimidating things about the process of procuring music.

One was the sheer volume of material he has, had a lot of catching up to do and thanks in part to some of the people here for giving me a sample, this or that, advice, whatever... I managed to catch up within a year, maybe 16 months. By that time, I had most of the obvious choices as well as those not-so-obvious.
Some good, some not so good, but it was all in good fun.

One was the fact Prince was a provocative artist. Not that it stopped or really hindered me from checking into his music. I'd known for a couple years that he was a musical genius, a modern-day Mozart I greatly admired, but I didn't really have the excuse to seek him out before I saw the HalfTime Show that Februrary.

The thing was, I learned pretty early on that... listen, 4 years ago, and this is still true to a certain degree, I'm one of the most naive people you could ever meet. Naive as in don't openly curse, curse words offended me and I hadn't seen too many R-rated movies. I admired the hell outta Prince, but where he dared go lyrically and even in other places, it was intimidating. But overtime and maybe because college brought a maturity with it, the people I hung out with helped...

after a while, art prevailed over my own hindrances and fears.

Now, songs like "Darling Nikki" I can groove to without feeling self-conscious or whatever else.

One more thing:

for every people who recommended 1999 and Sign' o the Times, which I knew early on were must-have records. I'd most cetainly recommend those in a heartbeat... for every one of those people, there were just as many that told me something that drives me crazy

"Start from the beginning with For You"...

start from the beginning? geesh, there's a lot of music there, but that advice alone was really intimidating for me.

When it comes to Prince's music, it's pretty cool to feel the natural progression through it. Certain elements coming to life, certain things getting tweaked over a couple years.

There is such a gap between Purple Rain and For You, two distinctly different sounds. With there being so much purple music, such a leap would just make me feel out of sorts like I didn't have a leg to stand on.

This is random, predictable advice I'd gotten a couple times: do whatever works for you.

My policy after doing the research and asking people was just buying whatever I could find. Say you come across a rare album like The Gold Experience, grab it.
Going into the used album rack or if anything is marked used at FYE or wherever, go for it. I haven't found a bad copy of something that was used

Here are my recommendations and reasons why:

Dirty Mind- his 3rd album, Prince started to come into his own here and as minimalistic the music is, the quality is brilliant

1999 & Sign o' the Times- goes without saying, 1999 being before Purple Rain, most of the same elements are there, but the tracks are much longer... Sign o' the Times, I've been told, sums up everything he did up to this point from the instruments to the song structure, back-up vocals, but the Camille tracks are not to be missed. "If I was your girlfriend" is a personal favorite

Parade- one of my personal favorites. I did not get or like "Kiss" before I heard it in this set. It feels very old fashioned with the incorporation of strings and such, but it's chock full of little gems like "Girls & Boys," "Mountains" and "Anotherloverholenyohead"

The Gold Experience- they say that Prince is most brilliant when he's the most angry/hostile, this was around the time he was feuding with his record label. I could go on and on about my favorites here because I've had this album a long time. "Shh," "I hate you" and the title track "Gold" for starters

:: I like it more than Diamonds & Pearls because there's more variety, I'm a sucker for love songs and the quality is crisp & sharp. Plus it's just a lot of fun to listen to

3121: another fun album and most are saying his best 2K album after TRC, which took a while for some people to get into (I think I only understood that album ONCE since I got it, lol)... a lot of variety there too.

and I will most likely get strung up for this suggestion:

Planet Earth came out the year I became a part of all this, so it was kind of a special occasion. I sure didn't expect a new album to be released as soon as I started listening to him. It's a personal favorite that must really don't get, it doesn't get a lot of love. But "Somewhere here on Earth" is a beautiful piano ballad, great love song. and "Mr. Good-night" is a nice groove. I'm sure I'm not the only female who goes crazy for it

if you dont get these albums

Lovesexy

Batman

Black

Parade

Chaos and Disorder

then Ill smash your clit

thanks everybody i got 1999 hopeing to maybe get the gold experience next

hopeing for mn concert

jimbobcoo34 said:

I have purple rain and have played like crazy and now i have neough money to get two more which should i get

His first and his last so you can see how much he's grown as an artist and how much music has changed over the decades.

I think you made the right choice !

I remember the first time i heard lil red corvette and 1999.

Love that album .

I luv the obscure classics - to me "something in the water" , DMSR, and Lets pretend were married , are gems ...

jimbobcoo34 said:

I have purple rain and have played like crazy and now i have neough money to get two more which should i get

Thriller and Like A Prayer.

funkomatic said:

Emancipation89 said:

So what is it that you're trying to say, new albums may never be as good as the old ones?

No. What I'm trying to say is that you need to look at the bigger picture (including the past) in order to make an opinion about something. People who don't know about music history or Prince's back catalogue are not able to judge new material properly. They wouldn't even realize if a song is just a lame copy of past achievements.

Thanks, I get your point. And I agree knowing his back catalogue is important but to go back to my original question..does the order of how you go through his albums really matter? If music is a product of time and evolution like you said, I don't think listening to Prince's recent music first and then going back to his old catalogue should necessarily affect one's credibility of judging music.

For instance I listened to Musicology before I got to listen to Sign O' The Times. And when I did, I realized the background beat and melody of "the Ballad of Dorothy Parker" reminded me of "What Do U Want Me 2 Do". But the thing is, it didn't really make me reconsider my initial thoughts and feelings of "What Do U Want Me 2 Do". Because even though past achievements are important and we should give credit to originality, at the end of the day, just because something sounds like it was already done in the past that doesn't mean it can still be a 'better' song. I personally believe getting ideas from your own work from the past can be a part of developing music and developing as an artist..I haven't had any experiences of hearing Prince songs and thinking that they sound way too similar to his old music to the point I'd consider they're just 'lame copy' of past achievement...(though I did once make a thread about Prince songs that sound alike) To me he's been experimental and still creative with his music even in the 90's and 00's era.

[Edited 11/4/11 2:56am]

Emancipation89 said:

funkomatic said:

No. What I'm trying to say is that you need to look at the bigger picture (including the past) in order to make an opinion about something. People who don't know about music history or Prince's back catalogue are not able to judge new material properly. They wouldn't even realize if a song is just a lame copy of past achievements.

Thanks, I get your point. And I agree knowing his back catalogue is important but to go back to my original question..does the order of how you go through his albums really matter? If music is a product of time and evolution like you said, I don't think listening to Prince's recent music first and then going back to his old catalogue should necessarily affect one's credibility of judging music.

For instance I listened to Musicology before I got to listen to Sign O' The Times. And when I did, I realized the background beat and melody of "the Ballad of Dorothy Parker" reminded me of "What Do U Want Me 2 Do". But the thing is, it didn't really make me reconsider my initial thoughts and feelings of "What Do U Want Me 2 Do". Because even though past achievements are important and we should give credit to originality, at the end of the day, just because something sounds like it was already done in the past that doesn't mean it can still be a 'better' song. I personally believe getting ideas from your own work from the past can be a part of developing music and developing as an artist..I haven't had any experiences of hearing Prince songs and thinking that they sound way too similar to his old music to the point I'd consider they're just 'lame copy' of past achievement...(though I did once make a thread about Prince songs that sound alike) To me he's been experimental and still creative with his music even in the 90's and 00's era.

[Edited 11/4/11 2:56am]

I don't get your argumentation. If you want to judge music properly, you have to have the bigger picture in "mind". How you get to know the music actually, doesn't matter. But of course it's much more likely to get the right picture, if you listen to the music chronologically, the way it came to life in history.

There has to be a difference in appreciation if you know your stuff. A person who knows about the beat of 1987s "The ballad of Dorothy Parker" does listen differently to the 2004s "What do U want me 2 do" for example. If you don't, something's wrong with you.

I agree that you can work with old ideas and create something interesting with them. But you really have to ask yourself the question: What is it that was added to the original idea? Is it any interesting? Is it the old idea that makes me feel attracted to it or is there something new etc.?

[Edited 11/4/11 14:12pm]

Dirty Mind

1999