Timmy84 said:

I always thought Kiss was his best video.

that was the album of 5 Star quality videos

Raspberry Beret i think his best followed by Kiss

OldFriends4Sale said:

Timmy84 said:

I always thought Kiss was his best video.

that was the album of 5 Star quality videos

Raspberry Beret i think his best followed by Kiss

I still dig the animation in Beret...

Timmy84 said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

that was the album of 5 Star quality videos

Raspberry Beret i think his best followed by Kiss

I still dig the animation in Beret...

Girls & Boys is very good too that's top 3rd

Sign of the times video's are not all that...and it's a shame he didn't even make a video for IIWYG.

I like the intro of You got the look, but the video itself looks strange as there is no real audience.

Alphabet street was a real letdown (it was a the same time that MJ was releasing his Bad videos), but I always liked Glam Slam and I wish u heaven.

The paisley park was a real FU video...I mean, come on, you can't be serious with that one.

Mountains is one of my favourite songs, but the effects with the blue screen look sooo bad.

But he has some real classics videos if he wants to: kiss, girls and boys, batdance, partyman, sexy mf, Rasberry beret, Scandalous (although a bit boring, it looks classy), Face down (very funny), the morning papers...

robertlove said:

Sign of the times video's are not all that...and it's a shame he didn't even make a video for IIWYG.

I like the intro of You got the look, but the video itself looks strange as there is no real audience.

Alphabet street was a real letdown (it was a the same time that MJ was releasing his Bad videos), but I always liked Glam Slam and I wish u heaven.

The paisley park was a real FU video...I mean, come on, you can't be serious with that one.

Mountains is one of my favourite songs, but the effects with the blue screen look sooo bad.

But he has some real classics videos if he wants to: kiss, girls and boys, batdance, partyman, sexy mf, Rasberry beret, Scandalous (although a bit boring, it looks classy), Face down (very funny), the morning papers...

what do you mean blue screen? they were actually floating in the clouds

OldFriends4Sale said:

Best videos:

Kiss

Girls & Boys

Mountains

Raspberry Beret

Automatic

I Wish U Heaven

Glam Slam

Disappointing videos:

Alphabet St.

Black Swet

that video from LotusFlow3r with dude from Tribe Called Quest

I don't even consider Paisley Park & SOTT

Alphabet Street has a FANTASTIC video!

the "Alphabet St" video gets a bad rap,but I like it it's like a throwback to the videos of the early 80s (pre-Michael Jackson Thriller) when videos were simple and cheap...lol....it's a colorful,vivid clip that goes along with the song's lyrics.I like this video much more than the "Kiss" video, which I think is overrated.

jaawwnn said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Best videos:

Kiss

Girls & Boys

Mountains

Raspberry Beret

Automatic

I Wish U Heaven

Glam Slam

Disappointing videos:

Alphabet St.

Black Swet

that video from LotusFlow3r with dude from Tribe Called Quest

I don't even consider Paisley Park & SOTT

Alphabet Street has a FANTASTIC video!

I didn't say I didn't like it. But FANTASTIC is far from a word I would use for it.

But it's a disappointing video, it was a rush job, a cheap job

When Doves Cry, Kiss, Girls & Boys, Mountains, Another Lover...,Raspberry Beret, U Got the Look

Alphabet St is ok, but sorta a step backwards, especially when you bring out a good quality video like Glam Slam right afterwards.

Alphabet St was a last minute rush job

I mean I might be more forgiving if you at least showed Cat or Sheila

SoulAlive said:

the "Alphabet St" video gets a bad rap,but I like it it's like a throwback to the videos of the early 80s (pre-Michael Jackson Thriller) when videos were simple and cheap...lol....it's a colorful,vivid clip that goes along with the song's lyrics.I like this video much more than the "Kiss" video, which I think is overrated.

4 a Prince video, I don't think Kiss is overrated, I think it's just a good video

It was shot good, colors that pop, its color worked well with the era's Black & White theme

Prince Wendy & the Dancer it was simple too just done well

Alphabet St disappointed me because I don't think it was done as good as it could have been

cheap doesn't have to mean low quality. Give me some Sheila E & Cat interplay in the video not just legs of one of them and maybe it would have been better

Some scenes shot just didn't seem fitting

I forget but wasn't Prince trying to do a ATWIAD type thing with LS at first - no promo videos etc? Then it was tanking and he rush jobbed a local team in to PP to a video?

It has it's charm, but even in 1988 it looked very very dated.

Prince has rarely put huge efforts into the quality of his video work, which is funny because he has so often been enamoured by video and film.

Recently speaking, I think Black Sweat was a very good effort - the video was simple, but had a slickness about it that made it look professional and didn't stick out from the contemporary era, unlike Alphabet St, PP etc.

NouveauDance said:

I forget but wasn't Prince trying to do a ATWIAD type thing with Lovesexy at first - no promo videos etc? Then it was tanking and he rush jobbed a local team in to PP to a video?

It has it's charm, but even in 1988 it looked very very dated.

Yep,the "Alphabet St." video was a last-minute decision,and it was filmed very quickly (and cheaply).

NouveauDance said:

I forget but wasn't Prince trying to do a ATWIAD type thing with LS at first - no promo videos etc? Then it was tanking and he rush jobbed a local team in to PP to a video?

It has it's charm, but even in 1988 it looked very very dated.

Prince has rarely put huge efforts into the quality of his video work, which is funny because he has so often been enamoured by video and film.

Recently speaking, I think Black Sweat was a very good effort - the video was simple, but had a slickness about it that made it look professional and didn't stick out from the contemporary era, unlike Alphabet St, PP etc.

I like Black Sweat, but the part that 'disappointed' me was equating Black Sweat, black coffee with the Black woman (that in the back of my mind I'm saying you wouldn't do her because she is...) but that last part is just my opinion

Agree about Black Sweat being one of the better recent efforts. Very stylish and the sparse, sharp and crisp visuals complement the song IMHO.

The Musicology and 3121 albums all had fairly good videos (Musicology, Call My Name, Cinnamon Girl, Black Sweat, Fury, Te Amo Corazon).

The one I found really disappointing when I finally saw it, was Paisley Park,

OldFriends4Sale said:

SoulAlive said:

the "Alphabet St" video gets a bad rap,but I like it it's like a throwback to the videos of the early 80s (pre-Michael Jackson Thriller) when videos were simple and cheap...lol....it's a colorful,vivid clip that goes along with the song's lyrics.I like this video much more than the "Kiss" video, which I think is overrated.

4 a Prince video, I don't think Kiss is overrated, I think it's just a good video

It was shot good, colors that pop, its color worked well with the era's Black & White theme

Prince Wendy & the Dancer it was simple too just done well

Alphabet St disappointed me because I don't think it was done as good as it could have been

cheap doesn't have to mean low quality. Give me some Sheila E & Cat interplay in the video not just legs of one of them and maybe it would have been better

Some scenes shot just didn't seem fitting

I never really saw what was so great about "Kiss".I remember thinking that it was odd that he didn't include any scenes to the upcoming movie.It's shot well,but I find it to be uneventful.

"Alphabet St" is obviously cheap,but it's so fun and vivid To me,it captures the spirit of the album.It looks like a video that might have been made in 1981,but that retro feel is part of its charm.

SoulAlive said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

4 a Prince video, I don't think Kiss is overrated, I think it's just a good video

It was shot good, colors that pop, its color worked well with the era's Black & White theme

Prince Wendy & the Dancer it was simple too just done well

Alphabet St disappointed me because I don't think it was done as good as it could have been

cheap doesn't have to mean low quality. Give me some Sheila E & Cat interplay in the video not just legs of one of them and maybe it would have been better

Some scenes shot just didn't seem fitting

I never really saw what was so great about "Kiss".I remember thinking that it was odd that he didn't include any scenes to the upcoming movie.It's shot well,but I find it to be uneventful.

"Alphabet St" is obviously cheap,but it's so fun and vivid To me,it captures the spirit of the album.It looks like a video that might have been made in 1981,but that retro feel is part of its charm.

I think it could be that Kiss is not a very "eventful" song, it would have been cool it there was video for the extended version and then the whole band including Mazarati & Jill Jones are in it ending with Prince & Jill sitting in front of a tv

Alphabet St is fun, and he does have that 1980 I Wanna B Ur Lover loook

I just wish I saw some Sheila in that one since he called her up on that stormy Sunday night

Black Sweat was well photographed slick boredom! That video is so dead. Black Sweat should have had triple time dancing and energy.

ufoclub said:

Black Sweat was well photographed slick boredom! That video is so dead. Black Sweat should have had triple time dancing and energy.

The song itself is quite pedestrian though - there's no frenetic energy on display musically, but I agree the title does lend itself to other visual styles - I'd imagine something like Janet's 'Got Till It's Gone' video.

NouveauDance said:

I forget but wasn't Prince trying to do a ATWIAD type thing with LS at first - no promo videos etc? Then it was tanking and he rush jobbed a local team in to PP to a video?

It has it's charm, but even in 1988 it looked very very dated.

Prince has rarely put huge efforts into the quality of his video work, which is funny because he has so often been enamoured by video and film.

Recently speaking, I think Black Sweat was a very good effort - the video was simple, but had a slickness about it that made it look professional and didn't stick out from the contemporary era, unlike Alphabet St, PP etc.

But that's the point right, it looked dated? He was doing a retro thing, which in a bizarre way was ahead of it's time, people weren't doing retro videos back then. Oldfriends4Sale's got a point though, maybe it would have been better if a few other people had made the video, give it more of a connection to what else he was doing at the time.

The video for 7 is almost very good but also a bit of a mess. Watching 3 chains of gold only makes it worse : \

Was he doing a retro thing? I've never read anything about that before - from all accounts it was done on the cheap very quickly with a local crew last minute because the project was performing poorly and a video on rotation would hopefully help that. I don't think it was a stylistic choice to make it look like it was done in 1977.

NouveauDance said:

Was he doing a retro thing? I've never read anything about that before - from all accounts it was done on the cheap very quickly with a local crew last minute because the project was performing poorly and a video on rotation would hopefully help that. I don't think it was a stylistic choice to make it look like it was done in 1977.

humm, something on here, at some point, gave me that impression, I may be making it up and giving credit where no credit is due.

OldFriends4Sale said:

jaawwnn said:

Alphabet Street has a FANTASTIC video!

I didn't say I didn't like it. But FANTASTIC is far from a word I would use for it.

But it's a disappointing video, it was a rush job, a cheap job

When Doves Cry, Kiss, Girls & Boys, Mountains, Another Lover...,Raspberry Beret, U Got the Look

Alphabet St is ok, but sorta a step backwards, especially when you bring out a good quality video like Glam Slam right afterwards.

Alphabet St was a last minute rush job

I mean I might be more forgiving if you at least showed Cat or Sheila

I have always heard that Prince got this new tool that let him "color" images for that video, so he probably thought he was doing something new and creative. I like the video.

Then Prince dropped another bombshell: He didn't want to shoot any videos for the album. He boldly claimed to Warners' incredulous marketing team that the absence of a video would distinguish him from other pop stars, as well as create a sense of mystery about the album. No one accepted the argument, but the label couldn't force an artist of his stature to go in front of a camera. There would be no videos.

Chapter 10: Black

March 20, 1988: Alan Leeds' residence, Eden Prairie, Minnesota

p 125

Possessed: the Rise & Fall of Prince

On a gray late-winter day, as a snowstorm gained force and began coating the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie, Leeds was happy to have a day off from the hectic and exhausting routine of catering to Prince's every whim. It was warm inside, an NFL game was on, and Leeds was home with his family.

Then the phone rang.

As always, there were no pleasantries, no introductions. "I want to shoot a video," Prince said in a quiet, clipped voice. Leeds had to press to find out exactly what this meant. Did he want to make a clip for Alphabet Street, after all? Prince said yes, and Leeds asked if he had spoken to Fargnoli about this. No, Prince responded, he wanted to shoot without meddling from the managers or Warner Bros. They would just screw things up. Leeds cautioned that this meant the budget for the video would come out of Prince's pocket-didn't it make more sense to contact Warners, which would readily approve financing for the video?

No, Prince said. He wanted to do it on his own.

"Ok, when?" Leeds asked.

"Today."

Incredulous, Leeds did everything he could to dissuade Prince from making the video. It was mid-afternoon on a stormy Sunday. No respectable team of filmmakers could be assembled, particularly in Minneapolis where, as Leeds reminded Prince, there was not a film crew on every block as in Los Angeles. Even if a crew agreed to do the shoot, it was unlikely that adequate equipment could be rented and that everyone would make it through the snow to the set. How could this possibly be pulled off?

"Sounds to me like that's your problem, not mine," Prince retorted.

Leeds realized that, at the very least, he would have to placate Prince by placing some phone calls. Although the local community was not large, Leeds knew several skilled directors. Predictably, they refused the assignment. Working through his Rolodex, Leeds called filmmakers whom he considered B-List, and began to worry that even if someone agreed to take the job, the end result wouldn't be worth the time, effort, or money. As Leeds waited for callbacks, Prince continued to hector him by phone, "When are we shooting?" he asked repeatedly, undeterred by Leeds' warnings that no top-flight filmmakers were available. Prince told him to keep trying.

Frustrated that a rare day off was being spoiled, Leeds continued his efforts and finally found a director, Michael Barnard, who was eager for the assignment. But the question remained: Could Barnard locate a facility and equipment? The afternoon dragged into evening, and the snow kept falling. Prince kept barraging Leeds with phone calls. Finally, Barnard called: The shoot was a go. He had located a facility owned by a cable television company, as well as a truck full of basic equipment typically used to cover city council meetings for local access channels. Leeds, not surprised that matters had come to this, called Prince and told him the shoot was on.

By eleven p.m., with most of the city under snow, film was rolling. Prince had rounded up Sheila E and Cat Glover to participate. The video was shot against a blue screen, with the result that the footage looked startlingly amateurish and homemade. During the post-production process, Prince had Barnard jazz up the video by having various textual phrases dart across the screen, including "Don't buy The Black Album, I'm sorry," and "Ecstasy."

Timmy84 said:

I always thought Kiss was his best video.

I would agree. There's not that many other stand out music videos,

which is strange, especially when you consider the strength of his material.

My personal theory is that due to Prince's substantial involvement in a motion pictures,

he convinced himself that he also knew what was best when it came to the music video genre,

especially after the construction of Paisley Park studios. His own personal playground.

This allowed Prince the freedom and convenience to shoot videos very quickly

and keep them in-house, therefore being more formulaic and less conceptual or stylistic.

This could in some ways be extended to his albums - it's funny how the

opening of Paisley Park (11th September 1987) directly corresponds with

what some fans/critics would consider the end of the Golden Era in terms of classic album releases.

Prince became increasingly insular and lost himself in a world of self-ego and complete

artistic control (not always a good thing!).

Just a theory of course...

NouveauDance said:

Was he doing a retro thing? I've never read anything about that before - from all accounts it was done on the cheap very quickly with a local crew last minute because the project was performing poorly and a video on rotation would hopefully help that. I don't think it was a stylistic choice to make it look like it was done in 1977.

I think they were doing the retro thing. It looked like Electric Company! Even an old video like 1999 didn't look that retro!

Don't forget he had Warners behind him too.

And don't forget the look of his videos right before this for SOTT which were all cinematic.

NouveauDance said:

ufoclub said:

Black Sweat was well photographed slick boredom! That video is so dead. Black Sweat should have had triple time dancing and energy.

The song itself is quite pedestrian though - there's no frenetic energy on display musically, but I agree the title does lend itself to other visual styles - I'd imagine something like Janet's 'Got Till It's Gone' video.

That's not how I hear the song, I hear it as slowly muscling in and then having thiese little explosions of electronic funk, then catching itself. I think that hyper dancing over that slow beat would have been powerful.

Thank you OldFriends4Sale for posting the Alphabet St. information.

I think it backs up my own post - Prince was always too impatient and lacked

quality control. When you consider the Alphabet St. video was filmed in just one day,

there's no surprise it doesn't look like 'Bad', which was directed by Martin Scorcese over 6 weeks.

Sorry to compare yet again to MJ and it's quite an unfair comparison because he really was the

king of the music video genre - but it just goes to show how little thought went into Prince's music

videos, compared to his contemporaries...

[Edited 6/13/12 9:36am]

ufoclub said:

NouveauDance said:

Was he doing a retro thing? I've never read anything about that before - from all accounts it was done on the cheap very quickly with a local crew last minute because the project was performing poorly and a video on rotation would hopefully help that. I don't think it was a stylistic choice to make it look like it was done in 1977.

I think they were doing the retro thing. It looked like Electric Company! Even an old video like 1999 didn't look that retro!

Don't forget he had Warners behind him too.

And don't forget the look of his videos right before this for SOTT which were all cinematic.

With the Alphabet St video, he didn't have Warners behind him, Alan Leeds warned him of that in a last min shoot, it had to come out of Prince's pocket

owen said:

Timmy84 said:

I always thought Kiss was his best video.

I would agree. There's not that many other stand out music videos,

which is strange, especially when you consider the strength of his material.

My personal theory is that due to Prince's substantial involvement in a motion pictures,

he convinced himself that he also knew what was best when it came to the music video genre,

especially after the construction of Paisley Park studios. His own personal playground.

This allowed Prince the freedom and convenience to shoot videos very quickly

and keep them in-house, therefore being more formulaic and less conceptual or stylistic.

This could in some ways be extended to his albums - it's funny how the

opening of Paisley Park (11th September 1987) directly corresponds with

what some fans/critics would consider the end of the Golden Era in terms of classic album releases.

Prince became increasingly insular and lost himself in a world of self-ego and complete

artistic control (not always a good thing!).

Just a theory of course...

I think Kiss being a part of the Parade era, I think was a very Chic era for Prince

If he let the original director complete UTCM it would have been a better film

But shooting of the videos for this period I believe to be his best Girls & Boys being in the top 3 best of his vids

Kiss-directed by Rebecca Blake,