I've always really liked "The Daisy Chain" and was excited to hear there was video and after finally seeing it I was underwhelmed at best... So -- not counting the early videos up to say Purple Rain era since they're pretty much "of the times" -- what's your fave Prince song that got stuck with an awful video?

Scandalous

Paisley Park.

I actually think the basic hippie video they have for it would have worked if prince and band had bothered to make an appearance in it.

I was underwhelmed by the Facedown video for some reason... a great song like that but the video was half-assed to me.

Beside "Kiss" and "Raspberry Beret", I can't say I've watched an interesting Prince video. I think his visual strength lay in his live shows more than his videos.

Scandalous. I thought there'd be more to it considering the elaborate videos for Batdance & Partyman.

Harlepolis said:

Beside "Kiss" and "Raspberry Beret", I can't say I've watched an interesting Prince video. I think his visual strength lay in his live shows more than his videos.

I have to agree though I enjoyed the "Partyman" and "Batdance" videos and some of the videos from the Diamonds & Pearls/Love Sign eras.

Timmy84 said:

Harlepolis said:

Beside "Kiss" and "Raspberry Beret", I can't say I've watched an interesting Prince video. I think his visual strength lay in his live shows more than his videos.

I have to agree though I enjoyed the "Partyman" and "Batdance" videos and some of the videos from the Diamonds & Pearls/Love Sign eras.

Aside from the aforementioned, I don't think I ever watched any of his videos for the 2nd time. Its obvious he didn't put much thought into any of them.

Forgot to mention "Automatic", because its hilarious and camp as the day is long, child.

Harlepolis said:

Timmy84 said:

I have to agree though I enjoyed the "Partyman" and "Batdance" videos and some of the videos from the Diamonds & Pearls/Love Sign eras.

Aside from the aforementioned, I don't think I ever watched any of his videos for the 2nd time. Its obvious he didn't put much thought into any of them.

Forgot to mention "Automatic", because its hilarious and camp as the day is long, child.

Yeah it seem like in most of his videos he went through the motions.

Definitely Paisley Park. Coulda been a goldmine.

Lovesign... the song doesn't excite me either btw..

[Edited 6/11/12 17:01pm]

yes most of Prince's videos are very unremarkable. The live performance ones are the best and that's not a real "video".

I Wish U Heaven is one of the best that is often forgotten.

I never really liked his performance in the When 2 R In Love video.

callimnate said:

I never really liked his performance in the When 2 R In Love video.

callimnate said:

I never really liked his performance in the When 2 R In Love video.

I was actually very disappointed with the Gett Off video because of his outfit, and the non-artistic, non conceptual direction on the video, it just seemed like it was not very passionately made, they just threw everything up untastefully on a soundstage and did a bunch of unremarkable shots. In fact it seemed almost like the type of blocking and staging that was simple enough for a live performance. Boring and half assed for a vide, especially in 1992 when videos were still a big deal.

That song should have had a crazy video! With much more thought and effort!

In contrast, the Cream video, although it's still a simple performance video, seems well shot, well wardrobed, and more fancy than something that could be thrown together quickly or simply what could be recreated on stage in concert.

The My Name is Prince video had more concept and mood than the Gett Off video.

ufoclub said:

I was actually very disappointed with the Gett Off video because of his outfit, and the non-artistic, non conceptual direction on the video, it just seemed like it was not very passionately made, they just threw everything up untastefully on a soundstage and did a bunch of unremarkable shots. In fact it seemed almost like the type of blocking and staging that was simple enough for a live performance. Boring and half assed for a vide, especially in 1992 when videos were still a big deal.

That song should have had a crazy video! With much more thought and effort!

In contrast, the Cream video, although it's still a simple performance video, seems well shot, well wardrobed, and more fancy than something that could be thrown together quickly or simply what could be recreated on stage in concert.

The My Name is Prince video had more concept and mood than the Gett Off video.

I thought it was a Caligula tribute. And the My Name Is P video looks like what you said for Gett Off. Rushed and just him on some street with a video cam. Gett Off is lush.

Pheromone

many of the Promo Videoa are disappointing - but there are a handful I do like -

Black Sweat I love as it makes me laugh how he pulls the funny expressions and it is so stylish.

Shame he did not make better videos as they really are a great marketing tool - see what MTV did for Madonnas career.

He's not a strong videomaker.

It just wasn't his thing.

But if I have to think of one that was good, "Raspberry Beret".

rdhull said:

ufoclub said:

I was actually very disappointed with the Gett Off video because of his outfit, and the non-artistic, non conceptual direction on the video, it just seemed like it was not very passionately made, they just threw everything up untastefully on a soundstage and did a bunch of unremarkable shots. In fact it seemed almost like the type of blocking and staging that was simple enough for a live performance. Boring and half assed for a vide, especially in 1992 when videos were still a big deal.

That song should have had a crazy video! With much more thought and effort!

In contrast, the Cream video, although it's still a simple performance video, seems well shot, well wardrobed, and more fancy than something that could be thrown together quickly or simply what could be recreated on stage in concert.

The My Name is Prince video had more concept and mood than the Gett Off video.

I thought it was a Caligula tribute. And the My Name Is P video looks like what you said for Gett Off. Rushed and just him on some street with a video cam. Gett Off is lush.

My Name is Prince had that whole intro with the newscast, and the "riot" situation concept, and it looked good, and the outfit was interesting. It even had Mayte busting in with some little prop (that can only be explained when you watch the whole 3 Chains of Gold video) The colors and comp of any frame were good. It was even on a location at night. It had fires in barrels and a police car (like he even has the cops in his pocket). My Name is Prince actually had great edits and everyone was dressed and presented in a way that fit the song (however cartoonish that is). Prince kept his face covered with chains! That's kind of cool.

To me, Gett Off looked like a performance on a talk show. They didn't even leave Paisley Park's studio! (they should have shot somewhere that had steps, marble, atmosphere, a "feel").

Here's a frame from Caligula:

[img:$uid]http://content7.flixster.com/photo/11/81/00/11810017_gal.jpg[/img:$uid]

Here's the Gett Off video:

[img:$uid]http://mv-urban.com/v6/svcs1110/02.jpg[/img:$uid]

But scratch that whole Caligula idea anyway, it's lame unless you put $$$ and art direction into it. Since they weren't going to leave PP, it should have been wild and pimp. They should have taken a cue from the yellow fur artwork on the Gett Off single and gone with that. I think his cat suit outfit was terrible for that aggressive slow funk growl song (it worked so much better for the Arsenio performance of Cream), and the performance was unremarkable. Him miming the scream and being pinned was bad, so was his little dance.

Prince should have been shirtless in the Gett Off video. The video should have had these colors and he should have been crazy like this:

[img:$uid]http://cdn102.iofferphoto.com/img/item/202/894/192/prince-la-coruna-nude-tour-dvd-ex-quality-f5f42.jpg[/img:$uid]

"Thieves In The Temple",mainly because it's just the footage from the movie Remember how cool the "When Doves Cry" video was? It featured a few select clips from the film,but not too many.It gave us just enough to keep us intrigued and excited to see the movie."Thieves In The Temple" should have used this same approach.

SoulAlive said:

"Thieves In The Temple",mainly because it's just the footage from the movie Remember how cool the "When Doves Cry" video was? It featured a few select clips from the film,but not too many.It gave us just enough to keep us intrigued and excited to see the movie."Thieves In The Temple" should have used this same approach.

I thought both those videos were about the same, 50% or more movie clips first, then a the rest is a dance number while singing.

ufoclub said:

SoulAlive said:

"Thieves In The Temple",mainly because it's just the footage from the movie Remember how cool the "When Doves Cry" video was? It featured a few select clips from the film,but not too many.It gave us just enough to keep us intrigued and excited to see the movie."Thieves In The Temple" should have used this same approach.

I thought both those videos were about the same, 50% or more movie clips first, then a the rest is a dance number while singing.

but the dance scenes in WDC are not lifted from the movie at all Alot of the other scenes (Prince crawling out the bathtub,Prince looking in the mirror...holding a picture of his father,etc) are also not from the film.It was tastefully done.

"Thieves In The Temple" just looks cheap.

Oh dear, you guys are nuts.

Scandalous is fantastic, Prince dressed in red, doing his sexxy mic stand moves...

How can one not like this video..

"Come" videos??

well I just looove the "Beautiful Experience" tv special with those Come & Gold Exp. videos.

Prince videos were breathtaking to me back then, also even tho most of them (a lot) were "just" performance videos.

But... remember back then before the internet, just to get access to news about Prince's forth coming projects was so difficult to get, these videos were sometimes the first sneak to see what a forthcoming album would be like.

Usually I was very thrilled, just to see what Prince would come up with - what the next style would be like....

Sure there were some dissapointments in between like Paisley Park for example,

but:

usually back then it was with much excitement one saw a new Prince music video.

But, of course new fans (newbies?) don't understand that, they weren't around back then..

Looking back I agree they look poor compared to the music video standard of today.

Back then they were just wonderful.

Sign O the Times

Glam Slam

Dinner with Delores

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

I always thought Kiss was his best video.