With hindsight, if given the chance what do you think current Prince would do after the Purple Rain album, movie and tour.

Do you still think he'd release ATWIAD?

What do you think he'd do differently?

BobPaisleyPark said:

With hindsight, if given the chance what do you think current Prince would do after the Purple Rain album, movie and tour.

Do you still think he'd release ATWIAD?

What do you think he'd do differently?

I don't think anything differently. Prince didn't try to make another Purple Rain all tried to do was make another album. He distanced himself well from Purple Rain but always kept it close to him. Current Princeis only the way he is because of the post purple rain period if u ask me not the pre or purple rain. So i really can't answer wat PRince would do today because Today's Prince is finacially independent and SUPERRICH while the other Prince was rich but not necessarly financially independent and had more obligations.

ATWIAD is probably my third favourite Prince album after Purple Rain and Lovesexy, I'm delighted he released it but I feel (with hindsight) if he had the chance to do it all again he'd probably release the SOTT album instead.

Releasing SOTT straight after Purple Rain would have appealed to Americans far more than ATWIAD. When SOTT was actually released it was post ATWIAD, Parade and the movie UTCM. These three things didn't really appeal to your average American. He'd alienated most of his fanbase by then

SOTT would have cemented his position and he'd have gone on to be one of the biggest selling acts of all time rivalling The Beatles, Jacko and Elvis IMHO.

A manager would suggest that instead of ATWIAD and PARADE that we got, Prince should've in '85/'86 put together a more commercial, even safer follow-up to PR. Maybe concentrate on touring every $ drop out of PR in '85. Put out the new record in '86 as his vaunted follow-up.

Summer '85, if Prince has said album described above ready to go, have the traditional build-up and hype with what would a very highly publicly anticipated new album after PR. Put out "Raspberry Beret," a radio friendly as hell song that screams like a #1 hit. Then a month later, put out said album. I would think said manager would beg Prince, beg on his knees, to get several of his "B-sides" put onto the albums like "17 Days" or "She's Always in My Hair" and of course "Erotic City." (I always wondered how "Hair" would've faired as a single on its own.)

The problem with all this conjecturing is that Prince had creative control in his contract and especially after PR (along with 1999 earlier), why would he listen to anybody else? Prince wasn't Michael Jackson, he wasn't terrified and anxious about keeping his new-found mega superstardom. (or let me correct myself, he wasn't as obsessed about that but ofcourse he still cared: Ego remember.) In short, Prince wouldn't be Prince.

ATWIAD and PARADE were responses to PR and how Prince was big of a pop star one can be, and I'm prettysure Prince had no interest in making PR 2. In his mind, he probably still remembers Rick James not "evolving" in his music and thus left on the curb. He's willing to experiment, and hey since he's already made money exploring rock music with his R&B background, why not push forward into that with a Psychedellic throwback album? I can see the logic there to a degree.

BobPaisleyPark said:

ATWIAD is probably my third favourite Prince album after Purple Rain and Lovesexy, I'm delighted he released it but I feel (with hindsight) if he had the chance to do it all again he'd probably release the SOTT album instead.

Releasing SOTT straight after Purple Rain would have appealed to Americans far more than ATWIAD. When SOTT was actually released it was post ATWIAD, Parade and the movie UTCM. These three things didn't really appeal to your average American. He'd alienated most of his fanbase by then

SOTT would have cemented his position and he'd have gone on to be one of the biggest selling acts of all time rivalling The Beatles, Jacko and Elvis IMHO.

But was SOTT even configured and ready in '85 as you're suggesting? He had songs and demos and ridiculous amount of crap he was working on at that time. What alternative albums could he have dropped instead in '85?

With ATWIAD as it is, I think Prince and WB should've (as I mentioned above) better managed the build-up and hype up to release. Condition the audience (especially Prince's new won fandom) that this is not PR 2. Not at all. Summer '85, a year after PR, then drop "Beret" as your advance single. A really great summer radio track IYAM.

Then "Pop Life," and I would suggest "The Ladder" as the final single. (If Prince doesn't include any of the B-sides into his album as I suggest earlier.) Ultimately ATWIAD as it is will face a backlash because people to a degree will still expect Prince to make another PR. But better manage the expectations game, he could've probably maintained more of those fans he won on PR but lost on ATWIAD (and PARADE.)

Speaking of PARADE, well UTCM the movie was a mistake. He never should've fired the director and take over as he did. What story/plot would he have tackled instead as a follow-up to PR? Would he even have done a sequel to PR but use ATWIAD and PARADE as the soundtracks if you will of this The Kid advanced a few years, a superstar but lonely as King at the top of Pop. I don't know.

(I'll recommend something he won't do just out of ego and taste. He won't collaborate with MJ on "Bad." Easy #1 smash right there just out of the sheer insane starpower put into the same room. But it would be a MJ production, and it would be on a MJ album. Prince won't go for that (not to mention he allegedly hated "Bad" demo that MJ played for him) but it would've been a good success by association to help him. I do wonder how he would've been able to record/release with MJ considering MJ was Columbia and Prince was WB.)

Well, there would be no more swear words

He would release the 1985 Birthday Show to give him more time to think about how to properly market ATWIAD, sort out the production details of Cherry Moon, and reconsider releasing The Dream Factory in some form or another... Of course I'm just dreaming here

RRA said:

BobPaisleyPark said:

ATWIAD is probably my third favourite Prince album after Purple Rain and Lovesexy, I'm delighted he released it but I feel (with hindsight) if he had the chance to do it all again he'd probably release the SOTT album instead.

Releasing SOTT straight after Purple Rain would have appealed to Americans far more than ATWIAD. When SOTT was actually released it was post ATWIAD, Parade and the movie UTCM. These three things didn't really appeal to your average American. He'd alienated most of his fanbase by then

SOTT would have cemented his position and he'd have gone on to be one of the biggest selling acts of all time rivalling The Beatles, Jacko and Elvis IMHO.

But was SOTT even configured and ready in '85 as you're suggesting? He had songs and demos and ridiculous amount of crap he was working on at that time. What alternative albums could he have dropped instead in '85?

With ATWIAD as it is, I think Prince and WB should've (as I mentioned above) better managed the build-up and hype up to release. Condition the audience (especially Prince's new won fandom) that this is not PR 2. Not at all. Summer '85, a year after PR, then drop "Beret" as your advance single. A really great summer radio track IYAM.

Then "Pop Life," and I would suggest "The Ladder" as the final single. (If Prince doesn't include any of the B-sides into his album as I suggest earlier.) Ultimately ATWIAD as it is will face a backlash because people to a degree will still expect Prince to make another PR. But better manage the expectations game, he could've probably maintained more of those fans he won on PR but lost on ATWIAD (and PARADE.)

Speaking of PARADE, well UTCM the movie was a mistake. He never should've fired the director and take over as he did. What story/plot would he have tackled instead as a follow-up to PR? Would he even have done a sequel to PR but use ATWIAD and PARADE as the soundtracks if you will of this The Kid advanced a few years, a superstar but lonely as King at the top of Pop. I don't know.

(I'll recommend something he won't do just out of ego and taste. He won't collaborate with MJ on "Bad." Easy #1 smash right there just out of the sheer insane starpower put into the same room. But it would be a MJ production, and it would be on a MJ album. Prince won't go for that (not to mention he allegedly hated "Bad" demo that MJ played for him) but it would've been a good success by association to help him. I do wonder how he would've been able to record/release with MJ considering MJ was Columbia and Prince was WB.)

even though a lot of the material is from the PR sessions they do have a different feel that just from not being connect to a movie would have stood alone

1.) Manic Monday

2.) Dance Electric

3.) Lust U Always

4.) Our Destiny

and some others, would have been a cool album

ATWIAD is a terrific album, and to make a 'drastic' change, promoting the album would have won people over, videos, special performances, not 'world tour' but interesting diverse shows that bring out the depth of the album. the album could have been bigger