LOVE it!!!

now try listening to it with 3 chains o gold!!....wayyyy too heavy!!

funkyhead said:

naffi said:

funkyhead said:

now try listening to it with 3 chains o gold!!....wayyyy too heavy!!

Why would you listen to it with 3 chains o gold though?

Both songs are equally horrible, I can't imagine having to listen to them back to back!

I love Prince though, even when he fails miserably.

I like the song, but not the arrangement and production.

It mentions Jesus so no, i don't care for it.

Marrk said:

It mentions Jesus so no, i don't care for it.

I don't mind the sound of the song, but when 'Jesus' is the ninth WORD on your album, we got problems.

eyewishuheaven said:

Marrk said:

It mentions Jesus so no, i don't care for it.

I don't mind the sound of the song, but when 'Jesus' is the ninth WORD on your album, we got problems.

Well, actually, "Thunder" is the only overtly spiritual song on the album, so it's like a false alarm...

Marrk said:

LOVE IT!

Used to use when working out!!

SuperSoulFighter said:

Marrk said:

It mentions Jesus so no, i don't care for it.

If it hadn't been for Jesus, there would be no church. Without church, there would be no gospel music. Without gospel, there would be no soul music. No Sam Cooke, no Marvin Gaye, no Aretha Franklin and...no Prince. He recited The Lord's Prayer on Controversy in 1981. From that moment onwards it should have been clear to anyone that he's a religious person. So why is this a problem 10 years later?

You asked Marrk, but I want to answer. For me, it's about the intent and the delivery. The lord's prayer in Controversy was so cool because it sounded like a man turning to his faith to keep him sane in a fucked up world. In contrast, Thunder's "promise to see Jesus in the morning light" just sounded like an invitation to dance around and say 'hooray Jesus'. One is questioning, the other is sermonizing.

It reminds me of that great quote: "follow those who seek the answers... and RUN from those who have the answers."

funkaholic1972 said:

Always hated it.

Love it. Great opener...

Frankly, I can't see any sermonizing here. This is just an epiphany-song, like many others in Prince catalogue, "Eye No" without going any further. Prince has sermonized in some more recent songs, but I honestly can't see it in this one.

[Edited 8/31/13 13:35pm]

Shannyn said:

Love it. Great opener...

...clearly doesn't fit!

always makes me wonder what kind of album he'd have come up with

if he hadn't decided to take the whole NPG on board.

thunder was the first track or oldest track recorded for the album, no?

and it's solo prince without the npg.

.

i've always loved the track. no problem with the lyrics at all. there are

enough "ehm, what?" moments in there for me ('made me holler when

it finally came sayin 'only the children born out of me will remain') to

keep it from being either too much this way or too much that way.

.

love the guitar, love the over the top production. it just doesn't fit the

rest of the material all too well. i guess it does feel ever so slightly

related to "live 4 love" (especially the demo version without tony m)

but since the tracks book end the album by the time you get from

Thunder to Live 4 Love you've treaded through so much shit toward

the end of the album that your mind is all a blur.

the extended joffrey ballet version though:

LOVE it.

I can't recall an album (from the 90's) with a better opener than Thunder. Perhaps I am talking partly out of sentimentality as D&P era was my late teens and Australia was in the throws of Prince hype never before or since experienced. Thunder, as a studio cut is an example of loud, stomping, melodic guitar driven perfection. As a fan of live guitar driven tracks, it's rare that I prefer to hear a studio version over a live recording, but with Thunder I personally feel it's personality comes through superbly.The composition, fidelity, performance and energy of Thunder make it one of Prince's finest studio moments of the 90's.

Javi said:

Frankly, I can't see any sermonizing here. This is just an epiphany-song, like many others in Prince catalogue, "Eye No" without going any further. Prince has sermonized in some more recent songs, but I honestly can't see it in this one.

You know, you're right - 'sermonizing' was probably the wrong word for me to use there. Hmm. How about... 'cheerleading'?

You're also right that Eye No sort of does the same job, but that's a song that I love like crazy. Interesting... maybe I don't like the sound of Thunder as much as I thought I did! Or maybe, deep down, I just resent the arrival of the NPG (though yes, I know they weren't involved in that song).

Praxis said:

I'm a lover, not a hater

eyewishuheaven said:

Javi said:

Frankly, I can't see any sermonizing here. This is just an epiphany-song, like many others in Prince catalogue, "Eye No" without going any further. Prince has sermonized in some more recent songs, but I honestly can't see it in this one.

You know, you're right - 'sermonizing' was probably the wrong word for me to use there. Hmm. How about... 'cheerleading'?

You're also right that Eye No sort of does the same job, but that's a song that I love like crazy. Interesting... maybe I don't like the sound of Thunder as much as I thought I did! Or maybe, deep down, I just resent the arrival of the NPG (though yes, I know they weren't involved in that song).

My point is that on "Thunder" there's only a man celebrating his faith. And that moves me. I mean, here is someone who has suffered, who may have been lost, and now he's having this sort of epihany, and he's just celebrating his new joy. I may not share the source of that joy, I may not share his beliefs, but his celebration, his new found happiness, moves me, certainly much more than the many silly sexual songs Prince has written. Also, that's what links Prince lyrics so strongly to gospel music.

-------

Now, there's a difference between personal spiritual rejoice and saying: "If you don't share my beliefs, you're a poor man who'll burn in hell". Sometimes the line between both positions is (like Robin Thicke would say) a blurred line. Sadly, it is clear that sometimes Prince has stepped into the second position. But, that's the way I see it, not on this song.

[Edited 9/1/13 14:27pm]

I love it!

Great track. I love these kind of solo studio tracks, they sound like masterpiece constructions of sound. I can just imagine him beaving away with engineers, laying down all the parts, all those layered vocals etc. Great stuff.