I love Big City! Have to get used to this studio version though, but it sounds great!

A new NPG album is what I've been wanting for some time. The band is tight and they've known each other well enough to do some great, fun AND experimental things. Hope we get to hear some of that all. And please... a lot of Prince vocals!

However I'm still wondering how finished this album is. NPG joins Twitter (after all the rumours) and is posting pics of the horn players being at PP and all.... I just hope they've recorded the album already and they're just rehearsing for something new.

With the 3EG album still being a big question (what will the concept be??!), I think this NPG album is now the one I'm most looking forward to. But Prince, play the damn guitar a little alright.

This is getting more and more confusing: P creates a new website every 3 months, that 3rdEyeGirl album is still not coming and 3rdEyeGirl.com features Prince songs instead of 3rdEyeGirl songs, and now we get that stuff credited to the NPG with an empty NPG website linked by Funkenberry, and on top of it all a Montreux release was announced that's still not anywhere near record stores.

On the other hand we've had more music released and streamed this year than ever since 2001, so I ain't gonna complain, but the whole communication plan is confusing as hell, P is obviously playing games with us

And on top of it all I've got an Otitis on my left ear

2020 said:

Does the scatting bother anyone else? Kinda ruins it for me. Just so-so on this one...

It definitely IS annoying, just like it already was on Ain't Gonna Miss U...

databank said:

This is getting more and more confusing: P creates a new website every 3 months, that 3rdEyeGirl album is still not coming and 3rdEyeGirl.com features Prince songs instead of 3rdEyeGirl songs, and now we get that stuff credited to the NPG with an empty NPG website linked by Funkenberry, and on top of it all a Montreux release was announced that's still not anywhere near record stores.

On the other hand we've had more music released and streamed this year than ever since 2001, so I ain't gonna complain, but the whole communication plan is confusing as hell, P is obviously playing games with us

Actually, confusing as it might be, it is probaboy because we have more of a 'direct' line to the comings and goings of Prince's mercurial mind. Had similar lines of communication been available during the name change years, especially the early Come/Gold sessions, can you imagine how f5cked we'd all be feeling, wondering whether the album was going to be called Come, The Dawn, Gold, The Gold Experience and whether Days of Wild would ever see the light of the day?! In other words, this is very much business as usual, in Prince's world. Something will fall out from it, but best not to remain focussed on any one idea, as they keep changing and evolving. It is only in retrospect, when the dust has settled, can you begin to work out what might have been the 'right' or 'best' idea to settle on.

SpiritOtter said:

Actually, confusing as it might be, it is probaboy because we have more of a 'direct' line to the comings and goings of Prince's mercurial mind.

I believe I do prefer a kind of filtering effect of some 'normal' person, being it a fan, a label exec or a manager so that this stuff is sanitized and properly treated before it is even allowed to reach us.

udo said:

SpiritOtter said:

Actually, confusing as it might be, it is probaboy because we have more of a 'direct' line to the comings and goings of Prince's mercurial mind.

I believe I do prefer a kind of filtering effect of some 'normal' person, being it a fan, a label exec or a manager so that this stuff is sanitized and properly treated before it is even allowed to reach us.

Fair point, Udo. Prince doesn't hire/trust professionals to do his marketing and PR. Perhaps, he truly believes he can manage it, even though it is ABUNDANTLY clear that he cannot. Ah, well, if he likes going the rookie route, a rookie he will remain. Tis a shame for his legacy, though, which remains in the mud.

Why does the image of Bill Cosby doing his little scat dancing on the spot spring to mind.

SpiritOtter said:

udo said:

I believe I do prefer a kind of filtering effect of some 'normal' person, being it a fan, a label exec or a manager so that this stuff is sanitized and properly treated before it is even allowed to reach us.

Fair point, Udo. Prince doesn't hire/trust professionals to do his marketing and PR. Perhaps, he truly believes he can manage it, even though it is ABUNDANTLY clear that he cannot. Ah, well, if he likes going the rookie route, a rookie he will remain. Tis a shame for his legacy, though, which remains in the mud.

Prince is now an independent artist, i.e. the general public knows very little, if anything, about his musical whereabouts. This is still shocking to most people here, used as they are to minstream/labels communication plans and still stuck to P's career as it was back in the 80's, but this is business as usual for any indy artist: ur fanbase knows what u're up to, the rest of the world doesn't. I'm mostly listening to indy electronic, synthpop and experimental artists and believe me, if I ask anyone in the street if they know about them, most people won't. Nonetheless all these artists have careers, make a living and have a strong fanbase.

Now that this has been cleared, I think confusing it may be, the fact that we (the fanbase) are all here on a daily basis, following each and every confusing step Prince takes on his websites, twitter accounts, Funkeberry and Livestream, and being aware of anything he may be releasing or streaming, proves that he manages his marketing and PR well enough. What's the purpose of PR: to get people's attention. He definitely has ours

databank said:

SpiritOtter said:

Fair point, Udo. Prince doesn't hire/trust professionals to do his marketing and PR. Perhaps, he truly believes he can manage it, even though it is ABUNDANTLY clear that he cannot. Ah, well, if he likes going the rookie route, a rookie he will remain. Tis a shame for his legacy, though, which remains in the mud.

Prince is now an independent artist, i.e. the general public knows very little, if anything, about his musical whereabouts. This is still shocking to most people here,

His PR is quite disastrous: it most clearly lacks coherence.

No sane person would come up with this as a plan.

So please do not put us in a weird corner as we do understand the reality where we're in.

databank said:

SpiritOtter said:

Fair point, Udo. Prince doesn't hire/trust professionals to do his marketing and PR. Perhaps, he truly believes he can manage it, even though it is ABUNDANTLY clear that he cannot. Ah, well, if he likes going the rookie route, a rookie he will remain. Tis a shame for his legacy, though, which remains in the mud.

Prince is now an independent artist, i.e. the general public knows very little, if anything, about his musical whereabouts. This is still shocking to most people here, used as they are to minstream/labels communication plans and still stuck to P's career as it was back in the 80's, but this is business as usual for any indy artist: ur fanbase knows what u're up to, the rest of the world doesn't. I'm mostly listening to indy electronic, synthpop and experimental artists and believe me, if I ask anyone in the street if they know about them, most people won't. Nonetheless all these artists have careers, make a living and have a strong fanbase.

Now that this has been cleared, I think confusing it may be, the fact that we (the fanbase) are all here on a daily basis, following each and every confusing step Prince takes on his websites, twitter accounts, Funkeberry and Livestream, and being aware of anything he may be releasing or streaming, proves that he manages his marketing and PR well enough. What's the purpose of PR: to get people's attention. He definitely has ours

Fair points, but even if he is gaining attention by just how poorly and unprofessionally it is all managed? It's a trainwreck, my dear friend, no matter how it is dressed up. A TRAINWRECK. Remember, www.housequake.com, www.thedatabank.org, www.dabang319.blogspot.in etc, even Serpan-gate. The whole PR management (or lack of), event after event, mismanaged from one fiasco to another, it is a TRAINWRECK, and continuously derailing. He has lost so many fans, not to mention goodwill, over the years, it's actually not funny. The ones remaining are usually the ones who haven't been f*c$ed with enough yet or perhaps enjoy a degree of sadomasochism. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that it's NOT a particularly positive or uplifting experience to be a Prince fan, to the extent that even level-headed and fair-minded people now empathise with the likes of BartVH. The whole Prince-fan experience is littered with underlying deep-seated, somewhat disturbing, psychological dysfunction, unfortunately stemming systemically from the head of the organisation himself...a rather spoilt little genius called PRINCE.

*

Like I said, it's a TRAINWRECK. Still, I think I might really like Big City ...

NouveauDance said:

Why does the image of Bill Cosby doing his little scat dancing on the spot spring to mind.

Yes, that. Blecch.

SpiritOtter said:

*

Like I said, it's a TRAINWRECK. Still, I think I might really like Big City ...

Prince doing the big band thing so? It's an idea. If it works it'll be awesome.

SpiritOtter said:

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that it's NOT a particularly positive or uplifting experience to be a Prince fan....

.....anymore

hate to admit it but all of the false starts and misinformation and opening, reopening & closing of websites makes this 48 year old annoyed rather than excited.

just tell us what the plan is and when we can expect music - enough with the mystery shroud - all of us , including Prince, are too old for this type of thing that worked so well in the beginning before communciation and information was so easy to be had.

keep your few remaining diehard fans like me Prince - just stop playing mind games and make some announcements that will be committed to

PLEASE

[Edited 10/3/13 5:06am]

SpiritOtter said:

SpiritOtter said:

databank said:

Prince is now an independent artist, i.e. the general public knows very little, if anything, about his musical whereabouts. This is still shocking to most people here, used as they are to minstream/labels communication plans and still stuck to P's career as it was back in the 80's, but this is business as usual for any indy artist: ur fanbase knows what u're up to, the rest of the world doesn't. I'm mostly listening to indy electronic, synthpop and experimental artists and believe me, if I ask anyone in the street if they know about them, most people won't. Nonetheless all these artists have careers, make a living and have a strong fanbase.

Now that this has been cleared, I think confusing it may be, the fact that we (the fanbase) are all here on a daily basis, following each and every confusing step Prince takes on his websites, twitter accounts, Funkeberry and Livestream, and being aware of anything he may be releasing or streaming, proves that he manages his marketing and PR well enough. What's the purpose of PR: to get people's attention. He definitely has ours

Fair points, but even if he is gaining attention by just how poorly and unprofessionally it is all managed? It's a trainwreck, my dear friend, no matter how it is dressed up. A TRAINWRECK. Remember, www.housequake.com, www.thedatabank.org, www.dabang319.blogspot.in etc, even Serpan-gate. The whole PR management (or lack of), event after event, mismanaged from one fiasco to another, it is a TRAINWRECK, and continuously derailing. He has lost so many fans, not to mention goodwill, over the years, it's actually not funny. The ones remaining are usually the ones who haven't been f*c$ed with enough yet or perhaps enjoy a degree of sadomasochism. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that it's NOT a particularly positive or uplifting experience to be a Prince fan, to the extent that even level-headed and fair-minded people now empathise with the likes of BartVH. The whole Prince-fan experience is littered with underlying deep-seated, somewhat disturbing, psychological dysfunction, unfortunately stemming systemically from the head of the organisation himself...a rather spoilt little genius called PRINCE.

*

Like I said, it's a TRAINWRECK. Still, I think I might really like Big City ...

I see ur point and u definitely make one. Not sure if he really lost so much of his fanbase because of this, though, maybe more because they don't like the new music but that whole PR mess IDK if it really affects the fanbase. I mean it does in the sense that P is probably the most unpopular artist on earth among his own fanbase, but nonetheless the fanbase is still here: this forum is as loaded with people as ever.

Superconductor said:

SpiritOtter said:

Fair points, but even if he is gaining attention by just how poorly and unprofessionally it is all managed? It's a trainwreck, my dear friend, no matter how it is dressed up. A TRAINWRECK. Remember, www.housequake.com, www.thedatabank.org, www.dabang319.blogspot.in etc, even Serpan-gate. The whole PR management (or lack of), event after event, mismanaged from one fiasco to another, it is a TRAINWRECK, and continuously derailing. He has lost so many fans, not to mention goodwill, over the years, it's actually not funny. The ones remaining are usually the ones who haven't been f*c$ed with enough yet or perhaps enjoy a degree of sadomasochism. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that it's NOT a particularly positive or uplifting experience to be a Prince fan, to the extent that even level-headed and fair-minded people now empathise with the likes of BartVH. The whole Prince-fan experience is littered with underlying deep-seated, somewhat disturbing, psychological dysfunction, unfortunately stemming systemically from the head of the organisation himself...a rather spoilt little genius called PRINCE.

*

Like I said, it's a TRAINWRECK. Still, I think I might really like Big City ...

I agree with you spiritotter. Haha Prince has been like that forever. I have been a lover of his music a long time but paid closer attention to him only in the past year. And it is getting a bit tedious for me. How do some fans keep up with this for 20 years or more?? I loosely follow other indi artists and their social media strategy includes posting tracks and pics of studio sessions and concert photos etc but no teasing and announcements about upcoming announcements. The challenge is using social media and websites in a coherent fashion to maintain an interest and keep fans informed, like working on your next album or while you are on tour. Prince's social media approach is like a scattergun approach and it's not clear what it is all about. I think part of the problem is that he is not engaging with fans/ music lovers but many of his associates are and so all we get are seemingly uncoordinated fragments.

"I think part of the problem is that he is not engaging with fans/ music lovers"

I think it's cool that Prince is on Twitter but rarely does he tweet about the actual music. Usually when Prince tweets he's replying to fans that want to know about his afro, what kind of cereal he eats etc. I'm still surprised Prince is tweeting, but what will he do with the exposure he has on Twitter? Only time will tell.

big city is decent song .. i listened to it a few times on the montreux boot and i definately like it better than ANY thing else he has put out this year .. no rapping (can we be so lucky that it will stay this way) .. decent melody .. decent lyrics .. nothing too stupid said .. if he puts this and "the breakdown" on the new record i may actually bother to buy it .. i like the non rapping extraloveable as well .. the screwdriver fixurlifeup rnrloveaffair stuff was garbage tho .. big city 'sounds' good tho .. nice fat drums .. they sound real for a change .. even lotus live drums sounded bad .. big city is a step in the right direction for prince .. can he make a respectable record? some of us are still likely naively waiting to see / hear ...

jaawwnn said:

Prince doing the big band thing so? It's an idea. If it works it'll be awesome.

Mwoach, does not sound too big.

It sounds kinda gogo-ish.

SpiritOtter said:

udo said:

I believe I do prefer a kind of filtering effect of some 'normal' person, being it a fan, a label exec or a manager so that this stuff is sanitized and properly treated before it is even allowed to reach us.

Fair point, Udo. Prince doesn't hire/trust professionals to do his marketing and PR. Perhaps, he truly believes he can manage it, even though it is ABUNDANTLY clear that he cannot. Ah, well, if he likes going the rookie route, a rookie he will remain. Tis a shame for his legacy, though, which remains in the mud.

Why is it abdundantly clear that he cannot. What s your point of ref and comparing it to what? His legacy if far from the mud and if that is your opinion whcih you are entilteld too you lose credibility.

lwr001 said:

His legacy if far from the mud and if that is your opinion whcih you are entilteld too you lose credibility.

Did I miss the Purple Rain 25 year anniversary edition?

Did I miss the 1999 25 year anniversary edition?

The remasters?

The reissues?

The extended editions?

The continuity of a legacy one can expect in the current day and age?

Yes we can get the hires transfers of them masters through some fractured distribution channels (yes, hd-tracks does not offer service to europeans etc) but those re not remasters or anything really new or fresh in the old context. When we compare to this love of his for the hits then this situation really shows a big injustice.

udo said:

lwr001 said:

His legacy if far from the mud and if that is your opinion whcih you are entilteld too you lose credibility.

Did I miss the Purple Rain 25 year anniversary edition?

Did I miss the 1999 25 year anniversary edition?

The remasters?

The reissues?

The extended editions?

The continuity of a legacy one can expect in the current day and age?

Yes we can get the hires transfers of them masters through some fractured distribution channels (yes, hd-tracks does not offer service to europeans etc) but those re not remasters or anything really new or fresh in the old context. When we compare to this love of his for the hits then this situation really shows a big injustice.

So, cuz he doesn;t put out reissues inyour opinion his legacy is tarnished

udo said:

lwr001 said:

His legacy if far from the mud and if that is your opinion whcih you are entilteld too you lose credibility.

Did I miss the Purple Rain 25 year anniversary edition?

Did I miss the 1999 25 year anniversary edition?

The remasters?

The reissues?

The extended editions?

The continuity of a legacy one can expect in the current day and age?

Yes we can get the hires transfers of them masters through some fractured distribution channels (yes, hd-tracks does not offer service to europeans etc) but those re not remasters or anything really new or fresh in the old context. When we compare to this love of his for the hits then this situation really shows a big injustice.

The audience reaction alone validates his legacy

http://www.youtube.com/wa...aJ1Abup86U

udo said:

lwr001 said:

His legacy if far from the mud and if that is your opinion whcih you are entilteld too you lose credibility.

Did I miss the Purple Rain 25 year anniversary edition?

Purple Rain isn't 25 yet.

udo said:

lwr001 said:

His legacy if far from the mud and if that is your opinion whcih you are entilteld too you lose credibility.

Did I miss the Purple Rain 25 year anniversary edition?

Did I miss the 1999 25 year anniversary edition?

The remasters?

The reissues?

The extended editions?

The continuity of a legacy one can expect in the current day and age?

Yes we can get the hires transfers of them masters through some fractured distribution channels (yes, hd-tracks does not offer service to europeans etc) but those re not remasters or anything really new or fresh in the old context. When we compare to this love of his for the hits then this situation really shows a big injustice.

Its better to say you dont agree with his vision then to say its tarnished,, That i can apprecdiate and get with but the ideal that he lives to make you happy and if you dont agree somehow dimishes his career makes you seem how should i say "delusional

TwiliteKid said:

udo said:

Did I miss the Purple Rain 25 year anniversary edition?

Purple Rain isn't 25 yet.

its about to be 30