Someone mentioned on the Walk Don't Walk thread that the song was pretty important to him because it started side B, in answer to someone who said that the song was albost hidden in the middle of the CD. It's true, I first had D&P on cassette and for me Walk Don't Walk will always be the beginning of side B.

The funny thing is that I started with cassettes, so for me 1999, SOTT and GB have 2 sides just as the rest of the albums. I can't imagine what the flow of these albums would be with 4 sides, I read the tracklists of the LP's but it makes absolutely no sense to me. I'm quite sure it's a very different listening experience. And I won't ever know how younger fans feel either, because for them ALL the albums save SOTT, Emancipation and CB have only one side.

To this day and to me, the albums up to 1994 have had 2 sides, all of them, not only Prince's albums but all the protégés albums as well (and even the non Prince records for that matter since I had everything on cassette).

I decided to move to CD's in late 1994. I don't know when I rebought Come in CD but it must have been quite early because for some reason that album is one side for me. I did have it on cassette at first but IDK, for me it's a continuous flow. Same with Exodus and TGE, my first CD only Prince albums (well, there was also 16, which was rare and I had found on CD only: to me it never had 2 sides). I just can't imagine Exodus or TGE having 2 sides: I checked the cassette tracklist for TGE: it makes no sense to me that Now is the beginning of side 2.

Now an odd thing is that unconsciously the concept of cassettes must have been rooted in my brain because for SOME albums I could always "feel" where side 2 started even though I had them only on CD: it's obvious with C&D and TVOF4S: it's just always been OBVIOUS to me where the end of side 1 was even though my CD had no sides. On some others I got it wrong: I checked and I realized that Rave's b-side starts with Every Day while I'd have put it AFTER Every Day, but Mellow ends side one of TRC when I'd have put it at the beginning of side 2

Then I just realized that after 2001 and TRC... the notion of sides totally disappeared from my perception of any Prince album. Probably 7 years was the time I needed to free my mind from it. Possibly also at that point I had rebought most of my old cassettes on CD's and I hardly ever listened to any cassette at all anymore. Today you can give me any album I've never heard before, including an album from the vinyl era, I simply wouldn't have a clue where Side A ends and Side B starts. I don't even wonder: for me these albums are just a continuous flow, period. I don't think of sides. And it's odd, because it's a whole different perception. Only when I listen to my oldest records I can still feel it, I know the side changes, and I remember that such an odd thing as sides used to exist.

I'm not a nostalgic, I went from cassettes to CDs then to CDs to digital without regret, on the contrary. But nonetheless I think that notion of sides REALLY affected our perception of an album's flow and pace. My 1999 will never be the same as you vinyl dudes' 1999, but it will never be the same as you CD youngsters' 1999 either...

Please share your feelings, memories and thoughts

Most of the recent ones are continuous flow to me, but for me certain songs will always be "Side 2, song 1" such as When Doves Cry, America and Parade. In this age of digital music and downloads, I'm not sure it matters. Albums aren't cohesive works anymore (for the most part). They're just collections of songs.

Se7en said:

Most of the recent ones are continuous flow to me, but for me certain songs will always be "Side 2, song 1" such as When Doves Cry, America and Parade. In this age of digital music and downloads, I'm not sure it matters. Albums aren't cohesive works anymore (for the most part). They're just collections of songs.

I respectfully disagree with the last part. I listen to just as much new music as I do older music and I don't see the difference. Strong albums are strong albums, and they're just as cohesive as they used to. Now I don't know what u listen but with what I listend they're no real difference between 1983 and 2013 in terms of cohesiveness.

I miss albums having sides! What's a better Side 1 closer than Anna Stesia? And I thought Dance On was a great kick off to side 2. Those were the days.

I still listen mostly to cassettes .. hey I may download a discography from time to time but if I really like it it ends up on a maxell xl2 tape.

Even tho I still have some prince on the original cassettes, I still always think of it as a single side. This is thanks to the dual cassette player in continuous mode. Thats right automatic flip and automatic switch to the other cassette deck.

In my mind a 'side' is 45 minutes. Therefore sign o the times has 2 sides but purple rain only has one.

I don't see a point in the sequencing and all of a 4 sided record such as sign .. which I also have. It just seems too short to me to consider it anything. Even a 2 sided tape like batman or the black album makes no differenciation in my mind because I like to listen from the beginning to the end.

I guess if it is a double .. like 1999 or sott i think of them as more like 2 different records .. so they get clumped as 'sides'

otherwise my album mind just likes all the songs in one shot all in the right order .. cuz that is the way it should be

The good thing about cassettes that prince never did .. was often cassettes had extra songs they could not fit on the cd or the record .. cassettes rule .. too bad prince did not do this .. would have been fun .. but he did very well with the b sides and 12 inchers for extra tunes .. perfect to add to your 90 minute cassette tape that has extra room at the end

TrevorAyer said:

I still listen mostly to cassettes .. hey I may download a discography from time to time but if I really like it it ends up on a maxell xl2 tape.

Even tho I still have some prince on the original cassettes, I still always think of it as a single side. This is thanks to the dual cassette player in continuous mode. Thats right automatic flip and automatic switch to the other cassette deck.

In my mind a 'side' is 45 minutes. Therefore sign o the times has 2 sides but purple rain only has one.

I don't see a point in the sequencing and all of a 4 sided record such as sign .. which I also have. It just seems too short to me to consider it anything. Even a 2 sided tape like batman or the black album makes no differenciation in my mind because I like to listen from the beginning to the end.

I guess if it is a double .. like 1999 or sott i think of them as more like 2 different records .. so they get clumped as 'sides'

otherwise my album mind just likes all the songs in one shot all in the right order .. cuz that is the way it should be

The good thing about cassettes that prince never did .. was often cassettes had extra songs they could not fit on the cd or the record .. cassettes rule .. too bad prince did not do this .. would have been fun .. but he did very well with the b sides and 12 inchers for extra tunes .. perfect to add to your 90 minute cassette tape that has extra room at the end

Amazing U must be the last dude on Earth to listen to cassettes. Vinyl: plenty, but cassettes: wow Thing is... aren't your cassettes falling into pieces? I remember before I finally got rid of my last cassettes in 2007, when I'd listen to one the quality was really detoriorated after 15 years, particularly EMI, BMG and Polygram cassettes (WB and Sony seemed to have ticker tapes or IDK, they stood better). I just can't imagine how my cassette of MJ's "Bad" from 1987 would sound after 26 years if I still has it What I miss is the SOUND of cassettes when u'd put them in2 the deck, or take 'em out of it, u know when u can hear the tape moving inside the plastic

I remember the auto side switch, I just usually had to speed-up the end of a side t get to the next because there would often be a long blank at the end of one, if not each, side, so for me the concept of sides was there nonetheless.

Thinking and structuring albums in A and B sides (and sometimes C, D...) was a beautiful process. When I think of an album and want to value it, I always consider the sequencing of the songs, related to the format that was predominant at the time the album was published. So, I assume Prince structured his albums in A and B sides until, probably, Graffiti Bridge. Diamonds And Pearls wasn't probably conceived as a double album (as it actually is in vinyl); maybe it was conceived as A and B sides (cassette), which is what I believe, maybe as a single sequence (CD). By the time of Love Symbol, I think the idea of A and B sides was over.

-----

It's also interesting to consider the consequences of the introduction of the CD regarding the length of the albums. I always think that, for example, Diamonds And Pearls and Love Symbol would have been better albums had Prince been constrained to 45 minutes and two sides... But who knows?

-----

Trevor, I listen to cassettes too... well, actually it's an exception, I usually buy vinyls and CDs, but from time to time I buy some cassette in ebay. I bought the two Vanity solo albums on cassette some time ago... Well, databank knows my reactionary tendencies...

Javi said:

Thinking and structuring albums in A and B sides (and sometimes C, D...) was a beautiful process. When I think of an album and want to value it, I always consider the sequencing of the songs, related to the format that was predominant at the time the album was published. So, I assume Prince structured his albums in A and B sides until, probably, Graffiti Bridge. Diamonds And Pearls wasn't probably conceived as a double album (as it actually is in vinyl); maybe it was conceived as A and B sides (cassette), which is what I believe, maybe as a single sequence (CD). By the time of Love Symbol, I think the idea of A and B sides was over.

-----

It's also interesting to consider the consequences of the introduction of the CD regarding the length of the albums. I always think that, for example, Diamonds And Pearls and Love Symbol would have been better albums had Prince been constrained to 45 minutes and two sides... But who knows?

-----

Trevor, I listen to cassettes too... well, actually it's an exception, I usually buy vinyls and CDs, but from time to time I buy some cassette in ebay. I bought the two Vanity solo albums on cassette some time ago... Well, databank knows my reactionary tendencies...

CDs had a great impact on albums durations in the 90's: 80 minutes was suddenly like freedom made flesh to musicians and most 90's albums are double albums by vinyl's standards, it's understandable that every one wanted to play with that newly gained freedom But I've noticed a HUGE tendency to come back to 30 to 50 minutes albums ever since the beginning of the 2000's, and 75% of the albums I get now are back to that format. Prince himself has never really given it up: most of his post 1993 albums could still fit on a simple LP. So obviously musicians agree with you and so do I: u really have to be REALLY good to spit 60 to 80 minutes of music and NOT bore people, 30 to 45 minutes is usually easier to swallow Being an album-only listener, I surely appreciate that because I'll be like "OK I feel like listening to that now" but sometimes when I put the album in the player and see it lasts more than an hour I'm a bit like "oh fuck I don't like that album THAT much that I want to listen to it for so long", but I will play it anyway

databank said:

Javi said:

Thinking and structuring albums in A and B sides (and sometimes C, D...) was a beautiful process. When I think of an album and want to value it, I always consider the sequencing of the songs, related to the format that was predominant at the time the album was published. So, I assume Prince structured his albums in A and B sides until, probably, Graffiti Bridge. Diamonds And Pearls wasn't probably conceived as a double album (as it actually is in vinyl); maybe it was conceived as A and B sides (cassette), which is what I believe, maybe as a single sequence (CD). By the time of Love Symbol, I think the idea of A and B sides was over.

-----

It's also interesting to consider the consequences of the introduction of the CD regarding the length of the albums. I always think that, for example, Diamonds And Pearls and Love Symbol would have been better albums had Prince been constrained to 45 minutes and two sides... But who knows?

-----

Trevor, I listen to cassettes too... well, actually it's an exception, I usually buy vinyls and CDs, but from time to time I buy some cassette in ebay. I bought the two Vanity solo albums on cassette some time ago... Well, databank knows my reactionary tendencies...

CDs had a great impact on albums durations in the 90's: 80 minutes was suddenly like freedom made flesh to musicians and most 90's albums are double albums by vinyl's standards, it's understandable that every one wanted to play with that newly gained freedom But I've noticed a HUGE tendency to come back to 30 to 50 minutes albums ever since the beginning of the 2000's, and 75% of the albums I get now are back to that format. Prince himself has never really given it up: most of his post 1993 albums could still fit on a simple LP. So obviously musicians agree with you and so do I: u really have to be REALLY good to spit 60 to 80 minutes of music and NOT bore people, 30 to 45 minutes is usually easier to swallow Being an album-only listener, I surely appreciate that because I'll be like "OK I feel like listening to that now" but sometimes when I put the album in the player and see it lasts more than an hour I'm a bit like "oh fuck I don't like that album THAT much that I want to listen to it for so long", but I will play it anyway

Yes, I've noticed this tendency too. It seems that the pre-CD length has survived despite the fact that all the new formats haven't that restriction.

-----

On the other hand, when an artist releases an album of say, 70-100 minutes, and it's strong from the beginning to end, you can't help but be impressed. That doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's amazing. Like you say, really difficult to achieve.

databank said:

kangafunk said:

databank said:

CDs had a great impact on albums durations in the 90's: 80 minutes was suddenly like freedom made flesh to musicians and most 90's albums are double albums by vinyl's standards, it's understandable that every one wanted to play with that newly gained freedom But I've noticed a HUGE tendency to come back to 30 to 50 minutes albums ever since the beginning of the 2000's, and 75% of the albums I get now are back to that format. Prince himself has never really given it up: most of his post 1993 albums could still fit on a simple LP. So obviously musicians agree with you and so do I: u really have to be REALLY good to spit 60 to 80 minutes of music and NOT bore people, 30 to 45 minutes is usually easier to swallow Being an album-only listener, I surely appreciate that because I'll be like "OK I feel like listening to that now" but sometimes when I put the album in the player and see it lasts more than an hour I'm a bit like "oh fuck I don't like that album THAT much that I want to listen to it for so long", but I will play it anyway

I've long thought that albums should stick to the 40 to 50 minute mark unless they really do have enough killer material to go longer. To me, albums at 45 mins or less are much easier to digest.

Well now with digital there's no limit at all but obviously there's a logical limit to how long a piece of work should usually be, save exceptionnal experiments. Movies could last 10 hours but usually everyone agrees that 90 to 120 mn is a good timing. I guess we realized that 45 mn was a good average for music no matter the format it's being released on.

Just listening to The Electric Lady and just as with The ArchAndroid, reching the end I'm starting to feel a bit tired of it. Does it mean that Monae's music is not so good? I don't think so, her work is BRILLIANT. Just that for now at least (it may change) I'm not enough into her work to enjoy it for more than 1 hour. Prince could release a new 3 CD set and I probably wouldn't mind listening to it in a loop because I'm so totally into his musical universe, but with Janelle I get tired every time before it's over, despite finding her work wonderful in the absolute. So I realize duration is not only about how good the music is but also how much we're or we're not into a musician's musical universe. With Monae I still don't perceive all the subtelties yet, so I'm bored because it seems repetitive after 10 songs. With Prince I'm so aware of any subtle variation in his music that I don't care

databank said:

Se7en said:

Most of the recent ones are continuous flow to me, but for me certain songs will always be "Side 2, song 1" such as When Doves Cry, America and Parade. In this age of digital music and downloads, I'm not sure it matters. Albums aren't cohesive works anymore (for the most part). They're just collections of songs.

I respectfully disagree with the last part. I listen to just as much new music as I do older music and I don't see the difference. Strong albums are strong albums, and they're just as cohesive as they used to. Now I don't know what u listen but with what I listend they're no real difference between 1983 and 2013 in terms of cohesiveness.

You think Planet Earth, MPLSound, and 20Ten are cohesive? Lotusflow3r is cohesive, and 20Ten is mostly cohesive, but the rest are scattered as all get out. Planet Earth is all over the place not only in content but also seemingly in production. It does not sound like it was recorded in the same sessions. More than that, MPLS cannot seem to find a singular style to settle on. Like I said, it comes across as a collection of songs. 3121 is very cohesive, and Musicology is too.

I was not talking Prince albums but albums in general.

Mplsound is highly cohesive: it has a unity in sounds and themes that's very strong. So is 20ton. Planet Earth could be an exception of sorts because of the odd mix of R&B ballads and rock tracks but somehow I always felt it worked, but OK let's say Planet Earth isn't cohesive. That's the only example: as you point out Lotusflow3r, Musicology and 3121 are cohesive. So are NEWS and Xpectation. So are The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse. So is Elixer. So is Superconductor. So is The Rainbow Children. So is One Nite Alone... So basically out of 10+ albums released after 2000 you can't take the only one counterexample and make a rule out of it against all others

databank said:

TrevorAyer said:

I still listen mostly to cassettes .. hey I may download a discography from time to time but if I really like it it ends up on a maxell xl2 tape.

Even tho I still have some prince on the original cassettes, I still always think of it as a single side. This is thanks to the dual cassette player in continuous mode. Thats right automatic flip and automatic switch to the other cassette deck.

In my mind a 'side' is 45 minutes. Therefore sign o the times has 2 sides but purple rain only has one.

I don't see a point in the sequencing and all of a 4 sided record such as sign .. which I also have. It just seems too short to me to consider it anything. Even a 2 sided tape like batman or the black album makes no differenciation in my mind because I like to listen from the beginning to the end.

I guess if it is a double .. like 1999 or sott i think of them as more like 2 different records .. so they get clumped as 'sides'

otherwise my album mind just likes all the songs in one shot all in the right order .. cuz that is the way it should be

The good thing about cassettes that prince never did .. was often cassettes had extra songs they could not fit on the cd or the record .. cassettes rule .. too bad prince did not do this .. would have been fun .. but he did very well with the b sides and 12 inchers for extra tunes .. perfect to add to your 90 minute cassette tape that has extra room at the end

Amazing U must be the last dude on Earth to listen to cassettes. Vinyl: plenty, but cassettes: wow Thing is... aren't your cassettes falling into pieces? I remember before I finally got rid of my last cassettes in 2007, when I'd listen to one the quality was really detoriorated after 15 years, particularly EMI, BMG and Polygram cassettes (WB and Sony seemed to have ticker tapes or IDK, they stood better). I just can't imagine how my cassette of MJ's "Bad" from 1987 would sound after 26 years if I still has it What I miss is the SOUND of cassettes when u'd put them in2 the deck, or take 'em out of it, u know when u can hear the tape moving inside the plastic

I remember the auto side switch, I just usually had to speed-up the end of a side t get to the next because there would often be a long blank at the end of one, if not each, side, so for me the concept of sides was there nonetheless.

There are some pretty cheap bad bulk discount tape bin "official" cassettes out there but I grew up in the age of tape deck snobbery .. while I didn't participate so much in all that "accue bias" or even dolby really .. I find that a clean recording from a record or cd on a MAXELL XLII cassette holds up very well. Thus far. Recently I upgraded my entire collection with lossless sources even for old mixtapes I made from taping the radio or tapes of tapes of tapes.

Tapes are really cool. Thats where all those genuine old school Prince bootlegs came from. Prince bringing a tape in the car or to a rehearsal. Tapes are like the guitar of the audio recording world. Guitars are portable and can hold down the full spectrum of percussion and chording and even bass notes. They are just the epitome of functional and quality. Same with tapes. They can sound bad, but often they sound great. Furthermore they have a magical magnetic quality that somehow enhances whatever is recorded on it. Again I cite the old Prince bootlegs that somehow sounded fatter and cooler after 10 or 20 transfers. Oft heard was griping when cleaner versions arrived years later. As if they sounded somewhat sterolized.

I can fix a tape. I can't fix a scratched or melted cd. Mp3's sound like poo. Records are great ... to make tapes from! HA! (that way the record stays preserved)

I still have my cassette recorder that I take to live shows. It gets pretty good sound. Maybe 100 to 275 million times better than those awful cell phone recordings people make. Man when they came out with those clear tapes ... I thought that was the coolest. I also really like that cassettes kind of force you to listen to the album as a whole as intended. It's not horrible to repeat a song or skip a track .. but I end up digging the whole experience rather than just the single. Prince is great that way.. you can really get into the whole record .. its more than a couple singles with filler.

I Heart Tapes!