PurpleJedi said:

midnightmover said:

Just the notion of someone strolling over a crosswalk anyway they see fit while disgruntled, impatient drivers honk their horns is enough to make anyone love this song.

That is, unless the drivers really never took a walk through the city.

It's busy out there!

Be careful!!!

.

Prost!

Absolutely horrible song.

Remember back before the album was released, it was mentioned that this song would be one of the lead singles with a video directed by Lisa Bonet? I wonder what that would've looked like.

SchlomoThaHomo said:

Oh god!! I think I had that shirt.

SchlomoThaHomo said:

Remember back before the album was released, it was mentioned that this song would be one of the lead singles with a video directed by Lisa Bonet? I wonder what that would've looked like.

I remember hearing about these plans.I wonder why it never happened.I guess Warners didn't think it could be a single?

I also recall an interview where Prince said that he wanted "Strollin" to be a single.....to "chill people out in the summertime".

SoulAlive said:

SchlomoThaHomo said:

Remember back before the album was released, it was mentioned that this song would be one of the lead singles with a video directed by Lisa Bonet? I wonder what that would've looked like.

I remember hearing about these plans.I wonder why it never happened.I guess Warners didn't think it could be a single?

I also recall an interview where Prince said that he wanted "Strollin" to be a single.....to "chill people out in the summertime".

I liked the bit about dirty magazines....he was good at flipping the script. That one would normally buy porn and hide it behind something innocent and here he uses the porn to hide the innocent act of eating ice cream. So the obscene hides the innocent.

OnlyNDaUsa said:

Tittypants said:

MIRvmn said:

look what I found....Rolling Stone's review of the Diamonds and Pearls album see if you agree with it

REVIEWS

DIAMONDS AND PEARLS
PRINCE AND THE NEW POWER GENERATION
Paisley Park/Warner Bros.

PRINCE HAS NEVER SOUNDED SANER than he does on Diamonds and Pearls. After his obsessive struggles -- in terms that were deeply insular and allegorical -- with spirituality and sexuality on Lovesexy and Graffiti Bridge, Minneapolis' resident genius has refocused his attention on his first love: pop songcraft. The results are hardly Prince's most monumental work, but they do reveal a long-buried subtlety and -- dare I say it? -- modesty.

Range is the name of the game on Diamonds and Pearls, but not the sprawling stylistic hybrids that characterized such masterworks as Dirty Mind and Sign o' the Times. Rather, Prince limits himself to fleshing out a carefully bound pop formalism. His creative madness -- a chorus of car horns in the delightful "Walk Don't Walk" or the interlocking keyboards of "Daddy Pop" -- is strategically women into (relatively) conventional structures. The album is packed full of irresistible hooks, though some -- like the dreamy chorus of the title track -- seem hastily pasted onto unfinished songs.

The album introduces the New Power Generation, which proves fully capable of jumping from the sly garage rock of "Cream" to a light ska groove in "Willing and Able." Drummer Michael B. is an especially impressive anchor, helping give Diamonds and Pearls the most band-oriented sound of Prince's career. It is telling, though, that the hardest rocker on the album -- "Thunder," a roof-raising plea for salvation -- is the one track Prince handles all by himself.

Less successful are the attempts to integrate rap into Prince's pop universe. A verse or two by N.P.G. rapper Tony M. in "Willing and Able" is a fine addition, but giving him an entire song -- "Jughead," a silly attempt at a new dance craze -- is simply a waste. Tony's rapping style, also featured on "Push," is functional, but his rhymes are insubstantial. "Housequake," on Sign o' the Times, was a great dance "instruction" song because Prince so clearly loved the James Brown funk he was aping; in contrast, "Jughead" sounds like an obligatory effort at including a genre with which Prince has never been comfortable.

The recurrent themes of Diamonds and Pearls are lighthearted self-motivation and positive thinking -- "Push until U get 2 higher ground" or just "walk on any side U like." Most ambitious is "Live 4 Love," a grinding seven-minute internal monologue of a troubled fighter pilot, while "Insatiable," the requisite seduction ballad (still Prince's most underrated style), is simply gorgeous, highlighting his effortless to great effect. But only the bass-heavy first single, "Gett Off," includes the loopy lewdness we have come to expect from Prince. "Slip yo dress down like I was strippin' a Peter Paul's Almond Joy" may not make a whole lot of sense, but it's got the demented excess that much of Diamonds and Pearls seems to be missing.

-- ALAN LIGHT

ROLLING STONE, OCTOBER 17TH, 1991

Well, I more or less agree with the Rolling Stone review. It's an album of pop songcraft, not as edgy or with the "demented excess" of its predecesors. Where I'd disagree with the review is in that, for me, the pop songcraft on the album is just superb, which would lead to giving it 9/10, for example. I've always thought that, if we only consider songwriting, Diamonds And Pearls may well be Prince's best album.

[Edited 11/4/13 4:04am]

[Edited 11/4/13 4:05am]

Javi said:

Well, I more or less agree with the Rolling Stone review. It's an album of pop songcraft, not as edgy or with the "demented excess" of its predecesors. Where I'd disagree with the review is in that, for me, the pop songcraft on the album is just superb, which would lead to giving it 9/10, for example. I've always thought that, if we only consider songwriting, Diamonds And Pearls may well be Prince's best album.

I don't think you could ever give ANY album with Jughead and Push on it 9/10 ...

As for Walk Don't Walk, it always came across to me as a nice little throw-away song. The chorus of car horns was pretty creative, the lyrics were "eh"...seemed like he literally created the song while waiting at a red light and looking over at the Walk and Don't Walk signs lol...but didn't quite flesh it out enough.

Byron said:

Javi said:

Well, I more or less agree with the Rolling Stone review. It's an album of pop songcraft, not as edgy or with the "demented excess" of its predecesors. Where I'd disagree with the review is in that, for me, the pop songcraft on the album is just superb, which would lead to giving it 9/10, for example. I've always thought that, if we only consider songwriting, Diamonds And Pearls may well be Prince's best album.

I don't think you could ever give ANY album with Jughead and Push on it 9/10 ...

Yeah, probably not... I try to forget "Jughead" exists. As for "Push", I don't dislike it. It's weak compared to the rest of the album, but I don't find it that bad.

[Edited 11/4/13 5:41am]

Javi said:

Byron said:

I don't think you could ever give ANY album with Jughead and Push on it 9/10 ...

Yeah, probably not... I try to forget "Jughead" exists. As for "Push", I don't dislike it. It's weak compared to the rest of the album, but I don't find it that bad.

[Edited 11/4/13 5:41am]

yeah, I agree with both of your statements ...

erik319 said:

midnightmover said:

If Lisa's track was instrumental then that means Prince must have written the vocal melody as well as the lyrics. Anyway, PF was just one random example. I could've chosen 4 The Tears In Your Eyes, Condition of the Heart, or numerous other weird and wonderful obscure Prince tracks.

You do appear to keep choosing tracks with input by others though, so whilst desperately attempting to make out that all the good stuff is solely down to Prince's genius and nobody else's, I'm more than happy for you to keep listing such classics

God, you're a pedantic individual. Do I really have to come out with a list of great Prince songs that he did by himself? I can do it if you like, but is it really necessary? We're all big fans here so we all know, don't we?

And I'm not denying that he's done great collaborations too. I actually think he could do with more collaboration now that his mojo has slipped. He's needed a producer for at least fifteen years now.

MattyJam said:

I like Push.

me too.Can't see why so many fans dislike this song.

midnightmover said:

It's a sign of what a prolific miracle worker Prince was that he could just toss off these completely unique tracks and they would mostly be unnoticed. I think if anyone else had done songs like this or Dance On or Power Fantastic people would be marvelling at the inventiveness and creativity - the sheer cleverness of it - particularly if it was mostly the work of one solitary person. But because Prince was doing it so regularly people just pass over these tracks thoughtlessly. When you think about it, it truly is amazing what this one little man was doing. I don't think there's been a single figure in pop music that can match his individual achievement. Not a single one.

.

Prince's prolific writing, combined with the fact that he makes being a genius look almost effortless, I think has a lot to do with his brilliant creations being taken for granted by many. Listening to songs spanning his entire career, I’ve been consistently pleased, and at times just absolutely astounded, with the evolution and range of his musical prowess. A force of nature, Prince moves and shifts quicker than the wind; if you blink, you risk missing a certain magic he creates in the moment.

.

“Walk Don’t Walk” is one of those songs that fell under the radar when the fan community blinked. I have always loved this inspiring number with its simple but clever lyrics encouraging self expression and determination; a profound message given some hefty street cred coming from an artist who lit the world on fire exemplifiying its underlying philosophy. Musically, WDW sounds as fresh as ever. It still amazes me how Prince took this sweet, innocent tune and dropped in a dissonant, revving, almost caustic guitar track, dramatically altering the song’s DNA. Few others would have the vision or ability to pull it off, let alone dare try to splice together two such starkly opposing soundscapes. WDW is one of so many examples of why Prince could be considered the Nikola Tesla of music.

.

(Personally, I like to think of Tesla as having been the Prince Rogers Nelson of electromagnetism. )