one song (I edited the spoken part)

america long version ..... yawn

i would prefer he gave me all length versions ..and ill stop listening when im done----u people r so off

databank said:

The 30 minutes version of IWD4U doesn't count, it was edited down to 10mn so Prince knew when to stop.

I can understand some people being bored with 21mn of America or 10mn (or 30) of IWD4U or 12mn of A Love Bizarre. Personally I love long jams, I love when it's nothing but musicians tripping around a rhythm section going in a loop, I have a ball everytime I listen to 60 minutes of the Soul Psychodelicide rehearsal and I wouldn't mind if t lasted 4 hours because basically I love the bare bone essence of funk as a genre and I appreciate the smallest things musicians can play around a beat. For me those 30 minutes of IWD4U and those 21 mn of America are FULL of fascinating musical events. But that's not every one's cup of tea

Critics Love U in New York

I usually likewhen Prince and his band jams on a groove, but America if I have to choose one.

freebird

wishuhvn said:

First song that really comes to mind is "In this bed I scream." I really love the lyrics and it's a favorite all the way EXCEPT it never makes a mix list because, he just went on way too long. Knowing that each disk on Emancipation was supposed to be 60 minutes, I felt like he carried this on just for timing reasons.

Totally agree. Sleep Around is too long too

#1 on this list for me is Temptation. That whole end section is just ridiculous and should have been chopped. It would have been so much better had it just ended w/ that guitar riff.

There might have been room for another song - She's Always in My Hair, perhpas, or something else. Would have made for a stronger album.

The album version of "Come" is just overkill. WAYYY too long, and the wet oral sex sounds are just embarrassing and not sexy at all.

1) America is entirely too long. It doesn't really change much. Really BORING

2) Purple Rain on the LP the violins were not needed

3) Temptation starts out cool then the drama scene that ends it DRRAAGGGSSSSSSSS

Just those I don't mind the rest

short attention is not something i suffer from.

"America" is great when it's blasted when noone else is around.

"America (Album Version) is for the party mix.

The recording ended just like the tape ran out in the studio.

-wewishthatforallrecordings-

.

Prost!

bashraka said:

"Automatic"

databank said:

Mandingo said:

Prince has made more than a few songs that out stay their welcome..

SWongs that could have been neat and tidy but P has to add a bit more then a lil bit more then some more jeez

It become like when Lt. Columbo has one more question for the suspect or Peter Jackson doesn't know how to end Lord of the Rings 3

The songs Crystal Ball and Batdance come to mind... just sayin'

Of ALL the songs ever composed by P you had to name these 2!!!! I just CAN'T believe I've read what I've read!!!! 2 of P's most daring musical experiments and they're... too long!

Basically anything that's not a 3 minutes radio formatted pop song isn't to your taste, that's what you're saying? And Wagner's Tetralogy should be condensed in a 45mn album while we're at it, shouldn't it?

Batdance has actually been edited quite intensively (the original was 8 or 10 mn) and everything that's been kept has been kept for a reason. As for Crystal Ball I just... well... don't know what to say... You're killing me dude...

One advice. Burn your radio. Burn your TV. Go to an indy record store and start listening to real music ^^

Peace

[Edited 1/15/14 8:11am]

beautifulstrange kicks crystal ball's ass then fucks it without a rubber and doesnt even call it after. Crystal ball srarts off well but rhen gets messy n confused

NoVideo said:

#1 on this list for me is Temptation. That whole end section is just ridiculous and should have been chopped. It would have been so much better had it just ended w/ that guitar riff.

There might have been room for another song - She's Always in My Hair, perhpas, or something else. Would have made for a stronger album.

The album version of "Come" is just overkill. WAYYY too long, and the wet oral sex sounds are just embarrassing and not sexy at all.

what a woman making a puddle after holding it in too long is not sexy

Just as long as we're together...just an over long 'hey look how many instruments I can play' song.

P has his genius cheapened there imho

seanp said:

How dare you even come for BATDANCE. The song is a pure masterpiece.

Ditto.

The only song that comes to mind is "Just as Long as Were Together". But that was a very young Prince, so I could see he didnt exactly know how to keep it intricate. I personally love every Prince song thats long, shows his musicle prowess, which is what makes the man and seperates him from the average.

Purple Rain Live in Concert

Mandingo said:

The long Version of "Sexy Dancer" @ 7:18 couldn't have lasted long enough 4 me! It is complete one man band "MASTERPIECE"..........

To each his own but most of these examples of songs that are too long are ridiculous. Crystal Ball, Cloreen Baconskin, Automatic,All the Critics (have you ever heard the edit, it has nothing on the album version), She's Always in My Hair, Batdance, Holy River (Thats not even that long to begin with). If you don't like "Batdance,"Holy River" or "In this Bed" fine. Thats your opinion and taste but you wouldn't like the those tracks anyways if they were 3 minutes or 5 minutes.

"Ol Skool Company", "Come"(interesting but overdone. I do like the track. Though, Come #2 works the best of the versions of the song),"Menstrual Cycle", "2045:Radical Man", "Temptation""Northside", the incredibly boring (IMHO) "Friend Mother Sister" way over stays it's welcome.Those are more astute examples.

As for the unreleased tracks. The close to 9 minute "Flow", the three 10 minute versions of Soul Psycodelicide , the 10 minute plus take of "We Can Funk" (George Clinton heavy version) simply because those versions just don't work and they just meander but for the wrong reasons. At the least "SP" version #1 with the snippets of other "GB" tracks is the most interesting of the long versions. The finalized version of "Soul Psychodelicide" which clocks in close to six minutes is the best sudio attempt at it. It's a great concept but it just never really worked to be an album worthy track. "The Line #2 is just way too much production wise. Version #1 is one of my favorite Lovesexy tracks because it's dark, moody, and matches the sense of urgency that the vocal delivery and lyrics convey. The music and lyrics compliment each other terrifically and presents the idea of faith in god as msyterious as the idea of God itself. But I do appreciate the experiment and I'm glad they do exist. I appreciate the experimental tracks that don't completly work. Prince has always seemed to explore technical and musical mistakes and I have always found that aspect of his work interesting. Understanding the songs for what they are what the original conceptual idea is and taking it for what that is and is supposed to be is an important in understanding those songs. "Crystal Ball" was not created to be a 4 to 5 minute song. Nor the majority of the tracks people have posted. "Crystal Ball" is an incredible song (One of my favorites a matter of fact) and would no way work as a shortend heavily edited track.When he goes into the "Listen to what the Bass say" section is some of the rawest, meanest and funkyest bass he's ever laid down. And please can people stop bitching about the America 12 inch version. Either you like it or you don't.There's some really great guitar parts and ad-libs eo be found. The biggest complaint's about that is that's too repetitve.There's some really great guitar parts and ad-libs.Most people that bitch about that extended version maybe listened to it once or twice. Well alot of the 1985 tracks such as "Love Bizarre"(which is a phenomenal track and one of his best tracks from 1985), "Dance Electric", "Hello", and the unreleased "Heaven" for example are incredibly repetitve as well but nobody bitches about that because they are more viewed as dance tracks where "America" is kind of a different beast but the same idea. "America" would mos def make it in my list of top 10 favorite 12 inches. It was ballsy when it came out and still is today. "America" is a great groove and to me it works that it just rides out with different guitar solo's and parts.He's been doing that since the since the "Controversy" era. It's part of the charm of those songs. I couln't even imagine the first 3 tracks off of "Controversy" as 4 minute songs. The songs from that era are really about riding out on the groove. And I love those songs for that. "Crystal Ball, "The War" and "The Dopamine Rush Suite" have a completly different approach than the above aforementioned songs simply because there's passages in those tracks that take a 90 degree turn which emcompass different musical ideas which add to the sum of it's whole.

Big Chick

"Security Ensuring Thee"

ps

If you don't like these long tracks you always have 20Ten to listen to. One of Prince's shortest albums.

[Edited 1/15/14 17:57pm]

DecaturStone said:

1) America is entirely too long. It doesn't really change much. Really BORING

2) Purple Rain on the LP the violins were not needed

3) Temptation starts out cool then the drama scene that ends it DRRAAGGGSSSSSSSS

Just those I don't mind the rest

Just the ideal of the band jamming in the studio, I love America all versions

Purple Rain, noooo, the violins are the completion of the package. When I hear the 83 1st Ave live version, it's what I wish was included as the chills went over the crowd and they cheered and beat their tamborines

Temptation, yes, it drags

The extended version of "Tangerine" on Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic. The original version is one of my favorites--but there is absolutely no need for that tacked on bit. Yeah, I know--it's still a short song even with it. But it's exactly the right length on Un2, and nothing interesting if added by the coda.

Mandingo said:

databank said:

Of ALL the songs ever composed by P you had to name these 2!!!! I just CAN'T believe I've read what I've read!!!! 2 of P's most daring musical experiments and they're... too long!

Basically anything that's not a 3 minutes radio formatted pop song isn't to your taste, that's what you're saying? And Wagner's Tetralogy should be condensed in a 45mn album while we're at it, shouldn't it?

Batdance has actually been edited quite intensively (the original was 8 or 10 mn) and everything that's been kept has been kept for a reason. As for Crystal Ball I just... well... don't know what to say... You're killing me dude...

One advice. Burn your radio. Burn your TV. Go to an indy record store and start listening to real music ^^

Peace

[Edited 1/15/14 8:11am]

beautifulstrange kicks crystal ball's ass then fucks it without a rubber and doesnt even call it after. Crystal ball srarts off well but rhen gets messy n confused

No it doesn't. It does to your ears because they are uneducated, the same way George Clinton's R&B Skeletons In The Closet, which was my first glimpse of Clinton's work, sounded like a confusing mess to me when I was 15 and bought it, until I understood the logic of its structures and realized how brilliant it was. You would probably find any classical music or free jazz messy and confused as well (I'd love to see your face listening to the 20+ minutes long jams on Miles' Bitches Brew!) but that would be your lack of musical education as well.

Crystal Ball has a very strong internal logic, a very cohesive progression of events and very strong narrative qualities, it's certainly neither messy nor confused.

Uneducated ears hear what they're not familiar with as being messy and confused because it doesn't fit any familiar pattern and they don't understand the logic. Appreciation of works of art and intellectual reasoning isn't a spontaneous thing, it gets education and practice. You have been snowed under pop, rock and rap songs all your life thru TV and radio so you developped an understanding of these genres' patterns and logic, and when you hear something different you think it makes no sense because you don't speak the language. Open your mind and learn the language, you will realize it makes a lot of sense, just as much as anything you're already familiar with. And then try Chinese opera and see how you feel about it

"The War"!

DecaturStone said:

3) Temptation starts out cool then the drama scene that ends it DRRAAGGGSSSSSSSS

Just those I don't mind the rest

I find the conversation scene in the end ruins it for me-I love the song and I just skip that part. Music is a journey-if that's the journey Prince put on vinyl so be it. No complaints here.

BigChick said:

To each his own but most of these examples of songs that are too long are ridiculous. Crystal Ball, Cloreen Baconskin, Automatic,All the Critics (have you ever heard the edit, it has nothing on the album version), She's Always in My Hair, Batdance, Holy River (Thats not even that long to begin with). If you don't like "Batdance,"Holy River" or "In this Bed" fine. Thats your opinion and taste but you wouldn't like the those tracks anyways if they were 3 minutes or 5 minutes.

"Ol Skool Company", "Come"(interesting but overdone. I do like the track. Though, Come #2 works the best of the versions of the song),"Menstrual Cycle", "2045:Radical Man", "Temptation""Northside", the incredibly boring (IMHO) "Friend Mother Sister" way over stays it's welcome.Those are more astute examples.

As for the unreleased tracks. The close to 9 minute "Flow", the three 10 minute versions of Soul Psycodelicide , the 10 minute plus take of "We Can Funk" (George Clinton heavy version) simply because those versions just don't work and they just meander but for the wrong reasons. At the least "SP" version #1 with the snippets of other "GB" tracks is the most interesting of the long versions. The finalized version of "Soul Psychodelicide" which clocks in close to six minutes is the best sudio attempt at it. It's a great concept but it just never really worked to be an album worthy track. "The Line #2 is just way too much production wise. Version #1 is one of my favorite Lovesexy tracks because it's dark, moody, and matches the sense of urgency that the vocal delivery and lyrics convey. The music and lyrics compliment each other terrifically and presents the idea of faith in god as msyterious as the idea of God itself. But I do appreciate the experiment and I'm glad they do exist. I appreciate the experimental tracks that don't completly work. Prince has always seemed to explore technical and musical mistakes and I have always found that aspect of his work interesting. Understanding the songs for what they are what the original conceptual idea is and taking it for what that is and is supposed to be is an important in understanding those songs. "Crystal Ball" was not created to be a 4 to 5 minute song. Nor the majority of the tracks people have posted. "Crystal Ball" is an incredible song (One of my favorites a matter of fact) and would no way work as a shortend heavily edited track.When he goes into the "Listen to what the Bass say" section is some of the rawest, meanest and funkyest bass he's ever laid down. And please can people stop bitching about the America 12 inch version. Either you like it or you don't.There's some really great guitar parts and ad-libs eo be found. The biggest complaint's about that is that's too repetitve.There's some really great guitar parts and ad-libs.Most people that bitch about that extended version maybe listened to it once or twice. Well alot of the 1985 tracks such as "Love Bizarre"(which is a phenomenal track and one of his best tracks from 1985), "Dance Electric", "Hello", and the unreleased "Heaven" for example are incredibly repetitve as well but nobody bitches about that because they are more viewed as dance tracks where "America" is kind of a different beast but the same idea. "America" would mos def make it in my list of top 10 favorite 12 inches. It was ballsy when it came out and still is today. "America" is a great groove and to me it works that it just rides out with different guitar solo's and parts.He's been doing that since the since the "Controversy" era. It's part of the charm of those songs. I couln't even imagine the first 3 tracks off of "Controversy" as 4 minute songs. The songs from that era are really about riding out on the groove. And I love those songs for that. "Crystal Ball, "The War" and "The Dopamine Rush Suite" have a completly different approach than the above aforementioned songs simply because there's passages in those tracks that take a 90 degree turn which emcompass different musical ideas which add to the sum of it's whole.

Big Chick

"Security Ensuring Thee"

ps

If you don't like these long tracks you always have 20Ten to listen to. One of Prince's shortest albums.

[Edited 1/15/14 17:57pm]

I'm so with u on The Line. The original will always be my darling for exactly the same reasons you mention. Now I really dig the second version too because I appreciate that Prince managed to turn a very intimate, kinda dark, personal song into a group happy party song. I mean it's the same song, the same basic recording even, and still it's like you have 2 totally different jams that convey very different things, it's quite awesome!

I also appreciate Prince's experiments even when they're half failed. People tend to want a perfect product. I want to see a creative process in action. I enjoy the mistakes and hesitations just as much as the most brilliant ideas.

I also agree with what you say about people not really listening to the music. How many times did I read people here say "Oh I really hate this Prince album, I listened to it once when released 12 years ago and never listened to it again". How can you have such a definitive opinion about an album after one listen? This is ridiculous! Most people will have listened to that extended America 12'' once or twice while doing the dishes or doing God knows what else, they actually have no idea of what's happening in that song because if you listen to it once, not being focused, you just hear a repetitive groove and nothing happening. Now if you'll take the time to sit down, close your eyes and really listen you'll realize that actually during these 21 minutes they're constantly doing things, either individually or together, that these 21 minutes are filled with micro-events that keep coming one after each other.

My opinion in the end is that most people consume music like anything else. They don't really try to understand what's happening: it's just a very immediate feeling of "i like it" or "it's boring" and they believe this instinctive feeling to be a definitive appreciation of the true value of a work of art when it's just... them. Now I understand these people have a job, a family, etc. They don't want to take the time to listen to the music, they have other things to do, so just hearing it is fine with them, it's just a hobby. Fine, but then let's be honest about it and stop having people who have no clue what they're talking about making definitive statements.

When I read that Crystal Ball should have been edited down to 3:30 or 4:00 it says everything: whoever thinks that has no bloody clue about what music is about in the first place

To illustrate my thinking I'd say y'all go and listen to this and tell me how u feel about it: http://www.youtube.com/wa...2kL4VKiAHs

It's Chinese opera. For most Western ears it sounds like a horrible, chaotic mess played by people on drugs. Actually it's a highly codified and well-though form of music, that's developped over centuries, has been the subject of numerous litterate studies, obeys to very strict rules, has an very strong internal cohesive system and that, for educated ears, not only has that strong internal logic but also tells many things to the listener who can decode the musical language (I'm not even talking about understanding the lyrics in Chinese). In China some of these operas are considered masterpieces by the intellectual elites just as Mozart's operas are in the West.

Now y'all can go listen to that: http://www.youtube.com/wa...wYXEY4htDA

It's an Indian raga, i.e. classical indian music. It takes YEARS for a musician to master the mathematic systems that music's rhythms are built on, let alone being able to play an instrument and improvize with it properly. It's once again the fruit of hundreds of years of a strong litterate tradition, it obeys to strict laws inside which a great deal of room is left to each musician's own creativity, and for whoever's familiar with it an hour of that music is a whole musical journey, taking you to different stories and states of mind. Indian educated people litterally worship their greatest classical musicians as beings skilled geniuses who devoted their lifetime to the practice and study of this beautiful form of art.

Now I'm quite sure every one here will listen to both these videos and say after 2 minutes that it's unlistenable "shit", that it "sucks", that it's "boring", that "nothing happens" and that it's "confusing" and "messy" while actually they just won't have a fucking clue what it's about nor the musical education that'd allow them to understand and appreciate these 2 pieces of music.

Incidentally it works the other way 'round. Most of these people who'll tell you that pop, rock, electronica and other "modern" music suck and that only classical and jazz is good music don't have a bloody clue because they've never trained their ears to appreciate it. My dad is totally uneducated when it comes to anything but jazz and classical: he couldn't make the difference between a Ke$ha album and a Björk album: to him both records would be stupid "boom-boom" music

Saviour off Emancipation. Its perfect up to the shrieking, but then it just gets self indulgent and carried away. Its still great

Same with automatic - pure genius but just noodles on and on...

Generally if I notice a song goes on and on, it means I like it as if it was crap I would not listen to 3 or 4 minutes before I decided it was mythering on and on.

Totally disagree about the Holy River, the guitar part at the end is perfect, its a come down from the emotional vocals in the middle. Batdance is very average full stop and numerous edits of it exist anyway. I have about 4 different single formats of it for some reason and don't even like it very much, but it was a huge hit, so someone did.

Come, at 11 minutes 13 seconds, is too long. It would have been a better start, to the album of the same name, had it been half the length.

I also wouldn't have followed it up with Space, as the vibe is too similar. The album has some decent stuff on it, but it takes nearly 20 minutes to get warmed up.

luv4u said:

America and I Would Die For You.