Spanky said:

This last Tuesday 6/23 on the Howard Stern show Howard had a whole segment where he talked about Prince and how nobody makes good soundtracks any more. He ranted about how great the Batman soundtrack was literally calling it the greatest soundtrack ever and how music is just not as good as it used to be. Then he played most of "Batdance" and praised it and all of its cool uses of dialogue from the movie and the interesting changes in tempo and general funkiness. You can tell from his tone that he just loved that song and was absolutely not bull shitting. It's good to know that even Howard knows Genius when he hears it. And it made me re-appreciate what a great song and soundtrack that really was. It's on-demand on Sirius. Give his take on Batdance a listen.

Howard Stern must not have listened to this album: orchestral arrangements, rich percussion, topical lyrics and one of the finest recorded documents of Black American Music.

I haven't seen/heard Super Fly so I can't comment, but Batman is a songtrack, not a soundtrack; and most of the songs aren't even in the film.

even better than Purple Rain?

He's gone on a rave about the Batman soundtrack before. I remember him specifically mentioning The Future and Electric Chair. I wonder what it is about this particular soundtrack, and how he feels about Prince's other ones.

Good for Stern. We have SUCH different standards that P gets held to... I guess part of it is unavoidable, but if a young new artist debuted AOA (or 3121 or a one-disc of LOTUS edited by the label), everybody would be falling over themselves to praise it as the work of a genius that is going to change pop music. Basically, it would be an awesome P imitation with some modern touches that is musically head & shoulders beyond almost anything out there. I'd picture similar reception/success to Bruno Mars, but people understanding that the musicianship is just at a higher level. The problem is Prince's competition is "well, him in the past." That, and 60-year-old pop stars aren't really a thing.

BATMAN is almost the same damn situation (minus the age factor, but probably even more of an issue with "oversaturation" ... and really age is becoming a significant issue at this point. Despite P's brief early 90s commercial comeback, which featured a new image in many ways and some more "adult" songs like Diamonds and Pearls and Cream, which both played well with older audiences, his original megastar run as a young "rude boy" musical-genius had really ended by this point for the ever-fickle critics and fans... for a guy who was a megastar from about 23-28, hitting 30 -- as stupid as that sounds -- can be a problem in pop music.)

There is so much that is so fucking good on that CD, but it ain't Purple Rain or Lovsexy or SOTT and people were disappointed because of the image and standard P had built up for himself. After basically making awesome albums from 80-88, he got a little more inconsistent. (I think a big part of this, honestly, was that he could just put together these killer 8-9 track recordings and even when he made 1999 or SOTT he knew the rhythm of how to do it so it was just like putting together a couple of these albums he was used to. When the standard suddenly changed with the advent of the CD to a 13-15-track-ish recording, we consistently got 8-9 great tracks up there with anything from before and some stuff that just didn't work... what a shame). Of course, with BATMAN, he still had that smaller canvas he had mastered so well, but I think the soundtrack format and the changing face of music led him to make a couple of poor decisions, there was the controversy over the Elfman "real" soundtrack and... honestly... we don't keep our pop stars long in this country and P had been killing it for damn near a decade, so people were just getting ready for the fall. Stupid, but how it is. So, he makes a 8.5/10 instead of a 10/10 and folks start acting like he made freaking "Party All The Time: The New Master" Come on!!!

First off, just because I have to get this off my chest, people talk about LEMON CRUSH like its some abomination, and since I hadn't listened to it in a bit and remembered it as fun and funky and a little silly, I thought I'd better give it a fresh listen... and it's a hell of a good song that's a little specific to the era stylistically and, yeah, it is lyrically simplistic (not awful, just simplistic), but it's still reall good. If it had been a single, it would have been one of the best singles of the year. P has NEVER been a great lyricist and I have no idea why people bring up really good songs with ok lyrics as an argument against him... I get it if the lyrics are freaking awful (like "Animal Kingdom" or whatever... but otherwise, ya'll know what you're getting... come on). I know there has to be a Leonard Cohen board and a Joni board and a Dylan board somewhere... and they're all 100% GREAT artists who blow P out of the water lyrically... so if you're so into lyrics, great lyricists exist and can be followed. P is first and foremost a mindblowing musician... it's a different thing... a different core. P's all-time greatest moment as an artist, for fuck's sake, is very likely COVERING a Temptations song at an aftershow in The Hague in 1988. Because he can take something great and use his musicianship and feeling and just make it out of this world unforgettable.

So... yeah, P is an amazing musician but a mediocre-to-above-average (during his best moments) lyricist. He's still my favorite musican ever... I'm a "music over lyrics" guy. Sure, both at an elite blow-you-away level would be great, but this is the real world and gimme the music.

The Future (underrated), Batdance (so funky and original and how did he make THAT a #1 hit... wow... not sure anything that non-mainstream that was truly musically innovative and not just a weird novelty has hit #1 since!), Vicki Waiting (best song on the album, shame it has the whole "Vicki" character tied into it, as it's a beautiful song that would be a legit classic and big hit with more broadly appealing lyrics and a single release imo), Partyman was a fun, funky modest hit... and songs like Lemon Crush and Electric Chair fit the mood of the album and do their thang. Scandalous seems well-received althoguh it isn't my fav sort of P song (I'm not that into the long "seduction" ballads with all the riffs and vocal show-offs... except for the notable exception of "The Beautiful Ones," which is a heartbreaking masterpiece, I'd prob prefer most of P's catalog without this sort of song) and then there's Trust (mediocre, but whatever... we're almost done) and Arms of Orion (gets too much flack on this board... it's a MOR ballad done pretty well... kinda bland and the album would likely be better with a replacement song, but it's nothing shameful or -- like people act on this board -- some sort of career low point).

And add all of that up... I wouldn't be shocked if it BATMAN was the best CD made that year (I haven't looked through critics lists... so I also wouldn't be shocked if it's like the 6th bet of the year either... just saying it's still really good P and it's up there... as long as you don't compare it to his best work in some sort of epic battle in one's fucking head).

End rant... lol.

[Edited 6/29/15 3:50am]

bashraka said:

Charlie Wilson (formerly of the Gap Band, who actually dissed Prince) has a better career now than in the 80's. So you can't blame age at all.

NOW Charlie is no where near the level of Prince but Charlie knows what the masses wanna hear.

I'm glad Stern likes it, but I have to disagree. It's not even the greatest Prince soundtrack of all time, let alone the best soundtrack ever made.

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[img:$uid]http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/8e711632ff94e5cd6dff80a0c3d8b896404dbbdf.jpg[/img:$uid]

.

[img:$uid]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M_08_kQpuoA/T7Py_0BF84I/AAAAAAAAA5Q/aLsjukYCyXg/s320/Prince+Parade.jpg[/img:$uid]

Pentacle said:

I haven't seen/heard Super Fly so I can't comment, but Batman is a songtrack, not a soundtrack; and most of the songs aren't even in the film.

Wrong:

A) Songtrack is a made up word - to my knowledge, only the Beatles have ever used it, for Yellow Submarine.

B) The official album title, as noted on the spine, is "Batman Motion Picture Soundtrack"

bashraka said:

Spanky said:

This last Tuesday 6/23 on the Howard Stern show Howard had a whole segment where he talked about Prince and how nobody makes good soundtracks any more. He ranted about how great the Batman soundtrack was literally calling it the greatest soundtrack ever and how music is just not as good as it used to be. Then he played most of "Batdance" and praised it and all of its cool uses of dialogue from the movie and the interesting changes in tempo and general funkiness. You can tell from his tone that he just loved that song and was absolutely not bull shitting. It's good to know that even Howard knows Genius when he hears it. And it made me re-appreciate what a great song and soundtrack that really was. It's on-demand on Sirius. Give his take on Batdance a listen.

Howard Stern must not have listened to this album: orchestral arrangements, rich percussion, topical lyrics and one of the finest recorded documents of Black American Music.

TwiliteKid said:

Pentacle said:

I haven't seen/heard Super Fly so I can't comment, but Batman is a songtrack, not a soundtrack; and most of the songs aren't even in the film.

Wrong:

A) Songtrack is a made up word - to my knowledge, only the Beatles have ever used it, for Yellow Submarine.

B) The official album title, as noted on the spine, is "Batman Motion Picture Soundtrack"

I have hundreds of soundtracks, and they do not include Pulp Fiction, Furious 7, or Bridget Jones's Diary.

As an avid soundtrack collector that started in the 70's it is really bad how a collection of songs came to be known as the soundtrack to a movie, when in fact that term used to refer to the score or music that accompanied the action and emotion of the movie. In a musical like The Sound of Music or Grease, this does apply to songs.

Prince made an album that is loosely tied to the movie, and the songs barely appear in the movie at all outside of Partyman... right? Maybe a bit of "Trust" is thrown in too.

Scandalous is played for the end credits.

I'd say the Prince album is really an album inspired by Batman the movie, whereas the soundtrack is by Danny Elfan.

DecaturStone said:

Charlie Wilson (formerly of the Gap Band, who actually dissed Prince) has a better career now than in the 80's. So you can't blame age at all.

NOW Charlie is no where near the level of Prince but Charlie knows what the masses wanna hear.

I prefer an artist...........as opposed 2 a people pleaser.

ufoclub said:

As an avid soundtrack collector that started in the 70's it is really bad how a collection of songs came to be known as the soundtrack to a movie, when in fact that term used to refer to the score or music that accompanied the action and emotion of the movie. In a musical like The Sound of Music or Grease, this does apply to songs.

Prince made an album that is loosely tied to the movie, and the songs barely appear in the movie at all outside of Partyman... right? Maybe a bit of "Trust" is thrown in too.

Scandalous is played for the end credits.

I'd say the Prince album is really an album inspired by Batman the movie, whereas the soundtrack is by Danny Elfan.

Yes, exactly.

bashraka said:

warning2all said:

bashraka said:

Howard Stern must not have listened to this album: orchestral arrangements, rich percussion, topical lyrics and one of the finest recorded documents of Black American Music.

One of the best albums, let alone soundtracks I have ever had the pleasure to hear

There is a deluxe version of this with alt takes.

Graycap23 said:

warning2all said:

bashraka said: One of the best albums, let alone soundtracks I have ever had the pleasure to hear

There is a deluxe version of this with alt takes.

Full version of "Junkie Chase" makes the price of the deluxe version worth it.

DecaturStone said:

Charlie Wilson (formerly of the Gap Band, who actually dissed Prince) has a better career now than in the 80's. So you can't blame age at all.

NOW Charlie is no where near the level of Prince but Charlie knows what the masses wanna hear.

!!!!!!

Graycap23 said:

warning2all said:

bashraka said: One of the best albums, let alone soundtracks I have ever had the pleasure to hear

There is a deluxe version of this with alt takes.

Proud owner

Doozer said:

babynoz said:

bashraka said:

Howard Stern must not have listened to this album: orchestral arrangements, rich percussion, topical lyrics and one of the finest recorded documents of Black American Music.

Gladys Knight and the Pips' "Claudine" soundtrack (also written by Curtis) could give "Superfly" a run for it's money, but yeah...you got it. (I would post the "Claudine" album cover, but for some reason I cant post pictures)

HuMpThAnG said:

Graycap23 said:

There is a deluxe version of this with alt takes.

Proud owner

Me too,

UncleJam said:

babynoz said:

Gladys Knight and the Pips' "Claudine" soundtrack (also written by Curtis) could give "Superfly" a run for it's money, but yeah...you got it. (I would post the "Claudine" album cover, but for some reason I cant post pictures)

Oooh, haven't listened to that one in a long while. Now's a good time to do just that.

Pentacle said:

TwiliteKid said:

But that's just you being a stickler - you'd prefer the word soundtrack be reserved for scores, but it's not. Denying it doesn't make it so

Of course. But the revolution has got to start somewhere!

And for the real stickler the soundtrack comprises all the sounds in the released movie, live, foley/effects, dialogue, score.

LewArcher said:

Good for Stern. We have SUCH different standards that P gets held to... I guess part of it is unavoidable, but if a young new artist debuted AOA (or 3121 or a one-disc of LOTUS edited by the label), everybody would be falling over themselves to praise it as the work of a genius that is going to change pop music.

.

No, sane people would point out it is derivative crap.

BartVanHemelen said:

LewArcher said:

Good for Stern. We have SUCH different standards that P gets held to... I guess part of it is unavoidable, but if a young new artist debuted AOA (or 3121 or a one-disc of LOTUS edited by the label), everybody would be falling over themselves to praise it as the work of a genius that is going to change pop music.

.

No, sane people would point out it is derivative crap.

Just reporting what Stern said. It was so random as nobody in the main stream discusses the fucking 1989 Batman Soundtrack ever. I disagree of course, Purple Rain kicks its ass, but the fact that out of the blue I start hearing Batdance banging through my speakers and Stern starts lavishing all this praise on the track, the soundtrack, and Prince made me smile.

I had to share with my fellow orgers.

Cheers!