Prince with Madonna : worst song on her album

Prince with Kate Bush : The version without him is better.. didn't like the one with him

Prince with Chaka : forgettable

Prince with Stevie. : underwhelming

Prince with Miles : not good

Prince with Chuck D : terrible

Prince with Q tip : terrible

Prince with Doug E Fresh : no comment

Prince with Eve : pointless

Prince with Larry Graham or Maceo Parker : boring

Prince with No Doubt : Waiting Room is nice..don't care about the other one

Prince with Janelle : Not bad

All N ALL can't really say he's had much success collaborating with other artists

[Edited 10/9/15 8:23am]

That's because he doesn't actually collaborate. He sends folks a guide track with his vocal and tells them to sing it that way OR folks send him a trrack and they let him do whatever he wants. He's said as much. Who is he to tell Miles what to play? That's Prince's take on it. Who is Ani DiFranco to tell Prince that she doesn't like his back ground vocals? Prince was undoubtedly in the studio with Stevie, but Stevie is probably the omly person Prince would take direction from. I think a more accurate statement would be that Prince's collaborations with other are almost non-existant.

steakfinger said:

That's because he doesn't actually collaborate. He sends folks a guide track with his vocal and tells them to sing it that way OR folks send him a trrack and they let him do whatever he wants. He's said as much. Who is he to tell Miles what to play? That's Prince's take on it. Who is Ani DiFranco to tell Prince that she doesn't like his back ground vocals? Prince was undoubtedly in the studio with Stevie, but Stevie is probably the omly person Prince would take direction from. I think a more accurate statement would be that Prince's collaborations with other are almost non-existant.

You would still expect him to come up with something better though..

The song with Miles.. i don't think anything could have saved that.. not even Miles' playing

What kind of song did Prince get legendary hiphop artist Q-tip into..

and the songs that he wrote for Chaka.. can't even remember one

[Edited 9/12/15 9:01am]

This could mean that Prince should not collaborate to get his best work out. He became great pretty much on his own. The best work is from Prince working alone.

donnyenglish said:

Andy Allo was exceptional. Obviously, The Time and Sheila E. were very good. But I agree, his legacy is tarnished when it comes to collaborations with both established and new talent. Glaring stain on an otherwise brilliant career.

they don't really count though. They are artists he built nearly from the grown up.. they are like extensions of him.. It hasn't worked too well for Prince with the established artists though as u mentioned

You forgot the one with Ani Difranco which i don't really care about

I'm not sure how much involvement he had in Chaka's version of "Pain," but I love that to death.

FunkyD said:

Prince with Madonna : worse song on her album

I disagree."Love Song" is a good song.

purpleshadow said:

You forgot the one with Ani Difranco which i don't really care about

Thats actually probably the only Ani track that I can tolerate. Never been a fan of her music tbh..

Both Waiting Room and So far So Pleased are good collaborations for Prince..

I don't know how you're defining "collabo". Stand Back seemsed to work out. Manic Monday seemed ok. I have no issues with "Bang Bang". Sugar Walls didn't disappear. I know there are others, but I just don't want to put the energy into it right now.

[Edited 9/12/15 19:36pm]

Plus I have zero problems with the Miles Davis work.

savvy said:

Plus I have zero problems with the Miles Davis work.

Eric Leeds on “Can I Play With U?”

TLM: “Can I Play With U?” was rejected by Prince and pulled from Miles’s upcoming album.

EL: I really didn’t have that much opinion of “Can I Play With U?”. I don’t really know what Prince’s views were, other than he was excited about sending it to Miles. It was two or three months later that Miles had put his trumpet on it and he got it back. Prince gave me a cassette of it, but I don’t remember Prince and me sitting and listening to it together. I played it a couple of times and other than the fact that “Oh my God. I’m hearing my saxophone and Miles’s trumpet on the same song,” the music really didn’t do that much for me. And of course years later after Miles had died, Warner Brothers wanted to use that song and Prince decided not to let them use it. I am in complete agreement with Prince on that because now I listen to it and I think Miles didn’t do anything on it that would do him justice. And the track really wasn’t that great – it was not a particularly good Prince track. I’ve never had any subsequent discussions with him about it, but the fact that he’s not going to let it be used, that’s his statement that the music wasn’t any good – ‘it doesn’t do Miles or me any justice and let’s let this one gather dust in the vaults’.

[Edited 9/13/15 8:46am]

SoulAlive said:

FunkyD said:

Prince with Madonna : worse song on her album

I disagree."Love Song" is a good song.

This song was a letdown to a lot of folks.. You got Madonna and Prince at the height of their careers on this song.. it simply didn't live up to the potential if you ask me

[Edited 9/13/15 8:54am]

Why start the thread title with "let's be honest"? It makes it sound like anyone disagreeing with the OP is being dishonest.

databank said:

Why start the thread title with "let's be honest"? It makes it sound like anyone disagreeing with the OP is being dishonest.

alright.. i'll edit it out

[Edited 9/13/15 9:54am]

FunkyD said:

databank said:

Why start the thread title with "let's be honest"? It makes it sound like anyone disagreeing with the OP is being dishonest.

alright.. i'll edit it out

[Edited 9/13/15 9:54am]

Thx

.

And yeah many have been disappointments if you expected the moon.

But it's often the case. The collaboration albums between Laswell and Sakamoto, and Laswell and Hosono for example, should have been my favorite albums ever and were quite disappointing in the end. Well, if fact not that bad: just not the masterpieces I expected because I expected the moon

.

I totally dig P's albums with Larry and Chaka though, particulartly the Chaka one

databank said:

FunkyD said:

alright.. i'll edit it out

[Edited 9/13/15 9:54am]

Thx

.

And yeah many have been disappointments if you expected the moon.

But it's often the case. The collaboration albums between Laswell and Sakamoto, and Laswell and Hosono for example, should have been my favorite albums ever and were quite disappointing in the end. Well, if fact not that bad: just not the masterpieces I expected because I expected the moon

.

I totally dig P's albums with Larry and Chaka though, particulartly the Chaka one

to each his own..

i compare a lot of the Prince collabos to the Stevie Wonder MJ song on Bad which wasn't really good.. and Prince has actually made much worse than that as for as collabos go..

but even they got great-classic songs with other artists

Prince has attempted so many times to work with great artists and fell flat most times imo.

[Edited 9/13/15 11:45am]

FunkyD said:

databank said:

Thx

.

And yeah many have been disappointments if you expected the moon.

But it's often the case. The collaboration albums between Laswell and Sakamoto, and Laswell and Hosono for example, should have been my favorite albums ever and were quite disappointing in the end. Well, if fact not that bad: just not the masterpieces I expectedbecause I expected the moon

.

I totally dig P's albums with Larry and Chaka though, particulartly the Chaka one

to each his own..

i compare a lot of the Prince collabos to the Stevie Wonder MJ song on Bad which wasn't very good.. and Prince has actually made much worse than that as for as collabos go..

but even they got great-classic songs with other artists

Prince has attempted so many times to work with great artists and fell flat most times imo.

[Edited 9/13/15 11:28am]

Thing is, as pointed above, in most cases it wasn't Prince saying "hey let's lock ourselves in a studio for 48 hours and see what happens when our geniuses clash", it was mostly "hey, send me ur track and I'll pee on it" or " I'll send u my track and u can pee on it".

It worked well in some cases, such as George Clinton's Paradigm IMHO, it's as great as their previous effort (The Big Pump) was lame. I also do not share your opinion regarding Q-Tip, Chuck D and Doug's guest raps, which I thought were perfect, and I actually think Love Song is one of the strongest tracks on Like A Prayer despite not being a song I particularly fancy, and I like the Kete Bush song more than its princeless demo, but we could debate about such or such song forever, as u say "to each his own", it doesn't really matter.

.

The 2 Wonder/Jackson collabs u quote are good examples: 2 great talents working together do not necessarily mean that it'll result in the cumulation of their respective atelent and provide the listener with something that equals their respective best works.

.

I'd say by definition there's often an artificial dimention to it.

In some cases 2 artists really have a common vision or project for a song, tour or album, something they spend time building on together.

But often it's just more like a buddy thing: "I dig your shit, u dig my shit, let's have u guest on one of my tracks or jam one of these days and make a song" or something like that. It's cool, but it's not necessarily supposed to be more than cool nor to be the vehicle for an artistic vision.

Prince alone in his studio, or with musicians he works with all day long, is more likely to produce a strong track than with someone who's a complete stranger to him.

I love them all. They are what they are, worrying about it now isn't going to change anything. I don't know why people waste their time fretting over what could or might have been... can't change anything even in your own life, much less someone else's. It's a recipe for perpetual disappointment and regret, useless depleting nonsense. The overwhelming tide of negative crap being spewed around here is depressing.

I think Can I Play With U is great. I also really like So Far So Pleased but for some reason I seem to be in a minority with that one

KingSausage said:

Some of Prince's guest appearances on Josh Welton's album aren't all that bad.

I've always wondered about this.Does this mean that he sent Sheena Easton a tape of "Sugar Walls" with his vocals on it? is there a tape of "Nasty Girl" with his vocals on it? It would be fun to hear that,lol

steakfinger said:

That's because he doesn't actually collaborate. He sends folks a guide track with his vocal and tells them to sing it that way

databank said:

FunkyD said:

to each his own..

i compare a lot of the Prince collabos to the Stevie Wonder MJ song on Bad which wasn't very good.. and Prince has actually made much worse than that as for as collabos go..

but even they got great-classic songs with other artists

Prince has attempted so many times to work with great artists and fell flat most times imo.

[Edited 9/13/15 11:28am]

Thing is, as pointed above, in most cases it wasn't Prince saying "hey let's lock ourselves in a studio for 48 hours and see what happens when our geniuses clash", it was mostly "hey, send me ur track and I'll pee on it" or " I'll send u my track and u can pee on it".

It worked well in some cases, such as George Clinton's Paradigm IMHO, it's as great as their previous effort (The Big Pump) was lame. I also do not share your opinion regarding Q-Tip, Chuck D and Doug's guest raps, which I thought were perfect, and I actually think Love Song is one of the strongest tracks on Like A Prayer despite not being a song I particularly fancy, and I like the Kete Bush song more than its princeless demo, but we could debate about such or such song forever, as u say "to each his own", it doesn't really matter.

.

The 2 Wonder/Jackson collabs u quote are good examples: 2 great talents working together do not necessarily mean that it'll result in the cumulation of their respective atelent and provide the listener with something that equals their respective best works.

.

I'd say by definition there's often an artificial dimention to it.

In some cases 2 artists really have a common vision or project for a song, tour or album, something they spend time building on together.

But often it's just more like a buddy thing: "I dig your shit, u dig my shit, let's have u guest on one of my tracks or jam one of these days and make a song" or something like that. It's cool, but it's not necessarily supposed to be more than cool nor to be the vehicle for an artistic vision.

Prince alone in his studio, or with musicians he works with all day long, is more likely to produce a strong track than with someone who's a complete stranger to him.

I get that but with Prince as a songwriter having some artists in mind for songs he had them in you would expect him to come up with something better and noteworthy..

These songs you mentioned don't really get much praise among fans..

and speaking of Q-tip, When i listen to what he did with D'angelo, Norah Jones or Ralphael Saadiq. it sounds much better than most stuff Prince did with other artists imo. He knew he was working with some great talents and got something out of them

[Edited 9/13/15 14:27pm]

FunkyD said:

databank said:

Thing is, as pointed above, in most cases it wasn't Prince saying "hey let's lock ourselves in a studio for 48 hours and see what happens when our geniuses clash", it was mostly "hey, send me ur track and I'll pee on it" or " I'll send u my track and u can pee on it".

It worked well in some cases, such as George Clinton's Paradigm IMHO, it's as great as their previous effort (The Big Pump) was lame. I also do not share your opinion regarding Q-Tip, Chuck D and Doug's guest raps, which I thought were perfect, and I actually think Love Song is one of the strongest tracks on Like A Prayer despite not being a song I particularly fancy, and I like the Kete Bush song more than its princeless demo, but we could debate about such or such song forever, as u say "to each his own", it doesn't really matter.

.

The 2 Wonder/Jackson collabs u quote are good examples: 2 great talents working together do not necessarily mean that it'll result in the cumulation of their respective atelent and provide the listener with something that equals their respective best works.

.

I'd say by definition there's often an artificial dimention to it.

In some cases 2 artists really have a common vision or project for a song, tour or album, something they spend time building on together.

But often it's just more like a buddy thing: "I dig your shit, u dig my shit, let's have u guest on one of my tracks or jam one of these days and make a song" or something like that. It's cool, but it's not necessarily supposed to be more than cool nor to be the vehicle for an artistic vision.

Prince alone in his studio, or with musicians he works with all day long, is more likely to produce a strong track than with someone who's a complete stranger to him.

I get that but with Prince as a songwriter having some artists in mind for songs he had them in you would expect him to come up with something better and noteworthy..

These songs you mentioned don't really get much praise among fans..

and speaking of Q-tip, When i listen to what he did with D'angelo, Norah Jones or Ralphael Saadiq. it sounds much better than most stuff Prince did with other artists imo. He knew he was working with some great talents and got something out of them

[Edited 9/13/15 14:27pm]

Well, for me Paradigm, Push It Up, Undisputed and Chocolate Box are MAJOR grooves. I mean those jams pretty mùch define what both "funk" and "Prince" mean in my dictionnary.

Gonna get called names again for sayin' that but maybe that's cos I ain't no Springsteen/Dylan/McCartney fan. Say what u wanna that would xplain a lot to me