XSX said:

'Sophistication' in the terms we're talking here comes from an artist's frame of mind, not from any of the rock journalists' (and normals') ideas about 'peaks and decline' due to aging etc.
The age aspect is only circumstantial...when you're 20-something, you're opening up to lots of currents in the world, trying to get a grasp of them, trying all of them on for size. The 'linear' progression of life then has it that you settle into what you like and start excluding other things.
This is what's called 'becoming set in your ways' or 'habits'.
As many get to discover, a disturbance in that linear progression of life, like deaths of loved ones, divorces or other 'ends of situations' can put you back into that investigative mode so the idea that the mode is age-related is false. Once again, the fact that many people go through these upheavals and 'reinvent' theit interests, is covered by such cliches as 'life begins at forty' and so on...

Prince is no longer writing sophisticated tunes because his attention is elsewhere...on what might be called 'esoteric' matters (in religious studies) which do not easily make for popular music ('The Rainbow Children' is the case in point here, an album where he really DID put his interests fully into the music and although it's well thought of now, it was once condemned, controversial AND didn't sell)

Music is his 'job' and he can do it well but it's clearly not the EXCESSIVELY all-consuming passion it once was and he's not constantly on the lookout for interesting themes to write about, to push with. He's often, like many peers with long careers, just turning in tunes and parking cliches like 'party' on them. There's no difference to the 'fun' aspect of creating them. What's missing is his once-constant desire to provoke.

You may say that Prince always had his religious 'obsession' and used to manage to combine it with 'sophisticated' artistry but there's another factor: he used to very LONELY in this. He used to make a rod for his own back with that.
And that, seemingly, came to an end with a series of crises toward the end of the Mayte period when he, by his own brief account, thought he was going mad.

After that, he found COMMUNITY and he likes it.

If you imagine what it must have been like to be singularly talented and 'situated' in a 24 hour 'be Prince the star in full regalia and makeup', you might get to WHY Prince likes a community that is, perhaps, best glimpsed in his Arsenio appearances. Arsenio, like many people from a 'Gospel' tradition are friendly and accommodating of a 'clean living' style of community and 'fun' is light-hearted rather than 'sophisticated'. Many in that community are involved also, as Prince is, in stricter scriptural study and their style of community is the means to recognise that without having to browbeat others around that community. It's a necessarily 'limited' arena, whereas the Prince whose absence people are lamenting on this thread was someone who did not BELONG to that voluntary limitation but was engaged in testing it, pushing it.

The truth is that he has accepted the community's limitation of that. He doesn't push anymore but he does still tickle it.

That's what Prince is thinking about ALL the time (possibly less than he had been just now) and he's 'set in his ways'.

To be optimistic, the last couple of years suggest increasing interest in other things but he's still handing off 'the job' to 'helpers' where once he was avowedly a control freak.

There's sophistication in this but it's mostly about time-management and staying 'community-oriented'.

The alternative would be to hook back to an antagonistic position, even one of excessive pride and blatant superiority, a complex whose inverse isn't much comfort when the isolation really bites.

Prince could have ended up dead like Michael Jackson and possibly much younger.
That he found a path which avoided that is cool with me.

It's not easy being a superhero, people

[Edited 10/2/15 2:31am]

[Edited 10/2/15 2:41am]

Well articulated but you have a terribly community-based (and cliched) view of genius with the myth of the lonely artist pushing himself to challenge the world from his fortress of solitude. It's a wonder those socially-inclined Beatles amounted to anything.

It seems to me anyone who wants to claim a deep understanding of "sophistication" should be sophisticated enough to recognize simplistic views of creativity.

PurpleSkipper58 said:

Mintchip said:

what I hear, related to all this, is insecurity.

Thank you Freud..

Angelsoncrack said:

I've still not heard the full entirety of this song yet. Has anyone posted lyrics yet? All I know is that it's got a good reaction from this place so it makes me more eager to hear. Still not got tidal because I can't afford that shit lol

I think it's now available on iTunes, certainly on the UK version and maybe on the other ones as well.

Angelsoncrack said:

I've still not heard the full entirety of this song yet. Has anyone posted lyrics yet? All I know is that it's got a good reaction from this place so it makes me more eager to hear. Still not got tidal because I can't afford that shit lol

You can get a free month trial with Tidal. Or get it on iTunes for £0.79

It's out on iTunes now indeed. So it was exclusive for 4 days? Remind me to cancel my Tidal subscription.. Only "exclusive" track left is Stare. Don't understand why he won't let us buy that one as well.

skipthecharades said:

TheGhostlyNun said:

skipthecharades said:

It's out on iTunes now indeed. So it was exclusive for 4 days? Remind me to cancel my Tidal subscription.. Only "exclusive" track left is Stare. Don't understand why he won't let us buy that one as well.

Stare is also on Spotify.

Yes I know, that's why I added the ""

It's just strange IMO to put it on 2 streaming services and not available as a paid download.

I would be happy to pay for it but he doesn't seems to want my money..

skipthecharades said:

Aerogram said:

XSX said:

'Sophistication' in the terms we're talking here comes from an artist's frame of mind, not from any of the rock journalists' (and normals') ideas about 'peaks and decline' due to aging etc.
The age aspect is only circumstantial...when you're 20-something, you're opening up to lots of currents in the world, trying to get a grasp of them, trying all of them on for size. The 'linear' progression of life then has it that you settle into what you like and start excluding other things.
This is what's called 'becoming set in your ways' or 'habits'.
As many get to discover, a disturbance in that linear progression of life, like deaths of loved ones, divorces or other 'ends of situations' can put you back into that investigative mode so the idea that the mode is age-related is false. Once again, the fact that many people go through these upheavals and 'reinvent' theit interests, is covered by such cliches as 'life begins at forty' and so on...

Prince is no longer writing sophisticated tunes because his attention is elsewhere...on what might be called 'esoteric' matters (in religious studies) which do not easily make for popular music ('The Rainbow Children' is the case in point here, an album where he really DID put his interests fully into the music and although it's well thought of now, it was once condemned, controversial AND didn't sell)

Music is his 'job' and he can do it well but it's clearly not the EXCESSIVELY all-consuming passion it once was and he's not constantly on the lookout for interesting themes to write about, to push with. He's often, like many peers with long careers, just turning in tunes and parking cliches like 'party' on them. There's no difference to the 'fun' aspect of creating them. What's missing is his once-constant desire to provoke.

You may say that Prince always had his religious 'obsession' and used to manage to combine it with 'sophisticated' artistry but there's another factor: he used to very LONELY in this. He used to make a rod for his own back with that.
And that, seemingly, came to an end with a series of crises toward the end of the Mayte period when he, by his own brief account, thought he was going mad.

After that, he found COMMUNITY and he likes it.

If you imagine what it must have been like to be singularly talented and 'situated' in a 24 hour 'be Prince the star in full regalia and makeup', you might get to WHY Prince likes a community that is, perhaps, best glimpsed in his Arsenio appearances. Arsenio, like many people from a 'Gospel' tradition are friendly and accommodating of a 'clean living' style of community and 'fun' is light-hearted rather than 'sophisticated'. Many in that community are involved also, as Prince is, in stricter scriptural study and their style of community is the means to recognise that without having to browbeat others around that community. It's a necessarily 'limited' arena, whereas the Prince whose absence people are lamenting on this thread was someone who did not BELONG to that voluntary limitation but was engaged in testing it, pushing it.

The truth is that he has accepted the community's limitation of that. He doesn't push anymore but he does still tickle it.

That's what Prince is thinking about ALL the time (possibly less than he had been just now) and he's 'set in his ways'.

To be optimistic, the last couple of years suggest increasing interest in other things but he's still handing off 'the job' to 'helpers' where once he was avowedly a control freak.

There's sophistication in this but it's mostly about time-management and staying 'community-oriented'.

The alternative would be to hook back to an antagonistic position, even one of excessive pride and blatant superiority, a complex whose inverse isn't much comfort when the isolation really bites.

Prince could have ended up dead like Michael Jackson and possibly much younger.
That he found a path which avoided that is cool with me.

It's not easy being a superhero, people

[Edited 10/2/15 2:31am]

[Edited 10/2/15 2:41am]

XSX i LOVE your post! Thank you. I think it is spot on. Especially the part about Arsenio as an example of a certain "lightness" P was able to operate in as he began to find community. He created the isolation, the hypersexual mystique, and the other self-imposed barriers that made him a "late bloomer" in this regard. I think P is just finding COMMUNITY and true COLLABORATION as an artist. And while this is FREEING for him, for his insatiable fans, who based on THIS site could give a rats ass about the space within he creates from unless it yields a "Lovesexy", no a SOTT, no a TGE, no another Dirty Mind, no.... u get my point. The fact that at his age, he is still prolific and is still HERE and learning, experimenting albeit admittedly without consistent, cohesive results to MY ears, I'm optimistic for what still lies ahead, encouraged to keep listening because there have been and still are stellar gems to keep me dialed in

Angelsoncrack said:

I've still not heard the full entirety of this song yet. Has anyone posted lyrics yet? All I know is that it's got a good reaction from this place so it makes me more eager to hear. Still not got tidal because I can't afford that shit lol

.

Free Urself

Prince

2015

.

How did we get here?

How did we get this far?

How did we get so high?

High enough to touch the stars, ohhh

If U could (if U could)

Wouldn't U like 2 fly?

Just because (just because) there's no reason not to try

Free urself (free urself)

And save a place for me

Life is what U make it

B the best that U can b (oh yeah)

Now's the time (now's the time)

Take Ur place in history (yeah)

Urs and mine

The happy and the free (yeah)

Look at where we came from

How far we are today

We the people (we the people)

Will get the final say

3rd apartment from the sun

nothing left to be (no)

No need to hide or run

Heaven on earth right here

That's why, (U got to)

Free urself

And save a place 4 me (oh yea)

Life is what u make it (yes it is)

B the best that U can b (yeah)

Now's the time

Take Ur place in history (oh yeah...go on take it)

Urs and mine

The happy and the free

Love urself so we can love u 2

We need ur help

There is so much work 2 do

Love urself

So we can love u too

We need ur help

Free, free urself

Free urself

Free, free urself

Free urself

Free, free urself

Free urself

Free, free urself

Free urself

Aerogram said:

Well articulated but you have a terribly community-based (and cliched) view of genius with the myth of the lonely artist pushing himself to challenge the world from his fortress of solitude. It's a wonder those socially-inclined Beatles amounted to anything.

It seems to me anyone who wants to claim a deep understanding of "sophistication" should be sophisticated enough to recognize simplistic views of creativity.

I know what you're saying back to me but I think Prince himself did slip into the 'isolated artist' thing because, let's face it, that feeling of 'just me against the world' powers up ego faculties in a way that gets things done. And dat boy got it done!
The suffering that comes from a feeling of isolation (which isn't just a cliched flipside but an actuality) is also in a way 'romantic' and therefore 'usable'. But while being a nice place to come from, nobody wants to live there. That's why the drug dealers come out of the woodwork.

'Need some help with that, solitary genius at the top of the world?'

A lotta people get there regardless of their 'achievements'

Prince went elsewhere and he looks like a happy bunny.

What's not to love?
I wince at some of his tunes just like I wince at some things I've said.

But the finite game is to win while an infinite game is about continuing.
NO HARM

Aerogram said:

I'm optimistic for what still lies ahead, encouraged to keep listening because there have been and still are stellar gems to keep me dialed in

SHO NUF!

KingSausage said:

Listened to Free Urself about 4 times now. I'm not feeling it AT ALL.

But... Prince's music has almost always had to grow on me.

I've really warmed up to HITNRUN this past week. I really like "Stare" also.

We'll see how well Free Urself sinks in.

datdude said:

XSX said:

Aerogram said:

Well articulated but you have a terribly community-based (and cliched) view of genius with the myth of the lonely artist pushing himself to challenge the world from his fortress of solitude. It's a wonder those socially-inclined Beatles amounted to anything.

It seems to me anyone who wants to claim a deep understanding of "sophistication" should be sophisticated enough to recognize simplistic views of creativity.

I know what you're saying back to me but I think Prince himself did slip into the 'isolated artist' thing because, let's face it, that feeling of 'just me against the world' powers up ego faculties in a way that gets things done. And dat boy got it done!
The suffering that comes from a feeling of isolation (which isn't just a cliched flipside but an actuality) is also in a way 'romantic' and therefore 'usable'. But while being a nice place to come from, nobody wants to live there. That's why the drug dealers come out of the woodwork.

'Need some help with that, solitary genius at the top of the world?'

A lotta people get there regardless of their 'achievements'

Prince went elsewhere and he looks like a happy bunny.

What's not to love?
I wince at some of his tunes just like I wince at some things I've said.

But the finite game is to win while an infinite game is about continuing.
NO HARM

I know where you come fromand it's true artists need space and commitment to their sonic vision and that might be optimized with a degree of isolation but in his case he had his own community from the beginning despite his propensity for solo work. That community was never so alive as in the Time/Vanity period and look at the music from the era.

I think 3eG/Josh are just the latest incarnation of that old Uptown community, not nearly as sexy I'll give you that!

I've listened to the song only 3 or 4 times since it came out because I don't want the album to sound like I heard half of it last year when it comes out.

Others (myself included) have repeatedly talked about the similarities of certain songs to RRLA, which is believed to a template. It's the production that is what is templated, more than the song itself, and that is simply his mid-tempo rocknfunk sound.

Whatever the case, Free Urself is effortlessly elegant in its execution and arrangement, it's a gently uplifting song with a fade that hints at an epic finale we have yet to hear.

[Edited 10/3/15 7:19am]

I still couldn't find this, there is no Tidal in my country or itunes.

I haven't tired of this song yet. Such a positive vibe. And the lyrics are great - no preaching - just uplifting. It's inclusive, not exclusive. The sound of it is so organic too. And then that final minute or so where it jams out is bliss. I'm going out on a limb here - I think this is a genuine Prince classic.

toejam said:

I haven't tired of this song yet. Such a positive vibe. And the lyrics are great - no preaching - just uplifting. It's inclusive, not exclusive. The sound of it is so organic too. And then that final minute or so where it jams out is bliss. I'm going out on a limb here - I think this is a genuine Prince classic.

.

Toejam, I think we finally agree on something.

toejam said:

I haven't tired of this song yet. Such a positive vibe. And the lyrics are great - no preaching - just uplifting. It's inclusive, not exclusive. The sound of it is so organic too. And then that final minute or so where it jams out is bliss. I'm going out on a limb here - I think this is a genuine Prince classic.

Effervescent, yet completely generic. No big surprise it's a Tidal exclusive.

Identity said:

Aerogram said:

Doesn't mean it sucks any less.