I don't feel it is underdeveloped at all. 1985/86 was a whirlwind of musical creativity. He had too much good stuff to choose from.

He could have easily had Mia Bocca on the album. Old Friends 4 Sale on the album. Junk Music on the album etc

I think he rushed to make the movie and that is where the problem came in. Even though I seriously enjoy the movie, that is where the underdevelopement takes place.

PARADE is one of the TOP 5 Prince albums. End of thread.

OldFriends4Sale said:

SoulAlive said:

Even Prince himself wasn't totally satisfied with it.

"Parade was a disaster",he said."Aside from "Kiss",there's nothing on it that I'm particularly proud of.I recorded it too soon after 'After The World In A Day' and I just didn't have enough good songs ready.I'm not gonna make that same mistake again".

He is blaming the album because the movie did not do good.
the album music was not the problem at all.
the problem was Prince felt he was an actor who could carry that movie by himself and direct it.

The movie should have had a real director. The movie should have had live renditions of the songs w/ the band.

Prince tried to duplicate the Morris & Jerome affect from Purple Rain.

The album Parade is one of his top 5 of his whole career.

What has he said about Graffiti Bridge the album. And the complete utter failure of the movie?

Most fans still enjoy-love Under the Cherry Moon. Most fans can't stand to watch the movie Graffiti Bridge.

How do you read into all of this from that quote?? he clearly states he hates the album and only likes Kiss on it.. and does he have to say he hates his albums everytime he's not satisfied with them?

TrueFunkSoldier2 said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

He is blaming the album because the movie did not do good.
the album music was not the problem at all.
the problem was Prince felt he was an actor who could carry that movie by himself and direct it.

The movie should have had a real director. The movie should have had live renditions of the songs w/ the band.

Prince tried to duplicate the Morris & Jerome affect from Purple Rain.

The album Parade is one of his top 5 of his whole career.

What has he said about Graffiti Bridge the album. And the complete utter failure of the movie?

Most fans still enjoy-love Under the Cherry Moon. Most fans can't stand to watch the movie Graffiti Bridge.

How do you read into all of this from that quote?? he clearly states he hates the album and only likes Kiss on it.. and does he have to say he hates his albums everytime he's not satisfied with them?

He also said he didn't care to win awards... Then in 86 he retracted that... He likes to CHANGE his mind a lot.

Anyone who thinks PARADE is OVER RATED lacks the sophistication and musical understanding of Prince's music. This is not opinion. This is just REALITY.

feeluupp said:

Anyone who thinks PARADE is OVER RATED lacks the sophistication and musical understanding of Prince's music. This is not opinion. This is just REALITY.

seriously.

Askani said:

No. But I do wish for a New Position remix that would extend it and tease out more of its inherent funk.

OMG!! A New Position 12" extended version would be 2 die for!!

Parade is perfection. Sequenced incredibly and New Position is the funkiest minimal track, like ever.

TrueFunkSoldier2 said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

He is blaming the album because the movie did not do good.
the album music was not the problem at all.
the problem was Prince felt he was an actor who could carry that movie by himself and direct it.

The movie should have had a real director. The movie should have had live renditions of the songs w/ the band.

Prince tried to duplicate the Morris & Jerome affect from Purple Rain.

The album Parade is one of his top 5 of his whole career.

What has he said about Graffiti Bridge the album. And the complete utter failure of the movie?

Most fans still enjoy-love Under the Cherry Moon. Most fans can't stand to watch the movie Graffiti Bridge.

How do you read into all of this from that quote?? he clearly states he hates the album and only likes Kiss on it.. and does he have to say he hates his albums everytime he's not satisfied with them?

Because he goes on to play many songs from the album from 1988-2000's
How many Lovesexy album songs does he play?

in 2010/2013 he is putting up many images from the Parade album.

On the LotusFlow3r site, he tries to compare what is to come in comparison to the 1986 period.

He said what he said in the moment as he is preparing to film the Graffiti Bridge album.
Prince didn't say that in 1988 (he gave no interviews or quotes) in 1990 Prince also says he did not fire Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis for us to remember that it was MORRIS's band and that they broke up so that they could come back to be better.

He later on in the 1997/98 period when he did a ton of interviews talking about music, makes very opposite refences to Parade.

He's blaming the failure of his vanity project Under the Cherry Moon on the album.
The album music was far from the problem.
Prince trying to be a star director and actor was the problem.

The first four tracks work incredibly as a suite, and New Position and UTCM work very well on their own as well. I love it. The drums on NP are fantastic (that's a great rhythm) imo. Such a positive energy to it. And the rest of the album is great too. It's just really poised as a whole. Very enjoyable listen.

And that Mountains 12" is sex on wax.

OldFriends4Sale said:

Marco81 said:

Most overrated album in Prince's catalogue, IMO of course. Yes there are very strong tracks (Kiss, Anotherloverholenyohead, SISIA, Girls&boys) and a couple of ok ones (Mountans) but the rest is very average to mediocre. And Do U Lie and Life Can B So Nice rank amongst his worst.

U did not even try to answer the OPs question.

I don't think they sound underdeveloped, just very rushed. Short tracks can feel underdeveloped for the reason that they are short, but I don't think they sound underdeveloped, which I guess is another way of saying demos.

Marco81 said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

U did not even try to answer the OPs question.

I don't think they sound underdeveloped, just very rushed. Short tracks can feel underdeveloped for the reason that they are short, but I don't think they sound underdeveloped, which I guess is another way of saying demos.

To me the opening half of Parade is P's finest moment. Usually, I can find words to describe what I love so much, but this I can't really find the right words. In my opinion his creative peak. Life can be so nice, is a giant mesmeric concoction of cacophonic funk. It's so unique and full of life that I'm still pulling funk face almost 30 yrs on. It's just brilliant.

"Parade" is his masterpiece for me. I think it's just perfect.

The opening tracks could be seen to be underdeveloped if they were isolated and presented on their own. However they are not isolated tracks but part of a sequence and work brilliantly if they are listened to as they are intended to be listened to.

SoulAlive said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I think the Under the Cherry Moon (after having learned more of the process of a movie score/soundtrack via Purple Rain) Prince put Under the Cherry Moon together with that in mind, he wasn't making a regular album but a soundtrack of songs that would accompany a movie

I think this album is glorious perfection.

That said, his tempo toward the end of New Position does flag a bit. But I don't even mind.

ya i kinda hear those 4 songs not really being fleshed out.. the second half is better though imo

[Edited 10/5/15 15:48pm]

This album tops the pile for me. There is nothing better made by anyone, anywhere, ever. They should put this album on the next deep space probe (as a streaming service, one month free trial) so that those pesky aliens can see we are a race of pure artistic funkists.

Parade is a good album but it could have been a great album.

If you listen to the outtakes from that era so many of them are European sounding and quite haunting.

Parade could have been a dark album with some very interesting themes.

I feel that after various album configutations, a slice of the darker elements were removed and the glossy hits added! With credit to Prince Vault, here is the 1 May 1985 configutation:

1. Wendy's Parade
2. New Position
3. I Wonder U
4. Under The Cherry Moon
5. Others Here With Us
6. Life Can Be So Nice
7. Sometimes It Snows In April
8. Old Friends 4 Sale
9. All My Dreams

The later added hits, then made a much more commercial album. After all, the tracks that were singles were added very much later.

I would have prefered a much darker European sounding album to be released and then the singles could have been put on to the next album.

The problem here is that Prince was recording at a crazy rate, but it would have been cool to have squeezed in another album before SOTT, but even that was cut from a 3 disc set.

[Edited 10/6/15 3:23am]

darkroman said:

Parade is a good album but it could have been a great album.

If you listen to the outtakes from that era so many of them are European sounding and quite haunting.

Parade could have been a dark album with some very interesting themes.

I feel that after various album configutations, a slice of the darker elements were removed and the glossy hits added! With credit to Prince Vault, here is the 1 May 1985 configutation:

1. Wendy's Parade
2. New Position
3. I Wonder U
4. Under The Cherry Moon
5. Others Here With Us
6. Life Can Be So Nice
7. Sometimes It Snows In April
8. Old Friends 4 Sale
9. All My Dreams

The later added hits, then made a much more commercial album. After all, the tracks that were singles were added very much later.

I would have prefered a much darker European sounding album to be released and then the singles could have been put on to the next album.

The problem here is that Prince was recording at a crazy rate, but it would have been cool to have squeezed in another album before SOTT, but even that was cut from a 3 disc set.

[Edited 10/6/15 3:23am]

Add Up From Below (carries a shadowy sensual feel) Heaven

MattyJam said:

I hope SoulAlive won't mind me quoting him from another thread, but I thought this would make for an interesting discussion:

SoulAlive said:

I think the first four or five songs on Parade sound underdeveloped.

Some great ideas there,but the songs sound rushed and unfinished.I'll be groovin' to "New Position" and the whole things ends so abruptly

So do you agree with this? I personally rank Parade as one of his best works and I don't agree about "the first five songs" sounding under-developed/rushed (ain't nothing wrong with Girls & Boys and UTCM) but I do think Prince's drumming sounds substandard on the first three tracks.

I also wish he'd included All My Dreams on the album and then it'd probably be my all time favourite Prince album despite my misgivings about the opening cuts.

[Edited 10/4/15 3:14am]

I understand where SoulAlive is coming from but in the end Parade works as a whole, and so do those tracks, so no. the frustrating part of them being so short makes the elbum even greater IMHO. And I wouldn't say the tracks are "rushed" or "unfinished", just presented in their most basic form, a basic form that was so balanced and perfect that it works

Rebeljuice said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

TrueFunkSoldier2 said:

How do you read into all of this from that quote?? he clearly states he hates the album and only likes Kiss on it.. and does he have to say he hates his albums everytime he's not satisfied with them?

Because he goes on to play many songs from the album from 1988-2000's
How many Lovesexy album songs does he play?

in 2010/2013 he is putting up many images from the Parade album.

On the LotusFlow3r site, he tries to compare what is to come in comparison to the 1986 period.

He said what he said in the moment as he is preparing to film the Graffiti Bridge album.
Prince didn't say that in 1988 (he gave no interviews or quotes) in 1990 Prince also says he did not fire Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis for us to remember that it was MORRIS's band and that they broke up so that they could come back to be better.

He later on in the 1997/98 period when he did a ton of interviews talking about music, makes very opposite refences to Parade.

He's blaming the failure of his vanity project Under the Cherry Moon on the album.
The album music was far from the problem.
Prince trying to be a star director and actor was the problem.

That's way too much interpretation when he has clearly stated explicitly that he hated the album..

There's no interpretation to be made from this quote..

This is a very rare moment where Prince was being honest about how he felt about an album. Of course today's Prince would never admit he had missteps or bad albums (specially not one from his peak period) because he wants us to think he's perfect..

but i see where Prince was coming from with this quote by listening to it.. It definitely sounds rushed to me..

[Edited 10/6/15 11:14am]

Those calling it the best album of all time, Prince's best album or a perfect album are those who make me think this album is very overrated around these parts.. How is this album the best of all of time when most people don't even care about what's on it expect for Kiss. This is one of the very few places where this album will get all this adulation.. A perfect album?

when the music on it sounds old and dated?.. Time hasn't been kind to this album.. how is this a perfect album? I can't take all these hyperbole seriously..

[Edited 10/6/15 11:24am]

TrueFunkSoldier2 said:

KingSausage said:

TrueFunkSoldier2 said:

Those calling it the best album of all time, Prince's best album or a perfect album are those who make me think this album is very overrated around these parts.. How is this album the best of all of time when 99% of the planet don't even care about what's on it expect for Kiss. This is one of the very few places where this album will get all this adulation.. A perfect album?

when the music on it sounds old and dated?.. Time hasn't been kind to this album.. how is this a perfect album? I can't take all these hyperbole seriously..

As my buddy KCOOL would say You put a lot of faith in the general public's opinions. The general public isn't and has never been the best gauge of the excellence of art. Also, you might want to tone down your own bullshit before accusing others of hyperbole. 99%! Old and dated! One of the very few places! [Edited 10/6/15 11:05am] [Edited 10/6/15 11:05am]

that's no hyperbole compared to calling it the best album of all time and it's true that time hasn't been too kind to this album..