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]

Ok, but I take this album as it is... why complain about the great ones..?


the fine masterpiece, Parade.... wow.... those were the days.

So funky and those ballads were among his best ever:

Sometimes It Snows In April
Under The Cherry Moon.


And those 4 singles were as strong as ever.

Kiss
Mountains
Girls & Boys
Anotherloverholenyohead

I was playing the Parade vinyl over and over, was it released in april 1986, or maybe in the summer.

I was 20, about to finish in high school (Gymnasium in danish), living i my own apartment, playing Prince music very very loud.. ah so many memories...

Parade =

[Edited 10/4/15 3:26am]

I listened to this on tidal the other day, and its still a great sparse album. Nothing wrong with any of it in my opinion.

Not at all. The first five songs work as a suite, and they might be my favourite stretch of songs on any Prince album. In my opinion, Parade is perfect from beginning to end.

Parade is perfect , masterpiece

thisisreece said:

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]

If I recall correctly he played the drum tracks to the first three songs all in one take, so that is, in my opinion as a non-drummer, quite impressive.

I like Parade much more today than I did when it came out but I remember that Prince was not very happy with Parade and thought he should´ve taken more time to come up with better songs.

So, even though we consider it a masterpiece, Prince himself might disagree about that, that ´s why I understand fans who think this album is overrated. I think it is a great album but if the artist himself didn´t like it that much, who can blame some fans for calling it overrated?

Parade is lush minimalism at its best some songs are intentionally sparse, some of the drums sound like he's lightly hitting a piece of paper,.

Marco81 said:

Too me Parade is sheer perfection.

TrevorAyer said:

Parade is the gift that keeps on giving ... Anyone who dismisses this record simply has not spent enough time with it ... Compared to modern dumned down for the masses prince this record may confuse young new fans of bad pop music .. Any seasoned music fan recognizes parade as the stroke of brilliance it truly is When it comes to prince less is more ... Less bad lyrics means more direct simple and poetic lyrics .. Less production makes for real sounding organic music .. Less overdubs means the song has to be good on its own Compare the first 4 songs of parade to those first 4 on hnr ... Hnr has so much shit overstuffed in those crappy boast newjAck cornball sharts about rockstar salad crushers and shutting ... This ... Down The simplicty of i wonder u and new position is devine

Compeltely agree.

Anyone that says Parade is underdeveloped, overrated or incomplete, are not sophisticated enough as a Prince fan to truely understand and appreciate the musical mastership this album contains.

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".

His most overrated album among fans imo (Along with Around the World in a day)..

The album has aged badly to me.. and there's nothing nearly as good as Kiss on it..

All my dreams should have been included but i think the reason it was left off is because it sounds too much like Kid Creole & the Coconuts.. I hear influence of Kid creole all over this album but it's reallly obvious on this song

[Edited 10/6/15 12:19pm]

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".

Prince really said that?? where did u get this quote?

I think the album has some great songs ("Girls And Boys","Anotherloverholenyohead") but some of the songs feel rushed and unfinished."New Position" sounds like a spare demo...like it's not totally fleshed out.

TrueFunkSoldier2 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".

Prince really said that?? where did u get this quote?

If I remember it correctly,it appeared in the 1988 Musician cover story.....I'm seen this quote mentioned elsewhere too...

thedance said:

Ok, but I take this album as it is... why complain about the great ones..?


the fine masterpiece, Parade.... wow.... those were the days.

So funky and those ballads were among his best ever:

Sometimes It Snows In April
Under The Cherry Moon.


And those 4 singles were as strong as ever.

Kiss
Mountains
Girls & Boys
Anotherloverholenyohead

I was playing the Parade vinyl over and over, was it released in april 1986, or maybe in the summer.

I was 20, about to finish in high school (Gymnasium in danish), living i my own apartment, playing Prince music very very loud.. ah so many memories...

Parade =

[Edited 10/4/15 3:26am]

exactly.if we start complaining about the masterpieces 1980-88 theres nothing left.

Parade is IMO 100%perfect.I think all the albums in this period 5/5.

[Edited 10/4/15 13:07pm]

SoulAlive said:

TrueFunkSoldier2 said:

Prince really said that?? where did u get this quote?

If I remember it correctly,it appeared in the 1988 Musician cover story.....I'm seen this quote mentioned elsewhere too...

cool .. didn't know..

i hadn't even read the quote you have posted and i said the same thing i'm my reply that there's nothing nearly as good as Kiss on it. Prince wasn't lying..

[Edited 10/4/15 13:12pm]

The same people that say Parade is over rated or not good... Are the ones who think Planet Earth, MPLS Sound and other disasters, and praise them to be amazing work.

Yet the amazing genius albums PRINCE makes some think their bad... That is beyond opinion, it's just common sense... I've even seen in some lists people rank MPLS Sound and Planet Earth over Sign O The Times...

TrueFunkSoldier2 said:

BeautifulStranger said:

Too me Parade is sheer perfection.

Thank you.

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".

Common controversail reaction from gemini Prince.
Skipper may be a genius, but he's a serial nutcase alright.

I wipe my arse with this non-statement and go back to my vynil ripped
Parade Homemade Deluxe Version®.

feeluupp said:

The same people that say Parade is over rated or not good... Are the ones who think Planet Earth, MPLS Sound and other disasters, and praise them to be amazing work.

Yet the amazing genius albums PRINCE makes some think their bad... That is beyond opinion, it's just common sense... I've even seen in some lists people rank MPLS Sound and Planet Earth over Sign O The Times...

i never said this.. to me Parade dosen't come close to his best albums which are 1999, Purple Rain And Sign o the Times. You know why?? cause you can't easily tell what the best songs on those albums are. On Parade however the obvious best song is Kiss...

But on the 1999 album .. my favorite song is sometimes Something in the Water.. sometimes 1999... or others..

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.

TrueFunkSoldier2 said:

feeluupp said:

The same people that say Parade is over rated or not good... Are the ones who think Planet Earth, MPLS Sound and other disasters, and praise them to be amazing work.

Yet the amazing genius albums PRINCE makes some think their bad... That is beyond opinion, it's just common sense... I've even seen in some lists people rank MPLS Sound and Planet Earth over Sign O The Times...

i never said this.. to me Parade dosen't come close to his best albums which are 1999, Purple Rain And Sign o the Times. You know why?? cause you can't easily tell what the best songs on those albums are. On Parade however the obvious best song is Kiss...

But on the 1999 album .. my favorite song is sometimes Something in the Water.. sometimes 1999... or others..

I don't think the best song on Parade is Kiss

SoulAlive said:

TrueFunkSoldier2 said:

Prince really said that?? where did u get this quote?

If I remember it correctly,it appeared in the 1988 Musician cover story.....I'm seen this quote mentioned elsewhere too...

And then he goes on to make Graffiti Bridge....

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.