herb4 said:

Not a lot of love for "Calhoun Square" around here it seems. I'm honestly surpirsed.

Yes i love Calhoun Square.

loved it - so many great songs. loved circle of amore, acknowledge me, love sign and many others.

[Edited 11/19/15 19:45pm]

Guitarhero said:

herb4 said:

Not a lot of love for "Calhoun Square" around here it seems. I'm honestly surpirsed.

Yes i love Calhoun Square.

GREAT song. A def highlight

If he'd left off the remixes, condensed the remaining tracks onto two discs, then done a third disc consisting of the material he removed for the never-released "Roadhouse Garden" album...then it would have been amazeballs. As it is...it's okay. Glad many of these tracks saw the light of day in crystal clear quality (no pun intended).

I agree.The remixes were unnecessary,imo.

JediMaster said:

If he'd left off the remixes, condensed the remaining tracks onto two discs, then done a third disc consisting of the material he removed for the never-released "Roadhouse Garden" album...then it would have been amazeballs.

Crystal Ball is a marvelous brain dump and you cant really call it an album its way too messy for that, but its SO WORTH wading through it, chewing on everything and marveling in the depths of Princes head

I loved it, I remember the first time I listened to it I had to pause it 3 tracks in because my face was hurting so much from smiling! It's not a perfectly formed album like Purple Rain is, but if you take each track on it's own merit, there's some perfection on there.

camilleisastar said:

Crystal Ball the song is almost a classic but as like most of his career, it is too indulgent- cut the first 1 minute 30 and last 1 minute 30- it would be amazing.

This is heresy, this alone would ruin the dynamic of the whole track!!!

The way it builds progressively towards the tension is what allows us to feel the intensity of said tension, with an intriguing sense of mystery. Cut the first minute and a half and you RUIN the whole piece!

I keep reading straaaange things on this board

databank said:

camilleisastar said:

Crystal Ball the song is almost a classic but as like most of his career, it is too indulgent- cut the first 1 minute 30 and last 1 minute 30- it would be amazing.

This is heresy, this alone would ruin the dynamic of the whole track!!!

The way it builds progressively towards the tension is what allows us to feel the intensity of said tension, with an intriguing sense of mystery. Cut the first minute and a half and you RUIN the whole piece!

I keep reading straaaange things on this board

I agree. In fact, I prefer the slightly longer cut to the album version! That tune should NOT be edited down, in any way!

JediMaster said:

databank said:

This is heresy, this alone would ruin the dynamic of the whole track!!!

The way it builds progressively towards the tension is what allows us to feel the intensity of said tension, with an intriguing sense of mystery. Cut the first minute and a half and you RUIN the whole piece!

I keep reading straaaange things on this board

I agree. In fact, I prefer the slightly longer cut to the album version! That tune should NOT be edited down, in any way!

I've noticed a lot of people here saying such or such track was "too long" and that "nothing happened" and that it should have been edited down.

IMHO this comes from an unability to "hear" the musical events in an apparently repetitive piece of music. America's long version, or North for example are filled with changes and things happening in the music from beginning to end, but the untrained ear (i.e. used to 3 minutes, very melodic and typically structured pop songs) will usually ear nothing but a loop. As with foreign languages when one begins learning them, the brain literally doesn't "hear" sounds it wasn't trained to hear (I'm a language teacher and this was part of my training, I ain't making this up).

Not saying it is the case for Camilleisastar as I don't know nothing about this specific person's musical education, but for most of the people complaining about length and repetitiveness, I'm pretty sure it is.

JediMaster said:

databank said:

This is heresy, this alone would ruin the dynamic of the whole track!!!

The way it builds progressively towards the tension is what allows us to feel the intensity of said tension, with an intriguing sense of mystery. Cut the first minute and a half and you RUIN the whole piece!

I keep reading straaaange things on this board

I agree. In fact, I prefer the slightly longer cut to the album version! That tune should NOT be edited down, in any way!

The one with the "purple underground" bit? Yeah that's really cool, shame it's not in particularly good quality (at least it isn't on The Work 2.0, maybe a better version has come out since then.)

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

JediMaster said:

I agree. In fact, I prefer the slightly longer cut to the album version! That tune should NOT be edited down, in any way!

The one with the "purple underground" bit? Yeah that's really cool, shame it's not in particularly good quality (at least it isn't on The Work 2.0, maybe a better version has come out since then.)

Yes! That is the one! Love it!

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

JediMaster said:

I agree. In fact, I prefer the slightly longer cut to the album version! That tune should NOT be edited down, in any way!

The one with the "purple underground" bit? Yeah that's really cool, shame it's not in particularly good quality (at least it isn't on The Work 2.0, maybe a better version has come out since then.)

Maybe I'm wrong but you are talking of the version included in the final configuration of "Dream Factory".

If yes, it is already available in pristine quality.

As someone whose only bootleg at the time this came out was The Black Album, allow me to share my reaction upon hearing this collection:

Except for Poom Poom.

[Edited 12/2/15 7:21am]

It was decent but too much 90s stuff and not enough 80s stuff. And there was only one early 80s song. Hell, the majority of it should have been early 80s stuff when he was at his best.

BoraBora said:

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

The one with the "purple underground" bit? Yeah that's really cool, shame it's not in particularly good quality (at least it isn't on The Work 2.0, maybe a better version has come out since then.)

Maybe I'm wrong but you are talking of the version included in the final configuration of "Dream Factory".

If yes, it is already available in pristine quality.

Yes, and I actually have placed that version into my personal playlist for Crystal Ball in place of the album version.

savagedreams said:

people like to crap on it for whats not on it and in doing so tend to forget it has a lot of cool stuff on it.

BoraBora said:

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

The one with the "purple underground" bit? Yeah that's really cool, shame it's not in particularly good quality (at least it isn't on The Work 2.0, maybe a better version has come out since then.)

Maybe I'm wrong but you are talking of the version included in the final configuration of "Dream Factory".

If yes, it is already available in pristine quality.

That section is included in the Dream Factory version, you are correct, but what I meant was a version with both the strings and the "purple underground" bit, sorry I should have made myself more clear.

[Edited 12/2/15 13:34pm]

Crystal Ball, Ripopgodazippa, and Movie Star are stellar, top-notch tracks. Even though Movie Star ain't really a song.

Everything else is meh.

One part of me loves this album for the classic tracks, but the other part does not like it for the 90s remixes and filler along with the measly 10 songs a CD and terrible packaging.

.

It is a fair introduction to his back catalogue and I agree that having the song Crystal Ball on it justifies the price of it alone. It was not cheap, I did not buy it when it came out, but did buy a 2nd hand copy of it in 2008 which did not have Kamasutra (Not that I was terribly worried).

.

Trackwise

Classics, Crystal Ball, Good Love, Crucial, Lovesign, Last Heart, Days of Wild

Very good, Dream Factory, Strays of the World, So Dark, She gave her angels, 18 and Over, Poom poom, Sexual Suicide, Cloreen Bacon skin

Average/Good - Acknowledge me, Ripopgodazippa, MOviestar (Loses points for Jam of the Year sample!!!), The Ride, Calhoun Square, An Honest Man, Interactive and Da Bang

The rest - All filler tracks!!!

.

The format was a bit minimal and the orders farrago kind of dulled it's impact a bit. Apparently his internet orders distribution got messed up and people either did not get their album set or multiple copies of it. It is a shame that he did not do Crystal Ball 2.

.

I think one needs to listen to some less official releases if they really want to get into Prince's back catalogue and his out takes. When I began to a few years ago, it opened a new dimension of my fandom and I almost felt that this album barely scratches the surface.

.

In my video Prince Albums list, this got #14 out of 38

.

Truth is okay in parts, but I find it quite morose and unremarkable, Kamasutra is just muzak.

Adorecream said:

Trackwise

Classics, Crystal Ball, Good Love, Crucial, Lovesign, Last Heart, Days of Wild

Very good, Dream Factory, Strays of the World, So Dark, She gave her angels, 18 and Over, Poom poom, Sexual Suicide, Cloreen Bacon skin

Average/Good - Acknowledge me, Ripopgodazippa, MOviestar (Loses points for Jam of the Year sample!!!), The Ride, Calhoun Square, An Honest Man, Interactive and Da Bang

The rest - All filler tracks!!!

Spot on! This isn't the first time I have agreed with you.

MereMortal said:

Crystal Ball, Ripopgodazippa, and Movie Star are stellar, top-notch tracks. Even though Movie Star ain't really a song.

Everything else is meh.

So what is it?

Cinny said:

Adorecream said:

Trackwise

Classics, Crystal Ball, Good Love, Crucial, Lovesign, Last Heart, Days of Wild

Very good, Dream Factory, Strays of the World, So Dark, She gave her angels, 18 and Over, Poom poom, Sexual Suicide, Cloreen Bacon skin

Average/Good - Acknowledge me, Ripopgodazippa, MOviestar (Loses points for Jam of the Year sample!!!), The Ride, Calhoun Square, An Honest Man, Interactive and Da Bang

The rest - All filler tracks!!!

Spot on! This isn't the first time I have agreed with you.

Great minds think alike. I used to be a bit of a Garfield fan myself.

214 said:

MereMortal said:

Crystal Ball, Ripopgodazippa, and Movie Star are stellar, top-notch tracks. Even though Movie Star ain't really a song.

Everything else is meh.

So what is it?

Most of it's a monologue.

Genesia said:

214 said:

So what is it?

Most of it's a monologue.

You're right and i love it.

Adorecream said:

Cinny said:

Spot on! This isn't the first time I have agreed with you.

Great minds think alike. I used to be a bit of a Garfield fan myself.

Ohh boy, great minds? God you're not exactly a humble person,are you?

214 said:

Adorecream said:

Great minds think alike. I used to be a bit of a Garfield fan myself.

Ohh boy, great minds? God you're not exactly a humble person,are you?

Who are you, the pride police? This isn't East Germany get a fxxkin sense of humour.

Adorecream said:

214 said:

Ohh boy, great minds? God you're not exactly a humble person,are you?

Who are you, the pride police? This isn't East Germany get a fxxkin sense of humour.

Relax, i was just kiddin, but as i can see me and you can't get along. What does East Germany have to do with it?