I noticed that a lot of negative things were said about Prince after the release of AOA on here, now considering what he may have been going though, any regrets for negative comments concerning his career choices?

[Edited 4/23/16 5:12am]

My only regrets is that daily I would have to go off on some of these folks up in here...I mean I kept telling them that Prince had feelings and a family but everyday they would come here and talk about him like he wasnt here and now he's gone. Maybe theyre happy now.

Wanted to start a thread about it. I have to say I feel a bit bad about myself regularly complaing about his new music, his business choices, his bandmembers and his look when he was still alive.

Now that he is dead, all of a sudden I seem to realise a lot better what a gem he truly was and how lucky we were that he was still touring and releasing albums at all. Now it is all over, I wish that I would have been a bit more appreciative and less critical in years before.

I have always and willl always love you though Prince, you are one of a kind. May you rest in peace, brother.

all i can say i noticed 2 members which i will not name, who always post negative, have been very positive lately. even an infamous member who actually edited his comment last night after some more thought

Do you think Bart feels like he wasted the last 15 years being unrelentingly pessimistic and hateful towards Prince?

I was pretty negative for a while about the live shows (2010 - 2013 felt a bit vegas revue-y) and I feel a bit guilty about it but I was totally on board for the Piano tour. I enjoyed HitnRun Volume II and I really liked AoA.

None of my comments were meant to take anything away from Prince's genius, I just didn't always dig what he was putting out.

Everybody's a critic, including me. For me, not every song was a 'MASTERPIECE' that needed a sparkly banner calling it such. Moreover, critique is based on opinion and personal taste. With that said;

Rest assured, Prince always did his own thing. Critique didn't get to him at all, he was stronger than that.

Yeah, the lack of an exhaustive promotion efforts would have probably been too much for him. Which is may be why he just reduced his last concerts to sitting at a piano and microphone.

Surely he wasn't able to jump off the piano, or do some elaborate choreorgraphy with stage dancers.

All these nasty things said about him and he wasn't even able to do such an aggressive promotion of his music.

Gohi said:

Do you think Bart feels like he wasted the last 15 years being unrelentingly pessimistic and hateful towards Prince?

I was pretty negative for a while about the live shows (2010 - 2013 felt a bit vegas revue-y) and I feel a bit guilty about it but I was totally on board for the Piano tour. I enjoyed HitnRun Volume II and I really liked AoA.

None of my comments were meant to take anything away from Prince's genius, I just didn't always dig what he was putting out.

its strange... i saw him post last night then re edit it a min later...

nursev said:

My only regrets is that daily I would have to go off on some of these folks up in here...I mean I kept telling them that Prince had feelings and a family but everyday they would come here and talk about him like he wasnt here and now he's gone. Maybe theyre happy now.

Same here. But I ain't mad at nobody. Today's no day to get mad at anyone.

Bad music is bad music.

After John Lennon was murdered his solowork was put on

an even higher pedestal, whereas he arguably released

only twenty good songs after The Beatles.

(And I say this as a big fan.)

databank said:

nursev said:

My only regrets is that daily I would have to go off on some of these folks up in here...I mean I kept telling them that Prince had feelings and a family but everyday they would come here and talk about him like he wasnt here and now he's gone. Maybe theyre happy now.

Same here. But I ain't mad at nobody. Today's no day to get mad at anyone.

youre right

Nah.

As Prince wasn't dutybound to output and decisions that we'd love, we weren't dutybound to love it all. We're all deserving of that latitude, and I'm comfortable that my disposition toward the man remained one of reasoned gratitude above an unqualified ardor.

That said, I'm not one to rip anyone apart, and I do think some folks can clumsily pass the line between fair critique of another person's contributions and cruel assessments of that person's broader personhood. If Prince's death makes us second guess that inclination, I say good.

whether or not we liked or didnt like his last few albums.. one thing we all cant deny that he did everything he wanted to do his way and you gotta respect that about him... Even though his dead, I also dont think we should pass him off as a perfect angel. I dont think he would want that.. I think he would want to be seen as a human.. with great and generous qualities and always flaws... just like anyone else...

[Edited 4/23/16 6:25am]

No regrets here. Prince did a lot of things throughout his career that were very frustrating to his fans and we were just keeping it real. Also his last few albums were weak. It wasn't his fault and he tried the best he could, but just coudln't maintain his genius as a composer. It's fine though and happens to everyone as they age. That creative spark and energy dims somewhat. But we always loved him and would have fought for him, etc.

Let's not judge how other members criticised Prince during his lifetime, come on. Many fans did that at different points, and it wasn't neccesarily because they hated him. It was because as fans we've admired him so much and held him up to a certain standard that was pretty much impossible for anyone to reach at all times. Go easy on the critics, they assumed like us that he still had 20 years left. We're all grieving for Prince on this forum.

No regrets. I would be more than glad to give a "negative" critique of a song if it meant he could still be here to "lurk". He knew what fans loved & hated. More importantly, he knew what was needed and he was blessed with the gifts to facilitate it. Regardless of my opinion in the end, the anticipation of what's next is what drove us all back to this community time and time again. I miss him. I spent my high school years from 1999-2003 immersing myself in his music day and night. I had no life. This was before he started siccing his "cybergoons" on the internet, so the hunt was a lot more fruitful during those times lol. That journey was so much fun that I wouldn't change a thing.

No matter what was said about Prince.. after this news, its like it all just melted away. Thats all old news, whereas Prince's music in whatever capacity is forever.

Nah... I'm not a disingenuous person. However, if I'd known Prince was sick or something like that, I wouldn't have said anything critical.

Not really. I wasn't a huge fan of a lot of the most recent stuff (there were songs here and there and, of course, he was still great live), and a subset of it I found quite bad. That's just an honest opinion in a forum devoted to discussing music.

Never really said anything about him personally or his business decisions.

So the regret isn't negative criticism of his music at all. I guess he regret would be not spending even more time celebrating and discussing and praising all the music I loved from Prince, which was the vast majority.

I have not been active much the last few years, but I don't regret anything I've ever said, good or bad, and I've never posted anything I wouldn't still say to his face if he were alive today. I actually think Prince appreciated criticism - it made him a better artist. Just look at his recent relationship with Jon Bream, for example. If Jon had been dishonest when he wrote reviews, I don't think Prince would have appreciated it as much when he wrote something positive. If you surround yourself with an echo chamber of "fams" who think everything you do is great, you really never have any real soundingboard. There is nothing wrong with honest feedback.

There is straight out nastiness, for selfish reasons for whatever reason

.

And then there is genuine critique

. I remember over my life many people who were sick or dying who

would become angry at their friends/family for being NICE. They want them to be themselves, to crack jokes, to argue a bit, yell at them for not taking their meds or something, they want their friends & family to be real with them.

wonder505 said:

That's the one thing that helps me get through this is that I never came here pretending to know him, his thoughts, was never all up in his pockets like I had first hand info about his finances or made assumptions. There is constructive criticism and honest thoughts but some made up stories like they're apart of his inner circle, talking bout how he broke when he's worth 300 million or were habitually negative. Yall know EXACTLY who you are and I hope you're happy now. There's a few I wanna call out so bad but not gonna. For those who kept the criticism respectful, thank you.

This.

babynoz said: