The beginning of "When Doves Cry". The beginning of this song is iconic in that it was very unique and freakish introduction of PR to the world. I remember hearing the initial guitar solo and the "yeah, yeah, yeah,"yeah" on a radio station without hearing the introdiction, and I immediately knew it was Prince, cause it was so fucking different. A close second is the first 10 seconds of "If I Was Your Girlfriend".

maplesyrupnjam said:

The first 6 seconds of When Doves Cry. No guitarist in the world could recreate that, past living or future.

I agree with the first sentence. That's exactly what I was going to say. I know a guitarist who makes the second sentence false, however.

I have a couple... here's my top 5 lol

1. Joy In Repetition: 1:00-1:10 For some reason I just love that "da-da-dada-daaaa" in the background lol

2. Batdance: 2:21-2:31 & 4:20-4:30 My ABSOLUTE favorite parts of that whole song "Ooh yeah, Ooh yeah, I wanna bust that body." and "Hey Ducky, let me stick the 7 inch in the computer drive, Hahaha"

3. Movie Star: 4:04-4:10 "So, do you like environmental records? Crickets chirpin', water rushin'...supposed 2 make U horny: it just make me wanna go 2 the bathroom.. actually this one's not bad, check it out. So like, what's your name?" LMAO

4. Positivity: 6:40 - The End (I know that's more than 10 secs. lol) The whole ending with the water is just BEAUTIFUL I LOVE it.

and lastly,

5. Love or Money: 0:30-0:40 The beginning "Woahohohoh" with that whole groove in the back?! The first time I heaard that I just KNEW it would be funky lol.

Okay that's only five off the top of my head I've got plenty more, Sorry for the paragraph I get excited about things like this lol

DiamondsxPearls said:

I have a couple... here's my top 5 lol

1. Joy In Repetition: 1:00-1:10 For some reason I just love that "da-da-dada-daaaa" in the background lol

Yes! Completely in love with that part. As well as "Was this woman he had never noticed before he lost himself in the articulated manner in which she said them." Took me forever to get that down without tripping over my words

[snip]

[Edited 6/2/16 9:30am]

I didn't quite read all of this thread, but did anyone mention "International Lover", as he climaxes into that guttural moan/scream bass voice singing (at 5:44), "Mmm, let me take it around... Let it all hang out." I didn't realize for years that he was even saying words. No matter how many times I hear that song, that part still gives me ALL the feels!!

The opening bass riff on 17 Days 0:00-0:10

The first guttural screams on Something in the Water 2:30-2:40

The Lords Prayer on Controversy 3:27-3:37

The opening chords and screams on God 0:00-0:10

The screaming segue from Computer Blue to Darling Nikki 3:41-3:51

Mommy why does everybody have a bomb? on 1999 5:59-6:09

We Can Funk, the last two minutes slay me...

4:48 or thereabouts...

YOU! Got electric ass baby..

YOU! Got electric thighs baby.

Oh, and also in "The Beautiful Ones", where he screams at the end, "And if it please you baby, please you baby, I'LL BEG YOU DOWN ON MY KNEES! I WANT YOU!'" That line is the whole reason that song is one of my faves.

bonatoc said:

I’d like to think such a clever thread stays longer than the Snow in April.

Because there are so many, you could go faster by dissecting every song and painstakingly classify each ten-seconds bit.

Even in my loathed Prince’s eras, there are ALWAYS ten seconds of something to be found, for EVERY song, that will shut me up.

It can be something hidden in the background, a vocal harmony, a small gimmick, a little percussion, a guitar or bass or keyboard part.

Heck, you can play this game with “Purple Rain” intros alone :

1 - Let’s Go Crazy - 0’01:0’11
First of all, there’s the organ. For the first time since the sixties (“Like A Rolling Stone”, “Whiter Shade Of Pale”, etc.), the instrument takes the stage, and in a much more overtly manner: this is an organ church under acid.

And then, this voice.

Like a Muezzin, stadium-delayed, SKipper claims in A over a G major: You’re hooked. You have to hear what comes next.

Then the snare starts (this is brilliant, every other musician would have added the kick drum to an intro), and then the organ stops, guitars take over, but you know the song.

2 - Take Me With U - 0’06:0’16 (from the 2nd chord, into the “Shhh”)
As if the “Let’s Go Crazy” intro was not enough to send every musician back into the studio, as Alan Leeds would put it, here comes an even more gigantic intro,
that would sound like Wagner if played by a decent Heavy Metal band.

The chords and the hypnotic arpeggios over them, that’s some serious shit. It’s a very good composition.

Luckily, Prince takes the Sir George Martin approach instead (“OK, first song, white rock and big guitars - check, let’s have a nice ballad to follow that”), takes all the pompous out of this “grand progression”, and makes it sound as light as 1966’s spring in London (or wherever).

The “Shhh” that replaces an otherwise dummy drum roll, is also an idea derivative of The Beatles (“Girl”), and modestly displays the boombox talents of Skipper: he was boom-boxing like a maniac during the 1999/Purple Rain era (cf. the coda of “Little Red Corvette (Extended Mix)”, “Tamborine”, “God”, “Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)”, “Girl”, etc.).

Someone in another thread suggested that Skipper seldom paid attention to his sound based on the facts that he recorded so quickly. That poor creature would have us to believe that all the beautiful, precise sonic details to be found everywhere in Prince’s music happen by accident. In short, that Prince didn’t care about sound because he was recording too fast.

I’d rather believe that orger is either slow, or never heard SKipper’s output through a decent audio system: Prince doesn’t spend days, like Bruce Swedien and Quincy Jones, on a bollocks reversed splash intro FX (“Dirty Diana”).

Not because he doesn’t know how to do it.
Because it’s sexier with a breath through the teeth.
The little girls understand, as would James Morrison put it.

3 - The Beautiful Ones - 0’00:0’13

There’s nothing much to say about this one. It’s like all the new wave groups had to go back to their synths and drum machines.

Except no one has been able to slow the tempo to these levels since, or set a romantic mood over an almost dead chip last burp, 8 bits slowly dying, I mean this stuff sounds like HAL9000 agonizing, it’s the Duracell Bunny gone out of steam.

Poor Lonely Computer, apparently his girl has some views on another man (and SKipper “Tries so hard not go insane, Birds do fly, looks like Rain”).

Will our hero prevail at the end of the song?
Or would he been just screaming in vain at a Big Tall Wall?

4 - Computer Blue - 0’00:0’10

At the 10 seconds cut, it cuts right after the second “Yes, Lisa”.
Fine by me.

This is an intro which has a lesbian dialogue. I mean, Tipper, sadly you cannot argue much here, it’s just water temperature checking, what’s wrong with that?
Say again? “Shall we begin”? Well, the song of course!
You dirty-minded wife of a politician…

The Linn pattern is, at usual during the Purple era, incredible.
And the Purple Rain era trademark: the accentuated 4th snare hit, usually doubled with claps.

5 - Darling Nikki - 0’00:0’10

These 10 seconds are enough to set the whole mood. It’s a menace.
It sounds like a garage rehearsal. You can smell the warehouse.
It’s dirty, it’s the condensation of everything Skipper learned from punk.

Most of all, it’s sexual. The tension created by this greasy fuzz guitar, and the synth in counterpoint, is like you’re in your teens, and you just found hidden porn.

And he hasn’t start singing yet.

Tune it next week for Side B.
Same time, same boogie.

nice one

The last ten seconds of ‘Feel U Up (Short Stroke) are kind of genius. I don't know if it's the greatest ten seconds, but... well.

[Edited 6/2/16 11:12am]

[Edited 6/2/16 11:27am]

Beginning of "She's Always In My Hair" (heck, I could break the entire song into 10 second incriments, and list those as my top 39!)

Guitar in "Joint 2 Joint" (after "sweet gypsy moans")

Guitar in "U Got the Look (Long Look)" - right around 4:35

Guitar during the "Father's Song" portion of "Computer Blue"

The piano and bass right around 2:52 in "Anotherloverholenyohead"

And I love, love, love the beginning of the 3EG version of "FUNKNROLL"

1:40 and on from "When Lay My Hands On U"

jillybean said:

Beginning of "She's Always In My Hair" (heck, I could break the entire song into 10 second incriments, and list those as my top 39!)

[snip]

Yeah, "She's Always in My Hair" is the BOMB, through and through. You need to get the extended version though.

CNickyD said:

jillybean said:

Beginning of "She's Always In My Hair" (heck, I could break the entire song into 10 second incriments, and list those as my top 39!)

[snip]

Yeah, "She's Always in My Hair" is the BOMB, through and through. You need to get the extended version though.

I have the 6 1/2 min version. It's my all time #1 favorite Prince song. Has been since I first heard it in '85. My math probably sucked in figuring out the number of 10 second incriments!

There's a moment in 'Joy in Repetition' when the guitar solo kicks in, and the background singers are singing "joy" that just kills me. Easily my favorite music moment.

Splanknasty2 said:

The last ten seconds of ‘Feel U Up (Short Stroke) are kind of genius. I don't know if it's the greatest ten seconds, but... well.

The backing vocals repeat ‘Let me touch your body baby, come on/ Let me feel u up / Come on baby', leaving the the lead to sing the second 'Come on'. It’s syncopated without being syncopated. You don’t even notice there's anything odd until you try and sing along. And then you realise it’s completely weird.

https://www.song365mp3.com/track/prince-feel-u-up-short-stroke-423808.html

[Edited 6/2/16 11:12am]

[Edited 6/2/16 11:27am]

You're right, that's an amazing ending, and it kind of sounds as sort of "dangerous" or "wicked".

jillybean said:

Beginning of "She's Always In My Hair" (heck, I could break the entire song into 10 second incriments, and list those as my top 39!)

Guitar in "Joint 2 Joint" (after "sweet gypsy moans")

Guitar in "U Got the Look (Long Look)" - right around 4:35

Guitar during the "Father's Song" portion of "Computer Blue"

The piano and bass right around 2:52 in "Anotherloverholenyohead"

And I love, love, love the beginning of the 3EG version of "FUNKNROLL"

1:40 and on from "When Lay My Hands On U"

The Lovesexy freakout:

"Oh, pretty little whip, U got me drippin'
Drippin' all over the floor, the floor
If I come back as a woman, I want a body like yours
A body like yours"

Strings leading to the bridge in Damn U 1:36-1:37

I thought this was kind of an impossible question initially, but I came up with something (that was probably mentioned), & it doesn't even come close to being the best in the catalogue, but it's a divine 10 seconds: 3:05-3:15 in Breakdown from AOA, his falsetto is clear & perfect BEAUTY, I often repeat that section becase it leaves me in awe!

.

TrivialPursuit already mentioned it but the ramp up into the solo towards the end of Gold (5:16 --> 5:26) always does it for me...

.

"One!.......Two!.......One!...Two!...Three!..... *squeal* "

.

Doozer said:

RJOrion said:

If I Was Your Girlfriend Would you let me wash your hair? Could I make you breakfast sometime? Well then, could we just hang out I mean, could we go to a movie and CRYYYYYYHYYYYHYYYHYYYYYYYY together?"

That's a great one.

Well, if you don't feel the joy and tenderness from 1:55 - 2:05 of EYE WISH U HEAVEN and it's subsequent coda, Heck, THE WHOLE 2 MINs!!! then you probably have a heart of stone.

Also, agreed on opening of MOUNTAINS: What a hook!

Don't throw me stones but i have such affection for D to the I to the A to the M ...

AbstractPoetic91 said:

The first 10 seconds of 17 Days

THIS. U read my mind! Total ear candy.

First things that come to mind:

-SMASH UP MY RIDE!!! well.. maybe not the ride (Adore)

-And there's always the rainbow... (accented dots) at the end of every rain. (Papa)

-The drumroll opening One for Madhouse

-The bit after the opening synth on High Fashion: drums intro and wicked groove

Which then got me into looking at how he layers voices (for you, tick tick bang, scandalous, etc.) and the thing I like best, when he takes orchestra from one song and lays it on another, or even better, takes two different songs and just puts them on eachother, dissonants and all (Scandalous love suite, Space universal love).

Back to my private listening party.

The Most Beautiful Girl In The World.

After the talking part. 3:31-3:41 on the music video "Could you be the most beautiful girl in the world? so beautiful, beautiful"

[Edited 6/9/16 20:46pm]