I never really used to rate this, but have been listening to it a bit more lately and it has grown on me. It's a bit looser sounding than a lot of the songs on the album and I really like the fleshed-out jamming in the last half of the track.

Thougts?

Pretty basic horn jam. I like it but no big love. Billy Jack Bitch it aint.

Sleep Around, now that's the jam.

Mightve been a really good song if it was edited down for time a little bit and without Rosie Gaines

it's a mediocre song.....not terrible,but not really interesting either.I was surprised that Prince chose this song to open the album with.

I love this song - but when played live

Not his best song opener - on the album, true..

this song was played live (maybe combined with the NPS song Push It Up)

wasn't it...

Sorry if I am remeber this wrong.. played then.. back in 1997/98?

"It really isn't"

rdhull said:

It wasn’t

rosie really gets on my nerves on this one. i like parts of the song but as the opening track
to this 3 disc album, it immediately made me check my expectations at the door. my heart
started sinking as soon as it was halfway through. i've grown to like it though. but still, the
rosie growling is too much already

I like it.

IstenSzek said:

i like snippet of that song in BMW Z3 - in the beginning of the video for 'Betcha by Golly Wow!', sounds bad ass there.

I remember being sort of shocked after finally hearing it. When the tracklist leaked in the Prince Family Newsletter, I was expecting it to be this huge, upbeat funk anthem to kick the album off. And then I heard it and it's this sort of midtempo, smooth jazz track. Not really in your face, as we'd come to expect from Prince, and at times politely funky, but pretty ordinary.

I was sort of expecting Get Yo Groove On to be another funk jam, and obviously that wasn't the case either. So I suppose expectations clouded my initial reception. But in retrospect, it was really just Prince defying our expectations yet again, for better or worse.

I do like the song, and as with nearly every song/album, there is something to enjoy within it, because it came from Prince, whom we love.

I agree that the song was a poor lead into the album he was born to make. The title was only going to cause problems, and it just may be that the artificial constraint of sixty minutes per album (pyramid stuff x 3) made some grooves longer than needed.

I didn't mind the song. Rosie Gaines vocals sound like generic samples or warm-up exercises rather than really enhancing the song. The biggest let-down since soulpsychedelicide. It actually reminds me of how I felt with the Gold Standard which is a song that annoys me. For me F.U.N.K is a hundred times better than all of the songs mentioned.

Some nice flute, a good bridge here there, but really Prince? Compare to Let's Go Crazy, 1999, Sign O the times. It sets up the album, as trailing from the beginning to aspire to be a classic album.

I love I Wanna Be Ur Lover. Eventhough it's a short song. But the long musical instruments playing. Keeps U dancing.

i always thougth of this as a curtis sound

thedance said:

SchlomoThaHomo said:

I remember being sort of shocked after finally hearing it. When the tracklist leaked in the Prince Family Newsletter, I was expecting it to be this huge, upbeat funk anthem to kick the album off. And then I heard it and it's this sort of midtempo, smooth jazz track. Not really in your face, as we'd come to expect from Prince, and at times politely funky, but pretty ordinary.

I was sort of expecting Get Yo Groove On to be another funk jam, and obviously that wasn't the case either. So I suppose expectations clouded my initial reception. But in retrospect, it was really just Prince defying our expectations yet again, for better or worse.

I do like the song, and as with nearly every song/album, there is something to enjoy within it, because it came from Prince, whom we love.

now there's one that i DID warm up to. i enjoy the heck out of that song
and it's long extended portion.

robertgeorge said:

I agree that the song was a poor lead into the album he was born to make. The title was only going to cause problems, and it just may be that the artificial constraint of sixty minutes per album (pyramid stuff x 3) made some grooves longer than needed.

I didn't mind the song. Rosie Gaines vocals sound like generic samples or warm-up exercises rather than really enhancing the song. The biggest let-down since soulpsychedelicide. It actually reminds me of how I felt with the Gold Standard which is a song that annoys me. For me F.U.N.K is a hundred times better than all of the songs mentioned.

Some nice flute, a good bridge here there, but really Prince? Compare to Let's Go Crazy, 1999, Sign O the times. It sets up the album, as trailing from the beginning to aspire to be a classic album.

ah indeed, now that is a nice bit in the song. i love it when the flute pops up in a prince song.

IstenSzek said:

SchlomoThaHomo said:

I remember being sort of shocked after finally hearing it. When the tracklist leaked in the Prince Family Newsletter, I was expecting it to be this huge, upbeat funk anthem to kick the album off. And then I heard it and it's this sort of midtempo, smooth jazz track. Not really in your face, as we'd come to expect from Prince, and at times politely funky, but pretty ordinary.

I was sort of expecting Get Yo Groove On to be another funk jam, and obviously that wasn't the case either. So I suppose expectations clouded my initial reception. But in retrospect, it was really just Prince defying our expectations yet again, for better or worse.

I do like the song, and as with nearly every song/album, there is something to enjoy within it, because it came from Prince, whom we love.

now there's one that i DID warm up to. i enjoy the heck out of that song
and it's long extended portion.

Get Yo Groove On, is throwaway but it is a nice piece of work. The groove is slinky when it kicks in on the extended part, and the "even Stevie Wonder" can see is fun.

IstenSzek said:

rdhull said:

It wasn’t

rosie really gets on my nerves on this one. i like parts of the song but as the opening track
to this 3 disc album, it immediately made me check my expectations at the door. my heart
started sinking as soon as it was halfway through. i've grown to like it though. but still, the
rosie growling is too much already

Exactly. I just can't stand her on this one, and I love almost everything Rosie does.

A good half of Emancipation's disc 1 is kind of depressing.
But remember, this was the aftermath of the WB debacle.

The "album I was born to make" statement, the triple set, like getting back at Burbank for Dream Factory.Crystal Ball.Sign 'O' The Times, it really does look like Prince trying to figure out where to go next, or what to do with all this "freedom". Prince doing covers on one of his albums, for crying out loud. And don't start me with the "Holy River" video, which is the most grotesque clip he's ever done. Whereas the song is a fantastic Springsteenian effort, and a welcomed return to introspection. Thank God for "Top Of The Pops" for getting things straight. It's hard to believe the same album gave us the "Face Down" video, one of his best, surely the funniest — and no one got to see it.

Still, I don't mind the album production, the overdubs are simply fantastic, there is very good musicianship to be found even in the lesser tracks, and sheer genius on the best ones. I can't blame him for feeling low, after having being forced to slice and butcher yet another grandiose 3-set disc (The Dawn).

Some days, when I'm in the right mindset, the album is really enjoyable, start to finish.
But I confess, after three minutes in, I'm always eager for "Right Back Here In My Arms" to come up.
"Ow-howw, oww-oww-a-how-a-ow"... Ow Lawd.

[Edited 1/22/18 20:35pm]

that's what I think of it....

I love it because the groove/bass line is so different than what you are usually expecting from him from previous works.

SchlomoThaHomo said:

I remember being sort of shocked after finally hearing it. When the tracklist leaked in the Prince Family Newsletter, I was expecting it to be this huge, upbeat funk anthem to kick the album off. And then I heard it and it's this sort of midtempo, smooth jazz track. Not really in your face, as we'd come to expect from Prince, and at times politely funky, but pretty ordinary.

I was sort of expecting Get Yo Groove On to be another funk jam, and obviously that wasn't the case either. So I suppose expectations clouded my initial reception. But in retrospect, it was really just Prince defying our expectations yet again, for better or worse.

I do like the song, and as with nearly every song/album, there is something to enjoy within it, because it came from Prince, whom we love.

Agree, it certainly didn't live up to it's title.

.

Similarly with Emancipation itself. Expected it to be a grand epic anthem of sorts... As you say expectations..

One of my all time faves. That bassline, Kirk's drum programming, the sax.