thedoorkeeper said:

liltalkm said:

thedoorkeeper said:

I "tortured" my wife with Prince music for a few years before she converted. HOUSEQUAKE was the song that finally flipped a switch in her brain. And that took six years before it happened.

Wow, most dig Housequake pretty easily.

I don't. Never have, never will. And that not me saying that to bring any attention or trying to be special. The lack of any clear direction in both chorus and verse still falls flat. No hit potential at all.

IIWYGF is his best song though. And I was scrolling through Prince.org best track poll by moonbeam. And I got to say, to exceed from that competition in the top 250 (His top 250 has to be the greatest feat by any artist, not only because of quantity but including quality) you really have to bring out something special. IIWYGF brings the man to the stratosphere. Toejam from the Peach and Black Podcast said it probably best "It could go on all day that beat and I wouldn't loose a second". That is exactly what hooked me from the beginning. The layering of every instrument, vocal and soudscape is otherwordly. If SOTT was made as a documentary, IIWYGF would be the pivotal moment of the whole documentary and would be deserving of an own segment within the documentary for about 20-30 minutes. NO other artist can make this song and that is why I love the man. It is his best drum pattern and therefore one of the best drum pattern of all time.

When I frist heard this song I would repeatedly play the first 8 seconds just for the opening loop.

I wonder if he knew just how ahead of the curve he was with this song

liltalkm said:

Listening to SOTT tonight, thinking... This may be the perfect Prince convert verification song. By this I mean, If you like this song, you probably have a relationship with Prince music. I love the song as do all of us fans. But, if I wanted to test someone's ability to see if they could really dig Prince music, this is a great test song. It is really a palette shock to most, especially if they only know the hits or nothing about him. If they like this one from the start, they are probably going to get hooked. A friend of mine who eventually ended up diggin Prince after all the years of be playing it never got the song at first. I told him they would one day and one day they did. It became a favorite of theirs, like it is to all of us. Are there any better song examples of what I am trying to express? Does anyone not love this one? I won't judge, just want to understand. [Edited 2/25/19 16:05pm]

great song, dumbass choice for a single, which susan rogers claimed credit for. No one who listened to black radio wanted to hear that. I remember, somehow it got on the muzak station at the burger king my sis worked at, of course she commented negatively on it. Not everyone stayed with Prince or MJ throughout their careers, my sis loved MJ, adored him growing up but all the surgery and wierdness had her and just about everyone else talking shit about him. Prince lost a ton of fans but I think he did much of it on purpose. I have told the story before how I approached a kid who dressed like the kid when sign o the times came out, he denied ever copying prince and said he was looking wierd lately.

thedoorkeeper said:

I "tortured" my wife with Prince music for a few years before she converted. HOUSEQUAKE was the song that finally flipped a switch in her brain. And that took six years before it happened.

Over 25 years as a fan and my switch still hasn't flipped for Housequake.

I love If I Was Your Girlfriend though. One of his best.

If I Was Your Girlfriend is such a wonderful song with brilliant lyrics.

Love the album version, love love love the NYE at Paisley version and really, really love the movie version.

But I´m not a big fan of the later live versions that he started playing around 1996 and then continued to play at the 02 and elsewhere. Those later versions just sound too happy and like a partysong, which it really isn´t at all. I often wondered why Prince would rearrange it to a party song when it´s actually such an introverted, melancholic song.

I usually love how he would rearrange the tempo or general feel of a song for live shows, and I can´t get enough of all the different sounding versions of Something in the Water but when it comes to If I Was Your Girlfriend I think he shouldn´t have changed it that drastically.

But hey, still great that he played it so often in the later part of his career.

KoolEaze said:

If I Was Your Girlfriend is such a wonderful song with brilliant lyrics.

Love the album version, love love love the NYE at Paisley version and really, really love the movie version.

But I´m not a big fan of the later live versions that he started playing around 1996 and then continued to play at the 02 and elsewhere. Those later versions just sound too happy and like a partysong, which it really isn´t at all. I often wondered why Prince would rearrange it to a party song when it´s actually such an introverted, melancholic song.

I usually love how he would rearrange the tempo or general feel of a song for live shows, and I can´t get enough of all the different sounding versions of Something in the Water but when it comes to If I Was Your Girlfriend I think he shouldn´t have changed it that drastically.

But hey, still great that he played it so often in the later part of his career.

-

absolutely agree on that

-

if you put up a playlist of the same song (any song played live), during each different tour

you will hear the genius of Prince in re-arranging or drilling the song till it's death

he (over)did lots of songs in both ways, live

-

start with I Wanna Be Your Lover,

and see over the years, during many tours, how that song became so much different, but stil the same

difficult to explain, but an interesting approach to see for yourself

-

I believe that from the Lovesexy tour on, he started to change lots of arrangements

that were part of the recognisable song structure

sometimes for the best, sometimes also otherwise

layers and layers,

new horn arragements

new syths embellishments,

background singers

sparse arrangements because of the smaler band settings etc

-

maybe it goes for re-recorded songs too

-

Vannormal said:

KoolEaze said:

If I Was Your Girlfriend is such a wonderful song with brilliant lyrics.

Love the album version, love love love the NYE at Paisley version and really, really love the movie version.

But I´m not a big fan of the later live versions that he started playing around 1996 and then continued to play at the 02 and elsewhere. Those later versions just sound too happy and like a partysong, which it really isn´t at all. I often wondered why Prince would rearrange it to a party song when it´s actually such an introverted, melancholic song.

I usually love how he would rearrange the tempo or general feel of a song for live shows, and I can´t get enough of all the different sounding versions of Something in the Water but when it comes to If I Was Your Girlfriend I think he shouldn´t have changed it that drastically.

But hey, still great that he played it so often in the later part of his career.

-

absolutely agree on that

-

if you put up a playlist of the same song (any song played live), during each different tour

you will hear the genius of Prince in re-arranging or drilling the song till it's death

he (over)did lots of songs in both ways, live

-

start with I Wanna Be Your Lover,

and see over the years, during many tours, how that song became so much different, but stil the same

difficult to explain, but an interesting approach to see for yourself

-

I believe that from the Lovesexy tour on, he started to change lots of arrangements

that were part of the recognisable song structure

sometimes for the best, sometimes also otherwise

layers and layers,

new horn arragements

new syths embellishments,

background singers

sparse arrangements because of the smaler band settings etc

-

maybe it goes for re-recorded songs too

-

Exactly.

But I find the changes in I Wanna Be Your Lover not as drastic as some other songs.

And ....he started changing songs much earlier than during the Lovesexy tour. For example When U Were Mine during the August 3, 1983 benefit concert at First Ave sounds so different compared to the album version and previous live versions. From the "I´ll kick his ass baby, you know I ain´t to yella..." lyric change ( which I absolutely love) to the rocking guitars, it is , in my opinion, one of the best versions, maybe even THE best version of that song.

Or Something in the Water at the birthday gig, then during ONA, or during the 3rd Eye Girl shows. Always different, yet always brilliant.

But not all songs became better or benefitted from the rearrangements, and I think IIWYF or Kiss or When Doves Cry lost a bit of their magic in later years.

And yes, you are right, it goes for re-recorded songs, too. Especially for them. Think of 1999-The New Master or Starfish and Coffee.

Housequake (7 min Moquake).. the B-side

I think even Neil Tennant said something beautiful about IIWYG, looong time ago..



Something like this song is the most beautiful love song created by a straight man (I do not remember the exact quote).

great song...shitty choice for a single, killed any momentum SOTT had going...

macaylasdad said:

Wolfie87 said:

macaylasdad said:

great song...shitty choice for a single, killed any momentum SOTT had going...

What Otter artist have the bragging rights to, by fans, name his best Song of all time as a horrible single choice? Thats why Prince is so unique. Nothing was ever played by the book.

ya, but why would he want to put out something that would flop, i don't think he knew. or maybe he was really trying to test his audience as he often did. I'll never understand why he worked through projects so quickly and poorly, i do and i don't, i know he wanted to move on but couldn't he see that he wasn't maximizing the last release and how that might hurt him? Be an artist, sure but don't act angry when warner brother's tells you they aren't a charity for artists.

macaylasdad said:

great song...shitty choice for a single, killed any momentum SOTT had going...

yeah,I was shocked when this was released as the second single.It's an amazing song,but I knew that the masses wouldn't understand it.The song was dead on arrival at pop stations.

strange relationship, slow love,adore, I could never take the place of your man, even the stranger songs like dorothy parker would have been better. U got the look was a hit, he needed to keep the momentum going, also, u got had one of his better videos up to that time. some reason, he did what he always did, moved on to the next thing before the public had a chance to even digest the last.

PeteSilas said:

Wolfie87 said:

macaylasdad said: What Otter artist have the bragging rights to, by fans, name his best Song of all time as a horrible single choice? Thats why Prince is so unique. Nothing was ever played by the book.

ya, but why would he want to put out something that would flop, i don't think he knew. or maybe he was really trying to test his audience as he often did. I'll never understand why he worked through projects so quickly and poorly, i do and i don't, i know he wanted to move on but couldn't he see that he wasn't maximizing the last release and how that might hurt him? Be an artist, sure but don't act angry when warner brother's tells you they aren't a charity for artists.

Of course he didn't know, or did he? Was he that far ahead in his mind that he really believed he could change the mind of the masses with a thoughtprovoking song, title, lyrics all combined? Who the hell knows. And again, that makes him fascinating. This song is a true example of the concept "Great art ages like fine wine". I, truly, am addicted to this song. The beat is STILL haunting after all these years. And this is a song where all different versions sounds amazing in their own different ways. And by the way, Drop dead gorgeous women wear that kind of fur jacket with style these days. Still, Prince wore that coat with full style and elegance way back in 1987. That coat still looks new if you put it on a beautiful woman today and no one would even raise their eyebrow. That's how good that video version has aged to this day. Props to his clothing design in the 80's when Madonna and MJ both looked liked pure shit in Who's that girl / BAD music video that same year.