Hey gang, I don't post here often, but I've been meaning to ask this question of everyone for awhile. Each time I walk my dog, I take some alone time to listen to music, a great deal of which is Prince's, just on a random shuffle. More often than not, I'll be listening to one of his songs, and, thanks to my headphones, I'm sucked deeper into the mix than I would be listening on the stereo, where ambient noise and other distractions make subtlety diappear. There have been discussions on appreciating Prince's layering of backing vocals, but I'd love to hear from those of you who can pull the nuances of his music where they're buried in the mix, or just a brilliant note palced at exactly the right moment.

Think of the single guitar note in Darking Nikki, right between "Thank U for a funky time" and "Call me up whenever you wanna grind." (At 1:40 of the released version.) That one is easy to hear, but some are much more difficult to pick out. Each and every one brings a giant grin to my face though, every single time.

A couple of my personal favorites are:

La, La, La, He, He, Hee (Highly Explosive Mix) - at 8:36 in your left ear Prince sings, "I think my choir wanna sing..." and that vocal continues as something of a backgound vocal solo through 9:01 where he sings, "Say it again.." Both those lines fill my heart with joy, during a song that itself pulls me out of the darkest mood.

During We Can Fuck from Purple Rain (Deluxe Edit), since it's the clearest and easiest to hear of all the versions, where it exists as well, the dual rising backing vocals from 4:26, one distinct vocal in each ear singing, "Aah, ah, ah." Each rises in intensity, until at 5:52 the left vocal turns into what in my opinion is one of Prince's most soulful, plaintive screams ever.

There are more, but I want to hear other people's treasures, let me know you favorite subtle flashes of brilliance. I'll add more of mine if the discussion piques the interests of others here.

On this day of the year especially, let's make each other smile with the little things that Prince left for us diehard music heads to find, marvel at and most of all, enjoy.

My friend.....

Personally I really like the guitar solos in The Exodus Has Begun that are almost hidden in the mix.

Prince just absolutely LOVED panning. I can only get the full effect of it through headphones right now, but we're building a new house and I'm putting in a music studio that's going to have a stereo system with speakers overhead and in every corner of the ceiling. I can't wait to hear what some of the stuff sounds like, based on where I'm standing.

RodeoSchro said:

Prince just absolutely LOVED panning. I can only get the full effect of it through headphones right now, but we're building a new house and I'm putting in a music studio that's going to have a stereo system with speakers overhead and in every corner of the ceiling. I can't wait to hear what some of the stuff sounds like, based on where I'm standing.

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It's actually not "the full stereo effect" you're getting through headphones, but an enhanced version of it, which is NOT what the mixing engineer aimed to achieve, because s/he wasn't mixing using headphones but with studio monitors that don't restrict your hearing the way headphones do. And no, they didn't mix "with speakers overhead and in every corner of the ceiling" either Those can work in home cinema installations (if you're into action movies), but if you want to hear records as they were intended to sound, then you need ONE pair of high quality speakers in front of you, period.
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Kares said:

RodeoSchro said:

Prince just absolutely LOVED panning. I can only get the full effect of it through headphones right now, but we're building a new house and I'm putting in a music studio that's going to have a stereo system with speakers overhead and in every corner of the ceiling. I can't wait to hear what some of the stuff sounds like, based on where I'm standing.

.
It's actually not "the full stereo effect" you're getting through headphones, but an enhanced version of it, which is NOT what the mixing engineer aimed to achieve, because s/he wasn't mixing using headphones but with studio monitors that don't restrict your hearing the way headphones do. And no, they didn't mix "with speakers overhead and in every corner of the ceiling" either Those can work in home cinema installations (if you're into action movies), but if you want to hear records as they were intended to sound, then you need ONE pair of high quality speakers in front of you, period.
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Cool. I'm still going to have multitudes of speakers but I will be able to mute any of them I want, so I'll try a few albums as you described.

Kares said:

RodeoSchro said:

Prince just absolutely LOVED panning. I can only get the full effect of it through headphones right now, but we're building a new house and I'm putting in a music studio that's going to have a stereo system with speakers overhead and in every corner of the ceiling. I can't wait to hear what some of the stuff sounds like, based on where I'm standing.

.
It's actually not "the full stereo effect" you're getting through headphones, but an enhanced version of it, which is NOT what the mixing engineer aimed to achieve, because s/he wasn't mixing using headphones but with studio monitors that don't restrict your hearing the way headphones do. And no, they didn't mix "with speakers overhead and in every corner of the ceiling" either Those can work in home cinema installations (if you're into action movies), but if you want to hear records as they were intended to sound, then you need ONE pair of high quality speakers in front of you, period.
.

Be that as it may Kares, you can't deny that headphones often allow you to hear things that aren't easy to hear with simple speakers. Espcially in today's day and age, when cheap speakers tend to be the norm, and good (eg. expensive) speakers are usually only used by audiophiles.

Regardless, I wasn't necessarily looking for a discussion on the proper ways to listen to Prince's music, so much as asking for people to point out to me the little hidden musical gems buried in Prince's music that they love. Another one that comes to mind for me, are the backing vocals at the tail end of Joy in Repetition, at 3:17 of the original (non-Gafitti Bridge) version, where you can hear Prince quietly singing in your left ear, "Why don't U love me baby?" and later encouraging the other vocalists (himself of course), with "I'm gonna keep on saying again" and "I'd love to go way up high and sing." I just know that there are fans out there who have never noticed these little things and that bringing them to everyone's attention just makes you appreciate Prince's immense talent even that much more.

Romar71 said:

Another one that comes to mind for me, are the backing vocals at the tail end of Joy in Repetition, at 3:17 of the original (non-Gafitti Bridge) version, where you can hear Prince quietly singing in your left ear, "Why don't U love me baby?" and later encouraging the other vocalists (himself of course), with "I'm gonna keep on saying again" and "I'd love to go way up high and sing." I just know that there are fans out there who have never noticed these little things and that bringing them to everyone's attention just makes you appreciate Prince's immense talent even that much more.

This reminds me of the moment in The Holy River at 3:15 when in the background he kind of pre-emptively admonishes/warns the 'choir' (himself of course) with a "Don't say it..." before 'they' say "Jesus"...

I like this thread.