What's the consensus on this song?

I love that it has a super heavy kick drum and crunchy guitar chords, but overtop it has very light, airy, sing-songy vocals and harp. Consequently, the song manages to be thundering yet delicate at the same time. The contrast is brilliant.

I have mixed feelings about the extended version. I love parts 2 and 3 (they're super funky), but I don't like part 1 because the substitution of electro-beat for the kick drum & guitar means you lose the powerfully contrasting elements of the original version I just described. (To be clear, I don't mind the elector-beat, and if I'd only every heard that version I'd probably love it, but its inclusion means the loss of my favorite aspect of the original song.)

I love part 1 but 2&3 are dragging too long for me.

When asked i say I always say this is my absolute favourite Prince track (album version).

I guess what i really mean is that it is quitessentially Prince in every way - musically and lyrically.

The sentiments of the lyrics are so romantic - what more could you possibly wish for someone than heaven? I love it.

I love both versions

Back in the day, my boot version of the Black Album showed up the same day as this 12" release!

It was a super funky day

mistertonymac said:

One of the better songs on the album and one of his best videos. I like the positive message of it and it's subtle complexity. One of those that tracks that sounds basic without headphones. Kind of a grower.

Love both versions but I think the album version is superior to the extended version. As much as I like the funky bits of pt. 2 and 3 and the extra lyrics, they just don´t add much to the original and rather take the whole song into a drastically different direction. Which is fine , but changes the vibe of the song a tad too much for me. It starts all soft and romantic and vulnerable, and then gets funny and a bit braggadocious.

The video is one of my all time favorite Prince videos. Really perfect for this kind of song.

One of my favorite Prince songs. Spent years tracking down the extended version of cd.

his artistic peak, musically and lyrically everything beginning with for you led to this song.

I love this song. It has always been my favorite on the album. I don't care for the extended-jam version. It takes away from the simplistic power of the song. Almost like I Wonder U, where he added the 'jammy' part.

Love it - album version, 12" & video. Absolute Prince genius! The choice of music video director was just another masterstroke in this beautiful release.

the long version of that song really came as alive for me on those occasions when it was paired with God is Afive on the tour. The lovesexy cd single was the first cd I ever bought ,a couple of years before I could afford a cd player to play it on

Rev said:

I love both versions

Back in the day, my boot version of the Black Album showed up the same day as this 12" release!

It was a super funky day

indeed it was El Reverendro!

You were The Man too for coming through with both of those shits!

I agree with the OP about how cool the album version is with the chugging guitar and how you loose that in Pt 1 of the 12" version, but damn I've always thought that

the whole 12" version was just so bad-ass. When it came out I was blown away at how he took that great simple 2 1/2 minute song and turned it into that 10 minute squishy funky version.

So I'd have to say that I love both of them, glad we got both.

Great song!!!

If I remember correctly the CD single (Germany) had a strange smaller format, so that one would need to "insert" it into a different CD, so that CD-players could actually play it.

Or am I mixing this up (in the office now, so no chance to check...)

One of my favorites on the album. I just love the whole vibe of the song. Very beautiful.

ForbiddenFruit said:

his artistic peak, musically and lyrically everything beginning with for you led to this song.

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I always feel like the extended version takes you somewhere,

in a positive way towards something with no ending and steadily onwards.

Take this beat... like you feel he had great fun making this... 'got plenty others'...

I love the clear and swirling synth sounds in the third part, that carries you on and on.

As if the lyrics are somewhat invented on the spot, too.

... that sample of that one sax note... while the drumbeat ripples on...

-

Great great track. Never boring, nnd somehow simple but also beautifully complex.

The repetitive style is addicitive to me.

And then it ends... in an eerie question.

Just love it.

-

My favourite Prince song, my favourite Prince video. And I too prefer the album version of Part 1, for the exact reasons stated by OP.

Great song and great video,too

chewymusic said:

Rev said:

I love both versions

Back in the day, my boot version of the Black Album showed up the same day as this 12" release!

It was a super funky day

indeed it was El Reverendro!

You were The Man too for coming through with both of those shits!

We were kicking ass back then !

The part 2 & 3 of the extended version is excellent! just to be able to hear a glimpse of the unreleased Take This Beat drove me crazy at the time

highcalonic said:

The part 2 & 3 of the extended version is excellent! just to be able to hear a glimpse of the unreleased Take This Beat drove me crazy at the time

I went with a friend to the Lovesexy concert in Philadelphia in 1988. We go to the Spectrum hours before the show started and wandered around outside. We could hear Prince and the band warming up/doing sound checks. We even got a glimpse of them through a maintainence door that was cracked open and had a fairly unobstructed view of the stage. They were playing Take This Beat. We'd never heard it before and thought it was amazing. We started referring to it as "The Funky Warm Up Music". When we eventually bought the I Wish U Heaven Maxi Single and realized it was part 3, our minds were blown.

I point that out to explain that I do think parts 2 and 3 are excellent songs. And I would love part 1 if that was the only version of I Wish U Heaven I'd ever heard. But I just don't think it compares to the album version because it loses the uniqueness. As I wrote in my original post, the original version has the thumping the kick drum and crunchy guitar chords contrasted with the delicate -- even dainty vocals and harp. That contrast is what makes the song special, but it's lost when the music is replaced by an electronic beat.

My guess is someone that was dear to Prince's heart.

highcalonic said:

I love the 12". I remember buying it back in the day and not expecting too much from the extended version. Boom, the transition from light falsetto gently wishing Heaven 'to take this beat...' and 'Ur sister's ugly...' was so expected. So funky. So Prince. *****