It surprises me that knowing Prince's music so intimately, I can still find new details in the music that I hadn't heard before.

.

Today, it was a little drum machine tomtom pattern in Money Don't Matter that plays through the whole damn thing, accompanying and thickening the live drums. How had I not heard it before?

.

Does anything ever reach out and surprise you from the Prince catalogue? A whispered backing vocal you never noticed? A funky little guitar line buried in the mix?

Back in the 90s, my best friend was listening to Lovesexy through a walkman, when his headphones were somehow pulled half way out of the device. The songs continued playing and he heard things that would just blow your mind. It was so amazing, and we were able to record every song in this mode, to a casette tape.

Somehwere in my collection I have this tape and I would love to transfer it to mp3, just so everyone else, can hear it this way. Musical sounds and backing vocals buried so deep in the mix, you cannot hear them just listening to the album the normal way.

I can only imagine, what the rest of his catalog would sound like with all the things Prince buried in the mix. There are ALWAYS new things to discover and hear in his music. He really knew how to put pure magic, genius and creativity in his recordings... more than we'll ever know or hear.

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

Back in the 90s, my best friend was listening to Lovesexy through a walkman, when his headphones were somehow pulled half way out of the device. The songs continued playing and he heard things that would just blow your mind. It was so amazing, and we were able to record every song in this mode, to a casette tape.

Somehwere in my collection I have this tape and I would love to transfer it to mp3, just so everyone else, can hear it this way. Musical sounds and backing vocals buried so deep in the mix, you cannot hear them just listening to the album the normal way.

I can only imagine, what the rest of his catalog would sound like with all the things Prince buried in the mix. There are ALWAYS new things to discover and hear in his music. He really knew how to put pure magic, genius and creativity in his recordings... more than we'll ever know or hear.

I'd want to hear that.

Thats what I love about his music the most, multi-layered sonically that always leaves room for future surprise elements Sign O The Times as an album is definitly a great example of that.

Might be a reach here, but I recently heard "Escape" again and it makes me wonder if he drew the inspiration of that song from Marvin's "Got to Give It Up" musically, I hear a faint influence. That song has alot of stuff going on, and all of them are such delights to the ear.

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

Back in the 90s, my best friend was listening to Lovesexy through a walkman, when his headphones were somehow pulled half way out of the device. The songs continued playing and he heard things that would just blow your mind. It was so amazing, and we were able to record every song in this mode, to a casette tape.

Somehwere in my collection I have this tape and I would love to transfer it to mp3, just so everyone else, can hear it this way. Musical sounds and backing vocals buried so deep in the mix, you cannot hear them just listening to the album the normal way.

I can only imagine, what the rest of his catalog would sound like with all the things Prince buried in the mix. There are ALWAYS new things to discover and hear in his music. He really knew how to put pure magic, genius and creativity in his recordings... more than we'll ever know or hear.

.
It must've been mono'd by the plug only half way in. It's natural that you get to hear certain things in the mix better when you play it in mono.

We're just less than 2 months ago from rediscovering what SOTT remastered album has to offer, we will hear things we haven't heard before.

slyjackson said:

RODSERLING said:

slyjackson said:

We're just less than 2 months ago from rediscovering what SOTT remastered album has to offer, we will hear things we haven't heard before.

Like what?

There were some things on the 1999 Deluxe that I had never heard before and trust me when I tell you that I listened to that album hundreds of times. The remastering brings out things that are buried in the mix. I would imagine that the same thing will happen with SOTT Deluxe.

fishwillbite said:

It surprises me that knowing Prince's music so intimately, I can still find new details in the music that I hadn't heard before.

.

Today, it was a little drum machine tomtom pattern in Money Don't Matter that plays through the whole damn thing, accompanying and thickening the live drums. How had I not heard it before?

.

Does anything ever reach out and surprise you from the Prince catalogue? A whispered backing vocal you never noticed? A funky little guitar line buried in the mix?

Yeah, I hear things I've not heard before. I don't know if it's streaming quailty changing, or my soundbar or whatever, but a few Prince albums I've played in recent days sound totally different to me. "Strange Relationship" is one that sticks out.

Back in 2009, I created a thread a while back that talked about hearing new things in "Irresistible Bitch." Backwards!

When the stems and tracks from "Let's Go Crazy" leaked a few weeks ago, I immediately headed to Fink's ragtime-esque piano solo in the mid-section breakdown. I wanted to hear it. Then I listened to Prince's guitar parts. Then other stuff. It's just amazing to hear those pieces of a song, and how they're mixed later. I put the tracks into GarageBand and played them all normal level. It became evident how quickly a good song could turn into trash if badly mixed. I think about the story of Thriller sounding horrible. Then MJ & Q sat down to re-mix one song per day or every couple of days and came up with what we hear now.

But yeah, I really believe there's always something to discover in Prince's music. And that headphone thing mentioned in the thread is something I used to do all the time.

kingricefan said:

This may be mentioned by someone before, but please let me share my finding.

At the begining of "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" around 0:06 - 0:07 seconds, there is a subtle, short synthesizer note which is different from famous fuzzy synthesizer sound of this song.

You can hardly hear this note when you listen to the song at normal volume.

It is a mystery for me since I cannot understand the musical intention of this note.

TakEpri said:

This may be mentioned by someone before, but please let me share my finding.

At the begining of "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" around 0:06 - 0:07 seconds, there is a subtle, short synthesizer note which is different from famous fuzzy synthesizer sound of this song.

You can hardly hear this note when you listen to the song at normal volume.

It is a mystery for me since I cannot understand the musical intention of this note.

It's all thru the song, yo. It's not that hard to hear, IMO. It feels more like an adlib at that moment. But the instrument is mostly on beat throughout the rest of the song. It's almost like a warbly electric piano or something playing along with the bass part. It's mostly in lockstep with the rhythm section.

TrivialPursuit said:

TakEpri said:

This may be mentioned by someone before, but please let me share my finding.

At the begining of "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" around 0:06 - 0:07 seconds, there is a subtle, short synthesizer note which is different from famous fuzzy synthesizer sound of this song.

You can hardly hear this note when you listen to the song at normal volume.

It is a mystery for me since I cannot understand the musical intention of this note.

It's all thru the song, yo. It's not that hard to hear, IMO. It feels more like an adlib at that moment. But the instrument is mostly on beat throughout the rest of the song. It's almost like a warbly electric piano or something playing along with the bass part. It's mostly in lockstep with the rhythm section.

If you are saying "It's all thru the song" and "It's not that hard to hear", it is not what I'm talking about. The strange tone can be heard just once, around 6-7 seconds from the beginning of the song, during third chord of the intro.

This one goes back quites a ways but I remember listening to my "Purple Rain" cassette on my walkman one night at summer camp, probably 1986 or 1987. When "Take me with u" started I noticed they whisper "Shhhhhhhhhit" at the beginning. I had never heard it before that night. In fact I don't think it was taken out of the radio edit.

djdaffy1227 said:

This one goes back quites a ways but I remember listening to my "Purple Rain" cassette on my walkman one night at summer camp, probably 1986 or 1987. When "Take me with u" started I noticed they whisper "Shhhhhhhhhit" at the beginning. I had never heard it before that night. In fact I don't think it was taken out of the radio edit.

You talking about after the drum into portions and when it goes into the regular hook? They don't whipser "shit" in "Take Me With U." It's just a whooshing sound.

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

Back in the 90s, my best friend was listening to Lovesexy through a walkman, when his headphones were somehow pulled half way out of the device. The songs continued playing and he heard things that would just blow your mind. It was so amazing, and we were able to record every song in this mode, to a casette tape.

I had the exact same thing, only with Sign O The Times! Because the jack was halfway out of my walkman, i basically heard the background vocals and instruments upfront. Listening to If I Was Your Girlfriend was mindblowing! Those layered background vocals, all by Prince, amazing. Forever In My Life was also amazing, with the way the background vocals go before the lead vocals. Off course you can hear that when you listen to the song anyway, but it just hit me more this way.

Whats up with giro's and boys and saying A Beep in the portioneren
before he starts singing.

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

Back in the 90s, my best friend was listening to Lovesexy through a walkman, when his headphones were somehow pulled half way out of the device. The songs continued playing and he heard things that would just blow your mind. It was so amazing, and we were able to record every song in this mode, to a casette tape.

Somehwere in my collection I have this tape and I would love to transfer it to mp3, just so everyone else, can hear it this way. Musical sounds and backing vocals buried so deep in the mix, you cannot hear them just listening to the album the normal way.

I can only imagine, what the rest of his catalog would sound like with all the things Prince buried in the mix. There are ALWAYS new things to discover and hear in his music. He really knew how to put pure magic, genius and creativity in his recordings... more than we'll ever know or hear.

-

I know eactly what you mean !

I did it all the time too with my Sony walkman. ))

It was a simple and coincidental discovery, and you got to hold it steady in the exact same position to listen.

I absolutely remember it sooooo well.

Thank you for this wonderful reminder.

Now where's my old Sony walkman ?

-

Edance said:

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

Back in the 90s, my best friend was listening to Lovesexy through a walkman, when his headphones were somehow pulled half way out of the device. The songs continued playing and he heard things that would just blow your mind. It was so amazing, and we were able to record every song in this mode, to a casette tape.

I had the exact same thing, only with Sign O The Times! Because the jack was halfway out of my walkman, i basically heard the background vocals and instruments upfront. Listening to If I Was Your Girlfriend was mindblowing! Those layered background vocals, all by Prince, amazing. Forever In My Life was also amazing, with the way the background vocals go before the lead vocals. Off course you can hear that when you listen to the song anyway, but it just hit me more this way.

If u flood the earphones to one side on Pop Life you can isolate the slightly delayed vocal layer.

GirlBrother said:

Well, I never knew that Prince and the audience chant "CAN'T NO-BODY, FUCK WITH US" during the rap part of It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night, until it was backmasked on the radio last week.

It was a long time before I heard him spell "P-U-S-S-Y" in "New Position." Also, for me it was cleared up just years ago that Sheila "I'm The New Prince" E. said she sang, "funk" while Prince sang "fuck" on "Erotica City".

It was a decade or more after Parade was released that I noticed the whispered "starvation" right as "Mountains" goes into the outro vamp.

I never noticed the word "Normally" in "International Lover" until I heard it on the SD versions... (I have had over the years several bootlegs of the 1999 shows and I have listed to them but I am not a HUGE fan of live songs) I heard it on the one he did with Morris and then Live and I was all... no way! But Way! It was always there...

I used to have a pair of good ear buds that were actually faulty and I heard all sorts of weird things in songs.

renfield said:

It was a decade or more after Parade was released that I noticed the whispered "starvation" right as "Mountains" goes into the outro vamp.

And that is so fucking random, too. I never quite paid attention to it, but it's even on the DTT page, so clearly someone heard it before.

TrivialPursuit said:

renfield said:

It was a decade or more after Parade was released that I noticed the whispered "starvation" right as "Mountains" goes into the outro vamp.

And that is so fucking random, too. I never quite paid attention to it, but it's even on the DTT page, so clearly someone heard it before.

Is that what he says? For all this time, I've been singing "starfish" - don't know why...and now I know better!

SimonCharles said:

TrivialPursuit said:

And that is so fucking random, too. I never quite paid attention to it, but it's even on the DTT page, so clearly someone heard it before.

Is that what he says? For all this time, I've been singing "starfish" - don't know why...and now I know better!

LOL I mean, starfish is as random as starvation. It's not exactly a call out like "Vegas!" or "Confusion!"

TrivialPursuit said:

SimonCharles said:

Is that what he says? For all this time, I've been singing "starfish" - don't know why...and now I know better!

LOL I mean, starfish is as random as starvation. It's not exactly a call out like "Vegas!" or "Confusion!"

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

Back in the 90s, my best friend was listening to Lovesexy through a walkman, when his headphones were somehow pulled half way out of the device. The songs continued playing and he heard things that would just blow your mind. It was so amazing, and we were able to record every song in this mode, to a casette tape.

Somehwere in my collection I have this tape and I would love to transfer it to mp3, just so everyone else, can hear it this way. Musical sounds and backing vocals buried so deep in the mix, you cannot hear them just listening to the album the normal way.

I can only imagine, what the rest of his catalog would sound like with all the things Prince buried in the mix. There are ALWAYS new things to discover and hear in his music. He really knew how to put pure magic, genius and creativity in his recordings... more than we'll ever know or hear.

LOL!!

My headphones broke down somewhere in 1986 somehow, and all of a sudden I was able to hear all that was hidden in the background on Parade.. mainvocals were tucked away in the back, some tracks sounded like instrumentals with loud backingvocals instead. I was hooked INSTANTLY.. I kept the headphones fot years and used it together with a Revox reel tape machine tot create backingtracks (voice-killer -ish)

almost decades later I descovered that a decent pair of studio headphones (Bayerdynamic) made me hair everything from front to back that was hidden in the mix.. even tape bleeds and such (errased rythm guitar track on Kiss, still audible in the background)

thePJsupreme said:

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

Back in the 90s, my best friend was listening to Lovesexy through a walkman, when his headphones were somehow pulled half way out of the device. The songs continued playing and he heard things that would just blow your mind. It was so amazing, and we were able to record every song in this mode, to a casette tape.

Somehwere in my collection I have this tape and I would love to transfer it to mp3, just so everyone else, can hear it this way. Musical sounds and backing vocals buried so deep in the mix, you cannot hear them just listening to the album the normal way.

I can only imagine, what the rest of his catalog would sound like with all the things Prince buried in the mix. There are ALWAYS new things to discover and hear in his music. He really knew how to put pure magic, genius and creativity in his recordings... more than we'll ever know or hear.

LOL!!

My headphones broke down somewhere in 1986 somehow, and all of a sudden I was able to hear all that was hidden in the background on Parade.. mainvocals were tucked away in the back, some tracks sounded like instrumentals with loud backingvocals instead. I was hooked INSTANTLY.. I kept the headphones fot years and used it together with a Revox reel tape machine tot create backingtracks (voice-killer -ish)

almost decades later I descovered that a decent pair of studio headphones (Bayerdynamic) made me hair everything from front to back that was hidden in the mix.. even tape bleeds and such (errased rythm guitar track on Kiss, still audible in the background)

That's happened to me a couple of times and truthfully I kind of enjoyed it.

Just about all of Prince's albums, especially his 80's output, can't be experienced properly without headphones.