Sometimes I feel that way.

Don't get me wrong, I believe he is a genius, but some fans act as if the dude pooped purple glitter and everything he touched turned to gold.

Seeing fans go apeshit over the ICNTTPOYM 1979 demo, I saw one comment about how "Prince was 21 when he wrote this. Genius."

Genius? Really? A simplistic 3 chord pop song? The "genius" word is thrown around way too easily on here.

[Edited 7/17/20 9:17am]

Ha Ha, into the keep net you try to get

I think the trouble is, some of the people on the org listen almost exclusively to Prince, so to them a 40yr old demo of a 30yr old old Prince track is infinitely more exciting than listening to Neil Young or David Bowie.

I feel a bit sorry for these people, but they'll grow up eventually.

MattyJam said:

I think the trouble is, some of the people on the org listen almost exclusively to Prince, so to them a 40yr old demo of a 30yr old old Prince track is infinitely more exciting than listening to Neil Young or David Bowie.

I feel a bit sorry for these people, but they'll grow up eventually.

Quite. I regularly extol the virtues of a brilliant Neil Young country song or the unashamed pop brilliance of Bowie's Never Let Me Down LP to anyone who will listen. Which is nobody.

There's also a group of fans who get turned off by any P that isn't funky, so they don't like albums like Planet Earth.

Prince was a man that had the natural ability to keep perfect time, an amazing voice, could play a number of instruments at a master level, could dump out a classic song in a day and could take on any genre.

Add in his ability to learn dance, fashion and technology while making it all seem effortless. It's more like his genius is understated by fans.


Prince is arguably the greatest "jack-of-all-trades" musician the music industry has ever seen. Nobody has had his range.

[Edited 7/17/20 9:59am]

Nah

I thought the consensus was that people on here were too negative about him.

Strive said:

Prince was a man that had the natural ability to keep perfect time, an amazing voice, could play a number of instruments at a master level, could dump out a classic song in a day and could take on any genre.

Add in his ability to learn dance, fashion and technology while making it all seem effortless. It's more like his genius is understated by fans.


Prince is arguably the greatest "jack-of-all-trades" musician the music industry has ever seen. Nobody has had his range.

[Edited 7/17/20 9:59am]

PREACH!!!!!!

The Org community generally has a realistic view of how good Prince was in a broad-brush sense. Some people's critical perception wavers when talking about specific songs.

P was a genius of melody, rhythm as well as tone color. There've been plenty of musical geniuses but rarely anyone who consistently masters tone color. Listen to '4 Lust' and you'll know what I mean. So many brilliant songs in the vault seal him as GOAT.

Smokey80 said:

Sometimes I feel that way.

Don't get me wrong, I believe he is a genius, but some fans act as if the dude pooped purple glitter and everything he touched turned to gold.

Seeing fans go apeshit over the ICNTTPOYM 1979 demo, I saw one comment about how "Prince was 21 when he wrote this. Genius."

Genius? Really? A simplistic 3 chord pop song? The "genius" word is thrown around way too easily on here.

[Edited 7/17/20 9:17am]

I think the trick is to make a simple 3 chord pop ditty actually convey emotion, narrative, and be relatable but also seem personal in that pop way. So it's about the arrangement (which was not conventional to my ears) and the lyrics and way of singing.

But if it was this alone, no it's not genius, but in a collection of iterations and with what else was around it, it maybe shows some exceptional talent.

[Edited 7/17/20 12:02pm]

I actually think Prince fans are way more objective than some other fan bases are.

U can't overstate the truth.

Next topic.

jaawwnn said:

I thought the consensus was that people on here were too negative about him.

Correct.

EmmaMcG said:

I think the OP kind of has a point. I mean, Prince was a phenomenon, no doubt about it. A true musical genius. But not everything he did was worthy of equal praise. For every Computer Blue there's a Jughead, you know? For every Purple Rain there's a Purple & Gold. Most of his music ranged from great to merely very good. But some of it was only decent. And some of it was downright awful. But I can understand why long time fans would be excited at the prospect of an early demo of ICNTTPOYM. Perhaps it's that excitement that allows them to hear "genius" where I just hear a damn good demo of one of my favourite songs. Of course, all things being equal, as much as some people may OVERestimate Prince's genius, there are more people who tend to UNDERestimate his talent. How many comments have you seen on the Hall of Fame performance from people surprised at his guitar solo? When we all know that kind of guitar playing was par for the course for Prince. Or how many people just dismiss him because "he's old" or "he's weird". Admittedly, those last two examples are often found in younger people. My age and below. So, it's a mixed bag really.

I can apply that 2 Ferrari's.......but it is still a Ferrari.

[Edited 7/17/20 19:15pm]

jaawwnn said:

I thought the consensus was that people on here were too negative about him.

If things have changed, and dead Prince now poops purple glitter, then we can rest assured that it will be sprinkled over re-releases in various formats such as limited 7" box sets to make fans buy the same thing over and over again....oops. Seems like the glitter is already out there.

Not even close.

I agree....Prince was a great multi instrumentalist but Stevie Wonder/maurice White/David Bowie he aint!

Smokey80 said:

Sometimes I feel that way.

Don't get me wrong, I believe he is a genius, but some fans act as if the dude pooped purple glitter and everything he touched turned to gold.

Seeing fans go apeshit over the ICNTTPOYM 1979 demo, I saw one comment about how "Prince was 21 when he wrote this. Genius."

Genius? Really? A simplistic 3 chord pop song? The "genius" word is thrown around way too easily on here.

[Edited 7/17/20 9:17am]

I feel like debating semantics regarding the word "genius" will only be an excerise in triteness however I will say I do think that Prince was a very gifted musician and his demo of ICNTTPOYM is a fantastic recording with a very strong and memorable vocal melody that paid off wonderfully when it came to using it for SOTT

funkman88 said:

I agree....Prince was a great multi instrumentalist but Stevie Wonder/maurice White/David Bowie he aint!

Although for the inverse, Steve and Maurice were not Prince either! To me that is what makes Prince so great, his unique voice and sense of melody that nobody else can do. Same with Stevie, nobody can do Stevie like Stevie, and nobody was David Bowie and never could be. All great for completely uncomparable reasons

I think the word "genius" is so much used in general (on the internet) it really lost its meaning.

How are we goin to punish this offensive heresy, hanging or burning him alive?

slyjackson said:

slyjackson said:

How are we goin to punish this offensive heresy, hanging or burning him alive?

Jughead listening party

Yes. He was a genius, in my opinion. But some fans take it waaaay too far like he was some beyond-human incarnation!