My Name Is Prince- would have been a great song without Tony M.'s rapping.

kingricefan said:

kingricefan said:

Darth voice on Rainbow Children. Sonically, it is in my top 5 of his.

ColinFaconskin said:

Pope. The chorus is genius, it could almost be as good as 7 but the Bernie samples ruin it for me.

Awh damn the Bernie sample makes that song for me. Also his stand up from where that "I aint scared of you muthafuka's" is so goood RIP Bernie

lurker316 said:

Sooooometimes, the drums on the extended "God (Instrumental)" get really annoying and bangs around a lot. Prince did a lot of drum breaks like that. "Alexa De Paris (extended mix)" comes to mind, the live version of "America."

Speaking of "God," that squawking on the vocal. HORRID. I don't know what he says, but I hear "BLOOOP. AH. OHHHHH AH! Aaaah ah ah ha ha ha ha ha oooooooohhhhhhhhhhaaaaahhhh..." Dude, STFU.

Tell me how U want 2 B done is just a echo (more remix I guess, but it feels as an echo) of The Continental. It's the same thing during it's 3.15 run. What baffels me is that P would release that as a new song.

Oh well. Rant over.

funkycat00 said:

FunkiestOne said:

Eye Hate You - it goes off into that "courtroom" part in the middle and just ruins a great song.

That's why I prefer the radio edit over the album version.

I love the courtroom part that was really bold and unique

Gemeni said:

Tell me how U want 2 B done is just a echo (more remix I guess, but it feels as an echo) of The Continental. It's the same thing during it's 3.15 run. What baffels me is that P would release that as a new song.

Yeah, I don't get this either. It was out in 1992, then 1995, then on CB. Waste of space on a not-even-filled-up-anyway-CD.

I love this thread because it calls attention to so many of the risks Prince took with his music, and how that leads to polarizing reception (ie. "one man's trash is another man's treasure"). One thing you can't accuse Prince of is being "bath rock" - tepid, always AOR friendly music you can just play in an office building and ignore. Frank Zappa had a term - "the eyebrows." He was always looking for unconventional, sometimes downright interruptive, even painful ways of challenging the listener so his songs wouldn't be bland. In other words, things that would raise the eyebrows. A lot of what is being mentioned in this thread are examples of Prince deploying the eyebrows: the pitch adjusting on The Rainbow Children, the howling, the monologues and dialogues, the orgasm noises, etc. An example: I don't like the flanged snare drum on "Train," I think it drowns the song in that one repetitive production idea... but it wasn't something he used elsewhere, and I recognize it's what sets the song's production apart.

I believe most of the posts have understood the intent of this thread, but in a few cases I get the impression that the person is listing a song they generally dislike and then descirbing the specific element that makes them dislike it. That's not really what this thread this about.

I'm looking for songs that you feel conflicted about. Half of the song you absolutely love, but half of the song you hate. For example, "I think such-and-such song has one of the funkiest beats Prince ever came up with. I could listen to it all day. But its chorus is absoltely terrible. I cringe and get embarassed by it."

controversy99 said:

TraSoul82 said:

Song: "Soul Psychodelicide" Element: repetitiveness When the song begins, I have the stank face. By the time it ends, I'm left with an introverted "this is it" look.

Soul Sanctuary - the screechy singing at the end ruins it

"Life Of The Party", from the "Musicology" CD. The original Groove is BOOOOOOORIIIIIING!!! LIVE though, They played James Brown's "Hot Pants" over it. Funky like Chittlin' Juice!!! Wish it was released THAT WAY!!!

[Edited 11/14/20 12:20pm]

67minutes said:

Earlier in this thread I noted that, as a general rule, I hate the sound effects Prince put into his songs, but I surprisingly don't mind the laser beams in the Breakdown. After some reflection I think I can explain why...

The thing I hate about most of Prince's sound effects is that they're too literal and lack any subtlty. If he mentioned an object or actiity in the lyrics, he'd play a sound effect of that object/activity. For instance, he sings about time then you hear the ticking of a clock. TMBGITW is maybe the worst offender.

Perhaps the fact that the lasers in the Breakdown are total random and make zero sense is what makes them acceptable to me. They're just a weird, interesting sound, rather than a too-obvious illustration of his intention.

[Edited 11/16/20 20:31pm]

lurker316 said:

Earlier in this thread I noted that, as a general rule, I hate the sound effects Prince put into his songs, but I surprisingly don't mind the laser beams in the Breakdown. After some reflection I think I can explain why...

The thing I hated about most of Prince's sound effects is that they were too literal and lacked any subtlty. If he mentioned an object or actiity in the lyrics, he'd play a sound effect of that object/activity. TMBGITW being the worst offender.

Perhaps the fact that the lasers in the Breakdown are total random and make zero sense is what makes them acceptable to me. They're just a weird, interesting sound, rather than a too-obvious illustration of his intention.

I'm still convinced they're an allusion to (or at least inspired by) the final number in the 1979 film All That Jazz.

lurker316 said:

Earlier in this thread I noted that, as a general rule, I hate the sound effects Prince put into his songs, but I surprisingly don't mind the laser beams in the Breakdown. After some reflection I think I can explain why...

The thing I hate about most of Prince's sound effects is that they're too literal and lack any subtlty. If he mentioned an object or actiity in the lyrics, he'd play a sound effect of that object/activity. For instance, he sings about time then you hear the ticking of a clock. TMBGITW is maybe the worst offender.

Perhaps the fact that the lasers in the Breakdown are total random and make zero sense is what makes them acceptable to me. They're just a weird, interesting sound, rather than a too-obvious illustration of his intention.

I don't mind the clock. The song is rearranged with a lot of starts and stops, etc., so that doesn't bug me.

I've never listened to "Breakdown" enough to know there were lasers in it. Honestly, I wouldn't know it if I heard it. I'm just unimpressed with his latter material after 20Ten.

But talking about f/x, if you hate them then I would imagine "Chaos and Disorder" is one of the greatest offenders. That one is chucked full of them.

Check check...rolling.

RJOrion said:

the recital of "the lords prayer" on "Controversy"

I am reading this as I am waking up, and I honestly first read it as "the rectal parts of the lord's prayer". Talk about Controversy!

looby said:

The song Willing and Able. The rap part just ruins the song for me, and I just think the rapping is so bad. Prince should have really stayed out of the whole rapping thing, because he was not good at it, and neither was Tony M (at least that is what I think his name was, correct me if I wrong )

Funny thing IS......Prince was better at it than BOTH Tony M & TC Ellis!!!

RODSERLING said:

The howlings on Something in The Water are so cringe worthy that it ruins the song for me.

Prince's BEST SCREAMS EVER are in "Something In The Water......"!!!

woogiebear said:

RODSERLING said:

The howlings on Something in The Water are so cringe worthy that it ruins the song for me.

Prince's BEST SCREAMS EVER are in "Something In The Water......"!!!

I agree. Something in the Water is his best scream