Genesia said:

Weren't you the one who named Princebonics?
Or something like that?

I decided rock n roll love affair and big city are kinda second tier tracks. Big city sounds like the theme to a 70s comedy, and one live affair has a good vibe but the story diesbt add up to much. Good live though. Shane prince didnt do more songs in this shuffling rnb/bluesy style.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

I decided rock n roll love affair and big city are kinda second tier tracks. Big city sounds like the theme to a 70s comedy, and one live affair has a good vibe but the story diesbt add up to much. Good live though. Shane prince didnt do more songs in this shuffling rnb/bluesy style.

I like the melody for Big City, but the lyrics are pretty cheesy. Your description of them sounding like a theme song to a '70s sit-com is spot on.

Yes. Often he was just parodying himself when not just essaying other styles or artists.

Its crazy to think he prob thought so much of what he was making was all golden, but he prob did!

To me, the worst thing is hearing a lot of slapdash, carelessly written stuff. It's disheartening. Like the goal was just to get product out there regardless.
Partly I guess it was just to create interest for live touring, bit also I think it was just cos he didn't do much else. He prob worked to keep other thoughts at bay.

In this century, albums also mean less, so a string of great singles would have been cooler. Still, I do maintain that 4 songs on AOA are his best of the last 20 years. Naturally though he had to follow it up instantly with those hit n run albums lol
[Edited 11/22/20 8:07am]

lurker316 said:

Big City would be perfect at the end of a Muppets film. All the characters dancing on the stage before the curtains falls.
.
Statler and Waldorf up in the balcony giving it the jazz hands

Rock n roll love affair would be good for Kermit and miss piggy line dancing.

When she comes would be good for a montage of Kermit getting teary about how much he loves piggy

Fallinlovetonite would be good for a clubbing scene of muppets on the town
[Edited 11/22/20 4:50am]

i think vanity fair got this album right -
"There’s even some jazzy flute playing that might get Ron Burgundy excited."
[Edited 11/22/20 8:35am]

lurker316 said:

Since there are threads for the '90s and the oughts, here's one for the twenty-teens (I'm a completist).

Songs from 2010 through 2016:

• Lavaux
• Laydown
• Indifference
• Breakfast Can Wait (Expresso Mix)
• The Gold Standard
• U Know
• This Could B Us (AOA version)
• Way Back Home
• Time
• Like a Mack
• X's Face
• Rock N Roll Love Affair (HNR 2 version)
• Look at Me, Look at U
• Stare
• Xtralovable (HNR 2/horn version)
• When She Comes
• Black Muse
• Big City

i forgot to mention 'Stare' too, the bass work, the funk rhythms, are top notch

dodger said:

lurker316 said:

I like the melody for Big City, but the lyrics are pretty cheesy. Your description of them sounding like a theme song to a '70s sit-com is spot on.

Big City would be perfect at the end of a Muppets film. All the characters dancing on the stage before the curtains falls. . Statler and Waldorf up in the balcony giving it the jazz hands

I like Big City. Someone mentioned the idea of the Morris Day character doing it. For me, there's a sort of sincerity to that song that doesn't quite go with the cool irony of the Morris stuff.

But then again, I might have a malfunctioning vibe detector...with both Morris Day and the Big City song.

Margot said:

Everyone, especially creatives, need times of fallow to regenerate.

I wish Prince had another outlet that provided peace and satisfaction, painting, gardening,

reading widely, etc. that allowed him time/space to replenish his stores in order to return to

creating music. Other successful artists took time off periodically. Perhaps the last decade's music reflected that.

Guessing you'd agree that Prince did appreciate and sometimes do a lot of activities like this.

Friends and coworkers have talked about how he'd do a lot of drawing and reading.

To me, P has lyrics that show a love of nature, and friends/coworkers (Steve Parke as just one example) have attested to this as well.

Of course, as with a lot of artists, much of this was intertwined with the music and artistic enterprise.

Agree about time and space for regeneration. The idea can be in a way counterintuitive. That may contribute to underestimating of its value.

Revelation
Way Back Home/ Affirmation III
Time
Breakdown
Gold Standard
This Could Be Us
U Know
Indifference
Stare
Black Muse
Look at Me, Look at U
Anotherlove
1000 X & O's
June
Hardrocklover
X's Face
Future Soul Song
Stickly Like Glue
Laydown
Big City
If Eye Could Get Ure Attention
Free Urself

*
[Edited 11/24/20 3:51am]

rednblue said:

Margot said:

Everyone, especially creatives, need times of fallow to regenerate.

I wish Prince had another outlet that provided peace and satisfaction, painting, gardening,

reading widely, etc. that allowed him time/space to replenish his stores in order to return to

creating music. Other successful artists took time off periodically. Perhaps the last decade's music reflected that.

Guessing you'd agree that Prince did appreciate and sometimes do a lot of activities like this.

Friends and coworkers have talked about how he'd do a lot of drawing and reading.

To me, P has lyrics that show a love of nature, and friends/coworkers (Steve Parke as just one example) have attested to this as well.

Of course, as with a lot of artists, much of this was intertwined with the music and artistic enterprise.

Agree about time and space for regeneration. The idea can be in a way counterintuitive. That may contribute to underestimating of its value.

appreciating something is diff to participating in it.

prince did do drawing, its true. we have the album covers as proof.

we dont really know what he did with his time.

until someone proves otherwise, it is clear he was a workaholic.

big city is so pure 70s, its like a period recreation. its the part where he says 'ok you polaroids' that made me think of morris. its something i could see on the first time album maybe. not everything the time did was without sincerity.

[Edited 11/24/20 3:58am]

I think generally it was a good time period for Prince with the tours with 3rd Eye Girl and the Piano & Mic tour as well as two of his best albums after the 1980s (AOA and HnR2). I also though there were several strong songs from 20Ten, so I think it has been generally under-emphasized in most of the lists so far. I would include the songs

Beginning Endlessly

Sticky Like Glue

Future Love Song.

While I would switch things up from the OP list, the biggest omission is Revelation.

for a newbie, id keep it to just these:

future soul song

walk in sand

breakdown

way back home

time

anotherlove

tictactoe

june

revelation

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

for a newbie, id keep it to just these:

future soul song

walk in sand

breakdown

way back home

time

anotherlove

tictactoe

june

revelation

For a newbie I would asbsolutely not play for them Future Soul Song or Walk in the Sand. Those songs only appeal to hardcore fans. To an average listener, they're cheesy. For a newbie, I would definitely include Black Muse. It's got a catchy accessible hook.

Black muse is another anodyne, cosy 70s number, despite the lyrics.
Its like big city.

Not sure why you wouldnt play breakdown or another love to a newbie. Breakdown in particular is one of the best things he did in his last decade.

Better that than rawk cheese like wow or fun but frivolous 'I can do club bangers!' Like like a mack or fall in love tonight

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

If the "newbie" Likes modern rnb why not.. But frankly here in France for instance we are more pop/rock oriented, and the 90/2000/2010 rnb musical numbers of Prince sounds like shit, and I won't dare ( I already did though) make them listened to.
I know you americans loves piece of crap such as Insatiable, Breakdown, Future soul song, Resolution, etc. But come on, try to think objectively.

haha.

the trouble is, as prince got older, a lot of his uptempo songs started to suck.

another love is not a song that i would call rnb. its rock.

RODSERLING said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Black muse is another anodyne, cosy 70s number, despite the lyrics. Its like big city. Not sure why you wouldnt play breakdown or another love to a newbie. Breakdown in particular is one of the best things he did in his last decade. Better that than rawk cheese like wow or fun but frivolous 'I can do club bangers!' Like like a mack or fall in love tonight

If the "newbie" Likes modern rnb why not.. But frankly here in France for instance we are more pop/rock oriented, and the 90/2000/2010 rnb musical numbers of Prince sounds like shit, and I won't dare ( I already did though) make them listened to. I know you americans loves piece of crap such as Insatiable, Breakdown, Future soul song, Resolution, etc. But come on, try to think objectively.

I agree. I was just about to make a similar point...

A lot of people who aren't Prince fans think he's an R&B artist exclusively. If you play Future Sould Song and Walk in the Sand, you're merely reinforcing their pre-existing belief.

If you want to impress them, you need to surprise them. You want to hear them say, "That's Prince? Really?" You get that reaction by playing a song for them that is decidely not paint-by-the-numbers R&B.

and what song would that be?

id play them best of you.

one of his best covers.

and greatest rock songs.

fact is though, as he got older, straight up rnb WAS what he was doing 85% of the time.

so to ignore that as he got older, would be dishonest.

anyway, the 3eg version of breakdown is a rock song, and genuinely fabulous.

so i would play them that.

if anyone says they will play like a mack or some other corniness, then good luck to them.

honestly though, if youre trying to sell someone on prince, youre prob NOT going to dip into the last 15 years of his output.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

I never mentioned Another Love.
But now that you mention it, this is just a cover, so it s odd to showcase Prince with a cover.
.
Prince s covers are vicious, since they are generally the best tracks on the albums where there is covers. Hence the reason why he did these covers IMO, because the original content was too weak : Betcha... Was the first single of Emancipation, and Crimson and Clover got the lead exposure on Lotus Flower..Both were triple albums though!
.

i dont consider it odd to showcase prince with a cover.

one of us was one of his best songs.

as long as he does something special with it, thats all that counts.

plenty of jazz singers' best songs are 'covers', or songs sung by plenty other singers besides them.

so i think it is okay.

covers are not dirty words.

RODSERLING said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Black muse is another anodyne, cosy 70s number, despite the lyrics. Its like big city. Not sure why you wouldnt play breakdown or another love to a newbie. Breakdown in particular is one of the best things he did in his last decade. Better that than rawk cheese like wow or fun but frivolous 'I can do club bangers!' Like like a mack or fall in love tonight

If the "newbie" Likes modern rnb why not.. But frankly here in France for instance we are more pop/rock oriented, and the 90/2000/2010 rnb musical numbers of Prince sounds like shit, and I won't dare ( I already did though) make them listened to. I know you americans loves piece of crap such as Insatiable, Breakdown, Future soul song, Resolution, etc. But come on, try to think objectively.

This is a disgusting reply.

tab32792 said:

This is an objective reply

RODSERLING said:

tab32792 said:

This is a disgusting reply.

This is an objective reply

It's really not. You preferring a certain kind of music is one thing but saying his r&b music sounds like shit is not only a wild and bullshit take but also sounds like some other shit going on. Then downing american's and their taste as a whole as if yours is somehow superior is mind also something else. Insatiable and Revelation are great songs. Just because YOU don't like it doesn't make it crap. Do you like r&b at all? Do you like Prince at all? or just the part of Prince that you see yourself in? The easily accessible pop/rock for the white masses version?

tab32792 said:

RODSERLING said:

tab32792 said: This is an objective reply

It's really not. You preferring a certain kind of music is one thing but saying his r&b music sounds like shit is not only a wild and bullshit take but also sounds like some other shit going on. Then downing american's and their taste as a whole as if yours is somehow superior is mind also something else. Insatiable and Revelation are great songs. Just because YOU don't like it doesn't make it crap. Do you like r&b at all? Do you like Prince at all? or just the part of Prince that you see yourself in? The easily accessible pop/rock for the white masses version?

Yeah, like I said on the First Avenue thread, I don't think blanket statements about the taste/sophistication/beliefs/knowledge of large groups of people gets us anywhere, at least when it comes to getting closer to the truth.

It's different, of course, but your comment on the sounding-like-shit description makes me think of a relative of mine who would talk about "Indian food" and "Mexican food" in very condescending terms. The bottom line is that he said it was crappy food. He clearly thought he sounded sophisticated dishing his disdain, but to me he sounded the opposite.

He should have just said he didn't prefer that kind of food. On a side note, I wonder if he had any conception of how huge a variety of food falls into those categories he was mentioning.

One of the most common things I hear in Prince music talk these days is one fan telling another that "your favorite Prince music isn't from the real Prince." While Prince was an extremely savvy strategizer, those statements are just silly, IMO.

[Edited 11/26/20 17:22pm]

In fairness I dont think whether he was doing rnb or rock mattered in the later years. The standard was about the same for both.

The one diff I'd say is he tried to sound more current on his rnb compared to rock which is where it got cringey.

But his rnb ranged from old school Otis Redding or al green style things like when she comes (musically gorgeous but tried n tested) to more modern sounding stuff. Wasnt all just one thing.

Well, i think the late period, he was diverse in his musical choices : the musical range was going from R§B - soul - blues - funk to rock and pop, and pyschedelia (late 60's blues psychedelia : 'Midnight Blues')

the bass work seems to be more predominent later too

i may be wrong but i see at the end of his life different directions and different influences :

the influence of D'Angelo, especially for most of the sound of HNR phase 2

the influence of Jack White in the use of the rhythm guitar on certain track ('Pretzelbodylogic' makes me think at the way of playing of Jack White on 'Consoler of the Lonely' (not the melody, just the way how he play the rythmic figure on this track)

'Wow' on Plectrum Electrum has a similar structure to the Pixies and Nirvana songs : low musical tension in the verses, high musical tension in the chorus.

just for the anecdote : one of the songs on HNR phase one has the same title of a Van Hunt song 'June' (nice song by the way, different melodically than the one by Prince).

[Edited 11/27/20 6:18am]

HNR2 is def going for a more retro organic thing. He was doing that inna big way on TRC too, but yes, HNR2 def feels in step with a lot of modern artists doing it. Whether d'angelo, Jack white, sharon Jones etc. He never got minimal with that though like Jack white (or white stripes at least) or example. He always made it polished.