kingricefan said:

I'm surprised so many people don't like Morning Papers. It's one of my all time favorites from that era, a fantastic vocal performance from Prince and I still listen to it all the time. The Symbol Album, Diamonds and Pearls and the Gold Experience are three of his finest, they're all PERFECT.

BSonmor said:

BSonmor said:

I'm surprised so many people don't like Morning Papers. It's one of my all time favorites from that era, a fantastic vocal performance from Prince and I still listen to it all the time. The Symbol Album, Diamonds and Pearls and the Gold Experience are three of his finest, they're all PERFECT.

... great and catchy song and I like it ....the lyrics kinda creepy tho...

kingricefan said:

I think that Damn U should have been promoted as a single. It's one of his more beautiful love songs. It's a different sound for Prince (like you're listening to a lounge act) and it would have drew in some more 'radio friendly' listeners. I used to do Damn U at karaoke and I had people come up to me after I sang it asking who the real singer was. I'd tell them Prince. They'd get an amazed look on their face and ask 'Really?'. They just didn't want to believe that Prince could do such a beautiful love song. I'd have to show them my CD to prove it. Releasing Damn U as a single would have received more attention to the album. It could have saved the lost fans who were disgusted with Sexy MF. That song turned off alot of fans.

Fans were disgusted with Sexy MF?

BSonmor said:

ufoclub said:

kingricefan said:

I think that Damn U should have been promoted as a single. It's one of his more beautiful love songs. It's a different sound for Prince (like you're listening to a lounge act) and it would have drew in some more 'radio friendly' listeners. I used to do Damn U at karaoke and I had people come up to me after I sang it asking who the real singer was. I'd tell them Prince. They'd get an amazed look on their face and ask 'Really?'. They just didn't want to believe that Prince could do such a beautiful love song. I'd have to show them my CD to prove it. Releasing Damn U as a single would have received more attention to the album. It could have saved the lost fans who were disgusted with Sexy MF. That song turned off alot of fans.

Fans were disgusted with Sexy MF?

Ridiculous. Sexy MF is an All Time Jam! It is LOVED...ask Salt N Pepa, Dave Matthews or anyone who appreciates James Brown.

if Prince had released it as the follow-up to Purple Rain in 85

masaba said:

sexy mf was musically cool, lyrically stupid.

its just a gimmicky song, a kind of mid-level obscenity in an attempt to seem edgy in 1992.

prince was obv looking at people like AMG and other harder, explicit rap and thinking he had to do something similar.

my name is prince suffered from the same issue.

i dont think this album was commercially a failure though, but musically it could have been better.

D&P is better.

[Edited 5/25/21 1:07am]

masaba said:

kingricefan said:

I think that Damn U should have been promoted as a single. It's one of his more beautiful love songs. It's a different sound for Prince (like you're listening to a lounge act) and it would have drew in some more 'radio friendly' listeners. I used to do Damn U at karaoke and I had people come up to me after I sang it asking who the real singer was. I'd tell them Prince. They'd get an amazed look on their face and ask 'Really?'. They just didn't want to believe that Prince could do such a beautiful love song. I'd have to show them my CD to prove it. Releasing Damn U as a single would have received more attention to the album. It could have saved the lost fans who were disgusted with Sexy MF. That song turned off alot of fans.

Not sure how true that is. It went down well pre-release on the D&P tour and the home video was a good seller

dodger said:

kingricefan said:

I think that Damn U should have been promoted as a single. It's one of his more beautiful love songs. It's a different sound for Prince (like you're listening to a lounge act) and it would have drew in some more 'radio friendly' listeners. I used to do Damn U at karaoke and I had people come up to me after I sang it asking who the real singer was. I'd tell them Prince. They'd get an amazed look on their face and ask 'Really?'. They just didn't want to believe that Prince could do such a beautiful love song. I'd have to show them my CD to prove it. Releasing Damn U as a single would have received more attention to the album. It could have saved the lost fans who were disgusted with Sexy MF. That song turned off alot of fans.

Not sure how true that is. It went down well pre-release on the D&P tour and the home video was a good seller

Sexy Mf certainly wasn't my cup of tea (hated the lyrics and faux tough-guy image) but it was quite popular, also with none prince fans.

But I think the lack of cohesion played a part. The singles were all very different, all with a videos with a very different vibe. I felt it was an interesting album because of its diversity but it didn't have the quality level of a SOTT.

And the segues really don't work. It's a gimmick that might be interesting during the first listen but not of you want to play it again on a regular basis. It makes that repeated listening happens with a remote at hand to skip these parts and that colours how you experience the album in the long run.

SoulAlive said:

SoulAlive said:

“The Morning Papers” wasn’t a good single choice.They should have chosen the superior “And God Created Woman”.

AGCW is an awesome song. But then again, I know someone who became a Prince fan after hearing TMP.

dodger said:

kingricefan said:

I think that Damn U should have been promoted as a single. It's one of his more beautiful love songs. It's a different sound for Prince (like you're listening to a lounge act) and it would have drew in some more 'radio friendly' listeners. I used to do Damn U at karaoke and I had people come up to me after I sang it asking who the real singer was. I'd tell them Prince. They'd get an amazed look on their face and ask 'Really?'. They just didn't want to believe that Prince could do such a beautiful love song. I'd have to show them my CD to prove it. Releasing Damn U as a single would have received more attention to the album. It could have saved the lost fans who were disgusted with Sexy MF. That song turned off alot of fans.

Not sure how true that is. It went down well pre-release on the D&P tour and the home video was a good seller

A bunch of 20somethings were enthusiastically dancing to it at my birthday party two years, and chanting the chorus. I only realised afterwards that none of them knew who it was or had even heard it before until one came over to me afterwards and asked, "Who is that awesome song by!?"

More playful fun. Sexy MF and My Name is Prince are kind of fun, but it's an aggressive fun, like the singer's got a chip on his shoulder and something to prove. It's like, "This is FUN, GOD DAMMIT." But, just to compare to Diamonds and Pearls (an album I like less), Cream and even Gett Off are just more playful and easy. You don't have to try to like those songs, you just do (or you don't). I think Symbol sold less because it's a more difficult album; you couldn't say it, you got the feeling there was a plot and you didn't understand it, you couldn't even see his face. 7 was a hit, despite being so lyrically obtuse it's not clear what the song's even about. You had to work for it. It was never going to sell like D and P.

"Don't look now there's a river of blodd - she must of been a virgin...

etc etc

LoveGalore said:

RODSERLING said:

How can you seriously believe Lovesymbol was a flop because of its lenght and its segues? First, the segues are not even listed on the tracklist, you habe to buy the album to know there was. And the lenght of the album, everybody knew at the time already to skip a song. Jesus. 1) As I already explained, what mostly killed the album was obviously the delay of 4 months between the release of the first single, Sexy MF, and the release of the actual album. When Sexy MF was at its peak (#4 in Europe, and in the top 10 for 4 weeks), it could have sold a million album worldwide until the second single. Sexy MF was promoted for nothing, and most people even believed it was on D&P. If Sexy MF was released just 3 weeks before the album, it would have sold at least 4 millions worldwide, and not "just" 3. 2) Lovesymbol was released too soon after D&P. There was like 10 singles promoted in a year, so it suffered from overexposition and singles, music video fatigue. 3) Mayte was overexposed as Prince girlfriend, and I m sure it lost many women fans. It s like if Madonna recorded and toured with his boyfriend, it would have lost many masculine fans. 4) Too eclectic. People like to buy a rock album like Nevermind's Nirvana, a rap album, a pop/rock album, etc. Not album with so many musical genres. In the US, the first two hip/hop oriented singles flopped. Then 7 a more pop oriented song was a hit. In Europe it was the contrary. The first two hip hop singles were successful, but then 7 killed the album sales. D&P also suffered from this, despite 4 huge worldwide hits, it sold "only" 7 millions worldwide. Everybody at the time with 3 huge hits sold 10/12 millions 5) Then of course, Prince invented the buzz before it was hype : the no-name thing, appears masked on the MNIP video and on tv performance, the title of its lead single is censored in the US... What would have been good publicity today was bad publicity at the time. 6) The Morning Papers wasn't maybe the best single to release. And God created womem may have more impact, or Continental. Love 2 the 9 was too complex to be a hit, even in its edited version. [Edited 5/24/21 13:45pm] [Edited 5/24/21 13:51pm] [Edited 5/24/21 13:52pm] [Edited 5/24/21 13:53pm]

Some of Prince's music just wasn't POP enough to cross over to sell at large numbers. That's what happens with Prince's art/music.

Gett OFF was unofficially released on June 1991 to DJ's and officially released in July 1991; the album Diamonds and Pearls released October 1991. Gett OFF was released almost 4 months before the album that didn't kill the sales.

The most important killer of the symbol album sales was the WB move Prince from the POP artist category to an R&B category which limited Prince's air play on POP market Radio.

[Edited 5/25/21 11:31am]

RODSERLING said: