Let's talk about 1999, Prince's amazing, and first, double album packed with jams, ballads, funk workouts, rock wonders, and more.

1999 was released October 27, 1982 and reached #9 on the Billboard 200 (in 2016, it reached 2 positions higher), and #4 on Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. The initial R&B/Hip-Hop position is the highest position it's held anywhere. But New Zealand had it at #6 back then.

1. 1999
2. Little Red Corvette
3. Delirious
4. Let's Pretend We're Married
5. D.M.S.R.
6. Free*
7. Automatic
8. Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)
9. Lady Cab Driver
10. All The Critics Love U In New York
11. International Lover

* On the cassette release, "Free" was placed after "D.M.S.R." to end the first side, balancing out the lengths of both sides of the cassette. This is how I was introduced to the album, so it's how I know it and still listen to it.

LP version:

1. 1999
2. Little Red Corvette
3. Delirious
4. Let's Pretend We're Married
5. D.M.S.R.
6. Automatic
7. Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)
8. Free
9. Lady Cab Driver
10. All The Critics Love U In New York
11. International Lover

Singles

• "1999" (No. 12 US, No. 4 US R&B, No. 25 UK)

1. "1999"
2. "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?"

• "Little Red Corvette" (No. 6 US, No. 15 US R&B, No. 54 UK)

1. "Little Red Corvette"
2. "All the Critics Love U in New York"

• "Delirious" (No. 8 US, No. 18 US R&B)"Delirious"

1. "Horny Toad"

• "Automatic" (AUS)

1. "Automatic"
2. "Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)"

• "Let's Pretend We're Married" (No. 52 US, No. 55 US R&B)

1. "Let's Pretend We're Married"
2. "Irresistible Bitch"

Note: let's keep the discussion only to the original 1982 release and its singles, since the SDE has been discussed in other threads previously.

By the way, does anyone own the original CD issue that deleted "D.M.S.R?" I remember buying in 1987, lost it, and found it again in the last few years.

My initial tracks of choice were basically the first side of the cassette, and "International Lover." The other stuff took me a while back then to get into but quickly learned to love it all.

[Edited 10/28/22 13:53pm]

I think it must have been the UK re-release of the 1999 single in 1985 that was probably my first exposure to Prince's music. It must have been around that time because the Purple Rain live show on tv, and the Purple Rain singles seemed to all happen around then.

I didn't hear, nor purchase the 1999 album till after the release of Parade though, I suppose that's when I had the feeling that I wanted to hear everything, and began buying my own music instead of relying on my older sister for records.

As for the album? I do remember it not sounding quite like anything I'd heard before, which is what I was finding exciting about Prince at the time.

Favourites are 1999, Automatic, D.M.S.R and Something In The Water...

Great album, and one which I don't mind returning to from time to time.

[Edited 10/27/22 2:30am]

This album was released in several forms. As I recall it was released in something like 5 formats (based on content) Not Including the SD.


The standard 11 track format, the 10 track format, a 7 track LP, and a 9 track Cassette, and it was also released as 2 separate LPs in Brazil.

Another difference is the Cassette had "Free" moved to balance out the run time of the 2 sides.

By the way, does anyone own the original CD issue that deleted "D.M.S.R?" I remember buying in 1987, lost it, and found it again in the last few years.

Yes and still have my Japanese copy. I was too young enough 2 understand that at the time CD's couldn't last too long.

Wonderful album that I listened 2day and watched music videos. 2night: "Before The Rain"!!!

OnlyNDaUsa said:

Another difference is the Cassette had "Free" moved to balance out the run time of the 2 sides.

Which I noted.

LoveGalore said:

I still think of Free as the proper midpoint of the album and think that placement sounds so much better than the true running order.

I'm so programmed with having "Free" after "DMSR," that to hear it elsewhere is just queer to me.

When I recorded that first set of songs onto an 8-track tape (why, I have no idea) from my aunt's record, when the 8-track would just from program 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc, there was a metal piece on the tape that triggered the head to jump to the next "track" section of the tape. It caused a pause or hiccup in the sound.

So for years, "Little Red Corvette" and I think "Let's Pretend We're Married" and "DMSR" had these quick drops in sound because of that metal piece. So when I had the proper album on CD, my mind would still pause for those moments. Took me years to de-program myself from that and just listen to the songs. And now I can't remember exactly where those pauses were.

In effect, those first 6 songs - as I listed them - was the 1999 album for me, for a while. I think it was probably before I was old enough to get a job. And since my mom hated Prince, there was no way she was going to buy it for me.

It's also why it just took a while for me to get back to the last set of songs on the record. When I finally listened to them regularly, it was like hearing a new Prince record.

The proper placement of "Free" should've been in the garbage bin. Where was it actually originally placed? It's not documented anywhere in this thread that you want kept "only to the original 1982 release"

This is the one record where your requisite Dr. Frankenstein Edit Experience is damn appealing. Literally every song on this would be improved ending at the 4 minute mark

[Edited 10/28/22 5:24am]

WhisperingDandelions said:

LoveGalore said:

Was / Is Wonderful of Album and Concert

WhisperingDandelions said:

The proper placement of "Free" should've been in the garbage bin. Where was it actually originally placed? It's not documented anywhere in this thread that you want kept "only to the original 1982 release"

This is the one record where your requisite Dr. Frankenstein Edit Experience is damn appealing. Literally every song on this would be improved ending at the 4 minute mark

It's not hard to look at an original vinyl record to see where "Free" was originally placed. I listed the cassette confirguration, which is all clearly stated.

And I recently posted that Zaza from here made a playlist using all the 1999 edits on the SDE. It is a good playlist. The only full versions are "Free," "Interational Lover," and "Something In The Water" since they never had edits, and weren't super long anyway. It runs 45 instead of 70 minutes, which is significant, and basically makes it a single disk record. I actually find myself listening to it quite often when I want to hear the record, but maybe don't have 70 minutes to sit through it (ie: driving somewhere and back in 45 minutes, vs. 70 minutes).

The videos weren't terribly inventive. But Prince was never known for trendy or cinematic videos. He could sit and emote, but beyond that - MJ, George Michael, and Madonna took the lead with amazing videographies.

Prince's biggest moment in videos was using video vs. film, or a green screen vs. a blue screen.

TrivialPursuit said:

The videos weren't terribly inventive. But Prince was never known for trendy or cinematic videos. He could sit and emote, but beyond that - MJ, George Michael, and Madonna took the lead with amazing videographies.

Prince's biggest moment in videos was using video vs. film, or a green screen vs. a blue screen.

Prince said that music videos were for kids.

He did step it up a notch with Batdance and Partyman though.

[Edited 10/28/22 14:01pm]

[Edited 10/28/22 14:01pm]

paisleyparkgirl said:

TrivialPursuit said:

OnlyNDaUsa said:

Another difference is the Cassette had "Free" moved to balance out the run time of the 2 sides.

Which I noted.

yeah you did...

Speaking of the 4 videos, I read they made them all over the corse of 2 or 3 days as at some point there was so much smoke that several of them got sick.

paisleyparkgirl said:

Prince said that music videos were for kids.

He did step it up a notch with Batdance and Partyman though.

Where did he say that?

Because no video with a bed in it and a song with strong BDSM overtones is for a kid.

LoveGalore said:

He also complained music videos were at least $300k a pop, and he made dozens upon dozens of them. Some kid, huh.

And that's pretty ironic since he bankrupted the guy who was making his "home movies" end on end on end. (Home movies is what the one guy called them, because Prince was just filming everything.) Can you even imagine the plethora of unused shit he had filmed. Even watching something like "Gangsta Glam" or "Clockin' the Jizz," you can see the random ass footage he had thrown into these things. And they're all just in his office miming the song, or at his pool.

I remember the article Purple Drain in the St. Paul Pioneer Press (I think) where even the mom and pop couple who made his walking canes around 1991/2 weren't being paid.

So it seems complaining about $300K for a video is ironic in a couple of ways.

TrivialPursuit said:

LoveGalore said:

Prince was really visionary with a lot of things. But I feel like economics were not one of them, lmao.

Funny, but a great deal of truth in it. It surprised me he owned gold bars. But he was pretty smart with his real estate purchases.

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/ranking-every-song-on-prince-album-1999/?fbclid=IwAR2z9jLWoi2qHmgFLP0JYbR8FHGAprPPtbYt9bQhfOKwEBHwgtn_48g1Rt0

https://rockandrollglobe.com/prince/a-pocket-full-of-horses-princes-1999-at-40/?fbclid=IwAR3dBzgZ0jxCK94CIX6vUXcobhsDF_WYGsU5fWSOrD2W6Z7zJuTTJMy8IAY

https://magnetmagazine.com/2022/10/27/prince-released-1999-40-years-ago-today/?fbclid=IwAR0xsSiXKAghvgDmkiY3BQaEd-2MtQiHp0MaFFnf7jNC_JCLgG7PtyokNpY

Fixed Far Out Magazine link

1. 1999
2. Little Red Corvette
3. International Lover
4. Lady Cab Driver
5. Free
6. D.M.S.R.
7. Let’s Pretend We’re Married
8. Automatic
9. Something In The Water (Does Not Computer)
10. All The Critics Love U In New York
11. Delirious

Not sure I agree putting something like "Something In The Water" below "Let's Pretend We're Married." And while I love "International Lover," I think "Automatic" or "All The Critics" would rank a tad above it.

It's really a moot point because all the songs are pretty fucking brilliant.

I was going to start a new thread, but decided to kick this one in the ass. We've all forgotten:

It's time 4 a new direction

It's time 4 jazz 2 die

4th day of November
We need a purple high

TrivialPursuit said: