i confess, i still have not read the beautiful ones.

i had it, but then just didnt want to read it as it was unfinished.

i will read it one day.

i like the fact theres still something of his i have not gone through though.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

i confess, i still have not read the beautiful ones.

co-sign.

Refused to buy it on basic principle because it's published in Prince shorthand text l33tspeak postmodern-english whatever we call it here these days, but got it gifted last year. Will eventually read after I re-type it out in original standard English format.

[Edited 12/4/22 5:46am]

Great topic!

I've not seen any of the home video collections / TV specials he put out in the '90s: 3 Chains of Gold, Sacfice of Victor, Beautiful Strange, The Beautiful Experience, Love 4 One Another. I've seen a few outtakes, but not the full videos.

I've not been able to sit through the nearly 6-minute introductory monologue to One Song.

I've not listened to the albums One Nite Alone, News, C-Note or Xpectation the full way through. I've listened to some individual songs in their entirety, and snippets of others, but not the full albums.

I've also not listened the full way through to any of his officially releases live albums (ONA Live, The Aftershow, Indigo Nights) or the posthumously released live albums on the SDEs. I generally (though not exclusively) prefer his studio releases.

I've not listened to Kamasutra or some other associated artists' records (such as Bria Valentie), but I don't consider those "essential" since they're not core albums under his name.

WhisperingDandelions said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

i confess, i still have not read the beautiful ones.

co-sign.

Refused to buy it on basic principle because it's published in Prince shorthand text l33tspeak postmodern-english whatever we call it here these days, but got it gifted last year. Will eventually read after I re-type it out in original standard English format.

[Edited 12/4/22 5:46am]

Same here. I have the book, but I'm not interested in reading it because a.) it was unfinished, and b.) I don't like Prince shorthand. If you re-type it, I might ask for a copy of your version.

lurker316 said:

WhisperingDandelions said:

co-sign.

Refused to buy it on basic principle because it's published in Prince shorthand text l33tspeak postmodern-english whatever we call it here these days, but got it gifted last year. Will eventually read after I re-type it out in original standard English format.

[Edited 12/4/22 5:46am]

Same here. I have the book, but I'm not interested in reading it because a.) it was unfinished, and b.) I don't like Prince shorthand. If you re-type it, I might ask for a copy of your version.

They even included the handwritten notes in full Princespeak glory for the Princespeak purists. Would've been nice to get a regular degular classically typed old-school formatted English version for the rest of us...

I've never seen the "3 Chains Of Gold" video compilation/movie/whatever from back in the day. I'm hoping it gets included in any "Symbol Album" SDE we might get in the future.

I haven't seen Graffiti Bridge the movie or Under the Cherry Moon. Literally almost typed "Parade the movie".

But I borderline don't consider them "essential"... at least not as the trax themselves. Like that Bria album, that's essential, some of my favorite Prince stuff on there. Purple Rain the movie wasn't essential if you're already on the Prince bandwagon anyway... I do get why it would have been lit when he was the new happening thing in '84, though. Not a great film, however. Essential for Morris.

I'm a bit of a contrarian artsy-fartsy douchebag though, so I'm starting to believe I will probably unequivocally love Under the Cherry Moon. Some of these maligned commercial-failure movies are the best... Graffiti Bridge the movie looks like some cheap early 90s VHS throwback. Those can be fun, too.

[Edited 12/4/22 6:53am]

[Edited 12/4/22 6:54am]

WhisperingDandelions said:

I haven't seen Graffiti Bridge the movie or Under the Cherry Moon. Literally almost typed "Parade the movie".

I'm a bit of a contrarian artsy-fartsy douchebag though, so I'm starting to believe I will probably unequivocally love Under the Cherry Moon. Some of these maligned commercial-failure movies are the best... Graffiti Bridge the movie looks like some cheap early 90s VHS throwback. Those can be fun, too.

[Edited 12/4/22 6:53am]

[Edited 12/4/22 6:54am]

UTCM and Graffiti Bridge are both cheesy films, but UTCM is cheey in a fun way that you can enjoy. The chemistry between Prince and Jerome is fantastic.

WhisperingDandelions said:

I'm a bit of a contrarian artsy-fartsy douchebag though, so I'm starting to believe I will probably unequivocally love Under the Cherry Moon. Some of these maligned commercial-failure movies are the best... Graffiti Bridge the movie looks like some cheap early 90s VHS throwback. Those can be fun, too.

[Edited 12/4/22 6:53am]

I’m a hopless artsy-fartsy douchebag and cinephile (love Godard, Truffaut, Antonioni, Bergman, Tarkovsky etc), but I think that UTCM is god-awful.

[Edited 12/4/22 8:49am]

fen said:

WhisperingDandelions said:

I'm a bit of a contrarian artsy-fartsy douchebag though, so I'm starting to believe I will probably unequivocally love Under the Cherry Moon. Some of these maligned commercial-failure movies are the best... Graffiti Bridge the movie looks like some cheap early 90s VHS throwback. Those can be fun, too.

[Edited 12/4/22 6:53am]

I’m a hopless artsy-fartsy douchebag and cinephile (love Godard, Truffaut, Antonioni, Bergman, Tarkovsky etc), but I think that UTCM is god-awful.

[Edited 12/4/22 8:49am]

same here. i can't believe the kind of movies i have sat through and at the end still been 'yeah, it was kinda cool, not a waste of time at all'.

yet, under the cherry moon, now that's a different kettle of fish

I'm a sucker for silly B&W con-artist movies set on the Riviera, so UTCM is fine in my book. Not great by any means but it doesn't take itself too seriously, and mostly it's just harmless fun.

.

GB on the other hand is pure cringe start to finish.

WhisperingDandelions said:

I haven't seen Graffiti Bridge the movie or Under the Cherry Moon. Literally almost typed "Parade the movie".

But I borderline don't consider them "essential"... at least not as the trax themselves. Like that Bria album, that's essential, some of my favorite Prince stuff on there. Purple Rain the movie wasn't essential if you're already on the Prince bandwagon anyway... I do get why it would have been lit when he was the new happening thing in '84, though. Not a great film, however. Essential for Morris.

I'm a bit of a contrarian artsy-fartsy douchebag though, so I'm starting to believe I will probably unequivocally love Under the Cherry Moon. Some of these maligned commercial-failure movies are the best... Graffiti Bridge the movie looks like some cheap early 90s VHS throwback. Those can be fun, too.

[Edited 12/4/22 6:53am]

[Edited 12/4/22 6:54am]

Under the Cherry moon is essential if you're a Prince fan.

paisleyparkgirl said:

dustoff said:

I'm a sucker for silly B&W con-artist movies set on the Riviera, so UTCM is fine in my book. Not great by any means but it doesn't take itself too seriously, and mostly it's just harmless fun.

.

GB on the other hand is pure cringe start to finish.

Yes, that's it. UTCM doesn't take itself seriously, but GB does. That's why I'm more tolerant of UTCM and able to enjoy it ironically. GB, on the other hands, embarasses me because it's meant to be something more than just silly fun.

Even though I'm a sucker for the time period, I've still never watched the "Live At The Aladdin" video.

LoveGalore said:

You could say that about any of his movies.

And I could argue they're not essential simply because they're movies and he's a music-man, not Martin Scorsese. If Tarantino had a rock band it wouldn't be essential compared to his films, as a counterpoint.

UTCM sounds intriguing though. I'm closer to wanting to watch the last two more than ever, but I'm still gonna argue that want is completely inessential... especially compared to more boots, more live shows, more books... those are definitely more essential.

[Edited 12/4/22 20:35pm]

lurker316 said:

Great topic!

I've not seen any of the home video collections / TV specials he put out in the '90s: 3 Chains of Gold, Sacfice of Victor, Beautiful Strange, The Beautiful Experience, Love 4 One Another. I've seen a few outtakes, but not the full videos.

I've not been able to sit through the nearly 6-minute introductory monologue to One Song.

that is completely undestandable.

(I used it as a backwards track over a remix of a heavy bootleg Prince rehearsal (circa 1984)...works fine though. But this is besides the question... i know.)

I've not listened to the albums One Nite Alone, News, C-Note or Xpectation the full way through. I've listened to some individual songs in their entirety, and snippets of others, but not the full albums.

Oh that's a pitty. 'One Nite Alone' is so good! So is 'NEWS' and 'C-note'. XPectation and, are albums i listen to only a couple of times, to see if i could hear anything worth calling Prince's gnius and originality.

For me the worst is 'Kamasutra', listened once while fast forwarding, that's it!

I've also not listened the full way through to any of his officially releases live albums (ONA Live, The Aftershow, Indigo Nights) or the posthumously released live albums on the SDEs. I generally (though not exclusively) prefer his studio releases.

Well, give it try whil working at home. I play them quite often. They're not that bad.

The posthumous live recordings are absolutely stuiing! Take your time for them.

I've not listened to Kamasutra or some other associated artists' records (such as Bria Valentie), but I don't consider those "essential" since they're not core albums under his name.

There ya go.

Bria Valente's and other associates I also fast forwarded through them, to be honest.

WhisperingDandelions said:

LoveGalore said:

The visual component has always been crucial to his albums, though. And if you say Bria Valente's album is critical to listen to, then you better believe Purple Rain the movie is critical to watch because one made him a worldwide megastar and one became coasters for coffee tables the world over.

It's such a bad movie. Are you even really a big movie fan, or are you like these fanboys who hold Iron Man 1 in the same reverence as Ingmar Bergman films simply because you're a devoted fan of a specific subculture and not really movies as art?

Visual component "crucial" to his albums? Baby, you've got to be from a different world.

The album covers, yeah, his live duds, definitely, but his music videos are absolutely abominable save for like 3 or 4. Literally any 80s one hit wonder has better music videos than anything he did before 1989. That same generic stage, same bad guitar miming. Just horrible. Surely you've seen a Madonna or MJ video by now...

Even Truth or Dare was a better film...

[Edited 12/5/22 21:12pm]

lurker316 said:

I've not listened to the albums One Nite Alone, News, C-Note or Xpectation the full way through. I've listened to some individual songs in their entirety, and snippets of others, but not the full albums.

N.E.W.S. is also more essential than Purple Rain the movie. Give it a try one day.

CAL3 said:

A friend of mine, actually former friend, considers himself a hardcore Prince fan. He’s in his 50s and jumped on board sometime in the ‘80s. . I found out he had not only never owned “Sign o the Times” (the album) on any format, he had never actually listened to the album and wasn’t sure what songs are on it (besides those featured in the movie). In fact, he was under the impression that the album was literally a soundtrack of the movie, like the same audio. I will never forget my reaction when he said, “You’re telling me the album has songs that are not in the movie?” . The majority of our friendship was based on our shared love of Prince. Within months of becoming friends, we went to the One Nite Alone tour together. He used to be a professional erotic dancer/stripper and his stage name was Christopher Tracy. He had a toga routine that was choreographed to “Thunder.” We had a band together and did some pretty credible Prince covers. In other words, I had many reasons to believe he was very much a Prince fan. Don’t get me wrong - he is. But I was utterly shocked to discover his bypassing of the Sign album for literally decades. . I told him that I truly, in my heart, do not think that a person can consider themselves a hardcore, true-blue fan without having ever HEARD that album, let alone not ever owning it. Heck, even a cassette DUB of someone else’s record would’ve counted. . He got very angry and offended and said I sounded like a fanatic. . Remember at the beginning I said “former friend?” That’s why. . Well, not entirely. There were many unrelated reasons that broke our bond. But I would be lying to say I didn’t regard him differently after his revelation about “Sign.”

That is crazy. I don't believe you need to have heard literally all 39 of Prince's offiicially released studio albums to be considered "hardcore". Like, if you'd not heard One Nite Alone or Xpectation... or maybe even some of his late career stuff like MPLSound. I'll cut you some slack.

But SOTT? That was a main stream, widely released, commericial and artisitic success. It's one of the albums that defined Prince. Even if you think it's over-rated, it still certainly meets the definition of essential.

What's worse, based on yourdescription, it's not only that he hadn't heard it, he seemed not to be aware it exists (the studio version that is). There's no way a hardcore fan would not even know a studio version of SOTT existed.

[Edited 12/6/22 12:34pm]

Mostly about lil Amir.

lurker316 said:

2freaky said:

Mostly about lil Amir.

There's ample (some might argue, too much) information in Mayte's book.

Back to the OP...I'm still waiting to hear "Cornbread Rappers."

Another example just occured to me, and this one is a doozy...

I've never listened to the album cut of the song Purple Rain the whole through.

I recoginze that song is about as essential as you get, but it's always bored me.

Yes, it's got the iconic guitar solo, but iI think the album version of the solo is a bit muted in the mix. Also, I think the solo go better over the years as he refined it in concert, emphasizing certain parts and adding a bit of flare to it.

the best version of PR is the 20 min live one anyway

the album version is kinda dull tbh

plus i dont think its produced that well either.

better to hear it stretched out for 19-20 mins

you get to bathe in its majesty that way