I have always grappled between whether this song was brilliant or tacky. I have ultimately come to the conclusion that it's "brilliantly tacky."

It sounds to me like a desperate attempt to make a Doves Cry for the 90s, without any of the coolness which made Doves so special. But in its own way, it's such a bold and unapologetic album opener, it's hard not to enjoy it in all it's tackiness.

Where do you folks stand on this?

As a non-native English speaker, I think it's brilliant.

both.

is not really like WDC - doesnt have the same meaningfulness.

but its a great song.

prince was really into big, dramatic, theatrical rock in the first half of the 90s, not sure how that happened (he prob just saw it as something he wanted to be able to do), but this is prob the best example of it.

i like 3 chains but its not as good a song.

as far as 90s album openers though, id say thunder is a dozen times better than my name is prince (daddy pop is also better and less dumb than sexy mf), come, pussy control, chaos and disorder (this is basically moaning old man rock lol), jam of the year.

[Edited 12/10/23 6:44am]

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

MattyJam said:

I have always grappled between whether this song was brilliant or tacky. I have ultimately come to the conclusion that it's "brilliantly tacky."

It sounds to me like a desperate attempt to make a Doves Cry for the 90s, without any of the coolness which made Doves so special. But in its own way, it's such a bold and unapologetic album opener, it's hard not to enjoy it in all it's tackiness.

Where do you folks stand on this?

It's neither.

rockford said:

until the sde, i had dismissed it as corny. but relistening to it, i now really like it. its still a bit overblown, but i appreciate the songcraft even more now, i.e. where the song goes. everything is exactly how/where it needs to be, it shows you what a good pop songwriter prince was. shame the sounds he used are a bit cheap.

MattyJam said:

kiss had no bass.

SOTT had bass, just not very low.

im not sure paisley park had any bass.

the whole no bass thing was just something he would return to every so often.

the song slave on emancipation also has no bass. that one actually sounded similiar to SOTT (eg the drum part near the end of the song) but idk if thunder actually sounds like WDC.

As an album track, it is weak. As a tour opener, I remember it sounding powerful.

It's tacky as a one-man band, which is utterly confusing to me since he was dipping into a full on band sound at this time.

The live versions are great, so why not do that in studio? It sounds cheap the way it is.

I've always thought the album version was OK but I'd tend to sklip the last couple of minutes.

.

I love the Glam Slam version. Sounds great and rawer in the small club compared to the arena's, Sonny's bass is popping and high in the mix, the live drums and Rosie's bits add a lot to me

for me, this is one of those prince songs where it needs the studio production

but i love the second half/final third - the guitar and those different parts make it even better!

despite the cheap sounds, you can tell he spent time on the song

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

for me, this is one of those prince songs where it needs the studio production

but i love the second half/final third - the guitar and those different parts make it even better!

despite the cheap sounds, you can tell he spent time on the song

I agree the last half of the song is the best part, cheap as it sounds, it's brilliantly constructed.

RJOrion said:

The lyrics are foolishness...what is he even talking about?

That's a good question. Is it some divine intervention? He refers to it as Love, and thinks it could be a woman, but it seems to be some vessel of divine love. The realization is like thunder? Who knows.

Love it live.

I think it's a decent opener for the album. I'm surprised it would receive any hate.

RJOrion said:

RJOrion said:

The lyrics are foolishness...what is he even talking about? “Let me give you a piece of advice, Junior: your music make sense to no one... but yourself.” ~ Billy Sparks

It's "Pink Cashmere" on crack!

[Edited 12/12/23 10:06am]

Neither? Lyrics are pretty terrible, and some of the intstrumentation is blecch, but overall it's pretty midtier.

lol compared to this:

id say thunder is way ahead.

Yes, it´s clear that he wanted a new When Doves Cry, but obviously didn´t achieve this result. However, I like it a lot. Catchy, strong chorus and some real nice guitar/keys parts.

I remember being at college in London (circa 1992/3), and I have a memory of it being played in the student bar on the jukebox (this is during a period of not buying Prince records myself) and I felt it was cool that the youngsters were still digging Prince!
I like it (nothing wrong with cheese) and my son (8) has been really digging D&P recently - he likes Diamond and Pearls, Thunder and Cream - Prince hit the mark with this album in terms of renewing his sound and reaching out to new younger listeners.

GustavoRibas said:

Yes, it´s clear that he wanted a new When Doves Cry, but obviously didn´t achieve this result. However, I like it a lot. Catchy, strong chorus and some real nice guitar/keys parts.

That's not clear at all. If "When Doves Cry" was eve that ever served as inspiration somewhere, it would've been with "Alphabet St." He didn't even really touch WDC on the Nude or D&P Tours either.

I think Thunder is one of the better tracks on the D & P album. Unlike his earlier albums, some of the songs of the album suffer from being bland or overly derivative. Thunder, while not a classic, still was catchy and had a novel sound that kept one's interest. All this and more of the the live versions.

mb71 said:

As an album track, it is weak. As a tour opener, I remember it sounding powerful.

Exacttly - I always thought it was an Ok album song but was great as a concert opener