johnpiex said:

Today I woke up with a hankering for Feel Good, and I’m not sure why. When I first heard the Emancipation outtake, I immediately dismissed it. “Some of his corniest lyrics ever,” I thought. “Just like Flo, now ya know?” Yea, no thanks. I could immediately see why it was scrapped. Not that every song on Emancipation was top-tier in my eyes, but it felt like the definition of “throwaway.” The production felt a bit stale. The sampled horn squeal, a bit out of date. Uninteresting concept. There was a time when Prince could make a party record sound unique and interesting. Superfunkycalifragisexy, for example. This just wasn’t “cool” to my 20-something ears. It started to seem that the Prince outtake experience had changed. Before, it seemed like there just wasn’t a place on the album for all of them. And now, it seemed like maybe it was a quality issue. Perhaps some of these songs just weren’t good enough. This morning, I felt like I needed to give Feel Good another chance, and was instantly struck by the groove. The interplay between the rhythm guitar kicks, bass and drum machine is as funky as one could demand from a proven groove master like Prince. Is that a Clavinet? I felt immediately compelled to let the head bob. As I listened, I started to imagine it in rehearsal jam form, with Michael B., Sonny, Tommy and Mr. Hayes. Lots of soloing, breakdowns, improvisation, etc., and minimal lyrics It left me wondering if the song might have been born from a jam session. If so, it’s a session I would love to hear. The lyrics still aren’t great. But I did find one line that I enjoyed. “I’ll give U an ultimatum for a definite maybe.” Others, like “U won’t get cussed out, U won’t get beat. U can save ur money and the sheet,” are worrisome. But maybe it’s the revelations from the Netflix doc coloring my current perception. Hearing the song with new ears made me think about other Prince songs that I was late to the party for. Temptation comes to mind, as does Life Could Be So Nice and Pheromone. Probably many others. Maybe it’s time to give Eye Am The DJ another chance. Did you like Feel Good when you first heard it? What do you think of it now? What songs were latecomers for you?

Yeah, some of the lyrics aren't great, but I do like the music.

This feels like something from much earlier than Emancipation. Sounds like Come/TGE outtakes.

It would be interesting to see if some of these lyrics are placeholders, or more-or-less "final"?

I gots to feel good - feel good