Anji said:

Uhm, OK

Essential albums are:

> Vanity 6 - Vanity 6 - First full project wiht the Linn Drum Machine
> The Time - The Time, What Time Is It, Ice-Cream Castles - all essential really, although it depends how much you can stomach their repetitive monotone sound with regards to how long you will think they are essential Personally I listen to 1990's Pandemonium more than any other of their albums.
> Sheila E. - The Glamorous Life - It is the Minneapolis Sound, but it stands alone from all that, it really is something individual.
> The Family - The Family - Probably the top of the pile as far as related artist albums go, this is practically a Prince album. It spans the end of the Time - Mutiny/High Fashion right to Parade - without this album, Parade would not have happened.
> Jill Jones - Jill Jones - Classic. It seems to me that Prince gave her a lot of A-grade out-takes/material as a thank you for holding in there so long! Mia Bocca, All Day All Night & For Love are basically just the Revolution with Jill on vocals.

Essential - that's it!

Secondary:
- Apollonia 6 Apollonia 6
- Sheila E - Romance 1600
- Sheila E - Sheila E
- Madhouse - 8
- Madhouse - 16
- Madhouse - 24
- Ingrid Chavez - May 19th 1992
- Carmen Electra - Carmen Electra
- Mavis Staples - Time Waits For No-One
- Mavis Staples - The Voice


If you dig all that, and wanna go for the barely connected stuff, here are my favourite albums:
- Vanity - Wild Animal
- Mazarati - Mazarati
- Morris Day - Solo LPs
- Jesse Johnson - Solo LPs

The Vanity and Mazarati albums are two of my favourites albums.

VelvetSplash said:

Amazing, thanks for that Velvet! Right, from the looks of your essential selection, I'm in for quite a ride. The Family album sounds wicked!!

Anji said:

Well, they really have a sound of their own. The closest they've ever come to having that "prince sound" was with their "fruit at the bottom" album. You can listen to sound samples of them on amazon if you want to hear what they sound like. The rest of thei stuff really has a sound of its own.

Just started listening to the Emancipation album again. Does Jam Of The Year have what is classed as the 'minneapolis sound' to it, in elements?

There's been a lot of love for "The Family" recently. I've never been much of a fan of it. The music is great, but I think the vocals are atrocious on most of the songs. I think that's the most frequent problem with Prince side projects -- not many strong vocalists. That said, I still LOVE:

- Apollonia 6
- Sheila E - Glamorous Life
- Sheila E - Romance 1600
- Sheila E - Sheila E
- Ingrid Chavez - May 19th 1992
- Vanity 6
- The Time - The Time, What Time Is It, Ice-Cream Castles

I just got Romance and Sheila E. on CD for the first time, been blasting those, for sure!

And Vanity Wild Animal is a long time favorite also.

Anji said:

And what about Right Back Here In My Arms, in parts?

madartista said:

Sounds like Vanity's album is getting a lotta love too.

madartista said:

oh come on, the vocal weren't that bad

lovebizzare said:

yeah, not so much -- I think they're pretty bad. Bad enough that I've never really appreciated the album (I'm speaking specifically about the Family here).

I have something really profound to say... Prince

Ditto, Calhoun

I agreed with madartist - I found "The FAmily" ok, but disappointing after finally getting it 3 yrs ago, and having known of its existance for 15 yrs b4 that! My fave relateds r "The Time"'s first 2 + "Pandemonium" (Ice-Cream Castles suffers from the loss of JJ & TL) and Romance 1600. Jill Jones was interesting 2.

CalhounSq said:

Cal, would you do anything he asked you too?

Vinyl is wonderful but only if the album which it's playing is too e.g. Parade.

I wonder how When Doves Cry raced through the charts without that bass line. Ain't it all about the beats?

I wonder if Prince has thought about Mayte since her break up with Tommy? Were Mani and Mayte ever friends?

Anji, you didn't say hello to me at the top of the thread

ConsciousContact said:

LOL Conscious! By the way, you inspired my previous thread on reflecting about how we all felt.

Anji said:

You're confusing basslines with beats. The song had plenty of beats, just no bassline. The only bass was the bass drum. If memory serves me, it took "Doves" only 5 weeks from the time it entered the charts til the time it hit the #1 spot. And 1984 is pre-Soundscan. I have no answer for the immediate embrace of this song either, considering I wasn't exactly thrilled when I heard it. But I was mesmerized, even before I realized it was Prince. "Doves" is avant-garde Prince.

Supernova said:

I wasn't confusing the bassline with beats, although it's perfectly understandable if you think I was (based on what I wrote). I just wanted to explore a certain aspect of the song that actually has nothing whatsoever to do with basslines or beats but I thought I better start slowly.

Anji said:

Oh.

Supernova said:

So does anyone know why the song worked in a commercial sense?

Anji said:

I think it was striking because it was so unlike what was on the radio then.

Anji said:

Cuz it was so odd. And although Rolling Stone is now
a shell of itself, I have to agree with its description
of it in their singles issue years ago.

Though radio was stringent even then, it was
less stringent than it is now. Even college
radio stations played it. It was promoted well.

It hit the dance charts, the r&b charts,
the pop charts, the college charts...

So what was behind the success of certain other, unusual but highly successful Prince singles e.g. Batdance?

Anji said:

One of the Most Honest Songs written by Prince at the time.It explored alot of intimate details from a Artist that was as Guarded as Howard Hughes at the time.the Music&Sound worked well for the time but yet it had it's own vibe.but the words hit home.bringing His Parents into the fold&using elements from there I think&feel alot of people could relate to that.I know I could from the first time I heard it.when Prince writes from the Gut IMHO He does His Best Story-Telling.this Connected at the right time.

mistermaxxx said:

Hello maxxx! I wasn't there at the time but I actually thought about the success of this song today (as I was reading an article about trends in social-psychology). That's pretty cool how Prince's very real expression made the song stand out for you, aswell as commercially. Are things really that different now in the business?

Anji said:

I can't speak for the US, but I think the reason Batdance was so big in the UK (very nearly his first no. 1, just pipped to the post by 'Back to Life', by Soul II Soul - still, if you're gonna be beaten to the top, it may as well be by a record as good as that) was that it totally captured the state of the UK music scene at the time.

From the end of 1987, when 'Pump Up The Volume' by M/A/R/R/S hit no. 1, the UK charts were full of sample-driven club music.

It felt to me at the time that Prince had noticed that, and was showing what he could do with samples, although in a slightly different way - the inclusion of sung vocals and a fresh guita part made it sound more organic than those early house records, like house with a unique Prince spin.

So in that sense, whilst it is unusual when looked at as part of the Prince canon as a whole, it is not unusual compared to the other records that were filling the charts at the time.

1800NewHunk said:

Oooh, very good 1800!

1800NewHunk said:

Spot on!

Acid House was fantastic, and Prince seemed to tap into that at the right time. One of the very few times he has ever tapped into a current trend at the appropriate time.