Warner years, without question.

The business model Prince should have come up with, or perhaps tried to and failed, is Madonna's. I'm sure he wrote her off around the summer of '84 as some no-talent chick getting by on pure sex appeal and provocation only (his ego). But what happened is astonishing, given her amazing lack of ability as a singer, dancer, "songwriter"/lyricist. She renegotiated with Sire/Warners for her own record label, Maverick, which she then hired smart people like Guy Oseary to run -- and then let him run it. Maverick is a full-service label for which Madonna is the marquee act. She can make a record, whatever record, she wants, whenever she wants, have it promoted properly, AND get ALL the fucking money. Hey, that sounds a lot like what Prince wanted/wants... except Paisley was not a full-service label, and Prince, ever the control freak, had to have his hands in every little pie. So all the artists were pseudo-Prince type artists with pseudo-Prince type sounding records. If he'd have backed up a little and let it be an actual record company, he wouldn't be in the situation he's in now -- maybe it's great for his bank account, but he has nowhere near the pop culture impact he once had. It's a shame, because STILL no one is making the music he's making, and more people should be rocking to it.

But then, making his whole mega-stardom period was a fluke of sorts: Prince started as an underground artist; his music, however many chart hits he's had, has always had an unconventional, non-mainstream quality; and now he's back to being essentially an underground artist. Perhaps he has exactly the fan-base size a musician like him should have.

WARNERs - He got we he wanted from the off.
and guess what? It fucking worked 2.
Prince greedy? Nah - never...

WarnerBros hands down. At this point I can care less how much money Prince is making at any given point in time. That's not what attracted me to Prince. It was his music. And his music was much more interesting and engaging during his WB years.

Prince has had nearly a decade to do whatever he wants free from WB, and he has spent most of it hastily putting out alot of worthless shit.

New Power Soul VS. Parade?

Chaos & Disorder VS SOTT?

ONA VS Purple Rain?

NPGMC Year 1 VS. Lovesexy?

How can you even argue?

warner years,were the best years for prince.the freedom years @#$&%*. PRINCE, BRING BACK THE MUSIC AND STOP THE NOISE.

Tom said:

'GUILTY! 7 YEARS HARD LABOUR - TAKE HIM AWAY...'

The Warner years


I miss the days when a new Prince album came out every year,along with the videos,singles,12" versions,B-sides,tours,etc.Everything seemed so planned out and the music was amazing.


Prince still creates interesting music though,so I guess we shouldn't really complain.

warner years definitly.

ever since he started that crap with them he has been lost in many different ways.

And the saddest thing is that he is only getting worse, cuz Prince himself refuses to see, he is a stubborn mf. The people that kiss his ass all day long don't help shit either, cuz they just make him want to close his eyes and imagine he is still the greatest, when he really isn't.

it is basically a very sad situation...

Warner...simply for the promotion and the era (80's).

javed said:

Warner. His music then was the soundtrack to my life

Amen!


---

Warner.

I thinks its a shame. Prince tried to paint a picture about being a slave, but the fact is, he had just renewed his contract.

Its not like he was tied into a crap deal since 77.

In 93, His sales were declining, but Warner were still willing to give him a "mega star" contact.

Prince, believing in his own genius, was happy to lap it up.

In 93, he had the power to negotiate a new deal, which included gaining the old masters, much like REM did around the same time with Warner.

Instead, Prince took the big bucks, and them cried like a baby a year later.

As always, the problem was not slavery (which has began his whole train of throught for the last 5 years), but the fact that Prince wanted his cake, and eat it.

He wanted all song writing credits, the single choices, bad marketing campains done his way, then he expects people to pay millions for it.

RAVE would have worked, if he'd worked with Arista, like Santana, rather than expecting them to bend over backwards for him.

One point of interest. If prince is number one at the bank (his words), and its not about charts or "commercial success". Why does he bother to sign single album deals?

If its about spreading the message, he could release them at half the price or give alot away for free.

He wants maximum money, and exposure, and success, but he wants everyone else to pay for it, as a thank you to his "greatness".

Obviously it never going to happen, so he sinks deeper and deeper into obscurity.

Warner days gave us a quality controlled album every year, plus all the trimmings.

Its that fact that made him a millionaire, so why should it be wrong to want more of the same?

If he don't wanna do that no more, thats fine, but why does he keep advertising like the "old days"?

Example. He made a big point of advertising RAVE as similar to SOTT. Why, to cash in on what people want.

ONA live was advertised as a greatest hits. Remember all the song title in bold on the flash advert?

Well, most of those songs ended us a 30 second snippets in a piano medley.

Its fine that he wants to move on, but if he does, why does he keep trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes, pretending his new stuff is like his old warner days?

He knows Warner was better...he just didn't want to pay for the service he was recieving.

Warner Years. There was a huge amount of quality music in that period.

I still think when he gets this instrumental stuff out of him, and maybe a few other 'diversions' like the religious themes of TRC, he'll come out with some great music to rival his best... He's showing signs of it... some of his recent songs have a maturity and laid back confidence that was not there in the Warners stuff. Just needs to get the consistency...

Hang on in there - it'll happen!

fuck warner brothers! after all the hard lessons our ancestors had 2 learn while dealin with these suits it's about time we black folks did our own thang anyway! and 4 those sayin the music suck and that there's 2 much preachin, i rather hear some upliftment and enlightenment over that garbage known as trl...

warner/revolution years definitely !!!

diamondpearl1 said:

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. very good. you're brilliant. i'd like to send you a cigar... do you smoke..?

you utter retard.
[This message was edited Tue Jun 24 4:57:14 PDT 2003 by NME]

I HAVE TO AGREE WITH THE POST BEFORE ME.

so i'm gettin called a retard 'cause i appreciate and wanna hear somethin different than ya'll? lol fuck what they say! rock on prince! owww...

It's really not a fair comparison, The Warner years were his most visible years so of course most will choose Warner's.

I personally feel that his best hasn't been released yet. He's testing the water's with his club and N.E.W.S. Trying to finally get this distribution thing down.{you bbb whiners know what I mean} Then he's going to hit us the real and make all them 'haters believe.

When you look at the quality of the output, the effectiveness in marketing the product, and the commercial success of the product, the Warner years were the better period by a mile.

During that time, Prince had a great management team (Cavallo-Ruffalo-Magnoli) and a label willing to indulge his constant thematic and stylistic changes and nimble enough to assist him in staying visible. He helped his case by making some of the most memorable albums of the 80's. I think the commercial fallout with Lovesexy killed that vibe forever.

It's not as if he hasn't made a lot of good music during his "freedom" years. He has. I could understand the fact that he's not selling now if I thought his product was just as good and he was making a good faith effort to market it effectively. Quality is in the eye of the beholder, but I don't see how his "freedom" work compares to even a lot of his post-Lovesexy Warners stuff. Nor do I see him even trying to market himself. He seems to be in this mode where he thinks it's perpetually 1985 and people should be falling all over him. He's to a lot of younger listeners what Mick Jagger used to be to me at that age: a legend, but an old head nonetheless.

warner years. can't they just make up.

Depends on what you mean by "the Warner years". Prince+WB in the eighties was hot shit, no question. Prince+WB in the nineties was painful to watch and listen to. I don't think think that relationship would've gotten any better so I understand why he left. Basically, I think he's better off now than he would've been if he'd stayed. You really wanna hear Chaos & Disorder 2?

Universaluv said:

Good point. But if you did give me the choice of Chaos 2 or News, I'd pick chaos 2.

I'd rather have another "I like it there" or "Same December" than another "North".

As many have said, Prince's best instrument is his voice. Its a shame when he doesn't plug it in.

TedW said:

Well, said. I agree with it all

Well it's not s though his entire post-WB career has been nothing but instrumentals. He did instrumentals with WB (Madhouse) he'll probably do them again in the future. I doubt that he's given up on vocals though just because he's done a couple of instrumental albums.

SquirrelMeat said:

WARNER BROTHERS, DEFINITELY -- HE NEEDS A CENSOR!

Everything produced by a genius is not genius art. This doesn't register with him. He needs somebody to say 'no, this isn't a song/album you should release." He is watering down/ muddying up his legacy by releasing shit.


That whole tantrum with writing slave and burning bridges should have been handling in a more savvy and mature manner.Unfortunately, I'm afraid his behavior during and right after that split may mar his public image for life -- unless he can pull a kick-ass image move to rectify it. The name change? Damn. bad move. especially since it was insincere.

Warner Brothers was the best thing for him as a young artist. As somebody said, it wouldn't work now. A grown man and mature artist doesn't need people telling him how to make his art and he has learned to delegate when and where necessary.
As one matures they lose interest in the pop world-- or should. I, personally, would not want another Purple Rain as it was. The short Pop format doesn't interest me anymore. On the other hand, long, drawn-out jazz noodlings don't do it for me either. There's got to be a middle ground, which I think TRC finds almost perfectly. I haven't heard N.E.W.S. yet but it doesn't sound as interesting. I agree that his voice is his greatest instrument so I'd like to hear it-- but it's his music so all I can do is not buy it.
[This message was edited Wed Jun 25 8:51:31 PDT 2003 by whodknee]

good ? & in order 2 have The FREE or Prince u had 2 have a WB Prince. everything's relative 2 how the path has been walked... if i've learned anything from P u have 2 embrace where u were b4 so u can know where u can go in u'r Future...

so we need both... i LOVE the music released AFTER he left The WB

DeVaniti said:

Hahahahah! You defintly work for the club! It 's a bitch huh? when your company and "labour" is qualified as a rip-off and know to everybody who is interested. get a course in fair business dealings pelase.

MartyMcFly said:

Great post Squirrel meat!
Couldn't be more true.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

People like Prince don't just overlook such a clause, they get advised and paid for agreeing to it. And not once or twice did he agree to it, but numerous times... ALL FOR $$$.

Warner Brothers always got my music in the store on time and at the going rate