Where's the energy, the passion and the humour gone out of his writing?

I despair, i've not listened to this guy in months, except bits of N.E.W.S. which is utter drivel as was Xpectation.I loved seeing him last year cause he's still great live, but his studio stuff is not interesting, just plain dull.

On nearly every album, he used to be able to knock off at least one song that'd put a smile on your face and you'd happily listen to it years later.What happened to that man? Most of his recent output sits there collecting dust.I feel so sad cause he used to be so great.

I know he's experimenting but aren't things generally supposed to improve as they evolve?

Marrk said:

my


You know, maybe I'm just growing up or maybe currently I just don't give a shit but I could not bring myself to pay $25 for the NPGMC. Thinking I'd take last year's route and wait until news of a new album or something materialized (last year I joined a week before the dates for the LA shows were announced) but N.E.W.S does not sound interesting to me...I hardly ever listen to Xpectation. So this time around I think I can say that I will wait until it's available in the shops. Gone are the days of getting excited over a Prince release...kinda sad actually...I've been a fan for over 15 years...

Besides...if it wasn't for Prince.org I'd never would've known of the four song N.E.W.S album, as the NPGMC failed to send me an email that the website was up and running again...

So I gather you even don't like:

The Everlasting Now
Last December
Xpectation

for me, these tracks are more worthwhile revisiting than any of the tracks on Emancipation, NPS and Rave.

just mho of course.

JMVHO Prince hasnt released anything of significance

Since The Gold Experience

I guess its up to him to prove me wrong

Just my on the matter

Much love Pochacco

The bottom line is that Prince burned himself out. He's run out of good ideas so he's basically scrapping. The chance of him ever making a comeback is almost impossible at this point.

He's lost touch with what people want to hear. Or maybe he's just making music that he likes and doesn't give a shit who buys it, which is fine for him, but he'll just keep losing more and more fans. He should take some time off and away from bad influences to get his head straight. Unfortunately, he's an idiot.

That's fine and all. Maybe he needs a break to bring back his creative side.

Prince, go into the vault and pull some funky shit out of the 1000 jams you have packed away and get some use out of them.

Come on. Take a break if you need it but put out some funky stuff you keep saying is in the vault and will be released SOMEDAY.

NOW'S THE TIME!!!

Make a Crystal ball II, III, or IV; but put some of the classic stuff out before you croak.

Don't you want to hear the media buzz about you some more instead of your underground fans.


T.




.

Prince gives not a shit. Of course if Larry told him to take some time off, then he'd be in Puerto Rico with an umbrella in his drink.

Well, I am not a member, but I would like to be. As well, I have had Xpectation in more steady rotation than any other CD of mine for the past 6 months. However, I've also had a helluva lot of Zappa in my rotation, and yeah, I would saw Prince is humourless and boring compared to him. But I don't think his music is, it's very much enjoyable to me. I also don't mind his foray into jazz. It seems to be evolving rather quick, and I've always been a fan of his jazz excursions.

This may be a bit of an unfair question but I will ask it anyways. What are you looking for from Prince that would make you happy?

A rock album? Pop album? Funk album? Soul? Jazz? A fusion of all these styles? Dirty and explicit lyrics? Fuzzy warm and beautiful lyrics?

Or is it his approach? Is there too much guitar? Drums? Keyboards? Are the horn arrangements overdone?

You see, in my opinion, with the exception of the dirty and explicit lyrics, Prince has played with all of this from '94-'03. So much so, that it makes me think that those who are bored with Prince, or say he is burned out, are only interested in one style of music. I think he is done with trying to make pop music, but I don't think he is even near to being out of ideas. Because I love to listen to all styles of music all the time, I have seldom been disappointed with any of his releases. I would absolutely agree with you in saying that some of his albums have been mediocre or sounded uninspired, but I still value every one of his releases for something different.

I definitely agree with EWM though, in his statement that he doesn't give a shit who likes his music and who doesn't, and also that he needs to take some time off and get his head straight. His focus does seem to jump around quite often.

LOL. . .thread title just cracks me up. . .

I don't think I'd get along very well, personally, with P these days. That guy back in the late 80s? Yeah, he and I would have clicked.

But who cares. He's barely an aquaintance of mine. Mostly, what he is to me is an important and influential artist.

I really "get", and love, ONA and ONAL. So, as much as I can't get on board with much of his current message, I don't think he's lost the ability to interest me. Yeay!

Might he eventually piss me off so much with his closedminded religion-based views that I no longer care about his art? Yep. He hasn't gone quite that far yet.

But I would like to see him loosen the fuck up. . .the suits were cute for awhile, but geezus, P, take a valium, it's gonna be ok.

savoirfaire said:

Hmm. while i appreciate your reply, you're way off with the 'liking one type of music' comment.I've just been listening to Vivaldi and prior to that a bit of Hendrix and Nerf Herder, so my tastes are pretty wide and varied.

Prince himself has covered most styles of music, so to be a true fan of him, you have to appreciate other types of music as much as he obviously does (or did) he himself seems to be painting with less colours than he used to.

I don't know what it is, i liked TRC at first (at least musically), especially coming after the debacles of '98 and '99, but it hasn't stood the test of time (all 2 years!)

I hate to hark back to the old days, but take Raspberry Beret, lyrically and as a piece of storytelling it's fantastic, the imagery it conjures is so vivid. Hard to believe it's the same guy these days, he sounds like a man that now realises he peaked creatively in his mid-twenties.

oh well.

Marrk said:

Well, you do have a point here for sure. And, obviously, there are some pretty remarkable music lovers on this site that don't even like Prince. And it's true, a lot of his older music seems to last forever. And it's certainly not as though you're the only one that feels this way.

But, I have loved most of it, even the recent stuff. And, I have a fairly diverse collection of music, everything from every genre. And, I'm a musician myself, and even, with the help of a group, released two CDs that have sold moderately well. So, I consider myself to be knowledgable in the area of music. This is why I have a lot of trouble finding out the reasons for people's dislike of his music of the past decade.

I've always understood music is subjective, but people are here for the most part, because they like similar music to me. So what is it I'm missing that makes so many others hate his new music? I just don't get it sometimes. That's why I'm usually drawn to conclude that people don't like it because it's not what they're used to. But, it could in all likelihood be me who is off base on this issue.

Or, maybe I don't know music as well as I thought I did. Or, maybe I love his new music purely for nostalgic purposes. No, wait, this couldn't be it. The first tape of his I heard was , and the first CD of his that I bought was Rave Un2 (For the record, I listened to nothing but mix tapes my brother gave me between '96-99, and I signed out his music from the library often). I was introduced to the new music first. I dunno.

???

Marrk said:

It's all subjective right? But IMO, this is also the same guy who wrote "la,la, la, he, he, hee" back in the good old days and "Avalanche" recently. Granted, anyone can pick and choose lyrics over the past 25 years and prove whatever point they want. Personally, I don't think he's "lost it" necessarilly, he may just be bored writing about the usual Prince subjects: sex, partying, generic love song, repeat...

SANSKER7 said:

is Prince's vault the most overrated thing ever! It seems like alot of fans are convinced that he's just sitting on 8 albums worth of classic gems that we've never heard of.

Universaluv said:

There's more than 8! Bootlegs probably don't do justice to some of those tracks in there.

Anybody with bootlegs or knowledge of what's in the vault, could safely put together his best abum in years.I think we'll get something out of there one day, but expect it to be re-recorded, edited and fucked up, as is the way with Prince.

Take the title track to Crystal Ball, Wendy and Lisa virtually removed from the track, or the released version old friends for sale.

EvilWhiteMale said:

---

"Or maybe he's just making music that he likes and doesn't give a shit who buys it, "

It took you this long time to figure this out?

With Xpectation and N.e.w.s., he doesn't even bother with lyrics, its like so what

I totally understand what you're saying, but I've already got a ton of unreleased stuff and, for me, very little of it ends up on my personal "best of Prince" short list. There's definitely some good stuff there, but all-time Prince classics, just a few IMHO. Of course I could be wrong, WTF do I know...

Marrk said:

EvilWhiteMale said:

Absolutely. Definately feel the latter is more than likely the case. I can understand him wanting 2 do it 4 HIMSELF (and let's be fair, most artists SHOULD 2 make good music - be true 2 themselves) BUT...u should always keep in mind the people that love and care about the music as much as u do, and I think he's lost sight of that.

What annoys me, is that he has all this great stuff sat in that vault (yeah, I know - it's been said a million times b4, but tough...MY post!) and he's dicking around releasing jams as albums? What the fu..?

I'm just waiting 4 him 2 don a white jumpsuit, start a season in Vegas, and keel over on a toilet a fat has-been.

laurarichardson wrote:

"Or maybe he's just making music that he likes and doesn't give a shit who buys it, "

It took you this long time to figure this out?

Not at all, cuz as you can see I listed it as a possibility. But obviously he does want people to buy it, otherwise he wouldn't charge for it. And we all know he loves the dollar.

I personally think he's incapable of making commercial music. I think he's out of touch with the times and would fail miserably at another attempt.

EvilWhiteMale said:

I really do thinks Prince does care about who buys his music. After all, this is his main way of making money, and, sadly, we all need money to survive.

As Nelson George once perfectly put it, back in the days of "Purple Rain" and such his ideas and style jived with pop culture. And now, his ideas and style don't 'jive' with pop culture, that's why he isn't such a huge commercial success. It's not that the music isn't good, it's that it doesn't have a very wide audience. He does care, but at the same time doesn't want to compromise himself and his music; which is something I've always admired about him.
It's all a matter of taste, you either like what he's doing now or you don't, it's that simple.

EvilWhiteMale said:

I really do think Prince does care about who buys his music. After all, this is his main way of making money, and, sadly, we all need money to survive.

As Nelson George once perfectly put it, back in the days of "Purple Rain" and such his ideas and style jived with pop culture. And now, his ideas and style don't 'jive' with pop culture(which I am thankful for,'cause to be honest, today's pop culture pretty much sucks, IMO), that's why he isn't such a huge commercial success. It's not that the music isn't good, it's that it doesn't have a very wide audience. He does care, but at the same time doesn't want to compromise himself and his music; which is something I've always admired about him.
It's all a matter of taste, you either like what he's doing now or you don't, it's that simple.
[This message was edited Wed Jun 25 0:55:35 PDT 2003 by lovebizzare]

gawd, such drama!

as someone has pointed out on this very thread, it is all a matter of opinion and taste, really.


I for one am enjoying NEWS and I did like Xpectation a great deal, I don´t find this music elevator music at all, there is a lot to appreciate in both efforts

Fucking hell...It's almost the same damn posts repeated every single day for several years now :

- Prince's career is over
- Prince is dead
- Prince is not such a great musician
- prince is not such a great singer
- Prince is not such a great composer
- Prince should learn from blablabla

TRC was an amazing album and it was released not such a long time ago if you compare to most artists who wait 2-3 years to release something new.

Guys move on, listen to something else. there is no problem with that. The truth most of you are totally addicted to Prince.

Marrk said:

Hold up Bloke...would you say the same of Bruce Springsteen or Sting? Why is it that Prince has to keep up with the "pop" market to be popular to some on this site? If another artist changes directions or dabbles in another genre he/she is a "genius" but if Prince goes in another direction he is "boring, a bit of a sod?" When was the last time your album sold any money?

"Can you hear them, telling lies...it doesn't matter anyway, no-one listens to a word they sa---a--y. OUR LIPS ARE SEALED" (Fun Boy Three)

He's always taken himself a bit too seriously though, IMO (case in point - the name change, writing "slave" on his face etc)

VINCENT said:

Some are, some are not. but I thought I'd just point out that this is PRINCE.org, not fucking Metallica.org - what we supposed 2 do, swap recipes or sumthin?

Vincent wrote:

TRC was an amazing album and it was released not such a long time ago if you compare to most artists who wait 2-3 years to release something new.

But quality is better then quantity. I could record an album overnight, but it'll be trash. I'd rather take time to develop it and make something good.

Guys move on, listen to something else. there is no problem with that. The truth most of you are totally addicted to Prince.

What it is really is that we're pissed off cuz we love his old stuff so much, we keep hoping he'll get his shit together and release something great again. It's just a frustrating type of thing cuz it's like he's dead, but he's really not. Kurt Cobain will never be able to deliver anything ever agian, but the fact that Prince is still on earth, it's shitty that he's not doing what he used to be so great at.