Dear Orgers,

This morning I awoke to the thunderous drum stylings of John Blackwell. I was sure I had put NEWS in a dark and inacessible corner of a dusty bookshelf, but that was indeed North blaring in the living room.

It turns out my friend likes NEWS a lot. I don't dislike it myself, but now I'm forced to listen to it anyway. He's not a Prince fan though he likes many of his songs, but in this case he's speaking like a gushing Paisley Taliban drunk on contraband purple koolaid. According to him, NEWS is modern classical music, a symphony of musical idioms . He is so glad Prince doesn't sing as his voice would distract him from the music.

So I wonder... Was is it with NEWS that strikes such a chord in people? I find it a little meandering myself.

Wo, Aerogram, I am sorry to hear your relationship is ending, that's really sad...


Oh, wait...

He didn't tell you to get out? well, i thought that was the standard responce when some one did not think a prince album was the missing chapter of the bible...

cborgman said:

In any case it's not ending today, on his birthday. You know I think he's just contrary.

hey don't sweat it. a colleague at work who obviously does not like Prince had no idea i was playing it the other day at work. i had it on and she was milling about in the office when she came up and said,'i like that. it sounds nice. what is it?'. i looked at her and made her ask again (cuz i couldn't believe she would say that). someone else in the office answered,'it's Prince isn't it?' cuz they know me already.
she looked back at me, 'it's Prince?', as if to ask ,'how could he ever play such beautiful music?' then she had this look of embarrassment that she could like anything by Prince. she quickly turned around and went back to what she was doing.
priceless.

milty said:

Yeah... it's like they've been caught liking some Liberace or something...

Interesting. This kind of captures the point of N.E.W.S. New directions means new audiences...and, possibly, not appealing to old audiences.

Btw, it doesn't sound meandering once you get really familiar with it.

milty said:

That is a scenario that could probably happen with Prince pretty often. Last night I had some friends over and put in the new DVD and played the Zepplin cover and they liked it. The mainstream view of Prince is pop music...nobody has a clue.

Aerogram said:

close enuff

Aerogram said:

That's how I feel about it too. It does very little for me. I can admire some of the funky guitar licks, but that's about it. It's a bit directionless and occasionally melodramatic (not in a good way - in a "Kamasutra" kind of way). Just my opinion. And I do like jazz before anyone accuses me of being "ignorant" regarding jazz - I'm no expert but I have a fairly sizeable jazz record collection and I used to make a reasonable living as playing improv jazz session guitar and bass.

ian said:

I'm listening to it as I write this. I pretty much agree with the above sentiment. I think it's got some value to it but I just don't find myself listening to it as often as a TRC.

Well, with my girlfriend (actually former girlfriend since three weeks) it's the same. I think NEWS is pretty enjoyable but nothing special, but my ex just loves it and normally she doesn't have any interest in Prince's music.

He may be able to find some new audience with this album, but only if people actually get to hear this recording...