this post is inspired partly by freaker's post on grafitti bridge, and partly on my own late-night viewing of the film last night. i got the stereo hook-up, vcr going into receiver, sound coming out through the headphones, and...wow!
simply put - i love grafitti bridge, the film. prince has said it's the most pure thing he's ever done, and i can see that. it's so pure, the message is so simple, it was easy to slam: the kid (makes spiritual noise) and morris (makes money) battle over ownership of glam slam. morris uses terror tactics to persuade. should the kid succumb and fight fire with fire? that's what he's trying to do with tick, tick, bang (awesome performance!!), but not what will win the battle. "when a man screams, you must learn to whisper" is what aura tells the kid. she's the angel sent from heaven to save morris (make him see the light) and to help the kid know it's okay to keep doing what he does, to give him that green light. she is a christ-like figure, who goes so far as to lay down her life so that morris will be saved: whatever you ask of me i will do (sound familiar?)
ultimately the kid wins the battle by doing what he already does so well, by laying down a soul-stirring performance of one of his best religious songs, still would stand all time.
i guess it has taken me (what, 13 years?) a while to see grafitti bridge in this way, for what it really is: a pure, simple, spiritually-driven musical with great performances from prince and associated artists -love, love, love his performance of thieves in the temple - how cool is that?
it also has some genuinely funny moments (like aura asking jerome, "what's up with your buddy over there holding his stuff? does he have to use the bathroom?")
anyway, post here to show your love for grafitti bridge, the film. it rocks on VHS, no DVD (sorry freaker).
all you haters just move along to another post!

I'll come and show my love for the album. This is an excerpt from a previous thread I posted when I saw the light on this CD:
http://www.prince.org/msg...&tid=52154

Can't Stop This Feeling I Got Dammit, this is FUN! It makes me want to dance like Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air! Tell me you don't feel it near the end when he starts the falsetto, "hooo, oooh, hooo, oooh" shit - right around the time when the "Purple Rain" guitar comes in. I damn near got tears in my eyes, for fuck's sake.

New Power Generation Okay, this is one song that I always made fun of as cheesy and silly - and not in that good way. "I hope they bury your old ideas the same time they bury you!" Embarrassing, right? Not so fast! Wait, and listen to this part: "No father, no mother, no sister, no brother, nobody can make me stop/said if u didn't come 2 party child, I think u better get up offa my block!" Nobody can build up musical tension and release the gasm like Prince can!

Release It Morris at his bitchy best. What more needs to be said?

The Question of U This one needs no defending. Bluesy euphoria.

Elephants and Flowers Musical salvation! Generally regarded as one of the gems, so I won't get all out of breath defending this one either.

We Can Funk This has always been one of my favorites. You got electric ass baby! You got electric thighs baby! I can't wait no longer child! It's getting stronger, baby, open up your eyes! Scream that shit!

Joy In Repetition Speaks for itself.

Shake "Lucy's standing there with the false hair on/Don't shake it 2 hard or that hair will be gone (oops)" Tee hee.

Thieves In The Temple Funky anguish, pure emotion. The extended version absolutely kicks the Mistress's ass, but this will certainly do. That groove at "'Cause me and you could have been a work of art" just kicks!

The Latest Fashion The daughter of "Strange Relationship." Who hasn't felt like this? "Yeah, so I lied. Fuck it, it's in this year. I'll take all the blame, yo baby, I'm sorry."

Melody Cool Mavis Staples kicks ass. So does this song. "When I was born there were tidal waves. Whole town went under, nobody saved. At every funeral it rained every time I sang." Chills, dammit.

Still Would Stand All Time A bit cheesy, but still pretty fucking wonderful. "Ooh, heaven, heaven on earth, we all want to find..." Again, he's the master at building to a crescendo.

Graffiti Bridge Yeah, the title track's still shit.

I don't think it's as bad as most people make out, and has some worthwhile moments.Also has the single most embarrasing Prince performance ever (Tick tick bang) try converting a non fan with that! That's about the limit of love i can show for it.

Much prefer PR or UTCM.

sorry.

I would have loved to have seen the first pressings of GB, the ones, so runour has it, weren't hugely ripped up and re-filmed, re-editted, re-written to make the movie more "user-friendly". I too think the script has some lovely moments, but most of the movie is plain, plain ordinary. I would like to thank Prince for introducing me to Debussey through this movie...and I loved his Adam Ant make up for Elephants and Flowers...but, all in all, GB makes UTCM look like a proper film...which we all know it is, isn't it?

My favorite Prince album of them all. For fear of getting calling a complainer, I'll keep my two cents to myself about the movie.

it has an interesting idea, and the morality is nice, but as a whole the script is half-baked, full of cliches and lacks any real direction. Half of the time it is so tripped out on it's desire to be quasi-spiritaul and cool that it pushes itself towards utter goofiness.

and one of the things that really made purple rain work is that it was very reliant on the music to push the story and emotion, but never had the characters breaking in to song as in a musical. Anytime that anyone was singing, it was the character singing in the club, much in the same sense that cabaret (probably the best movie musical ever) did. Graffiti Bridge fails to do that. sometimes the characters are singing in the club as the characters in a band. sometimes they break out singing as in a musical (melody cool being a prime example)

the direction... well, the less said, the better. prince can not direct. the shots are interesting, but a good director can coax good performances out of his actors, and prince himself could barely act, let alone coach good performances out of his cast.

the acting is about the same level as a group of high school kids with formal training or theatre experince putting on a production. morris as always really does have a great natural comic timing, as does jerome. ingrid is horrid, but a lot of that could be blamed on her complete lack of character in the script, and the direction. robin powers is so painfully forced it is hard to watch. prince is not bad, but not great either. one of the smartest thing he did as a director and writer was to limit the amount of lines the kid has, and for the most part it works in his benefit. the various band members range from decent to crap.

the sets are abysmal. period. over-stylised neon crap very similar to the look of the latter 2 batman movies-cartoony and garish. the film never for one second looks like it is set in reality.

it has some good moments but overall really lacks in almost everything. the music is nice though. i have always said this could have really been something great if his ego had allowed him to let someone else write it, and someone else direct it.

Marrk said:

...and what's our boy wearing?!? (Latest Fashion my ass!)
Looks like he's had a fight in an expoding duvet cover factory - it's just plain...WRONG!!!

Marrk said:

UTCM

Yep, I like GB a lot. It's not my favourite but it does have some great songs on it and the ones that are not great, are damn funky!

WELL DONE FMS
I finally find I am not alone in loving this album.
I see that the film has its faults but the message is whats important and that really touched me, especially the way it related to moral dillemmas in our lives.

I'd call the album a second-tier favorite of mine...it's not a desert island disc, but it's also not gathering a whole lot of dust in my collection, either.

I'm with Anxiety. It is definitely one of Prince's better albums. It's fairly cohesive. I thought the original "We Can Funk" would have worked better, and I hated the title track and NPG pt. II, but otherwise, it's solid-to-outstanding all the way through.

Freaker said:

i think it also relates directly to prince and his decision not to relase the black album. what do u think? the black album could be seen as basically fighting fire with fire, you know really showing those naysayers who said he had lost the funky touch. then he meets ingrid/aura and she tells him, "don't deal from that place. if you do you will lose" and "you're gonna win". so he comes back with lovesexy, the album he wanted to do, but apparently no one else wanted at the time.
so last night i saw this movie as relating directly that whole saga of the black album/ingrid/lovesexy, and i appreciated it all the more.
what do you all think?

Anxiety, namepeace. guys i think this thread is more about the film than album.

Or i thought it was.

.
[This message was edited Tue Aug 26 12:04:16 PDT 2003 by Marrk]

fms said:

Sounds like he oughta tossed a fireball at that bitch.
If you don't wanna
Lick my knees
I'm sho
Ya mamma will!

Graffitti Bridge and Under The Cherry Moon werre both underrated. UTCM kicks ass... P's humor is off the hook.GB was heavily criticized, and the only complaint I had was the way the music was shown... We Can Funk with no P, Tick,Tick,Bang "video" sucked, etc. The rest of it was great, and thanks, FMS, for briging it up, and for the Madhouse 16 album!

Peace,

Giovanni.

fms said:

Thank you so much!!!
I loved the film the first time I saw it(Nov.2 or 3rd,1990,me-17 years old),and UNDERSTOOD it!!!
Still love it.
Most people can't get with anything that's different or imaginative.


cborgman-My favorite thing is that it DOESN'T look like its set in reality.

I loved Elephants and Flowers

Personally I think the GB film is a right sack of shite.
And the album is probably the least played in my collection. I just don't think it works. There are some good tracks (Thieves, Joy In Repetition, Question of U) but it just doesn't hang together as an album. I feel it would have been better if the non Prince tracks had been released as a separate album.
But despite the music the film is Princes worst work. It looks and feels cheap.

Marrk said:

I did a thread about this a while ago. I didn't think it was a bad flick at all. It's got great visual style and an intersting story, as well as great performances. It's just the acting that might be hard to swallow. But I will say that it's not up to par with P's other flicks.

yeah right ... NOT

It sucks all the way!
Both the album and the ... what shall I call it ... movie?

What a disappointment that was when I bought that album. We'd heard all tracks before on some demo / live-recording ...
and they were all polished on the album.
There are zero tracks that were improved!

I've seen the movie ... I won't see it again

Okay ... you're right
after GB a lot of inferior work has been released

gb scares me, it stinx so bad.

At an early stage,this film was going to be directed by Albert Magnoli,who directed 'Purple Rain'.When he left the project and Prince decided to direct it himself,I knew that the movie would have problems.Prince really should have allowed a skilled director to direct the film.And maybe he could have collaborated with another writer on the script.


The storyline is so paper-thin,it's unintentionally funny.The Kid and The Time seem to reside in some weird,fake town in which Morris is supposed to be the leader.Aurra (an angel) is sent from the heavens above,to save a few souls and spread a little positivity around.The Kid is on some spiritual quest and this reflects in the music he is making.Morris,meanwhile,only cares about making money and he tries to take over The Kid's nightclub,insisting that his "spiritual noise" is alienating customers.


A really good sequel to 'Purple Rain' could have been made but 'Graffiti Bridge' just didn't work.

I like the album but the movie... well, I've seen it twice and it was crap both times I saw it. For the record I love UTCM because of the comedy. Prince the "actor" doesn't seem to do drama well. He basically does the same thing he did in Purple Rain but the music wasn't strong enough to carry the movie here. I'm not saying there wasn't anything redeeming about it but not enough to make it a good movie.

One of the original scripts for this movie has Prince dying and being sent back to make matters right by having the courage of his convictions and playing the "religious noise" that he wants to play. Aura is a properly split character with a regular girl and an angel apparition, the first a beau for Morris and the second a spiritual inspiration for Prince. the movie ends with Prince dying and making it into heaven and with Morris happily engaged with the earthbound Aura.


...or have I just made all of that up?

ThataintFunky said:

"Joy In Repetition" was left the same way as he recorded it in 86'. He just used the sequed version for the album.

seanski said:

Probably my english is very bad ...
What's a sequed version?

My demo-recording sounds raw, or is this only due to the bad quality of the tape-recording!???

As i've said b4:

Graffiti Bridge was one big, long, expensive music video

ever notice in the film how in the scene where the kid and aura are making out against the grafitti wall (the question of u) that they are supposedly speaking to one another, yet their lips do not move?!! i used to think, oh, well, i guess this is supposed to be going on in their minds, like we are hearing what they are thinking. but then, the other night while i was watching, i noticed that kid says, "nothing matters anymorem" aura says: "i won't be around for a long time," and then the kid says, "i told u nothing matters anymore," as if it's an actual conversation! but their lips are not moving...
so what's going on here? is this sloppy editing? i know prince directed and supervised via phone and video while he was in europe on the nude tour, so maybe some things slipped thru the cracks. or is prince trying to show that the kid and aura are two of a kind, so much so that they can have a conversation with their minds?!
knowing that prince is such a perfectionist and a stickler for details, i choose the latter. sounds like something he would do intentionally anyway.