There are always a lot of bad vibes about this album, how he sold out and went commercial.

Please bear in mind the following:

"Gett Off" was unlike anything else that was playing on the radio at the time. I do not see this song as "selling out". It was raw, funky and even now does not sound dated.

"Cream" was the song that got me interested in Prince, and to this day is a standout track that won him a lot of acclaim, but I do not feel was commercial, as again it was different than anything else.

"Money don't matter 2night" was an important song which the radio was crying out for at the time. It dealt with issues that all the others were shying away from at the time.

"Thunder" - One of the best openings to an album ever IMO. Would have been revered as one of his best if it had been on SOTT.

We can't keep judging this album on "Jughead" and "Push".

These comments are presented in the usual subjective manner to encourage lively debate!

D & P is my least favorite Prince album. But P wanted hits and he got a couple.

No! D&P is sup par Prince at best, his last throw of the dice on his pop career.

Definately near the bottom of the pile for me.

"money don't matter 2night" =

Thunder, Diamonds & Pearls, Cream, Strollin', Willing & Able, Gett Off, Walk Don't Walk, Money Don't Matter 2night, Insatiable, Live 4 Love...all good songs.

So -

The Diamonds And Pearls tour remains one of Prince's most underrated.

The album, however, was only good in parts.

.

giotto said:

it would have been far better if I Wonder had been put on it.

I reckon Diamonds and Pearls is the 1 album I listen 2 the least. I think 2gether with they both have a somewhat mature and grandiose feel 2 them that personally I have trouble digesting.

I may give it another listen 2nite now that its 1ce again been brought 2 my attention.

Come2getheras1 said:

I agree with this!!! Thunder is a great opening just as Let's Go Crazy was.

The tracks you mention as all very good but aside from these with the exeption of D&P and Strollin' I do not have much interest in them. It would have been nice if the album was shorter.
[This message was edited Sun Sep 7 10:07:35 PDT 2003 by mike464]
[This message was edited Sun Sep 7 11:13:38 PDT 2003 by mike464]

giotto said:

yeah i agree, Diamonds and Pearls and Act I&II Tour in '92-'93! Up there with the best of Prince live.

giotto said:

definitely a good album, but most songs sound a lot better live! some of Prince production sounds too 'plastic' on record but he sure is a funkmeister.

Come2getheras1 said:

HELL YEAH, Gett Off is a classic, that bassline is a killer.



great song, P's voice is so cool and those words are cutting through like a knife!



u know what i like Jughead. the rapping is not great but it's such a funky danceable tune.

and DON'T forget the sublime Insatiable and the rockin' pop monster Live 4 Love! it's a very fine album really!

I think that "Open Book" would have been a nice addition to this album.

I think leaving HORNY PONY would have been good.

Diamonds & Pearls has been on my mind as of late, but I haven't been moved to put it on.

It's a strange dilemna that I have with it, personally. It's good and great at some very few points. I love the live band feel, but hate the rapping and Hip Hop elements. There were statements against war, especially the Gulf war but it got lost with the rapping and other elements.

I also really do not like the whole glamoury and slickness of it. I like the energy, the design of the album was nice, but it wasn't ground breaking or something.

I actually didn't like Gett Off when it came out, I mean, it was cool, but I just didn't like the hip hop/New Jack swing-like vibe it had. I thought I'd hear something more mature from him at the time. ANd it didn't necassarily sound like anything, but it had the same kind of FEEL like everything else in R&B in 91.

It wasn't the album that got me interested in Prince (84 I got the bug) but, if you got into Prince around this time, great, you may have been one of the ones WB AND Prince were hoping to attract. DP got me actually kine of dissinterested for a while.

The darkness was gone and so was the Lovesexy spirituality in someway. The New Power Generation theme was now Gansta Glam...and that was tacky.

It was not ECLECTIC anymore, or avant garde or sophisticated. It was consumerish and glitsy. Too many people on stage with him too. I got more into U2's Achtung Baby and the Zoo TV era, that was more fascinating and artsy, yet it rocked and was innovative and spoke about something.

I've spoken to many a casual "ex"-fan of Prince's, I remember one of my design teachers who worked on Sign "O" and had bumped into Prince at WB many times, she mentioned how she really enjoyed Prince up until Diamonds.

I think he lost many, many non-hardcore, yet admiring fans who casually purchased and owned his albums.

Overall it was fun but not challenging I think, I kind of felt it wasn't for his long time fans in a way.

I have to ad though, that the production was very nice, a very nice sounding record, very organic in someways, but the glitsy-ness of it overshadowed the studio mastery.

DavidEye said:

I agree, Davideye. The annoying bit on my part is that with Open Book, I Wonder, Schoolyard, Love thy will be done, Violet the Organ Grinder, Player and She Spoke to me all written around that time, D&P could have been amazing.

D+P is one of my favorites, and I never understood why it is a wedge that seems to divide the "originals" from the "newbies". Is there a form of snobbery involved here? Despite the critique by a number of long standing fans, it seems that lots of people (myself included) got into Prince at this time because of D+P.

Curiously (and with, perhaps, a whiff of bias), the 1999-era fans that dismiss D+P seem to downplay the strengths of this album: quite a few good songs with good lyrics, a tight band, palpable enthusiasm in the music, and Rosie Gaines delicious voice, just to name a few.

Overproduced? Perhaps, but I would only wish that some of the production on SOTT was as loud and clear as that of D+P.

Jughead? It's a goof, so lighten up and laugh along. Aren't International Lover and plenty of other Prince songs similarly over the top as well? Remember, he is an "heir" of Little Richard, Louis Jordan, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and other "outrageous" musician/entertainers. (Besides, some of us may happen to like the message of the rap.)

I guess Prince won a few and lost a few with this one - but on balance may have gained popularity and moved on to additional and better loved projects on the strength of D+P.

When it comes down to it, wouldn't a release with some of the so-called D+P "negatives" (wide mix of styles, sense of fun, no mind games, lots of group input, big sound, promotion/tour) be just what we'd like to get from Prince right now?

Great album...

Stuff I love:
Willing and Able
Gett Off
Cream
Live 4 Love
Money Don't Matter
Insatiable
Daddy Pop

Stuff I loathe:
Thunder (sorry but I don't want Jesus in my pop music)
Diamonds and Pearls (I find it dreary)
Walk Don't Walk

Stuff I can take or leave:
Jughead
Push

ian said:

Funny, my antireligious alarm didn't go off on Thunder. I always thought it was about using religion to get laid. Stupid me.

Yep, I love this cd. Gett off is a funky tune and D&P is beautiful - I love when he sings with Rosie. I love Strollin & Willing & Able. Money don't matter is one of my all time favs. This cd kicks ass!!

jackflash said:

No, it's just that bitch Tony M. with his so called raps that left longtime fans a bad taste in their mouths...

Neversin.

I gotta say, I never hated Tony M and I consider myself a bit of a hiphop connoisseur

He wasn't great but he brought a bit of flavour to Prince's sound at the time. I liked his presence on songs like Willing and Able and The Flow (on ).

First album I bought and while I may not play it that often today I don't hear any truly awful tracks but plenty of great ones.

if memory serves me correctly Anthony Kiedas(spelling?)
once said that he loved D&P.

Yeah this is cool.
Money Dont Matter
Insatialble
Push
Live 4 Love
Willing and Able

Its a brilliant album worthy of a lot of praise, including Jughead.

Stuff I love:
Money dont matter 2night
Insatiable (took a long time to love it)
Push
Live 4 love
Strollin
Diamond and Pearls
Thunder
Daddy P

Okish:
Cream
Gett off
Jughead
Walk dont walk

It's a fun album. I liked it a lot more when it was current and I was 11, but a lot of his other albums have surpassed it. I still get enjoyment out of it from time to time.

Songs I love:

Cream
Thunder
Live 4 Love
Gett Off
Willing and Able
Insatiable

Songs I loathe:

Push
Money Don't Matter 2 Night

Songs for which I'm pretty ambivalent:

Daddy Pop
Diamonds and Pearls
Strollin'
Walk Don't Walk
Jughead