Ok I have heard on so many occasions here on the org that Prince fell off for the most part when he broke up the Revolution, specifically Wendy and Lisa. I would like to propose an alternative proposition to this thought:

1) The majority of Prince's fan base grew up during that 1982-1986 era of Prince's reign.

2) Many of these fans who believe this are White more rock influenced listeners. (Keep in mind that the Revolution was Princes's rock outlet, while The Time was usually his more Black R&B outlet)

3) Prince never really "fell off" he simply got bored with the POP music scene, more to the point the "Minneapolis Sound"that he created or highly influenced and molded.

4) Some people just don't have a clue.

I 4 one still love the music through it's various changes over the years no matter which band he was with. The Revolution did possess it's strength of being a very "COLD" sounding band. Let just say that "Nothing Compares 2U" was written in the Revolution's time and somebody like Sinead O'Connor (Miss Depressive) had a hit with it.
The Revolution was like a High contrast Black and White movie depicting a very cold winter day. There was no light, just darkness for the most part. Prince once said something very similar about them himself. I guess he needed a little color and warmth to go along with this mix.

Just my opinion.No disrespect to GREAT MUSICIANS that made up the legendary Revolution.
[This message was edited Sun Oct 5 11:09:42 PDT 2003 by lmas]

lmas said:

Which is bull..they say that but it's bull. That's why he came back with SOTT (ok some will say W&L had a hand in the songs even though Prince wrote the melodies etc way before they were involved with some of the songs they were involved with--check out Eavesdropping In Intimate Moments cd..and Prince would have done fine, and he did, with his own interpretations of his own songs on SOTT etc), and if some say SOTT is W&L and Rev influence,then u have Lovesexy...and we all know they had nada to do with Lovesexy and that Lovesexy is held in high..HIGH regard, as well as the tour. And if some say the Revs influence and comaradarie helped Prince reach a higher level when with them, the same can be said for Lovesexyy era..he looked "happy" to me..moreso then with the drama laden Rev era...and dont get me wrong..I love the Rev era more than the Lovesexy era in many aspects.
[This message was edited Sun Oct 5 19:28:50 PDT 2003 by rdhull]

rdhull said:

Great points. I was thinking that even in the 90's Prince had some pretty unbelievable record such as "GOLD" and
"O)+>" and even the majority of "Emancipation" and "Crystal Ball", which both would have been masterful as a single or even double disk, but then again we once again complain about those 2 LPS having to many songs, but would we have really rather have not even heard those songs, that we think he should have left off, at all. Not me I was very thankful to have more than enough PRINCE music. God know I used to scour the earth for that abundance of Prince music in Bootleg form. And this was back in the day before Kazaa and Napster clones. Hell before the modern INTERNET.

lmas said:

I agree too with some of y9ur sentiments. If many of th e songs that people claim to hate (including me) were left off th e relewases and were unoffical boot releases etc , I wonder how high they would be regarded. Maybe very low but there probably would be more respect given tothem.

lmas said:

to everything you said. Of course the "white" and "black" comments will probably get people's panties in a bunch.

as my daughter would say: "but why?" it is not to be taken even remotely as a racial thing, simply an observation.
[This message was edited Sun Oct 5 18:03:38 PDT 2003 by lmas]

lmas said:

firstly i would like 2 say my fave p band is the npg, the era that included levi,michael b, morris hayes/tommy b.

my reason for this is the undertaker live vid experience rock/blues ! and "days of wild" that band could make "d o w" funk all night long !.that npg could do it all !!!

so i am not defending the revolution here or w + l.i am just pointing out the following .

i disagree with your point about colour ATWIAD was a wonderful album full of colour it certainly brightens up my day, when i give it a spin what i get from this album is... COLOUR !!! even p said in an interview at this time that album was all about COLOUR !!! so my friend even in the revolutions time, everyday was a yellow day no ? well maybe only sometimes ! i think the revolution had its dark ! side yeah, but they could let in the light ! too !

danielboon said:

I think you're getting the revolution and Wendy & lisa confused.
ATWIAD was a album that prince, wendy, and lisa worked on for the most part.
The Revolution was a very "cold" sounding band, not that there's anything wrong with that, but they were.

danielboon said:

There are exceptions. Even on Purple Rain there were Songs like "Take Me With U" that had hat light experience to them, but the majority of the LP is strouded in darkness, as is ATWIAD, in this case the Temptation, Pop Life, and the Ladder overpower the light heartedness of "Rasberry Baret", "Paisley Park", and "Tamborine"


Hell Prince himself is a dark character, but the Revolution made him darker.

lovebizzare said:

I disagree, to me based on their own solo LP's Wendy and Lisa still evoked an air of coldness, especially the first on, although I did love it

lmas said:

yeah, I guess so. Except for "fruit at the bottom" their solo albums do have that feel, but it's a colourful coldness

like corn flake without the milk

lmas said:

I think the reason why most people think this is because they (revolution/wendy & lisa) were with him during his most mainstream/commercial/"pop" time.
As far as W&L go, they're great musicians (who got better with time, IMHO), and they made great music with prince. I mean, there's no way prince could've came up with ATWIAD and "Parade" all by himself, and for that I give them credit and madd props. But Prince is perfectly capable of dong his own thing without them. He made "Dirty Mind", "Controversy", "1999", (most of) "Purple Rain", (the majority of)SOTT, and "Lovesexy" without their input. all of these albums are held in high regard. Those three had something great togehther, true, but they're not gods with the power to make or break him.
All three had a chemistry that Prince (or them for that matter) never regained, but, well, I just don't see them as something Prince "lost", he made/did great things after them.
Now some prefer Prince's work with them instead of his work without them, which is perfectly fine. It's an opinion. that's why W&L are held in such high regard: OPINION.
The Revolution are held in such high regards
because they were with him when he was a megastar, which a lot of prince fans wish he would be again.
they were a very "cold" sounding band, and as prince once put it, they could do things that none of his other bands could do, and his other bands did things that they could never do.
Prince needed a different type of band for what he was doing next (SOTT).


..that's my two cents on this subject.

rdhull said:

some of his best songs are without the revolution

CHAOSMAN87 said:

Yikes...can you please name a few.

EverlastingNow said:

joy in repittion, question of u, when you were mine, controversy, if I was your girlfriend, adore, sott, money don't matter 2 night, something in the water (does not compute), little red corvette, 1999, D.M.S.R.

don't mean to sound like a smart aleck or anything, but you asked...

lovebizzare said:

I've never questioned the "pre" Revolution material, but the post stuff wouldn't even appear on my top 20 except for the songs that he wrote about Susannah.

Also, I totally count all the Revolution outtakes not just official releases. SOTT was brilliant but still had Wendy and Lisa involved and Susannah. Lovesexy was brilliant because he was so inspired by God, after that his releases began to be more ordinary.

EverlastingNow said:

"That's a bold statment"

EverlastingNow said:

well yeah, but not as much as the past two albums before this one, there aren't that many songs on there that have to do with wendy, lisa, or susannah.

yeah, and "lovesexy" doesn't have a thing to do with wendy, lisa, or susannah. he IS capable of doing it without them.

rdhull said:

lovebizzare said:[quote]

EverlastingNow said:

And most of their input was taken out ..and we all knew and loved SOTT the way it was released even before we knew what the outtakes sounded like years later.

lovebizzare said:

"Doves"...can we get a shout out for "Doves"?

Supernova said:

how did I miss that one?

Though I was told on here once in one of the many "prince is nothing without wendy & lisa" threads that lisa contributed to it...

lovebizzare said:

It's a Prince solo venture, that one.

lovebizzare said:

Hey lovebizzare, you like what you like right? Why can't I like what I like too? I love Lovesexy, in fact I was front row center for what was one of the greatest live shows I've even seen which was that tour. Please don't point out the obvious to me, I know what their involvement was on which albums. But if you really want to get technical SOTT, Ballad of Dorothy Parker, It, Slow Love, Hot Thing, Strange Relationship, The Cross, I Could Never take the Place of Your Man, and Beautiful Night were all recorded pre Revolution breakup. I've never said he wasn't capable and I've been a fan since 1979 but I have a favorite era and no one shooting all their facts at me will change that.

The Beauitful Ones, Darling Nikki and Doves are all Prince solo..and all quite powerful for a followup to 1999

rdhull said:

Hmmm. Maybe he should have recorded that whole album solo.

EverlastingNow said:

cool, I just took you the wrong way, sorry.