1989 - Batman.

Such a creative disapointment after Parade, SOTT and lovesexy. I couldn't believe how poor this album was in comparison to what he'd produced in the years before.I understand it was a bit of a rush-job and it sounds like it.

Vicki Waiting is the only song that would make a 'Best of' box set, the rest is very throwaway stuff to me.

I know a lot of orgers were probably drawn to Prince during the 'Batman' era.I think they missed the boat.

I reckon 1990 might come up a few times on this thread.

'89 was most definitely the first nail in the proverbial coffin.

What year did Larry come on the scene?

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

I LOVE that album... Scandalous?! Electric Chair?! Lemon Crush?! Even Batdance is hot!!

Yeah, '89.

Then it picked up again in 1993-1995.

Ended rather abrubtly in 1996.

Excluding the total brilliance of "The Truth",
the dry-spell lasted until "TRC" was released
in 2001.

Except for a few npgmc songs, and the 93-95
and "The Truth", the whole 90's consisted of
a vast number of stale old toast kept from
complete crapiness only by a handfull of
gems strewn around here and there.

IstenSzek said:

Are you psychic? get out of my mind!

1998. New Power Soul onwards.

squirrelgrease said:

1998.

Marrk said:

MrWhatever said:

Scandalous - Adore, Do me baby, The Beautiful Ones and several others are all better ballads.

Electric Chair - Bambi, Let's go Crazy, Computer Blue, The Cross are all better 'Rock feel' songs.

Lemon Crush is just utter shite in a category all it's own.

Batdance has a cool(ish) guitar solo and that's about all i can recommend it for.

just my opinion.

Marrk said:

Gotta disagree with you. Lemon Crush is an excellent tune, one of the Top 5 on that album (the other 4 are Electric Chair, Vicki Waiting, Scandalous & Partyman) imho, but then it's all about personal opinion. Isn't it?

I dug the Batman album - The Future, Electric Chair, Trust, Partyman, Scandalous - oh HELL yeah. I was right up in it and loving it.

I was even able to get with Graffiti Bridge (the music, not the movie) - I saw it for what I thought it was at the time - a showcase for the Paisley Park label, with enough Prince stuff to get people interested in the artists he had signed on to the label at the time. The movie was something he apparently had to get out of his system, but with two or three miserable exceptions, the album made it all worth it.

Diamonds & Pearls was where it started to truly go downhill for me. There was this whole kinda glossy, removed vibe going on. He seemed to be giving in to the whole cheesy Arsenio/Vanilla Ice asthetic of the early '90s. Yeah, there was stuff on D&P that I liked, but the whole "feel" of that album was just kinda "ugh". O+> was even worse for me - yeah, again, there was stuff I liked on the album, but when I saw the videos and the live performances and alla that, I just kept seeing a guy who looked like he'd rather be somewhere else, like he was trapped in hell and we'd better be lucky he agreed to show up for us.

Then, after that, my impression of Prince was that of an unhappy, bitter dude with a short attention span and no commitment at all to his own work other than what his next project would be. I remember buying "Come" (now one of my faves) and throwing it on my bed without even cracking the shrinkwrap, and thinking "why do I even bother anymore?"

I eventually came around - I kept buying new Prince stuff as soon as it came out, but it got to a point where, when NPS came out, it was weeks before I even knew it had been released. I used to K-N-O-W when a new P album would be hitting the stores, and I'd be at the wrecka stow first thing in the morning to pick up my copy. That urgency has kinda gone away. But heck, with the whole NPGMC schpiel, there's no more going to the wrecka stow on the first day anymore - we have to depend on Music Today and the USPS to be "first on the block".

Nowadays, being a Prince freak to me is like being loyal to that wacky family member who bugs the hell out of you, but you still love because you have so many good memories. Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever - I'll still buy his albums and all that, and a few of 'em I might even like - but what I get out of his new stuff ain't never gonna touch what I got out of it when I was really vibing on him.

MrWhatever said:

to me, the batman soundtrack was kinda like a sign that p was startin to turn into some sorta fat, lazy housecat (music-wise). it was just odd.

I think the guitar solo in Batdance is one of the finest pieces of guitar work he's ever recorded.

And I only realized this in the past couple of years, after someone pointed it out to me and I made fun of them for saying it, then had another listen and had to agree.

Just sayin'.

lyricsdaddy said:

Lemon Crush is his blonde song. I think he wrote it cause he had Kim Basinger on his brain.

MrWhatever said:

...and sittin on his face as well.

Well, I thought it would all come crashing down in 1991 with Diamonds & Pearls. But then the Symbol album came out(which I didn't hear until 1996) and thought that Prince still had it. But then his later 90's output kinda turned me off. There was cool stuff here & there like C&D and Emancipation, but come on now.

I don't think he has it in him to recreate something as magical and excellent like Purple Rain, SOTT, Lovesexy, Diry Mind, or 1999. It's gone. Forever. We'll never see the 1980's again.

1988... I always considered "LoveSexy" as Prince-lite...
I like the songs somewhat but this was the first release I was thoroughly disappointed with when it came out...
The only thing that I really liked about this year was the tour (not the main shows cos those shows weren't all that great IMO but mainly the aftershows where he gave people a glimpse of his true genius with some great improvised stuff...)
Then came "Batman" which IMO was a bit better than "Lovesexy" and then he fucked it up completely with crap like "Graffiti Bridge", "Diamonds & Pearls" and ...
All albums with maybe about 4 cool songs and the rest filler...
Then came my personal 1990's favorite "Come"...
Then the OK album which could have been an amazing album, or what he actually wanted 's Purple Rain had he not fucked with it, "The Gold Experience"...
And from there everything went downhill fast with crap like "Emancipation" and his proof of how out of touch he is with his fanbase "Crystal Ball"...
It all went downhill fast... Like meteor fast... And he hasn't recovered since... He tried it with the pathetic "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic" but failed miserably...

Neversin.

1996 was the beginning of the end for me...Emancipation, NPS and the ones that came after... just made me sick and really missing the reason I became a Prince fan after all.

I'm not a fan anymore..because I can't get into his psyche the way I could before. I don't feel "connected" with him anymore. I always thought that would never change and I feel like I've lost a close personal friend...his music.

The last show I've seen was "The Jam of the Year" tour in 1998...and that was the nail in the coffin for me. "The Christ?!?!?!" please!!! He couldn't sing any of the old stuff like he used to because of his new found "religion". This whole..."I think I'm gonna die soon and need to get to heaven" bullshit!! It's not real...no passion...no truth.


Just my opinion.

End of What??

garnis said:

the end of nothing because they all still hanging around after a decade or so when it supposedly ended for them all

rdhull said:

That's a pretty good point! why am i still hanging on? I guess it's the odd flash of brilliance he CAN still pull out occasionally.VERY occasionally.

Marrk said:[quote]

rdhull said:

if I had a dolllar for everytime that I've...

Oh, it was definitely '89, but I rationalized that shit by saying it was a soundtrack and he probably didn't have full creative control, blah blah blah...

But then the muhfucka' did 'Graffiti Bridge'...now how U gon' explain that shit?

rdhull said:[quote]

Marrk said:

You could buy your namecheck!

Marrk said:[quote]

rdhull said:

I would pay for one even now though with mny own money lol

The beginning of the end as far as being a fam was concerned was the night of the Rave2000 concert when Prince forced us to stand out in the cold for so long. It was just ridiculous and I know of least another person who refers to this as the beginning of the end.

lovemachine said:

I remeber reading about that back in 1999 for th e taping of the dvd etc...and youre still down with him today though lol

hell I aint recieved a namecheck so I kind of feel ya

And after making you stay out in the cold, he forced you to watch that god-awful glitter-fest concert and pretend you were INTO it?! No wonder the crowd looks so nonplussed on the DVD. Which is exactly how I felt watching this one on pay-per-view. Sad specimen.

What's worse is that it was on network television in my city last Sunday, and 5 or 6 people have since said to me, "Oh, did you know Prince had a new concert? I saw part of it last Sunday, but then of course I switched back to the game." Ugh.

I agree with what a few people have said.

I think the start of the end of the creative wave Prince was on was (IMO) 1988/9.

Period 1978-1987 was a fantastic run of wildly interesting and individual albums that made Prince an legend of music for all time.

1988 to 1995 was still some great records, not upto the creative standard of the 1978-87 period. (IMO, I keep having to say that, because you know why).

1996 to 2000 was a period of dire music, with very little artistic merit (IMO), although there were flashes of brilliance, or good pop songs, but nothing from this period (possibly bar the Truth, even though I'm not a big fan) was worth anything near the first part of Prince's career.

Then we reach TRC and Xpectation, which was a real turn around for me.

Not back upto the pre-87 records in terms of quality (not sound - quality), but up there with the 1988-1995 records definately, and a TRC is a definate high for me of the post-87 music.


//
[This message was edited Sat Jan 10 16:14:12 PST 2004 by Romance1600]