in 1999 we were complaining about his too polished ,
plastic production,
about his unispired guitar playing,larry graham,weak drummer kirk j.
all of that is gone.
he records much more musician oriented music,
larry and kirk are not in the band.
production on the rainbow children is raw.
on celebrtion he played fans classics as empty room.
how could he know all those things if he doesnt read prince.org?

thebanishedone said:

Oh,I beleave he comes here & checks things out.But of course he listens to us,But we might never know it for sure,But i think he does.
[This message was edited Thu Feb 5 17:11:08 PST 2004 by MRDREAMFACTORY]

When Chocolate Invasion was announced there was so much whingeing about it here it didn't surprise me in the least that the plug was pulled on that project ("fuck 'em, they don't deserve it" - would be my opinion too it I was him).
After all the complaining about the npgmc costing $25 to get nothing, now members can get nothing for free. Of course he is listening - with DISGUST.

I hope not, we're mean...

charlottegelin said:

Yeah, I'm embarrassed to imagine him hearing a lot of the negative whining. I wonder how much he does respond to that, in a negative way? I know I would (if I was a talented musician, ha ha). The Xpectation/C-note thing showed that he was listening, and there was a little spite in that, coming the instant that our membership had expired.

I vaguely remember somebody here saying they wish Prince would play Joy In Repetition live, and at that time I don't think he ever had, and at the next Paisley show Prince sang it, reading the lyrics as he went along.

I remember requesting that he play Don't Play Me and 7 at a specific London date of the One Nite Alone tour.

And he did. On that date only.

I don't believe I ever thanked him for that actually... Thanks Skip!

(I also asked for Circle Of Amour and 17 Days which I never got!).

charlottegelin said:

Pretty unfair to leave your entire fanbase without the music just because some fans are complaining on a website. Or should I say childish? In any case, this is all assumptions from your part. You think it's "disgusting" that people complain (which is pretty harsh and a complaint back btw), which si your right, but you also assume he thinks the same as you do about complaining fans on the internet. Pretty pretentious to think you know what he really thinks and does.

sabaisabai said:

maybe you should stop to put yourself in his shoes.

Abrazo said:

? i don't get you ?

thebanishedone said:

Good points.

I think, like most people in his position (own boss of his own business, answerable to no one*), he listens closer to what he wants to hear rather than what people are actually saying.


* Ok, except Ja Rule - sorry, Jay Z - no, Jay Edgar Hoover.

sabaisabai said:

Why would YOU feel embarassed for what HE might think of what OTHERS say?

It's not wise nor sensible to feel embarassement for the complaints of others, even when you think all of it is "negative whining". Hell, it's not sensible to feel embarrasement for complaints at all, certainly not when most of them are very legitimate. You don't know what he thinks about, you don't know whether he reads all of them (I certainly don't think that's likely) that and neither should you pretend to know.

Abrazo said:

Hold on there buddy. I know what he feels and I know what you feel because I am your God and you my minion. It was just an opinion, I have every right to be embarrassed as we are all represented by our collective voice. Besides, there's nothing wrong with trying a little empathy towards Prince, is there? No. What's with all this sensibility rubbish? Now quite making trouble.
[This message was edited Fri Feb 6 8:47:02 PST 2004 by sabaisabai]

He does listen to some fans. He listens to the fans who kiss his ass and eat his shit, like the ones on the NPGMC. He can't handle criticism well, so he just pays attention to "Prince, you can do no wrong" bullshit. It would be cool if he actually responded to some of the criticism and tried to understand why people feel the way they do. It's not because we hate him, it's because we miss the good ol days when the albums were tight and he was free from poor influences. Personally, I think he's still in good shape and should use the rest of his good years to make a serious comeback. Eventually he'll be too old to be fun, so he should try to step it up. I think he can still do it, but he needs to open his eyes a bit and reallize that not many people are into his current shit.

sabaisabai said:

I am sorry if this meant trouble to you, I assure you that it really isn't. But I was responding to your complaint about complainers here. And let's be fair here please: i didn't say there was anything wrong with showing empathy towards Prince. I just don't agree that you do in this case.
[This message was edited Fri Feb 6 16:05:04 PST 2004 by Abrazo]

EvilWhiteMale said:

Well, maybe you need to accept that he perhabs doesn't care what his fans want, let alone that he reads all the complaints made here.

I really don't think that he does, so I don't get it at why anybody thinks he would.
[This message was edited Fri Feb 6 16:08:15 PST 2004 by Abrazo]

I don't know but if you're listening now Prince, walk away and never look back. We'll miss you but this can't be good for you or anybody.

Abrazo said:

He would because he's human. He'd have to have something to drive him to make music, and pleasing others would be one of thing that drives him. You can see it in some of his concerts when his performance really picks up when the audience is enjoying themselves. So, with naturally trying to please people with his music, it makes sense that he would care to some degree about people's displeasure. He may not respond to it, but I reckon it would matter.

Abrazo said:

Lighten up dude!

Prince really doesn't have a solid foundation of a community fan base anymore... its more or less a feeble underground scattered cult of followers.

From his work.. i'd say he stopped listening to and understanding his fanbase about the same time he stopped listening to and understanding his 1st wife.

The good thing about Prince is that he is still respected as one hell of a musician/composer by the mature hardcore "boot-sharing" funk audience. So in that respect, i'd speculate that the fan base is not so important to him.

I agree - Prince does listen to his fan base, but he also needs 2 go his own way at times, and I like him 4 it.

Otherwise, I can see why people call us Naysayers - I try my best to never say something is wrong with a Prince album, because any modern Prince album, even NewPowerSoul (I'm saying this cause you all hate it, I love it), comes out tops over any other pop album from that era by another artist. I would be really annoyed if I tried my best for the fans, i.e. When I release Purple Rain people complain it's too commercial, so I go and release ATWIAD and people complain about it Psychedelica. Can't people just accept what the Kid has done rather that rant and rave over what they would've liked to have seen when it ain't gonna happen. Accept what Prince is doing and don't complain and the music will get better.
It's just like RDHull said in that thread a while back when he listed all of P's albums and all the complaints that came with it, such as the Purple Rain > ATWIAD complaint, and then showed how now we idolise the 80s as the perfect era when we were complaining back then. It's stupid, some people should take a big look back at what they said then, and what they're saying now. I do not mean to over-generalise at all, I'm not saying that everyone's a stupid naysayer, but I dislike the way everyone complains about some aspect on EVERY album - just accept it for what it is, don't question why Prince didn't do this or that, accept it and look 4 the things that you like rather than the things you don't.
Furthermore, peeps are complaining about how Prince has lost all his experimentative powers that he had in the 80s - what do you think Prince is doing now? Bogstandard jazz? ! Prince is just as experimental now as he was then, admittedly there was a period of not much in the 90s, but those albums were still great, and each album had something good on it (D&P - Thunder/Live4Love, Symbol - Sexy MF, etc). And another furthermore, a lot of people contradict themselves, as if they're just following the crowd when these threads come out like "NewPowerSoul - the end of Prince's career?" and they all agree that they hate the album, then when a "NPS Appreciation Thread" crops up, about 20 of them all change your opinions and say you love it.

I don't mean to over-generalise everyone here, but I feel I can't get my point across unless I do, and I don't not like any of you, I love you all, but I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy that goes on here, and if you were Prince - what would you do if the one time you listen to your fans and produce what they want, they all complain and say they want something different - I'd think you're all nuts and need 2 make up your minds.

I love all of Prince's albums, you have to accept them from when they were produced based on the era and the fashions and you've gotta look for the stuff that's good rather than the stuff that's bad. Now, you all hate Tony M's rapping - I have come to dislike (not hate) it now, but I'm tellin you, in '96, when I first got D&P the rap was awesome to me, I loved it - and I think it's cause of the fashions around then; there were many only-rap artists who were producing sub par rap at that period of time, at least Prince had other jams on all of the albums w/ rap that had no rap that you could listen to.

Sorry 4 the big read, I just had to let my feelings out and say that I love Prince and that he should not listen to the complaints, since they are recurrent - he should listen to the neutral/positive views, but not in the sense that he should carry on, but to listen to the aspects that people like, and maybe develop on that - like the funk is South on N.E.W.S.

---

Typo Edit
[This message was edited Sat Feb 7 6:35:20 PST 2004 by Spookymuffin]

Abrazo said:

Anything's possible. He's no stranger to the internet. Of course since he's such a sensitive being, I doubt he'd read many comments here. Though maybe he has one of his lackies read off only the positive shit.

charlottegelin said:

hehe heh... I just disagree with what you say. Can I?... please??

"Prince is the only artist I've ever met that makes music and don't really care whether you like it or I like it..he makes music for himself...he makes his music from right here"...{THE HEART}


Dick Clark
1997