when i hear the tension build up from lets go crazy to the controlled emphatic ending, the drum roll cascading in darling nikki after the screams, the search for an answer at the end of the beautiful ones, the guitar intro to when doves cry and odd screached cries of the chorus in purple rain ..... i feel like this is what exited me about Prince and the thought of years of comparable material in the future. We all know the story from there. Comfort zone jams in the 90s.

Purple Rain must have been discussed to death periodically on here, but his striving for expression in music, with internal conflicts at the time this was written and recorded, cannot be repeated with the years of maturity. I dont see the anger in other areas (TRC), just selective injustices he sees in his current moralistic state, mostly with more defined religious overtones.

His anger on Chaos & Disorder is more prominent than on Purple Rain. It's just a different kind of anger -- more focused on the record labels.
[This message was edited Mon Mar 15 13:00:14 2004 by Se7en]

purple rain and "angry" really don't jive.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

I think what Spoida is referring to is an "urgency" or "rawness" on Purple Rain. But I agree, it's not angry really at all.

Chaos & Disorder is ANGRY . . .

The Truth, Gold, and Rave all have angry moments . . .

i just watched the dvd Atlanta 85 and if you mean anger like ' energy' then i see what you mean. The guy is 45, but i can't help missing a certain kind of energy these days. Especially on record.

I would call it energy fed of anger...

C & D has this but it is not a Rage against the Machine record...that is angry to me...Prince most of the time holds himself back on the anger side...

Peace

Juize

There is plenty of anger/rage/angst on PURPLE RAIN!! Sheesh!

And I agree that is part of what made him compelling in the first place and part of the gumbo that made his work so engaging.

While Prince has dabbled w/ such "dark" themes and energy since (BILLY JACK BITCH, PAPPA, BOB GEORGE, HAD U, etc.) for the most part he has avoided it.

This is probably good for him personally as it almost certainly means that he is a happier person now than he was then.

But its bad for us as an audience as it makes his work less interesting. An artist needs to have as broad a pallet to draw from as possible. One should always seek to *broaden* ones pallet, not limit it. I call this "filling the box with crayons".

Prince has been limiting himself and throwing away crayons in recent years. I still love him, but yes, it would be nice if he'd break out the "angry" and "sexy" and yes even "dirty" crayons again!!

I dunno. Prince was pretty angry 1993-1996.

there's a ton of anger on TRC

krebsne said:

Co-Sign.....

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

You're bang-on I agree!

"PR" is INTENSE, and PASSIONATE,- but "angry"? No.

I remember Wendy Melvoin interviewed 2-3 years ago in some magazine--she said about "PR"- "They don't make albums like that anymore"

She's right! NOT just Prince-but NOBODY makes albums that intense & passionate- it's mostly calculated music. Prince is searching on that whole lp-"I may not know where I'm headed baby/I may not know where I've been" that's the intensity & passion driving the music-not anger. It's in the film, not the music. The anger came 1991-1996.

Listen to Exodus. That is a very angry album.

angst of a young person seeking an outlet for his expression. passion, frustration

the anger from now is more directed, more a message.

How can y'all say that there's no anger in Purple Rain? Remember that part where he storms off the stage and starts hitting stuff in the dressing room? That's anger, y'all, and it's present in the music too.

DO YOU WANT HIM....OR DO YOU WANT ME?? CAUSE I WANT YOU!!!

Sure, there's passion and intensity in there...but there's also anger.

The movie of course is much more angry than the soundtrack, but I'm not sure you can really separate the two.

Hmm... 26 years old vs. 45 years old. How long is somebody supposed to hold on to their anger, just for you?

Plus, PR is really a rock record, which he doesn't make anymore.

I thought the ONA tour had a really angry, intense mood to it.

theblueangel said:

I agree. The line you point out from the beautiful ones is one of the ones that stick out for me. There is also quiet anger as well...when doves cry and even in purple rain. Sometimes he lets it out in the ballads stronger than when he screams it.

I don't consider PR to be an overtly angry album. More intense and energetic and passionate as said above. I think the more angry albums come out later in his career. A lot of things certianly started to get angry around the Come album...a bit before that as well...and certainly more after the name change.

What I miss is some of the darkness and mystery that appeared on his earlier albums. I think that certainly is a feeling that's missing from the newer material. Not all of it of course, but a lot of it has. Like that feeling where there was allusions to the future and harks to the past. Interesting characters and phrases introduced...someone sceaming at the end of a song...for no reason at all. Hidden things. Some of these elements were on TRC but there were other things that distracted from the music on that album.

i dont buy this "hes 45, so hes not angry anymore cause of his age." look at elvis costello hes older than prince and hes still ralling against the system. I just think prince has find a higher plane at the moment, doesnt mean he still couldnt let some rage be expressed in the future.
lzycrcktt

He was at his angriest in "N.E.W.S."....

Oh, wait a minute... that was me.

XxAxX said:

Well, it's not exactly Ministry, is it?

Anger now looks like too general to describe the album, although it was just an aspect of it that i miss (as well as the rock feel).

I think the emotion may have connotations with being out of control of ones actions and show a lack of maturity which, i think Prince does not want to explore musically anymore - any slight punk references have not been touched since Chaos and Disorder (given the title thats no surprise).

Yes i agree his palette is now smaller, but more refined. If he is on the musicology trip why cant he revisit these areas, because as a mainly black dance orientated artist nowadays, he could show his diversity to the kids he is encouraging to come to his shows. I dont see any crossover artists that much except for Eminem. Whites do rock generally. Why accept these norms kids?

Lyrically, he bites more and attacks his frustrations (Family Name for example) more so than on PR. I accept that he has moved on, every challenging artist needs to explore new ground but accept that a certain formula appealed greatly in the past and may not have been fully explored.

For the record I don't think Prince needs to, nor should be *angry*. Lord knows anger is over represented in music these days (SLIPKNOT, KORN, EMINEM, 50 CENT, etc.). What the world needs now is NOT more rage. (Sorry Burt!!) All I'm saying is that Prince would do well not to limit himself thematically, in terms of the "crayons" I spoke of earlier.

No PR was not a Marilyn Manson record. It wasn't that kind of angry. But it embraced the portions of its emotional spectrum that were angry, as in THE BEAUTIFUL ONES. I'm afraid that if he was inspired to write TBO today he'd whitewash it and remove the righteous, appropriate rage and we'd be left w/ something off of RAVE.

No one's asking Prince to become something he's not- just to stop censoring himself.

Which I for one think he is. Maybe I'm wrong but that's what I think.

krebsne said:

I have to agree to a certain extent. I don't think that anger is the right description so much as passion -- and I don't mean that simply as an equate to sex, but as a strength of emotion of any type.

Earlier works like Dirty Mind, 1999, PR, SOTT and Lovesexy had a balls-out feeling of absolute conviction to say EXACTLY what was on his mind with no holds barred.

If he is still saying EXACTLY what is on his mind, and it just so happens that his mind is clear and calm, and that is what's reflected in his music, then bravo!

But if there is something he wants to say and he's not saying it, thereby self-censoring his art, then that's bad -- not only for us as the listeners, but for him as an artist. You can't continue to grow if you shut yourself down.

Personally, I feel there's enough anger in the world already. I don't need it from Prince.

SexyBeautifulOne said:

Agreed. I'm not saying that the world needs more RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINES. Only that Prince used to have an edge and part of that edge was being honest with his emotions- even the less attractive ones. He doesn't seem to do that as much these days. Its not just the "angry" crayon that seems to be repressed- the "sexy" (Sexy MF) and "dirty" (Darling Nikki) crayons also seem to be conspicuously absent.

I may be wrong, but I think he's limiting himself a bit. Doing what he thinks he *should* do instead of what he actually feels sometimes.

SexyBeautifulOne said:

ok hippy....

Personally i think that it has sum anger, but i think he has been angrier.

I agree that he shud do something more different in his new songs, like scream or sumthing, sumthing that he aint dun be4. (go nuts prince!!)

As 4 it bein the angriest album, erm... no.

Prince doesn't have that depth anymore.

EvilWhiteMale said:

-----
Put a sock in it already. Who walks around their entire life. It called moving on or therapy.

I miss...THE TRASHINESS of Purple Rain. Visually in the 80's Prince was very campy even trashy in both his look as well as his sound. That whole Rude Boy thing.

At a JOTY show in Detroit, I saw a whole lotta women dressed like it was still 1984. They had big hair, wild makeup and outrageous 'street walker' style clothes. Hilarious! It's awesome when you see that at a Prince concert. For real trashy fun, check the audience in his Dirty Mind era videos. Classic! "BLACK, WHITE, PEURTO..." well, y'all know the words. "GOOD TIMES ROLLING ALL NIGHT!"...sorry, I just love that shit!

Anyways to get back on topic.. I don't think anger is a huge presence on Purple Rain. That album is just raw burning ambition. He wanted the WORLD with that album/movie/tour. And the world was his, just like Tony Montana mang!

laurarichardson said:

Hey, who's talking to you anyway?