It seems that Prince isn't keen on songs just fading out. I have to admit, I've always felt that by fading a song out, it seems like a songwriter has run out of ideas and instead of coming up with a great way to end a song, simply repeats the last few lines over and over again until the song fades to nothing.

More often than not, Prince works out great ways of either ending a song properly, or making it flow straight into the next one.

Examples of great endings to songs;

'Kiss'
'Let's Go Crazy'
'Papa'
'When Doves Cry'

Examples of great transitions from one song to another;

'Play In The Sunshine' to 'Housequake'
' No' to 'Alphabet St.'
' Hate U' to 'Gold'

Now when it comes to Prince songs (not edits) fading out, there doesn't seem to be an awful lot. However, from the top of my head;

'Alphabet St.' (although fading out seems to work here)
'When 2 R In Love'

and, erm....

Okay, I'm stuck.

So, what Prince songs have great endings? Which Prince songs flow brilliantly into the next song? And more importantly, how many Prince songs fade out at the end?

Great transition: 1999 to Little Red Corvette. Corvette fades out too.

squirrelgrease said:

That's one of my favorite transitions, if not THE favorite.
Love how the extended version of LRC picks back up, tho. Whew!

Fades have always pissed me off. Artists have to find a way to end a song when they play live so how come they don't bother when in the studio.

blackwell1 said:

The sorta "divebomb" bass break on the extended LRC is sooo friggin' cool.

I'm not really fond of "Into The Light," but it flows seamlessly into "I Will," which I do like...

Without missing a beat "New Position" speeds up slightly at the end, then picks up tempo just a bit and segues fabulously into "I Wonder U," then "I Wonder U" morphs into "Under The Cherry Moon"...

The end of the coda on the title track to TRC ends with three guitar notes echoed into the atmosphere...

"Family Name" doesn't fade out, and I dig the rave up that ends it right before the MLK soundbite...

The "Automatic" ending reminds me of an airplane taking off, along with that synth chord wrapping the song up...

"Lady Cab Driver" ends with that Hohner rhythm guitar, but also keeps the crowd noise with automobile sounds and car horns going while segueing into "All The Critics Love U In New York"...



The reason you're cool is cuz you're from the old school, and they know it...


`
[This message was edited Sat Mar 20 12:57:05 2004 by Supernova]

Private Joy -----> Ronnie Talk To Russia...

The last four tracks of Dirty Mind flow brilliantly too.

I've also always thought that the fade-back at the end of Rockhard' was pretty cool as well.

what kinda fuck' edit was that?!
[This message was edited Sat Mar 20 13:11:42 2004 by r1ghteousone]

r1ghteousone said:

...what kinda fuck ending is that...?!

r1ghteousone said:

r1ghteousone said:

Co-

Let's not forget "Batdance"... "Who's gonna stop 200 balloons? Nobody! Bwahahahahha... STOP!" and the mysterious strings at the end of Purple Rain,

Great segues:

We Can Funk/Joy in Repetition "We be funkin' over here, and over there ain't shit!....He liked 2 frequent this club..."

Christopher Tracy's Parade/New Position/I Wonder U/Under The Cherry Moon

Computer Blue/Darling Nikki

I Would Die 4 U/Baby I'm A Star
[This message was edited Sat Mar 20 16:14:36 2004 by MrSquiggle]