D'Angelo has stated in the past that 'Untitled (How Does It Feel)' was a tribute to Prince and when you listen to the intro's of both songs, they're practically the same! After that the similarity differs, but the pace and mood are definitely alike.

Has Prince returned the favour? I think so.

(Personally I love 'em both!)

Nope

umm a tribute to a tribute? - negative

even more ludicrous . . . Prince tributing mediocrity - an even bigger negative!!

gawd no.













now apologize to Prince for letting that slip through your fingers onto the org.

Lenae said:

mediocrity?

come on now.

all I know is that I on the couch, its a little gem and superbly sung too

Man, all these Prince FANatics in here, you should've know your ass was gonna get roasted for saying something like that.

tell'em baby

okaypimpn said:

i strongly DISAGREE with saying that 'untitled' was a mediocre song. that is a great tune.

that being said, i don't see how that song has to be a tribute. 'on the couch' was done in a gospel/blues style. far from being uncommon in black music. just prince's take on it. clever, humorous and flirty.

d'angelo's cut was more of a ballad and has closer similarities to prince's earlier work.

cosmicslop said:

what he said.

This ain't no what came first, the chicken or the egg. Prince is the egg AND the chicken.

marcuskuip said:

No, I disagree. "On the Couch" is more of an ode to Aretha Franklin and Al Green than anything else.

School's in: "Untitled" is a great song, an instant classic. It is clearly inspired by Prince's music, which in turn was, of course, inspired by others. But "On the Couch" does sound like Prince wanted to give his young grasshopper a playful little smack, so I wouldn't exactly call it a "tribute"... shit, I'll take 'em both.
[This message was edited Tue Mar 30 20:32:55 2004 by TedW]

TedW said:

where is deAngelo nowa days...gettin high on a street corner???

See, had a couple of really good reasons why "On The Couch" wasn't a tribute, but everybody already went and took all my arguments. Hmph

MoneyMade said:

you wrong fo' dat...

Course it ain't.

Both damn good songs, but just cos, in a vague sense, they're in the same mould don't make OTC a tribute to Untitled.

I love untitled tho.

i just heard the song for the first time and wasn't even really paying attention.

i'd say you have a point marcus, even if it's only for the first few seconds of the song.

that first bar of drumming definitely reminds me of 'untitled'. i noticed it immediately.

first the snare, the continuous hi-hat and that double basskick; it's a wink to d'angelo i'm sure.

the rest of the song is obviously something else. but that beginning..

you fanatics just don't like giving in to it. that's cool, but don't play a fool.
[This message was edited Wed Mar 31 12:11:43 2004 by purpleone]

dealodelandron said:

That wasn't to take anything away from "Untitled." I love the song as well.

However, that song, "Untitled", is not really classified as a ballad because of the content and melodic structure of it. That song has a gospel-vibe all throughoutit ...namely because that's where D'Angelo's roots lie-in the church.

purpleone said:

You took the words right out of my mouth! If it's not a tribute, it's at least a wink!
These fanatics are just too narrow-minded to give it a listen and compare the intro's..

I'm no fanatic, but I really don't hear it. And that's not based on what I think Prince thinks of D'Angelo (whose song I really love as well.)

I considered "U Make My Sunshine" to be directed at D' angelo far more so than "On The Couch"

He sang the first one with the mother of D'angelo's son and it sounded
like his attempt to prove D'angelo wrong for the linernotes in his Voodoo
album booklet.

Anywho. He later perfected that new freeflowing blues/gospel/r&b style
on "The Rainbowchildren" on which songs like "Muse 2 The Pharaoh" and
"Mellow" smoked D'angelo out of the water.

I think he's proved his point by now and "On The Couch" is simply a cool
bluesy track.

It's semi-funny lyrical content imo bears closer resamblance to some of
Erykah Badu's writing than any of D'angelo's.

There are a lot of winks, nods and acknowledgements, inside jokes, hints
and pointers in his current music and lyrics. Most of them far more subtle
than many people notice. It could be the phrasing of a sentense or just a
combination of a word or 3-4 in a row.

I think he likes that a lot, put some references and jokes or such in his
songs that aren't blatantly obvious but instead might get noticed by some
or just might prove to be so inconspiquous that the public stays
largely oblivious to them.

IstenSzek said:

Me, too.



I don't have my CD linear notes right now. Could you refresh my memory as to what he said? Plus the fact, I thought ?uestlove wrote the linear notes?