My choices -

1. Kiss
2. Little Red Corvette
3. When Doves Cry
4. Raspberry Beret
5. Sexy MF
6. Alphabet St.
7. Gett Off
8. Cream
9. MUSICOLOGY
10. Girls and Boys

Only one on my list : Sign 'O' The Times - and yes, I'm perfectly serious.

Maybe it's just me, but I find the vast majority of videos to be cringingly bad, particularly the faux-live-performance ones.

For me there are two basic rules for videos:
1. Make sure it's funny OR make a decent story that actually relates to the song
2. On no account allow the musician(s) to appear in it

So SOTT is probably (as far as I can remember) the only video of his that Prince doesn't appear in, and as such, meets one of my criteria.

One problem I had with that Video was when the letters came to the side of the screen they warped a bit but I kinda get where your coming from.

AsylumUtopia said:

R u sure ur serious, i love live performance videos! + wot the hell u talking about? u dont like it wen the musicians appear in videos ... hmm, i completely disagree with that 2, i like it if i can see who is playin the music i listen 2, i dont want some actor playing a story that fits the song, and funny vids kinda make the song less serious, (if it aint serious song, then dat ok) and if it serious, that ruins it, and who wants 2 listen 2 sum1 who is never serious in thier songs?

Sign 'O' The Times is a great vid. Kinda like Subterranean Homesick Blues for the 80's. I also like When 2 R In Love, Partyman, Mountains, Batdance, and of course Musicology.

ThataintFunky said:

MrSquiggle said:

what??

Those vids are no good?????
or
You don't know them?????
or
You're wacky???
[This message was edited Thu Apr 15 5:21:36 2004 by ThataintFunky]

oh i forgot about Partyman. I'll put that in after Sexy MF and shoot girls and boys.

1. Head (live)
2. Gett Off
3. When Doves Cry
4. Little Red Corvette
5. Diamonds & Pearls
6. Somebody's Somebody
7. Sexy MF
8. Boys and Girls
9. Mountains
10. Batdance

missfee said:

Which "head (live)" ?????
Don't know it ... from Birthday Parade????
or from another live bootleg ???

Houston 1981 .... that's the greatest live version of Head

ThataintFunky said:

the one in 1986, its on housequake, the best one i've seen

ThataintFunky said:

they are terrible performances - badly shot, badly remixed, a bored crowd and WAY too long.

MrSquiggle said:

Okay .... you're right about the bored crowd ..... but I love those Live-vids
Both are excellent performances!!!!! I'm pretty sure most fans agree with me on that.

JCL04 said:

Yes I am absolutely serious. I generally do not like it when musicians appear in their videos. It's not that I don't want to see the musicians, its that they're musicians, not actors, and they generally fail miserably when they try. As for faux-live-performance videos, I don't think it makes any sense to do a pretend 'live' performance of a single, unless the single itself is a live recording. Look at practically any AC/DC faux-live video - sorryican'trememberhisnamenow can't lip-synch to save his life (which is a good thing really, but not if you're trying to make a video).
I think a video should compliment a song, either by being so forgettable as to not detract from the song itself (like SOTT), or by helping to tell the story of the song, making it a proper sound/vision experience.

There are of course exceptions to every rule, for me Michael Jackson is one, Scream is (imo) one of the best videos ever made, and who in their right mind could say Thriller wasn't brilliant? But then MJ seems to be one of the better ones when it comes to videos, his are usually interesting and at the very least well made.

I guess what bothers me is the type of musician who either doesn't know or doesn't care about the potential of video, and leaves it up to some overrated amateur with a camcorder who jumbles up meaningless images interspersed with various poses, lip-synchs and dance steps by the musician, ending up with a confused mess that has nothing to do with the song and detracts from it rather than enhancing it. As far as I am concerned, this describes the vast majority of music videos. Until they learn how to use the medium effectively, I'd rather just listen to the song and see some pretty graphics.

Well, you probably think I'm mad, and I could well be, but there you go.

No particular order...

1. I Wish U Heaven
2. Raspberry Beret
3. Automatic
4. Controversy
5. Partyman
6. When Doves Cry
7. Mountains
8. Gett Off
9. Girls & Boys
10. Kiss

1. Musicology
2.Raspberry Beret
3. The Greatest Romance
4. When Doves Cry
5. The Holy River
6. Alphabet St.
7. 7
8.Gett Off
9.Batdance
10.Thieves in the Temple

Top Ten:

1. 7
2. Partyman
3. Automatic
4. When Doves Cry
5. Batdance
6. Kiss
7. Thieves in the Temple (long version)
8. Raspberry Beret
9. The Greatest Romance
10. I Wanna Be your Lover

Haven't seen Musicology yet.
[This message was edited Thu Apr 15 8:12:56 2004 by Saturn]

1. Sign 'O' the times
2. Partyman
3. I wish U heaven
4. Call the law

America
Thieves In The Temple-long version
Partyman-long version
Batdance
Sexy Motherfucker
Violet The Organgrinder
Insatiable
Anotherloverholeinyohead
Automatic-long version
Alphabet St.

AsylumUtopia said:

Other videos that Prince hasn't appeared in: When 2 R In Love, Money Don't Matter 2nite (version 2).

My personal faves (in no particular order):
7
Anotherloverholenyohead
Automatic (J.J. as Marilyn Monroe - yowza!)
1999 (I like that both 1999 & Automatic used video as opposed to film)
U Got The Look
Thieves In The Temple (extended version)
Mountains

my top 10 in particular order;

Empty room
same december
gett off
automatic
raspberry beret
alphabet st.
america
controversy
dolphin
damn u


peace
Mark

Little Red Corvette (groundbreaking for MTV)
Get Off (awesome)
Sexy MF (Prince goes thug - where'd that come from?)
When Doves Cry
Alphabet Street
7
Batdance
Raspberry Beret
Greatest Romance that's ever been sold
I wish you heaven

1.Automatic
2. Take Me With U (Live)
3.When Doves Cry
4.Glam Slam
5. Anotherloverholenyohead (Live)
6.Sexy M.F.
7. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (Live)
8.Diamonds and Pearls
9.Kiss
10.Little Red Corvette

LETS GO CRAZY. It's just the best.

and all the others really really suck ass super scary style.

speculator3m said:

I forgot about Glam Slam. Seeing the orchestra play behind Prince in that one was really cool.

1 Alphabet Street
2 Rasberry Beret
3 Kiss
4 Mountains
5 Girls and Boys
6 Batdance
7 Peach
8 Controversy
9 When Doves Cry
10 Diamonds and Pearls

Must confess theres loads of vids I aint seen.

Are these videos on the internet?

Alphabet St.
America
Dolphin
I Like It There
Kiss
Mountains
Peach
Raspberry Beret
Sign O' The Times
The Same December
Zannalee