I remember back in 1998 when the "Truth" LP came out I said to a friend of mine, "U know what would be cool?..." and she said "What?" and I said " ...if that bastard would come out with a slamming all instrumental or jazz CD. That would so fuckin cool"

He did and most of us complained. Now Prince is make a bid for the crown again and some of us are saying that we wish he was just ours again. If U been a Prince music fan as long as me U will understand one thing about Prince, fame , and fortune. He has been up this hill a couple of times before. Once in 1982-1985 again in 1989-1992 and now possibly once again. Not many stars can rise and fall this many times and still remain relevant. He still retains his title as most influential of the 80's pop scene, 90's pop/hiphop scene.

the F*CK IT NEVERMIND edit
[This message was edited Mon Apr 26 14:40:13 2004 by psykosoul]

psykosoul said:

nice observation.

Can it be all summed up in the fact that to many Prince does not look older thus people are still putting him up against the current trend of the year. Case in hand: 1980 Prince vs Rick James vs Stevie Wonder; 1983 Prince vs MJ; 1986 Prince vs El Debarge; 1988 Prince vs Keith Sweat/Al B. Sure(R&B) vs Fine Young Cannibals(rock); 1991 Prince vs Teddy Riley and Babyface vs Color Me Badd; 2004 Prince vs Usher(WTF) vs Nora Jones.

My point being that Prince has been in competition for best new act from 1979 to 2004.
He seems to not become an old artist. He's gracing newspaper life sections and grocery check out magazing front pages like he did 20 years ago. If he shows up on "Black Beat" or "YM" magazine I'll become a Hillary Duff roadie

lmas said:

I wasn't going to get into this... but you bring up some interesting points. Musically, Prince was really only in competition with himself because if you look at all of the artists you mentioned above that were "vs" Prince during the respective years you've listed, the other artists are usually only limited to one genre ... maybe with the exception of Norah Jones...(we'll see how she pans out in the future). I think Prince has really been in competition to be a relevant force in music. I would imagine that he's tapped out of fresh innovative ideas because he's pretty much executed them all. I think it's a shame that he's criticized for not being innovative at this point in his career. Prince is held to this double standard when it comes to his new music. It's either "too out there", "not accessible enough", "a genre that's not his forte'" or "something that he capable of doing better" from critics and orgers alike. And it's a standard that isn't applied to anyone else in the music industry.

As for his physical appearance, I don't really think has anything to do with it. There are still tons of folks out there who think he looks like a weirdo, is probably gay and wouldn't be caught dead owning one of his albums for that matter (while they had no problem making Andre3000 the critics darling last year)

I think the stigma with Prince lies in the fact that he can't be categorized.
[This message was edited Mon Apr 26 15:02:50 2004 by psykosoul]

psykosoul said:

Agreed. People so often prefer to stick performers into one category labelled "R&B" or "Rock" or "Alternative". Granted, a lot of performers ARE limited to one genre. But Prince's talents supercede this system of categorization.

Still, some people think of him as JUST a singer/songwriter. I was telling someone at work today about the show in Raleigh and how the acoustic set blew me away! She said, "I didn't know Prince plays the guitar".

lmas said:

On this site there are a lot of chronic complainers anyway, so they'll never be satisfied with anything he does. They'll contradict themselves as much as they say he does. Prince shifts thru so many different stylistic changes that some people of different backgrounds expect entirely different things from him. And some of them are what tricky99 calls "niche fans" - they're not open to more than a couple of styles of music, which is why they constantly talk about wanting Prince to play this style or that style with regularity.

uncboy said:

Say whaaaaat?????

Supernova said:

Yeah. Crazy, huh?

I'm gonna make her a CD of mind-boggling guitar stuff from P. Any suggestions?

i think that we just have higher standards set for him because of what we know hes capable of,
i know its not right, and no man can keep making great stuff forever, i think thats why we complain sometimes, as for the other acts mentioned, like MJ etc, there are, were just fluffy pop acts, nobody really expects that much from them, they are glitter and sparkley and fluffy, and the mainstream media made him big.
Critics and decerning music lovers were the prince fans

The other contributing factor imho is the fact that the majority of people on this site were teenagers during the 80's when Prince was at his peak. Everyone knows that the music you fall in love with in your teenage years you will always hold close to your heart. Many fans here just pine for those days to come back again. They somehow expect Prince to make them feel how they did back then.

Now, how in the hell is he going to do that?

homeandmantel said:

There were many who felt that Prince was just a fluff act that you wouldn't expect much more from since he "pushed the envelope off the table" back in the day. It just seems to me that if you know what he's capable of, why not appreciate the music that documents those things you know he can do and at least give him props for still doing that thing he does. Since every great artist reaches a creative peak, it's pretty senseless to continually judge Prince based on something that happened 10 to 25 years ago. However, this doesn't mean you can't critique the work for its quality. But the music will never get a fair assessment if we always judge Prince based on something compared to Dirty Mind as opposed to what else is on the radio right now.

uncboy said:

Here are some I like...

When Doves Cry(good guitar beginning)
Darling Nikki(good g-solo @ 3:04-3:24)
Automatic
Kiss(2:11-2:43--I like that g-solo part)
Gett Off(guitar thru-out the whole song)
U Got The Look(3:07-3:28--my fav g-solo part)
Let's Go Crazy(the end solo is a killa,but mad koo)

uncboy said:

Heck, just have her watch "Whole Lotta Love" on the Aladdin DVD...

I am happy for Prince, you know every once in awhile he has to let the indusrty know he can make pop hits when he wants to.

Here is a little lesson for some of the young artist out there. always remain true to yourself fans and artist will respect you more. Prince has had chart success but then he wanted to do more than just R&B, Pop, or Hip hop. He has done all those and more. He has taken control of his career. Win, Lose or Draw, he is his own boss and he control his career.

You go Prince.

uncboy said:

Take a bunch of stuff off of the "It Ain't Over" CD with some stuff from "Chaos and Disorder", throw in some "Cinnamon Girl" for flavor, some "Purple Rain", "Let's Go Crazy' and then some "Santana Medley" for good measure. Oh yeah"Habibi" and live versions from Aladdin of "When U Were Mine" and of course an MP3 of the RRHOF finale. and she will know for all time that he is better than most