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Be glad that Prince isn't like he used to be.... Around this website there is often the opinion that things would be better if Prince was like he used to be in 198whatever. You know what I mean, those who wished Prince still swore, those who wish he still wore assless pants, those who wish his sound was like 1986, etc. I, for one, am glad that the man is not exactly like he used to be. I continue to appreciate and enjoy his artistic evolution and here is why:
It occured to me that Prince, unlike countless others including Elvis and Michael Jackson, has safely avoided becoming a caricature of himself. Meaning he is not a sad imitation of his old self that is tired and played out. He is fresh both in performance and ( although some will disagree) his music . I used to love Michael Jackson, and it has been quite sad to see him fade away. I remember watching him perform on his 30th Anniversary celebration a few years ago and thinking that he was dangerously close to becoming a parody of himself. He hit all the moves, but it just wasn't the same- it could never be. That is why it was so refreshing seeing Prince on this new tour/media blitz/whatever to be comfortable being a 46 year old Prince. Now if only his some of his fans could be comfortable with it.... "New Power slide...." |
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skywalker said: Around this website there is often the opinion that things would be better if Prince was like he used to be in 198whatever. You know what I mean, those who wished Prince still swore, those who wish he still wore assless pants, those who wish his sound was like 1986, etc. I, for one, am glad that the man is not exactly like he used to be. I continue to appreciate and enjoy his artistic evolution and here is why:
It occured to me that Prince, unlike countless others including Elvis and Michael Jackson, has safely avoided becoming a caricature of himself. Meaning he is not a sad imitation of his old self that is tired and played out. He is fresh both in performance and ( although some will disagree) his music . I used to love Michael Jackson, and it has been quite sad to see him fade away. I remember watching him perform on his 30th Anniversary celebration a few years ago and thinking that he was dangerously close to becoming a parody of himself. He hit all the moves, but it just wasn't the same- it could never be. That is why it was so refreshing seeing Prince on this new tour/media blitz/whatever to be comfortable being a 46 year old Prince. Now if only his some of his fans could be comfortable with it.... 
I couldn't have said it any better. I'm not a fan of "old Prince". I'm not a fan of "new Prince". I'm just a fan of Prince. Simple as that | |
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skywalker said: Now if only his some of his fans could be comfortable with it....
 From the response I saw at the Musicology concert -(people on their feet - dancing - singing) I'd say most of us are WAAAAAY comfortable with it  But you make a fine point!VOTE....EARLY | |
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Generally speaking, the posts I read to which you seem to refer come across as ones where people consider:
1. Prince was artistically more creative during past periods in his life 2. Prince's creativity was more interesting for those people It is these qualities to which some of the people you describe seem to long for a return - rather than he suddenly perform in assless pants and swear again (although I recognise some people refer to these specifically too). The suggestion, therefore, that Prince would risk not evolving artistically or become a parody of himself in such circumstances seems to be a poorly-founded conclusion or conjecture. . [This message was edited Thu Jun 3 1:42:33 2004 by langebleu] ALT+PLS+RTN: Pure as a pane of ice. It's a gift. |
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langebleu said: Generally speaking, the posts I read to which you seem to refer come across as ones where people consider:
1. Prince was artistically more creative during past periods in his life 2. Prince's creativity was more interesting for those people It is these qualities to which some of the people you describe seem to long for a return - rather than he suddenly perform in assless pants and swear again (although I recognise some people refer to these specifically too). The suggestion, therefore, that Prince would risk not evolving artistically or become a parody of himself in such circumstances seems to be a poorly-founded conclusion or conjecture. . [This message was edited Thu Jun 3 1:42:33 2004 by langebleu] I was refering more to the opinions of : " I miss Prince back in the day when he was all about Uptown and doing whatever you want sexual freedom blah blah blah." Bottom line is-Prince has avoided becoming a parody of himself. The idea that Prince is more or less creative and artistically interesting is highly debatable. People's response to Prince's music (or any art) reflects much more about them than it does the artist. "New Power slide...." |
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WOW, That was a great post. It made me think of James Brown, who I love. But I saw him perform and he was trying to do the jumps and spins, and man I just thought, stop, please stop before you break a hip. Kirk: "KHAAANNNN! KHAAANNNN!" | |
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skywalker said: langebleu said: Generally speaking, the posts I read to which you seem to refer come across as ones where people consider:
1. Prince was artistically more creative during past periods in his life 2. Prince's creativity was more interesting for those people It is these qualities to which some of the people you describe seem to long for a return - rather than he suddenly perform in assless pants and swear again (although I recognise some people refer to these specifically too). The suggestion, therefore, that Prince would risk not evolving artistically or become a parody of himself in such circumstances seems to be a poorly-founded conclusion or conjecture. . [This message was edited Thu Jun 3 1:42:33 2004 by langebleu] I was refering more to the opinions of : " I miss Prince back in the day when he was all about Uptown and doing whatever you want sexual freedom blah blah blah." Bottom line is-Prince has avoided becoming a parody of himself. The idea that Prince is more or less creative and artistically interesting is highly debatable. People's response to Prince's music (or any art) reflects much more about them than it does the artist. nicely said Skywalker you hit the nail right on the head with your post. I understand what you are trying to say and i totally agree with you. I thank God Prince isn't still stuck on the old things a 20-30 year old can get away with. He is growing older and wiser gracefully. To see him still humping and pumping and cussin would make him come off like a dirty old man (IMO). He is still vivrant and sexy, just in a mature way. I think most aging artist can take notes from him when it comes to this subject. After a while you do look like you're trying to recapture your days of youth and you end up looking silly. | |
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bigonez said: WOW, That was a great post. It made me think of James Brown, who I love. But I saw him perform and he was trying to do the jumps and spins, and man I just thought, stop, please stop before you break a hip.
That was great. The audience seemed to be staring at him more than enjoying the music. | |
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skywalker said: langebleu said: Generally speaking, the posts I read to which you seem to refer come across as ones where people consider:
1. Prince was artistically more creative during past periods in his life 2. Prince's creativity was more interesting for those people It is these qualities to which some of the people you describe seem to long for a return - rather than he suddenly perform in assless pants and swear again (although I recognise some people refer to these specifically too). The suggestion, therefore, that Prince would risk not evolving artistically or become a parody of himself in such circumstances seems to be a poorly-founded conclusion or conjecture. . [This message was edited Thu Jun 3 1:42:33 2004 by langebleu] I was refering more to the opinions of : " I miss Prince back in the day when he was all about Uptown and doing whatever you want sexual freedom blah blah blah." Bottom line is-Prince has avoided becoming a parody of himself. The idea that Prince is more or less creative and artistically interesting is highly debatable. People's response to Prince's music (or any art) reflects much more about them than it does the artist. In which case, I agree with most of what you said in your original post. There are often similar posts to this thread, but, as langbleu noted, it's often difficult to see who they are aimed at. My personal opinion is that described by langbleu, and I can see your point, but I don't think you will change the minds of the people you are addressing. As for Prince avoiding becoming a parody of himself, I dunno, he's been pretty borderline at times. | |
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Around this website there is often the opinion that things would be better if Prince was like he used to be in 198whatever. You know what I mean, those who wished Prince still swore, those who wish he still wore assless pants, those who wish his sound was like 1986, etc. I, for one, am glad that the man is not exactly like he used to be. I continue to appreciate and enjoy his artistic evolution and here is why:
I have to say that I appreciate the evolution of Prince. I must admit that he lost me after the "Parade " album, but now I am rediscovering the albums between "Parade" and "Musicology." I have not been disappointed. During the wild years, I was wild myself. And I really enjoyed the music, esp. songs like DMSR and Darling Nikki. Now that I am older and married, I can really appreciate songs like What Do You Want Me to Do? which stresses fidelity, and The Marrying Kind(which is what I am now, LOL). It's been a great 20 years with Prince musically! | |
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skywalker said: Bottom line is-Prince has avoided becoming a parody of himself.
I tend to agree with this observation, and this is partly due, I think, to Prince regularly recreating his pop image (although this in itself might have become something of a cliche) and his more recent, how shall we say - more relaxed, mature image which flies in the face of the way the general public remember him. This aspect of him becoming a self-parody was to some extent touched upon by Jim Walsh in the liner notes to The Gold Experience. I think people who have followed him over the years still see, in his live performances at least, a creative musician who continues to evolve, although I admit that I sometimes wince when he launches into the opening lines of 'Purple Rain' sounding like a club singer running through a back-catalogue a la: "Nevermentoo cause yooo any so-ROWWWW (thank you)" The idea that Prince is more or less creative and artistically interesting is highly debatable. People's response to Prince's music (or any art) reflects much more about them than it does the artist.
This latter statement is also highly debatable. We perceive life with our individual filters and so our interpretation of something will invariably shed some light on the filters we use. It won't necessarily tell anyone why those filters have been used. And who can empirically determine that our responses say more or less about ourselves rather than the original stimulus? . [This message was edited Fri Jun 4 5:30:55 2004 by langebleu] ALT+PLS+RTN: Pure as a pane of ice. It's a gift. |
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langebleu said: skywalker said: Bottom line is-Prince has avoided becoming a parody of himself.
I tend to agree with this observation, and this is partly due, I think, to Prince regularly recreating his pop image (although this in itself might have become something of a cliche) and his more recent, how shall we say - more relaxed, mature image which flies in the face of the way the general public remember him. This aspect of him becoming a self-parody was to some extent touched upon by Jim Walsh in the liner notes to The Gold Experience. I think people who have followed him over the years still see, in his live performances at least, a creative musician who continues to evolve, although I admit that I sometimes wince when he launches into the opening lines of 'Purple Rain' sounding like a club singer running through a back-catalogue a la: "Nevermentoo cause yooo any so-ROWWWW (thank you)" The idea that Prince is more or less creative and artistically interesting is highly debatable. People's response to Prince's music (or any art) reflects much more about them than it does the artist.
This latter statement is also highly debatable. We perceive life with our individual filters and so our interpretation of something will invariably shed some light on the filters we use. It won't necessarily tell anyone why those filters have been used. And who can empirically determine that our responses say more or less about ourselves rather than the original stimulus? . [This message was edited Fri Jun 4 5:30:55 2004 by langebleu] Point taken. Well said. "New Power slide...." |
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langebleu said: sounding like a club singer running through a back-catalogue a la:
"Nevermentoo cause yooo any so-ROWWWW (thank you)"  | |
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 I feel the same way as you do..I really like the way he is now...it's good to know someone thinks the same way as I do...you are my friend forever!!!
Luli Luli | |
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One popular view is that Mayte seemed to bring the best out of him
Front aside, I think he's just the same as he has always been. | |
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Maybe if his music was still good, we wouldn't complain. "You need people like me so you can point your fuckin' fingers and say, "That's the bad guy." "
Al Pacino- Scarface | |
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skywalker said: Around this website there is often the opinion that things would be better if Prince was like he used to be in 198whatever. You know what I mean, those who wished Prince still swore, those who wish he still wore assless pants, those who wish his sound was like 1986, etc. I, for one, am glad that the man is not exactly like he used to be. I continue to appreciate and enjoy his artistic evolution and here is why:
It occured to me that Prince, unlike countless others including Elvis and Michael Jackson, has safely avoided becoming a caricature of himself. Meaning he is not a sad imitation of his old self that is tired and played out. He is fresh both in performance and ( although some will disagree) his music . I used to love Michael Jackson, and it has been quite sad to see him fade away. I remember watching him perform on his 30th Anniversary celebration a few years ago and thinking that he was dangerously close to becoming a parody of himself. He hit all the moves, but it just wasn't the same- it could never be. That is why it was so refreshing seeing Prince on this new tour/media blitz/whatever to be comfortable being a 46 year old Prince. Now if only his some of his fans could be comfortable with it.... So true.
But can he at least bring back the splits?  | |
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And Prince has said that those people who wish he cursed again and performed his more salacious songs [Alex Hahn included], it says more about who they are than about his talent. Folks, musicians/performers have to keep evolving and reinventing themselves, else boredom abounds. Just look at the current reviews of Madonna's tour: boring they say. She's cleaning up her act, but doing the same shit she did years ago. Same with Michael: I mean, how many times can one do the moonwalk??? It gets quite dull. So now we have Prince. A man who's talent and musical genius is irrefutable, yet many people complain that he's not doing Purple Rain, SOTT and sexy songs anymore. It's ridiculous. It's like they want to put Prince in a box and won't allow him to grow and change. It's ridiculous! Even we so-called fams will never be satisfied no matter what he does. We'll always find some lame-ass reason to complain... | |
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laylow03 said: A man who's talent and musical genius is irrefutable, yet many people complain that he's not doing Purple Rain, SOTT and sexy songs anymore.
Just a couple of things... He's doing Purple Rain He's doing SOTT As for sexy, well depends on how you define sexy, but imo he does a number of sexy songs. Just not the overtly obscene stuff. | |
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Universaluv said: laylow03 said: A man who's talent and musical genius is irrefutable, yet many people complain that he's not doing Purple Rain, SOTT and sexy songs anymore.
Just a couple of things... He's doing Purple Rain He's doing SOTT As for sexy, well depends on how you define sexy, but imo he does a number of sexy songs. Just not the overtly obscene stuff. No, what I meant was that people want his recent music to *sound* more like Purple Rain and SOTT. They won't allow P to grow and evolve. Yes, there is a certain sound on Musicology that is SOTT-like [WDUWMTD is an example], but by and large, I get the feeling that most people, fams and non-fams alike, don't seem to want P to evolve as an artist and compares everything he does to PR and SOTT. | |
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laylow03 said: Universaluv said: Just a couple of things... He's doing Purple Rain He's doing SOTT As for sexy, well depends on how you define sexy, but imo he does a number of sexy songs. Just not the overtly obscene stuff. No, what I meant was that people want his recent music to *sound* more like Purple Rain and SOTT. They won't allow P to grow and evolve. Yes, there is a certain sound on Musicology that is SOTT-like [WDUWMTD is an example], but by and large, I get the feeling that most people, fams and non-fams alike, don't seem to want P to evolve as an artist and compares everything he does to PR and SOTT. Gotcha. "Most people" may be overstating it a bit. There's definitely a sizeable faction that prefers the good-old days Prince to Prince now, but I don't know that i'd say it's most people. One of the major criticisms of Musicology is that it actually sounds too much like his old stuff and that he isn't breaking new ground. You're right that Prince can't escape his own legacy, he's stated that himself. I think the bigger problem he has is not that he is expected to sound like SOTT or PR, but rather that he's expected to reach that same level of artistry that he's demonstrated in the past. Prince's problem is that if he doesn't release a five-star rated albumof the year it's gonna be a dissapointment. Still, he only has that problem because people respect his ability so much. It's a nice problem to have. | |
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skywalker said: Around this website there is often the opinion that things would be better if Prince was like he used to be in 198whatever. You know what I mean, those who wished Prince still swore, those who wish he still wore assless pants, those who wish his sound was like 1986, etc. I, for one, am glad that the man is not exactly like he used to be. I continue to appreciate and enjoy his artistic evolution and here is why:
It occured to me that Prince, unlike countless others including Elvis and Michael Jackson, has safely avoided becoming a caricature of himself. Meaning he is not a sad imitation of his old self that is tired and played out. He is fresh both in performance and ( although some will disagree) his music . I used to love Michael Jackson, and it has been quite sad to see him fade away. I remember watching him perform on his 30th Anniversary celebration a few years ago and thinking that he was dangerously close to becoming a parody of himself. He hit all the moves, but it just wasn't the same- it could never be. That is why it was so refreshing seeing Prince on this new tour/media blitz/whatever to be comfortable being a 46 year old Prince. Now if only his some of his fans could be comfortable with it.... Very nice thread...very nice..... So...how's everybody doing? | |
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But to me, Purple Rain was good, but artistically it was quite simple. I mean the instrumentation wasn't all that great. Yet, because it was considered a commercial success, many people expect everything else to be a commercial success. In my view, TRC was an artistically exceptional album, but because it didn't sound like Purple Rain or SOTT and didn't live up to the commercial success of those albums, the critics panned it.
I do agree that some of the Musicology does in fact sound like some of the older music, but still lacking in commerical accessibility, so some people pan it. The songs haven't gotten much airplay and that kind of thing. I don't really know what I'm trying to articulate here. I guess that what I'm trying to say is that no one will ever be entirely pleased with anything P ever does. Whatever the output, some people will complain that it doesn't *sound* enough like Purple Rain or any of the older stuff; others will complain that it's not innovative enough. In the end, no one will ever be completely satisfied. I guess that's good for P, but it's a bit unfair, in my opinion... | |
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