I've heard mostly negative things regarding Grafitti Bridge... Anyone have any thoughts on the album?

I gotta say I've enjoyed the recent posts about the movie... it sounds like one of the most epically bad films ever.

bad?bad? BAAAAAD???

joy in repetition

elephants and flowers

question of u?

we can funk

still would stand all time.....ITS A BEAUTY

"A flawed masterpiece"

I think album Grafitti Bridge cool an album!

Bad? It's only the album Purple Rain COULD have been!

Held within the double album featuring various artists is a cool Prince album but because of the other artists I believe the album is diluted (not that the other artists' trax are bad).

Personally I would rather have seen their trax on their own albums and GB be a purely Prince album. As he updated a number of 1986 vault trax we could assume he could have added a couple more to flesh out the album. So imagine the following track listing...

Can't Stop This Feeling I Got
New Power Generation
The Question Of U
Elephants And Flowers
We Can Funk
Joy In Repetition
Thieves In The Temple
Last Heart
Wonderful Ass
Witness 4 The Prosecution
Still Would Stand All Time
New Power Generation Pt2

B Sides
Tick Tick Bang
Grafitti Bridge (yeeeeuucch)

metalorange said:

yeah RIGHT.

All of the following songs are SHIT for one reason or another:

Round And Round
Love Machine
Shake!
The Latest Fashion
Melody Cool
Graffiti Bridge
New Power Generation (Pt. II)

That's A LOT of the album right there, which is SHIT.

eccotides said:

I think this Album had a lot of great music on it. I think people just didn't really get the movie so and that may have caused some to down play the music.

cocogrille said:

read my post. it's because there are SEVEN shit songs on there.

the rest are mostly gold, though.

"Grafitti Bridge (yeeeeuucch)"

'Graffiti Bridge' is a great musical song, which it was intended to be. But it's clear that none of you here love musicals.

mrdespues said:

Just to put this in perspective, you listed 7 songs that you thought were "SHIT." Most would agree that those cuts are.....unimpressive at best. (I disagree with you about one of them-but I guess EVERYONE is a critic ). There were 17 songs on the album. That would mean that 10 were "gold," (in your words). I think 10 "gold" tracks is sufficient to make an album a good one. (Doesn't Purple Rain only have like 8 tracks on it?) So, in my opinion, in spite of the horror that is "Melody Cool," Grafitti Bridge is an essential album.

Really.

S

Redayh said:

I agree.

But it is not nearly as good as Purple Rain, was my point.

Here we go again...

mrdespues said:

I agree that the other artists tracks diluted it, although I think Release It by The Time is an absolute killer, one of P's funkiest beats.

My pure prince track listing would be:

1. Cant Stop this Feeling I Got
2. New Power Generation (Pts I & II)
3. The Question of U
4. Elephants & Flowers
5. We Can Funk (1987 version)
6. Joy In Repetition
7. I Love U In Me (An '89 b-side I know, but its better than most of whats on here)
8. Theives In The Temple (12" version)
9. Still Would Stand All Time (The '88 SmallClub version.....1 10. word.....AMAZING)
10. God Is Alive (I really like this one, dont know why it was left off. Puts Graffitti Bridge to shame, but then again, anything does).

CrozzaUK said:

I put that on my version of GB.

It's still better n lovesexy!

To tell the truth, my favorite songs on that album are from his PROTEGEES. Prince's own songs on that album are some of his weakest ever. ESPECIALLY the song "Grafitti Bridge".

I like the album, just wished prince sang every song on that album though ( there is a bootleg version of prince singing melody cool though).

vainandy said:

Are you kidding??

THe abulm aint bad.

The Movie is a stain on his career, however. Of course, how does one turn an album that is about vaginas into a feature length film? Prince had a very tough job.

I'd say GB is one of lesser great albums (Like , Gold Experience, LoveSexy, Contreversy)

Actually I think the albums pretty good, it's the movie that's bad not the music.

Personally I'd have preferred it to have been split into 2 seperate albums (which, from what I've
heard, was the original plan). A 'Prince' album and a seperate 'soundtrack' album with all the
associated artist's stuff on.

I loved it!


" Sex isn't all I think about... It's just all I think about u!"

Redayh said:

But having 7 bad tracks brings down the overall quality. It's almost like trying to find the average of 20 numbers and thinking "If I remove everything with a 5 in it, that should accurately show the average."

I think it's a good album, but definitely not essential. The non-Prince tracks break up the flow of it, and it feels like an overlong Paisley Park sampler disc. As has been said before, though, there are some classics onn it.

Redayh said:

Couldn't agree more. Melody Cool certainly is a dead weight on the album, but there is so much essential Prince music that it's forgivable. If you can listen to "Rainbow Children", or "Gold" - two great (and greatly flawed) Prince albums - than "Graffiti Bridge" is right up there. "Elephants and Flowers" is, IMO, one of his most underrated tracks. And "Joy" may be the sexiest song he's ever written. Yes, the song "Graffiti Bridge" is a bit hammy, but if you're alone in your car, it's just fine. But you probably wouldn't want to throw it on at a cocktail party - people would probably slap you upside the head.

mrdespues said:

No way! I think you meant to say that Melody Cool is THE shit. Check this out:
When I was born there were tidal waves
Whole town went under, nobody saved
At every funeral it rained
Every time I sang
Melody Cool


And The Latest Fashion is just plain fun. The rest of the songs you listed, well, yeah, shit.

But the following songs are more than worth the price of the CD:

The Question of U
Joy In Repetition
We Can Funk
Release It
Thieves In The Temple (the 12" is absolutely )
Still Would Stand All Time
Melody Cool
The Latest Fashion

So to answer the original question, having eight good to excellent songs more than redeems this album. Absolutely essential.


love come quick...
[This message was edited Thu Jul 1 9:11:24 2004 by FunkMistress]

I've always liked "Melody Cool".....

I think the album should have been seperated in two discs. The prince side and the various artists side.

I really enjoy GB which contains cult songs.

mrdespues said:

Totally with you on this list. Yuck. Bu there is some great stuff too. And some middling stuff.

I actually love the film and don't like the album at all. Besides the bad acting from Morris Day, what was soo bad about this film?

It has some of the best, and worst songs from his career on it. It definitely should have been just a Prince album, leaving off the associated artist stuff. It really ways down the disc. Still, it was an inprovement over "Batman", in my opinion.