"As flawed as they may be, the souls of the songs must be protected at all costs. They must be allowed to exist in all their aberrant horror, unmolested by these strident advocates of the innocuous, even if just as some indication that the world has moved toward a better, fairer and more sensitive place.”

What a beautiful and articulate answer.

Thank you for the link Walkez20. That was a great read. I completely agree with Nick Cave on this. All except the part where he says "If punishment must be administered, punish the creators, not the songs". I think he may be being a bit harsh on himself here. If you do or say something that was deemed socially acceptable (to an extent anyway) in the past and then the morals of a society change, it's not fair to judge that person retrospectively. If society has changed then who's to say the artist hasn't.

I don't agree with Nick Cave about everything but I do agree with him about his songs here.

Leaving off the songs from 1999 Deluxe because of a fear in a drop in sales shows how much the estate cares about Prince's art vs. making a buck.

but but but, if no one buys it there's be no more releases!

Nonsense, Prince's core fanbase is rock solid. Besides, why rerelease anything at all if you're not going to respect it.

1999 Deluxe is still a good release and we're owed nothing - Prince released what he released when he was alive - but by the same token we don't owe the estate grovelling uncritical praise when they do release stuff.

jaawwnn said:

I don't agree with Nick Cave about everything but I do agree with him about his songs here.

Leaving off the songs from 1999 Deluxe because of a fear in a drop in sales shows how much the estate cares about Prince's art vs. making a buck.

but but but, if no one buys it there's be no more releases!

Nonsense, Prince's core fanbase is rock solid. Besides, why rerelease anything at all if you're not going to respect it.

1999 Deluxe is still a good release and we're owed nothing - Prince released what he released when he was alive - but by the same token we don't owe the estate grovelling uncritical praise when they do release stuff.

I think Comerica's reasoning, in a word, was: "We're not a music label. We're not the Prince Estate. We're not Prince's family. We're not Prince. We're a bank, we're here to generate income off a music catalogue until whomever owns that catalogue is legally entitled to run it themselves. Our job is not to support artistic integrity nor freedom of speech, particularly if it's at the risk of being caught in a violent controversy that may compromise our company's reputation well beyond the scope of this particular project. Our shareholders would not like this. Our board of directors would not like this. The political climate is tense, so our job is to play it safe, not to take a stand and risk seeing articles in the media claiming 'Comerica supports rape'."

So while I am in total favor of releasing these songs, God knows I've advocated it enough on this board, I've come to realize that maybe I cannot expect a bank to do it. Hopefully the Prince Estate will have more guts when the family takes control, if they ever do (how long can the American justice system confiscate an Estate from its owners?).

walkez20 said:

https://www.nme.com/news/...DPd4ARUTaE A very interesting answer from Nick Cave , makes me think about the omissions of Xtralovable etc on 1999 Deluxe

I don't recognize the "present climate". I do what I gotta do, say what I gotta say, and I'm an adult so I don't get bent out of shape about a lyric.

mydrawers said: