onlyforaminute said:

That was Janet the self realized woman. I'm still putting holes in that album. Feedback was the continuation of that. Now the Control & RN concerts were life itself.

Really? When did that Control tour happen?? You see sumfin' the rest of the world didn't?!

TrivialPursuit said:

I know. It was already written in posts on this thread prior to mine. I saw it. And I let it slide anyway because it's not that serious and things slide here quite a bit. Her concerts have been helluva fire.

onlyforaminute said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Really? When did that Control tour happen?? You see sumfin' the rest of the world didn't?!

I know. It was already written in posts on this thread prior to mine. I saw it. And I let it slide anyway because it's not that serious and things slide here quite a bit. Her concerts have been helluva fire.

I was ribbin' you. I'm sorta glad she never toured for Control. Too little good material to really build a show on, although she could have opened for someone like Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, or Expose or something.

However, the live appearances during this era were fire. The Grammys, AMAs, Bandstand, even her winning Album of the Year at the 1st Soul Train Awards - over Whitney, Patti, & Anita - was a show in itself!

TrivialPursuit said:

It's no biggie. I miss those years. I hate all those wasted blackballed time. Where would she have been?

rebelenterprise said:

vainandy said:

The first four albums. 1982-1989. After that, I dropped her....and Jimmy and Terry also.

Haha! Hey Andy... remember this one from me back in the day? I'm back... Good to see you're still on here, O.G. https://youtu.be/hksx1ov6-lc [Edited 1/2/21 10:06am]

Well, hello there. I haven't been here myself much lately either since the mass exodus of so many of the old orgers to Facebook. I just happened to pop in here one day recently to see if there was any confirmed information on what the next Prince deluxe album treatment will be because one or two Facebook friends told me they heard a rumor of it being "Diamonds and Pearls" (which I'm hoping is not true). I had no luck and found that it is still in the rumor stage over here too so I got bored and came into this section of the org to see if the current orgers were still flooding this section with Barney and Sponge Bob artists and came across a few decent threads.

.

I'm sorry but I don't remember your screen name. Is that your original screen name from before? Anyway, I checked out your song "Undressed" in your link and loved it. Pat yourself on your back honey because you achieved something that is very hard to do which is making a current song that I actually like because I am very hard to please. I clicked on some of the other ones but didn't care for them but I love that particular one. If you got any more similar, let me know.

vainandy said:

Hey bro Andy...I appreciate that man! Yeah, definitely over 16 albums, Exiles of the Nation explored alot of genres, but our main thing has always been Funk/Rock, especially since I'm an extended family member of the P-Funk Collective. I've prepared a 40 song collection of some of our hardest danceable tracks from 14 of the 16 albums available on Apple/Spotify/TIDAL/Amazon,etc. From 2006 all the way to the current 2020 album "Atlantic Ocean Black". The other two albums are exclusively on Bandcamp.
Here is the YouTube link:
https://youtube.com/playl...OKJXUNwuEa
[Edited 1/7/21 12:18pm]

Oh yeah, and so I don't derail the thread, I've always felt "So Much Betta" from "Discipline" should've been a single. Maybe it was too funky for radio at that time, who knows...

rebelenterprise said:

Really love that song too!

rebelenterprise said:

Oh yeah, and so I don't derail the thread, I've always felt "So Much Betta" from Discipline should've been a single. Maybe it was too funky for radio at that time, who knows...

It wasn't too funky for radio. That's a Prince idiom, not the reality of radio play.

The real story behind Discipline is that the record company abandoned the project all together. The album was released in February (at #1 mind you), and by June, Island had washed their hands of the whole thing. I'm not totally sure why. The album started off well, then slid in the charts. The subsequent singles after "Feedback" didn't do as well; "Rock With U," "Luv," "Can't Be Good." There were four singles, but "Can't Be Good" was a snoozer. I agree that "So Much Betta" would've been a better song. Frankly, I think "Luv" should've been a single later, if at all. It felt thinner compared to the bottom-heavy "So Much Betta."

It's weird that Island dropped promotion of it since her bae Dupri was President of the Island Urban part of the company at the time. If it's the record company's responsibility to promote a record, why didn't they do it more? She had multiple appearances lined up, plus the tour. Everything just seemed to stall and crumble. The tour was shortened, then canceled. The album just sorta drifted into the ether like a fart in the wind. I felt bad for her. I kept thinking, "What is going on? Why isn't there the usual hype & interest around her?!" I couldn't figure it out. By September of that year, she was done with Island and left the label.

I do think the album was an improvement over the previous two albums, Damita Jo and 20 Y.O. But I also think those two albums could've been one much better and stronger album. Stuff like "This Body" and "Do It 2 Me" seemed to grind the first part of 20 Y.O. to a halt before getting into the second act of the record (starting with "With U"). But you take the strongest songs from DJ and 20 and put them together, that's an album she should've made and let 3 or 4 years sit on either side of it.

Perhaps Janet should've not messed with a good formula with Jam & Lewis. They put out so many different things. Same writing and production threesome, yet RN1814 is entirely different than janet. or Control.

While I don't wish Janet to lose her blackness, I do believe on some level audiences saw those Dupri albums as more black or urban and felt a disconnect. Because Janet's R&B and funky stuff still appealed to a white audience (from the funkier "Nasty" to the rock oriented "If" to the urban lounge "Got 'Til It's Gone" to the gay anthem friendly "Together Again", there were all universally fun songs). But things like "So Excited" or whatever were possibly too urban-centric to make it on Top 40 radio. (It sorta reminds me of that SNL skit where white people heard "Formation" and suddenly realized Beyonce was Black. )

I believe Janet was trying to shake up her image and output during those years, and it just didn't work. Was it the Jam & Lewis effect? Not sure, but clearly when she went back to working with them for Unbreakable, it set the music world on fire again. Her first album in seven years and it pops out at #1??

Bish...

As a footnote, can you imagine the remixes of "So Much Betta" that could've been made? Whoa.

not sure if I concur with So Much Betta being a potentially big single. sure the production bangs a bit. but lyrically and the distorted vocals don't work for me. in what world is Janet's ANYBODY'S #2 sidechick? trifling male hoes notwithstanding, IJS