Both albums are great; both artists made better albums than these. I will say that Prince is the single best concert I have ever seen -- and I've seen everyone, including MJ. If you've never seen Prince live, go! Caught him in Europe a few summers ago and he's still amazing.
I don't know why I just didn't go ahead and do the straight up comparison
Wanna Be Startin' Something vs Let's Go Crazy (not that close, though WBSS may be my favorite song on Thriller) Baby Be Mine vs Take Me With You (pretty close) The Girl is Mine vs The Beautiful Ones (also pretty close) Thriller vs Computer Blue(a landslide) Beat It vs Darlin Nikki (a landslide)
Billie Jean vs When Doves Cry (not even close, despite how good BJ is)
Human Nature vs I Would Die 4 U (close)
PYT vs Baby I'm a Star ( close)
The Lady in My Life vs Purple Rain
It's 5-4 Prince. And nothing on Thriller is as good as the best stuff on Purple Rain, though Thriller is more consistent
PryTo wrote:Both albums are great; both artists made better albums than these. I will say that Prince is the single best concert I have ever seen -- and I've seen everyone, including MJ. If you've never seen Prince live, go! Caught him in Europe a few summers ago and he's still amazing.
where were you for the dream bands tournament? You could have gotten me up to 3 votes!
Wanna Be Startin' Something vs Let's Go Crazy (Tie)
Baby Be Mine vs Take Me With You (MJ)
The Girl is Mine vs The Beautiful Ones (Prince)
Thriller vs Computer Blue (MJ)
Beat It vs Darlin Nikki (MJ)
Billie Jean vs When Doves Cry (Tie)
Human Nature vs I Would Die 4 U (Tie)
PYT vs Baby I'm a Star (MJ)
The Lady in My Life vs Purple Rain (Prince)
Let's go crazy
When doves cry
Pyt
Purple rain
human nature
Beat it
Billie Jean
I would die for u
thriller
Wanna be startin somethin
take me with u
N who cares after that I guess.. it's tough bec prince has the best songs but MJ has more quality songs.. actually there's not much of a gap between the top 7
Michael Jackson was an amazing performer who did great things when surrounded by the best producers and songwriters his label could buy at the time with a career (as an adult) that consisted of five albums in the last thirty years of his life.
Prince is a musical alchemist who exists on level with perhaps only Stevie Wonder and David Bowie in terms of constant innovation, reinvention, and altering the direction and expectations of the mainstream while still maintaining a sharp creative edge, whose career consists (so far) of thirty-plus albums, countless more written for others, endless production credits, near universal acclaim for his skills as a guitarist, and several albums that consist entirely of him playing every single instrument.
stip wrote:That's true. Prince did write Manic Monday.
And Nothing Compares 2 U. And Jungle Love. And The Bird. And I Feel For You (though he recorded that first). And Shh! And The Glamorous Life. And A Love Bizarre.
Yeah, he plays on both of the first two Sheila E. records. I believe he produced them as well, though I would have to check.
Don't get me wrong, Thriller is an excellent pop album aimed at creating the greatest commercial phenomenon possible (which it did). But Purple Rain was an complete artistic vision which Prince began formulating in the wake of the aborted movie that was being made about him during the Controversy tour three years earlier. It was meant to be a grand statement about himself as an artist, something he labored over extensively and went through several different incarnations before emerging in its finished form. It was meant to launch his entire Paisley Park movement into a new stratosphere. I really see no parallels between the two records other than they both came out in the 80s.