Purple Rain: The Official Prince Thread.

[Iholdthepain]

He's pretty amazing. He'd be on my Mount Rushmore of singular music talents for sure.

That would be a fun list to make.

Impossible! We'd have to break it down into categories, draw it out, make a tournament for each genre, proclaim winners, then have a tournament of winners to determine the absolute best Mt. Rushmore of all the Mt. Rushmores. Then, maybe we could start a tournament of all the winners of all the tournaments...

[PryTo]

I should have included it in the missed opportunities thread, but I just remembered this one.

I was a little kid when Purple Rain came out, but I was super into it (like most little kids at the time). For my birthday in 1984 or 1985 I got tickets for Prince in concert (Purple Rain tour). I had either first or second row, I shit you not. Fast forward a few months and Prince ends up cancelling two or three tour dates, including the one I had tickets to. Moms hooked me up with tickets to a different show instead, The Tubes.



Okay, decent song and all, but c'mon!

The next time I had the opportunity to see Prince was 1998, which I consider to be the single best show I've ever seen. I still wonder how that Purple Rain show would have compared.

[Lament]

Prince, on the other hand, is a volume shooter... He has hit some big 3's, but overall I think his percentage is pretty low!

From 1980-1988 he was on probably the greatest run any artist has ever been on. In my book no one can match the Dirty Mind-Controversy-1999-Purple Rain-Around the World in a Day-Parade-Sign "O" the Times-Black Album-Lovesexy run. And that's not counting all of the stuff he did for The Time/Vanity 6/Appalonia/The Family/Madhouse/The Bangles/Sheila E./Sheena Easton/etc. Post-Lovesexy is another story, but the man was pure gold for nearly all of the 80s.

[Lament]

I should have included it in the missed opportunities thread, but I just remembered this one.

I was a little kid when Purple Rain came out, but I was super into it (like most little kids at the time). For my birthday in 1984 or 1985 I got tickets for Prince in concert (Purple Rain tour). I had either first or second row, I shit you not. Fast forward a few months and Prince ends up cancelling two or three tour dates, including the one I had tickets to. Moms hooked me up with tickets to a different show instead, The Tubes.

This story is downright heartbreaking.

[PryTo]

Prince, on the other hand, is a volume shooter... He has hit some big 3's, but overall I think his percentage is pretty low!

From 1980-1988 he was on probably the greatest run any artist has ever been on. In my book no one can match the Dirty Mind-Controversy-1999-Purple Rain-Around the World in a Day-Parade-Sign "O" the Times-Black Album-Lovesexy run. And that's not counting all of the stuff he did for The Time/Vanity 6/Appalonia/The Family/Madhouse/The Bangles/Sheila E./Sheena Easton/etc. Post-Lovesexy is another story, but the man was pure gold for nearly all of the 80s.

Spot on. Exactly the run I would have picked, too.

[Iholdthepain]

Prince, on the other hand, is a volume shooter... He has hit some big 3's, but overall I think his percentage is pretty low!

From 1980-1988 he was on probably the greatest run any artist has ever been on. In my book no one can match the Dirty Mind-Controversy-1999-Purple Rain-Around the World in a Day-Parade-Sign "O" the Times-Black Album-Lovesexy run. And that's not counting all of the stuff he did for The Time/Vanity 6/Appalonia/The Family/Madhouse/The Bangles/Sheila E./Sheena Easton/etc. Post-Lovesexy is another story, but the man was pure gold for nearly all of the 80s.

Yeah, but the last 25 years has been VERY high output, and very low quality output...

just my ignorant opinion.

[PryTo]

I should have included it in the missed opportunities thread, but I just remembered this one.

I was a little kid when Purple Rain came out, but I was super into it (like most little kids at the time). For my birthday in 1984 or 1985 I got tickets for Prince in concert (Purple Rain tour). I had either first or second row, I shit you not. Fast forward a few months and Prince ends up cancelling two or three tour dates, including the one I had tickets to. Moms hooked me up with tickets to a different show instead, The Tubes.

This story is downright heartbreaking.

I can partially make up for it with this one. 2004. Chicago. Prince announces some shows. Now anyone who’s followed Prince knows that he’s absurdly ridiculous with follow through. One day there’s a web site with some sort of membership, the next day it’s gone. And so on. Well on this tour, you could joint some sort of fan club web site for $25, which supposedly gave you access to tickets for the tour. I joined and bought tickets for Chicago the second they went on sale.

It was one of those deals where you pick up the tickets the day of the show with ID, so no scalping and I didn’t know where the tickets would be. Show up the night of the show and get my tickets. I think it was United Center or Allstate Arena and I had no idea where the tickets were located. But they did say “row 1,” so that was promising. But I thought, no f**king way these are front row front row. I figured a scored first row of a section on the side or something.

Go inside and the usher leads me and my friend down down down and we just keep on going until we land in the front f**king row. This was an “in the round” show, and we were in row one, but sort of behind things, where the band enters and exits. The show was amazing. It’s Prince. I expected no less. At one point, Prince was standing maybe two feet away from me, blazing away at an extended guitar solo. Doesn’t get much better than that, folks.

But the most interesting moment of the show came during one of the encores. Prince and the band come out from backstage, which was basically right in front of our seats. Suddenly, I’m face to face with His Royal Badness. So I did what anyone would do. I said, “Hey, Prince. High five!” and put up my palm. He kind of shot me a “give me a break look” (you know, that Prince look) and, out of nowhere and without saying a word, hands me a Watchtower Magazine.



Needless to say, I did not convert. But I can say that I had a moment, a very brief, odd moment, with Prince himself.

[Lament]

1989-1995 has some solid material. The Gold Experience is outstanding, and Come is seriously underrated and finds him going to some really interesting, dark places. Diamonds & Pearls is spotty but has some amazing heights and was a really big commercial success. O(+> was huge on ambition, but kinda drowns under the weight of everything he was trying to do. Graffiti Bridge has Joy in Repetition and Thieves in the Temple, which are both great songs. Even Chaos & Disorder has some good stuff on it for being basically a throw-away/contract-filler.

I'll agree with you post-Warner Bros. years though. Emancipation is where the wheels start to come off for me. Three discs, and there's probably not a single song I'd go back to. NewPowerSoul was the same way. Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic is better than people give it credit for, but wasn't the "comeback" it was expected to be, so it gets ignored. It has a few really good songs on it though. The Rainbow Children is the high point of post-Warner Bros. Prince in my book. Some truly amazing music on there (though, as a concept album its got some pretty questionable messages). N.E.W.S. was great for what it was and should have won the Grammy it got nominated for. Great guitarwork all over that one. Musicology is a dud for me, but a lot of others (VinylGuy here is one of them) absolutely love it. 3121 was better in my book, but still not on the level of The Rainbow Children. Planet Earth was sonically where I wanted him to be, but the material wasn't as strong in retrospect. MPLSound, LotusFlower, and 20Ten are all in that same vein. They "feel" like classic Prince albums, but the songs aren't quiiiite there. Each of them has its moments though.

[Lament]

He kind of shot me a “give me a break look” (you know, that Prince look) and, out of nowhere and without saying a word, hands me a Watchtower Magazine.

Oh man. That whole story is fantastic, but that moment right there is priceless.

Wow.

[LetMeSleep]

He kind of shot me a “give me a break look” (you know, that Prince look) and, out of nowhere and without saying a word, hands me a Watchtower Magazine.

Oh man. That whole story is fantastic, but that moment right there is priceless.

Wow.

Good stuff guys. I'm keen to hear that mix, Lament. I haven't been hugely into Prince but I did enjoy a 2007 London show I saw. What a band and a spectacle.

[Lament]

Hey PryTo, care to drop a top 25 Prince songs on me?

[PryTo]

Hey PryTo, care to drop a top 25 Prince songs on me?

That'll be tough, but sure. I'll work on it tonight. Project! What's your very favorite album? Sign O the Times?

PS -- Graffiti Bridge is one of my top Prince albums. The big problem with it is the non-Prince songs (I think most were written by him). But his stuff on there is great, on par with maybe the lower portion of his best work. (Now the movie on the other hands, phew!) I like Diamonds and Pearls a lot, too, except for that dumb song about the pilot crashing or whatever.

[Lament]

I'll try to put one together too. I think I've got a working idea from listening to absurd amounts of Prince while putting stip's mix together.

Sign "O" the Times is definitely the best one, but my favorite bounces back and forth between that and Dirty Mind depending on what kind of mood I'm in. Lovesexy is right there too.

You're probably right about Graffiti Bridge. If you take away all of the non-Prince songs, it's a much better album. I've managed to never see the movie, thankfully.

Diamonds & Pearls is one I held in much higher regard when I first heard it, but have a hard time wanting to ever put on. Thunder is a huge favorite though.

[BigRedLedbetter]

He's pretty amazing. He'd be on my Mount Rushmore of singular music talents for sure.

That would be a fun list to make.

Impossible! We'd have to break it down into categories, draw it out, make a tournament for each genre, proclaim winners, then have a tournament of winners to determine the absolute best Mt. Rushmore of all the Mt. Rushmores. Then, maybe we could start a tournament of all the winners of all the tournaments...

Good point. It'd probably drive me insane.

[PryTo]

I'll try to put one together too. I think I've got a working idea from listening to absurd amounts of Prince while putting stip's mix together.

Sign "O" the Times is definitely the best one, but my favorite bounces back and forth between that and Dirty Mind depending on what kind of mood I'm in. Lovesexy is right there too.

You're probably right about Graffiti Bridge. If you take away all of the non-Prince songs, it's a much better album. I've managed to never see the movie, thankfully.

Diamonds & Pearls is one I held in much higher regard when I first heard it, but have a hard time wanting to ever put on. Thunder is a huge favorite though.

Cool. Looking forward to your list.

I'm the same way with Sign and Dirty Mind rotating as favorites. My dark horse candidate is probably 1999. The deep cuts on that one are amazing. Hey, have you ever heard this? It doesn't touch the original, but homegirl's got pipes.

[BigRedLedbetter]

Time After Time is one of my fave pop songs of all time.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[Lament]

Yeah, my brother is a huuuuuuge Cyndi Lauper fan. That whole album is actually pretty damn good.

I bought a Cleopatra Records tribute to Prince like fifteen years ago. Have you ever heard it? It's weirdly fun. Party "O" the Times I believe was the title. It had Gary Numan, Dale Bozzio, Heaven 17, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, and a few others on it. People tend to forget that Prince had a lot of cred with the new wave/gothic/industrial crowd back in the day.

1999 is very valid contender. The stretch in the middle of that album is just insane. He pretty much destroys every notion of any limits he had as an artist over like a thirty minute stretch in the middle of that record.

[PryTo]

Nope, haven't heard it, but yeah Prince was basically considered "new wave" by a lot of folks pre-Purple Rain. Sounds a bit weird now, but Dirty Mind and Controversy fit somewhere in there pretty nicely. Controversy is not among my favorite Prince albums. I like about half of it, but songs like Ronnie Talk To Russia dated pretty quickly. I like that it was a quasi political record, a big change from Dirty Mind in terms of theme, but he got much better at this sort of thing down the road.

Dirty Mind was a massive leap forward from the first two albums. I think 1999 was the next big jump. I love Dirty Mind but 1999 sounds almost nothing like it-- and there was only a two-year gap there, with a whole 'nother album in between. 1999 was the first album that really showed how far reaching Prince's music could be. It paved the way for the rest of that "golden" era. Everyone knows the big hits from it (and it's easy to forget how perfect a song like Little Red Corvette really is), but the deeper cuts show what a broad canvas Prince was suddenly working with, almost out of nowhere.

PS -- I really, really like the Batman soundtrack, too. Almost every cut is great, save for Batdance.

[PryTo]

Time After Time is one of my fave pop songs of all time.

I absolutely agree with this. An incredibly well-written and well-performed song. She knocked it out of the park on that one. Gets me every time.

And yeah, that whole record is good. I actually saw her on that tour or the one after. What a voice.

[PryTo]

So I went through the albums and came up with a list of 42 songs. I didn’t really delve into the unreleased material or b-sides, except for a couple that made the list without even looking. There is so much good unreleased material out there, it’s almost a separate catalog. Also, these are the Prince songs that I love today, but a lot of the biggest hits are excluded. If I were making a mixtape for someone who knew nothing about Prince, a lot of the hits would be on it. He’s one of the few artists who has genuinely great hit songs, tunes that are not only catchy, but boldly artistic. (The bass-free “When Doves Cry” still sounds radical.) A lot of times with big bands, their hits aren’t their “best” material. With Prince, a lot of his hit are top shelf. But without further adieu, here’s my top 25 Prince tunes as of right now:

When You Were Mine
Head
Automatic
Lady Cab Driver
Erotic City
Raspberry Beret
Around the World in a Day
She’s Always in My Hair
The Ballad of Dorothy Parker
Starfish and Coffee
Strange Relationship
Le Grind
Cindy C
Superfunkycalifragisexy
Alphabet Street
The Future
Electric Chair
Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got
The Question of U
Elephants & Flowers
We Can Funk
Joy in Repetition
The Morning Papers
7
Gold

One takeaway here is that I really like Graffiti Bridge. Have you ever head the "small club Paris, France" bootleg? There's a version of "Still Would Stand All Time" on there that kills. It's the one where he yells at the backup singers mid-song. "Who's the fool singing 'will' it's 'would!'" I remember hearing that and a lot of other unreleased songs right around this time, when I first started meeting people who had all these Prince bootlegs and unreleased tunes (all on cassette in those days). It was like a secret club or something. I had bootleg of the Black Album on vinyl for years. Ah, the good old days.

And the ones that made the short list but got cut:

Spoiler: show

I Wanna Be Your Lover
I Feel For You
Sister
Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)
Take Me With U
Pop Life
Girls and Boys
Kiss
Anotherloverholeinyohead
U Got the Look
If I Was Your Girlfriend
I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
Eye No
New Power Generation
Thieves in the Temple
Gett Off
Strollin

Okay, your turn!