Thriller vs. Purple Rain

[stip]

here you go

[stip]

what about the Thriller Tiger vs. Prince's motorcycle?

[Lament]

I'd take Appalonia over either one of those.

[stip]

well, obviously

[bada]

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.

You honestly think Prince and MJ didn't compare these two albums themselves?

[stip]

There are numerous versions of this thread on one of the prince fan boards

[bada]

This debate was old when Lament still lived in his daddy's balls.

[Lament]

You honestly think Prince and MJ didn't compare these two albums themselves?

[YouTube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9ZN9nKQqe0&noredirect=1[/YouTube]

(I have no idea why that link isn't working, but straight from the man's mouth...)

[stip]

well look, Bad is clearly a terribly stupid song. But we're not comparing Bad and Purple Rain.

[nyquillyn]

Code: Select all

[yt]T9ZN9nKQqe0[/yt]

[Lament]

Thank you, sir!

[dimejinky99]

Prince live, is good but he disappears up his own ass and is awfuly self indulgent. That's how I feel about all his records too.

There was never a more generous performer in that era than Michael and I'd pick thriller over purple rain, anytime. Song by song is a bit pointless. It's about the whole and consistency and thriller has it in the bag easily.

Ps I would say that

[nyquillyn]

Purple Rain and it's not that close. MJ's best album is Off The Wall.

Also, Purple Rain is probably Prince's 3rd or 4th best album. I'd take Sign o' the Times, 1999, Parade, and maybe over Purple Rain.

[Lament]

I'd put Purple Rain third behind Sign "O" the Time & Dirty Mind for me personally, though there are days when Lovesexy sneaks ahead of it and pushes it into fourth. I actually tried ranking all of his albums in his OB thread here...

Spoiler: show

1. Sign "O" The Times
2. Dirty Mind
3. Purple Rain
4. Lovesexy
5. Parade
6. Controversy
7. 1999
8. The Gold Experience
9. The Rainbow Children
10. Around The World In A Day
11. Prince
12. Come
13. Love Symbol/O(+>
14. Diamonds & Pearls
15. The Black Album
16. Graffiti Bridge
17. N.E.W.S.
18. Planet Earth
19. Batman
20. MPLSound
21. For You
22. 20Ten
23. Lotusflow3r
24. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic
25. Musicology
26. Chaos & Disorder
27. 3121
28. Emancipation
29. Newpowersoul

[VinylGuy]

Purple Rain.

Who cares about MJ.

[nyquillyn]

Surprised to see Musicology that low, Lament. It kinda rekindled my love of Prince.

[stip]

Lament, if you were to make a best of prince playlist and upload it to your drive I would definitely listen to it.

As a point of reference my favorite prince songs are:

When Doves Cry
Lets go Crazy
Raspberry Beret
Cream
Seven
Sign o' the Times
1999

I only really know a few of his albums, though (and purple rain and the GH are the only ones I currently have on my computer)

[Lament]

Lament, if you were to make a best of prince playlist and upload it to your drive I would definitely listen to it.

I think I'm up for the task. I used to have a written piece about my top thirty Prince songs, but I think the internet swallowed it up.

Surprised to see Musicology that low, Lament. It kinda rekindled my love of Prince.

I went back and listened to it for the first time in years last fall after VinylGuy had it rated so high among his favorite Prince albums, and it still doesn't do it for me. Other than Call My Name and A Million Days, nothing really grabs me (and even those two wouldn't rank among my top 75 Prince songs, most likely).

I dunno, my expectations were probably higher for it when it came out than they should have been, and that may have ended up hurting my impression of it in the end. I really liked The Rainbow Children, and I loved his guitar work on N.E.W.S. I really thought Musicology was going to be on the same level as The Gold Experience, but found it to be closer to a more focused, refined Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic.

[Lament]

Stip, which GH do you have? The 3 disc set or the single disc one?

[stip]

a two disc, actually--from the early 90s.