Prince..... the exact point where it all started to go horribly wrong.

1)Purple Rain
2)Sign O' The Times
3)The Hits 2
4)Dirty Mind
5)Controversy
6)Emanicipation
7)Parade
8)1999
9)Around The World In A Day

I'd have select Camille as my favourite album if we can include unreleased albums.

I'm still pissed this thread hasn't gone anywhere: /ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?thread.php?msgid=4008947.

No Camille and Dreamfactory are fairly different. I can't remember what dreamfactory track listing is but camille is

1) Rebirth of The Flesh (unreleased - but easy to find good copies of)
2) Housequake
3) Strange Relationship
4) Feel U Up (long stroke version released on Partyman 12 inch)
5) Shockadelica (long Stroke version released on If I Was Your Girlfriend 12 inch)
6) Good Love (not the crystal ball version - Prince played around with it - the version released on Bright Lights Big City soundtrack - good god part 2)
7) If I was Your girlfriend
8) Rockhard in a Funky Place

There is overlap, but I find it easier to view SOTT as a badly selected best of (rough guide) to the Prince business year of 86-87.

I would say somewhere between the formation of New Power Generation and changing his name to a symbol. But, again, it did happen gradually.

Uh, isn't that on Grafitti Bridge, in the intro to "Joy In Repetition," which is the best song on the whole record? And I don't think the quote is right anyway--I always thought it was "My name is Andre Crabtree III, I got more HOES than a golf course."

I'm not sure I "disagree," per se, in the sense that one of the great things about Prince's music has always been its commercial appeal. There's no denying how powerful his music is to an incredibly broad range of people -- music nuts like us and people in clubs alike.

But on a musical and technical level (from a compositional standpoint, that is), Lovesexy is an astonishing fucking achievement -- and were the times to have merely passed him by as he made 15 more records of its quality, I don't think we'd be having this discussion.

Rather, the slide seems more a matter of self doubt creeping into his work. I wrote about this in my "Welcome 2 The Funk Bible" piece in Stylus a few years ago on the work he did in 1987-88. The thing is, the same self doubt that drove him to record the rapper-baiting "Dead On It" from The Black Album and fire his band also drove him to go nuts with the Camille character and do insanely schizophrenic records like Sign o' The Times.

In short, I don't think you can pinpoint it, but the seeds were probably sown around that time.

If you define "horribly wrong" in any way that has some relation to the dictionary, then the answer is 'never,' cos he's still putting out good music. He just ebbs and flows like any other artist does over the course of 25 years. The whole decline and fall narrative is a short-sighted cliche perpuated by people who haven't been listening since the late 80s in the first place.

Um, I cannot seem to find that recent favorable thread where folks talked about the special Prince shows in the UK and in Los Angeles, and Prince on that Latin tv award show so:

Prince charming at the Roosevelt
For fervid fans, it was a fantasy come true: an intimate night with the pop star (for an eye-popping price).
By Ann Powers, L.A. Times Staff Writer
June 25, 2007

Photo Gallery
Prince: Look back in purpleTHERE are shows, and then there's the pop fantasy realized. Having Prince practically sit in your lap as he takes a guitar solo midway through his debut at the Roosevelt Hotel? As the credit-card commercials say: Priceless.

Eyebrows have been raised over the exorbitant ticket prices for the artist's seven nights of shows, billed as "3121 Live," at the Hollywood hot spot — $3,121.00 for dinner and tickets for two; move the decimal point one space to the left and you've got a standing-room spot — but once the funk-rock maestro hit the stage Saturday, all questions of money melted away.

The 200 beautiful people perched on couches or crowded into the corners of the lush Blossom Room had purchased the right to forget that Prince was there to do his job. Arena shows are often so rote; the chance to see one of the great arena-level musicians playing in an intimate (and, therefore, casual) setting was as rare as getting a soft seat at Staples Center, and it needed to feel that way.

Prince knows this. Always one of the hardest-working — if most unpredictable — men in show business, he's recently figured out a way to reinvigorate the live experience for himself and his audience.

His trick has been to transform often denigrated gigs — the Vegas run, the hotel engagement — into rare opportunities. He squashed the idea that appearing at a casino is for has-beens with his recent tour de force at the Rio; now, he's reclaiming a space once reserved for wedding bands and also-rans and making it a private domain where royals play.

On Saturday, he began his set sniffing a flower and ended by triumphantly throwing down the microphone. In between, he performed a few hits ("Kiss," a hard rock version of "U Got the Look") but mostly concentrated on getting his powerhouse band in the pocket on material that stayed funky even when it simmered down to a slow jam.

Horns come marching in

The show started late, which is Prince's way. Absent the main attraction, a horn section anchored by funk founder Maceo Parker marched in playing "When the Saints Go Marching In." The quartet wound through the room, which had been equipped with leather couches and coffee tables to hold $400 bottles of Patrón tequila, and the mood suddenly turned from Hollywood fabulous to Crescent City warm and rowdy.

After the horns joined the rest of the band, which included the hard-hitting drummer Cora Dunham and the noted Brazilian keyboardist Renato Neto, Prince finally strode out.

Within moments, he was in the audience. This was a constant: Everyone not anchored to the stage by an instrument got out and pressed the fan flesh. The festive mood broke down audience expectations and kept the excitement high, even when Prince focused on newer or more obscure material.

Only one awkward moment emerged during Prince's forays into the crowd. He approached the daunting bunch on what could have been dubbed the "hip-hop power couch" — it included Diddy, Death Row Records founder Suge Knight, Erykah Badu and Nas, among others — and tried to hand the microphone to Nas.

The rapper declined to ad-lib, however, simply muttering, "I love Prince," and handing back the hot potato. Prince then tried to work his charm on Badu; she gave up a half-hearted rhyme about sisterhood, but it fizzled out. About half of those seated on the couch then abruptly departed (although Nas and Badu both stayed).

Other loose-limbed celebrities made up for that aloofness. Laker-turned-actor Rick Fox danced goofily with his sister; actress Penélope Cruz got one of those front-row hugs. And singer Nikka Costa even joined Prince onstage, belting out a rather metallic rendition of "Purple Rain."

The stars could let loose because of the house-party atmosphere Prince established by leading his band into the place where grooves and group interaction matter more than delivering sing-along choruses.

Gems among friends

Digging into his song bag and pulling out such gems as the carnal "Shhh" and the proto-electro "Girls and Boys," he was like a host running down to his wine cellar and pulling out that special bottle for good friends.

The house party is, after all, the model for Prince's current live act. After staging several legendary fetes at the West Hollywood manse he once rented, Prince clearly decided that their mood could be translated to more a formal setting.

It's as if this former hit machine, tired of playing the commercial game, has redirected his focus on the informal process of making music with friends — and then decided to let his fans (those with enough green, that is) in on the fun.

One flaw not unlike what might happen at a real house party marred the evening: The sound needed work. Prince's spoken asides were barely decipherable through an echo-prone microphone, and his singing also sometimes got lost. Such kinks can be worked out, though, and could be expected in a room that's also been used for bar mitzvahs.

The sound got better during the jazzy jam session that the most elite members of Saturday's audience witnessed after Prince's initial 90-minute set.

Moving into the hotel's cordoned-off lobby, audience members perched wearily on different couches as the band unwound with a tasty selection of jazz standards. Solos impressed, but the absence of the night's leader dulled the mood at first.

Prince finally showed up at nearly 4 a.m., teasing the crowd with a fiery guitar solo and then decamping to the back of the room. Twenty minutes later, he returned, sunglasses affixed on his head, and picked up a five-string bass. The crowd started to dance.

Perhaps not everyone who'd scored this special ticket expected a dream night that would end with Prince, the great original, leading the crowd in a rousing version of "Brick House" by the Commodores. Isn't that what karaoke nights with pals are for? But this didn't sound like karaoke.

Seeing Prince rip it up three feet away, and getting to sing along too? Priceless.

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✧✧✧.pow✧✧✧@lati✧✧✧.c✧✧

I think the love symbol album is being underrated here. The Morning Papers is one of his greatest songs, and 7, The Continental and 3 Chains of Gold are all a load of fun.

OK, My answer:

I was a Prince fan (not nutzo style, just bought the records, you know...) and "Sign of the Times" up to "Diamonds & Pearls" I'd be gettin without hearin...

"Gett Off" is all about the six track remix/different songs thingy (Violet the Organ Grinder, etc). "Cream", similarly.

"D&P" the album was "yep, it's nice but a bit easy listening" but still played it plenty. After that, didn't buy any more (I think)... But still liked what was on't radio.

Still haven't played "Emancipation" after getting it for £3 at Fopp.

"you are really wrong with this. the quality of his recording sound has never been dated. its the songs that are weak."

no, the production is dated and so are the songs these days. that new 'my guitar' song is embarrassing.

Guitar might be his best single in 10 years, in my opinion.

thats not saying much.

the guitar sounds like the edge. the verses are about 3 lines long. and the production sounds plastic. sounds like he turned it out in about 5 minutes.

that's a good thing, right?

i got a tik to da roosevelt :)

check out the song 'da bang' from the crystal ball set. thats a 100 times better than this new song as far as princes modern 'guitar' songs go.

its weird reading all these great amazing reviews of prince live these days. i think a lot of that is just cos hes still out there doing it. cos his show these days is pretty vegas. and not in a good way.

I think the love symbol album is being underrated here. The Morning Papers is one of his greatest songs, and 7, The Continental and 3 Chains of Gold are all a load of fun.

I'd also add "Blue Light" and "I Wanna Melt With U." There's some forgettable ballads and the sounds-worse-with-every-year "Sexy M.F."

"Black Album" was the foreshadowing

True enough. Lovesexy was his last great album. I wrote a big piece about all this here -- put as simply as I can, The Black Album was where he began to play to his audience more than his muse.

But it doesn't really materialize until Batman.

Nas declining to freestyle is like one of those you-knew-there-was-no-Santa-Claus-but-why'd-they-have-to-go-and-say-it moments :(

Haha.

I haven't heard the new record, but about half of 3121 was really great and he's still unbeatable live (judging from videos/tv appearances, I haven't gotten to see his show :( :( :( ).

My friend Tom got to go to one of those house parties, courtesy of another friend who found a "golden ticket" in his copy of 3121. He is still talking about how fucking dope Prince was live and in such an intimate space. All the beautiful people etc.

are there any fans crazier than prince fans?

how about fans of crappy music? NOW THAT'S CRAZY>

When I was Brooklyn a couple days ago I watched the Sign o' the Times movie on a projection screen, so I'm still in full-on worship mode. :>

SOTT = best concert film ever.

When I was Brooklyn a couple days ago I watched the Sign o' the Times movie on a projection screen, so I'm still in full-on worship mode. :>

I got to do this a couple weeks ago, with similar results.

SOTT is all mimed to the soundtrack of an actual concert btw.