Prince RIP

haha xpost!

So weird that Michael named his son Prince. And "My Name is Prince" has that line about needing to be a Prince before you become King, which was a direct response to MJ's King of Pop nonsense.

Yeah,but song was nonsense too.

My Name is Prince is epic nonsense.

I listened to all of this album yesterday for maybe the first time ever. It's deeply weird! The back half gets pretty showtunesy/queen-esque at times and the number of tracks with tony rapsalot on them is fewer than I thought. And he only really ruins one or two.

^^^ that was re love symbol album

But it's got ... Kirstie Alley?

Lol which track?

in retrospect, it's kind of weird Queen and Prince didn't collaborate. I can imagine Freddie Mercury loving the guy (and the intro to For You practically screams Queen)

Kirstie Alley plays frustrated reporter Vanessa Bartholomew in the two included segue tracks.

Xpost prince + queen really is a good gut level fit

You forget that Queen were despised by black musicians in the '80s because they played Sun City.

My Name is Prince is epic nonsense.

― Josh in Chicago,

the love symbol album and the gold experience are two of prince's strangest albums (and IIRC the interludes make them hard to listen to all the way through too often). i like them a lot, though. for me they are the last of his albums that i've spent a lot of time engaging with. i just found "emancipation' too exhausting, and never really found my way back to him after that.

btw "pussy control" is one of the great undersung (?) prince songs.

I don't see any connection between Prince and Queen, what a weird comparison

"3 Chains of Gold" earned the comparisons because "Bohemian Rhapsody" became a hit again that year.

xpost

they are both royalty obv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bTb-3HvSLU

I got the most disappointment out of my relisten to The Gold Experience. I used to love "P Control," now the rap annoys me. I didn't care for "Shy," "Billy Jack Bitch," "I Hate U," or "The Most Beautiful Girl..." "Gold" has a lovely melody but in its album form is too long. YET..."319" and "Endorphinmachine" and "Dolphin" still rule.

am, you need to spend time with Emancipation – one kiss at a time, as its creator said. Start with the second disk. I've lived with it almost 20 years by taking bite-sized samples and am never disappointed.

I don't remember a prince + little steven collab

Maybe it's still in the vault

I mostly see it between Freddie and Prince -- introverted musical prodigies who used a public persona to realize their wildest dreams, and who, talent-wise, vision-wise, seemed to be in different stratospheres than their peers. They also seemed to have zero interest in conforming to particular styles, and attempted new stuff even when their fans might have just wished they released stuff like the old days. And of course, they kept any kind of personal weakness/illness under wraps until almost the very end.

(and Bowie fits in here as well, tho for some reason, the idea of a Bowie/Prince collab seems less viable to me -- maybe because I envision he'd have tried to use Prince as a sideman or ingredient, rather than a co-star)

I don't see any connection between Prince and Queen, what a weird comparison

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, May 3, 2016 2:07 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was just listening to the 12" collection that Brad shared a while back and was finding comparisons to Zappa and the Dead on some of the mid-to-late 80s material (which I wasn't familiar with before). I don't know enough about Queen to say if that comparison rings true.

I didn't care for "Shy," "Billy Jack Bitch," "I Hate U,"

get out

it should perhaps be noted for posterity that I do not like Queen at all

nothing to see on this dodgy russian video streaming site

https://my.mail.ru/mail/alex-enm/video/176334/189080.html

I didn't care for "Shy," "Billy Jack Bitch," "I Hate U,"

get out

― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson)

"I Hate U" lyrics more appropriate

BILLY JACK BITCH

it should perhaps be noted for posterity that I do not like Queen at all

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, May 3, 2016 1:19 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

=(

"jazz" is one of my very favorite albums-- i think it's just about perfect, and i can't understand why it's not canonical.

re: the Queen comparison I guess I was thinking more in terms of the actual music than in working methods, public persona etc. aesthetically they feel like they're in different universes. even when they're in their respective genre-defying pastiche modes they are just drawing from completely different sources and reference points to achieve very different effects.

I definitely got a queen feeling from 3 or 4 tracks on love symbol album idk

Silvery harmonies + showtune feel + huge showboaty guitar soloing

yeah, and musical similarity isn't the reason it seems like a good match to me (and in general, I don't think is how good artistic collaborations are formed). As an example, what if Prince had produced Hot Space? I feel like it suddenly gets about 10x better-- he shared a love of the new, the grand statement, the larger-than-life image, a sheer love of music itself -- but would have utterly complimented and enhanced the kind of music Freddie was going for on that record, bringing in strengths that to my ears, weren't inherent in Queen.

If Prince had produced Hot Space it probably may have been a better record, but I dunno... I don't think Queen were going through a great songwriting period at that time. 'Back Chat' will always rule, though.

yeah, it's all speculation -- tho I would be shocked if Prince wasn't already on their list of influences by that record

It's tempting to imagine what Prince would have done with 'Body Language', mind!

And "My Name is Prince" has that line about needing to be a Prince before you become King, which was a direct response to MJ's King of Pop nonsense.

Confirming my memory via go0gle, on the Musicology tour i saw Prince play and sing the opening verse of "Jailhouse Rock," then he stopped and said "You got to be a Prince before you become a King." So it was a multi-purpose line later on, maybe.

http://prince.org/msg/7/126121

I can't remember the chronology, but I want to say MJ insisting on the title King of Pop came soon after Prince changed his name.

I first remember seeing MJ referred to as "the king of pop" on the cover of a late-1991 Rolling Stone, so that woulda been at least a year or two before Prince changed his name.

I was so annoyed when the press just went along with that. "Oh you're the King now? Sure why not"

But when did he formally decree it? Yeah, it looks like 1991:

Exec from Epic:

Michael called me one day and said, “I want to have a nickname, like ‘The Boss’ or ‘The King.’” I said, “Well, Bruce Springsteen is ‘The Boss,’ and Elvis Presley is ‘The King.’ You can’t be the King because you’ll never live it down. The press will rip you apart.” But Michael would not let this go. He hired his own personal publicist, Bob Jones. And one day, Bob issued a press release announcing that Michael Jackson was the King of Pop. Michael went rogue on us.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ywHUJUrEL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

"I Hate U" is amazing Alfred, U crazy

I have tried and tried again with the Love Symbol album but it still sounds damn patchy to me. There are maybe half a dozen out-and-out keepers, which isn't enough for 70+ minutes of music. And I still like Diamonds and Pearls better - even enjoy "Jughead," which everyone else but Robert Christgau hates.

I like Diamonds and Pearls more than most people on here but still prefer the Symbol album.

I have tried and tried again with the Love Symbol album but it still sounds damn patchy to me.

I love it and it still sounds patchy!

that RS issue contains the Freddie obit: squint and you can see the cover line. this was right before Wayne's world, and so there was some restraint, as mainstream rock press continued to be discomfitted by Queen.

there can be no doubt that "3 chains of gold" was him customizing "boho rap," and indeed that record was right after Wayne's world and that annoying "BR" video where you had to watch Carvey and Myers instead of unexpurgated Queen.

that nutsoid falsetto trill on "Pussy Control": probly the last time I said "I can't believe how great that is."

xpost

probly the last time I said "I can't believe how great that is" about anything he did.

I think "Diamonds and Pearls" was where I got off the bus, if I remember correctly the singles past "Gett off" and "Cream" were quite luscious where i preferred the more spartan arrangements.

I did get Chaos and Disorder recently, 50p Oxfam, again not got round to hearing it yet.

I think the lyrics of "Gett Off" are the funniest thing Prince ever recorded.

Ribs

man the Discogs prices for the Lovesexy LP are INSANE, gonna wait for a couple of months.