Prince RIP

They should just release it all for free or destroy it. But instead they will probably find a way to fuck it up.

I would I think rather they start mastering and readying a series of live releases, a la ... everyone. The Dead, Springsteen, Zappa, all these historic performers/performances. I wish all bands would do this.

why for free? that seems unfair. if they can do miles davis box sets, dylan bootlegs, etc etc, prince deserves the same.

I think a legit release of the Work boot series would = huge $$ from Prince die-hards, and then they could do small comps of the most commercial stuff for more casual fans. So much good music on those that would actually be new to most people.

Purple Rain is the only song I've ever sung at karaoke. Apparently I nailed it though. There was a dude who was there that night, whenever I'd run into him in later years would greet me with "PURPLE RAIN!"

― how's life, Thursday, May 5, 2016 12:42 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a couple of years ago i was at a self-proclaimed "honky tonk" outside of Dallas. it was a legit scuzzy country dive bar and they were doing karaoke that night. there was this tough looking dude, handsome, maybe early 20's, dressed in full cowboy gear leaning against the bar sipping beer by himself, looking through the walls. the host calls his name, he walks up the stage and Purple Rain starts playing. dude gives this passionate, full on performance. just fucking nails it. when it finished he walked back to his spot at the bar and resumed looking tough and sipping beer by himself. nobody seemed to pay it any mind but... it was fantastic.

xpost Well, as I might have noted elsewhere, with super limited family pretty much anyone benefitting from Prince sales doesn't deserve it and, in fact, given the amount of material involved will likely be greedy and then fuck it up. If it was free ... no prob. Not least because clearly Prince didn't *want* the stuff released, or at least locked it away for some reason. I would love to see sets like the Davis and Dylan, but by and large that consisted/consists of either live stuff or alternate takes. And obviously in the case of Dylan he is around to OK or veto. I'm not convinced any living artist, or any artist, period, has as much unreleased material as Prince, though, who reportedly recorded and/or filmed every show, had several complete unreleased albums (that we know of), recorded hundreds of leftover tracks for himself and others, basically recorded everything, every day. I don't even know how you begin, beyond maybe following Springsteen's lead and remastering each album with an attendant collection of related stuff/film.

Anyway, obviously it won't be free - it almost never is - but I really appreciated that pile of Apex Twin stuff RJ just tossed out there several months back. "You know those hours and hours of unreleased tracks you've always heard about? It's all true! Here it is, have at it."

that's awesome xp

that's a real cowboy xp

if administered right, im sure some of the charities prince was involved with could benefit. would be good if someone like alan leeds was allowed to work through it all, but it seems like a swamp of material to consider. or maybe a library type of setup would work. a spotify type platform for the vault.

Purple Rain would make a great country song.

looking for vol 2 of perfect unreleased i cant find it in the thread can someone hook me up pls? xoxoxox

Purple Rain would make a great country song.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, May 5, 2016 12:27 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was talking with a customer about this the other day. Told him about the Bob Seger inspiration. You can totally imagine lap steel on that song.

I hope my posting this doesn't lead to this guy or girl's little comp getting the takedown, but damn is this a handy DL:

http://allnewcorner.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-sound-of-female-singers-remembrance.html

when people do 'purple rain' as karaoke, what do they do during the long guitar solo?

Surely they must air guitar it.

Purple Rain would make a great country song.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, May 5, 2016 12:27 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was talking with a customer about this the other day. Told him about the Bob Seger inspiration. You can totally imagine lap steel on that song.

Cool comp, Jon! Missing this, though, which is prime-"Batman" era production in full dark mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmZ9Z_upays

Okay, perhaps this is place to say, regarding his guitar playing, that of course he can play all kinds of great stuff, that technically as a rock/funk player he can play rings around almost anybody, but while I think his soloing works great much of the time, especially on "Purple Rain" or "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man," it sometimes seems to me, imho, with all due respect, that there may be occasions when he relies a wee bit too much on striking the Guitar God pose and going right up to the high part of the neck for the high speed hammerwailing.

there are all kinds of aspects to his music that i wouldn't accept from anyone else, but he sells with general Prince-ness and are more interesting as part of his whole thing.

Interesting point. Please to elaborate.

I would tend to agree, although I couldn't give any other examples at this point. I will say that I am reminded of his question for Billy Gibbons "Does your beard get in the way like some of my costumes?" and would argue that, at last some of time, his guitar showboating was part of his costume.

But, yeah to me he is like the Beatles. There is so much personality in his recordings that you wpuldnt want to "improve" them, like those haterz who think the Beatles would have been better with a different drummer.

don't have a lot of time to reflect on it now, but while watching this video (smooth jazz 'Summertime') the other day, i was thinking that there was no way i would have made it to the end if it was anyone else. not that i'm judging him on a soundcheck that he didn't expect anyone to see, but there's this sense that he's never displaying the full extent of his abilities, so even his fake jazz moments are interesting for the clues they provide.

he was best as a solo-ist within pop song limits IMO. prince was a great musician, it goes without saying, but with some exceptions, his jamming could often be a bit dull. i mean, thats just jamming in general, but some musicians can make it more interesting. he recorded some wonderful solos of course, and i enjoy hearing stuff like the undertaker, but while his solos on purple rain, lets go crazy, the cross (live), etc are some of my favourites, i think he was a songwriter first, musician/improv-soloist, second. its the reason a lot of his aftershow stuff is a bit dull at times. its great, cos you can say, hey, hes not just a pop artist, he can really play too, but prince as guitar god is prob best placed in constraints. often i think he gets a pass cos its prince. like, hey, look what ELSE he can do. never mind that there are other pianists, or guitarists every bit as good.

i think 'good' also needs some unpacking. prince is/was a technical virtuoso, but i think where he had a distinct sound/tone/style at one point (his tone playing the cross in 88 for instance, or purple rain in 84, etc), towards the end, it just blurred into some sort of post-hendrix general virtuoso-dom. i might have to go back to the 90s stuff, to see how that compares, but it seemed he was sort of trying to reinvent his sound as a guitarplayer, but it ended up evolving into the extra-virtuoso stuff he was doing in the last decade.

Teh fake jazz I can take or leave, but yeah, exactly Jordan.

Great posts, StillAdvance.

yes good posts!

Holy crap

I never heard love thy will be done until this moment

Holy crap

that's a cool thing about "love thy will be done" is that your life changes immediately

So good

that moment when Martika gets doubletracked and sings ahead of the beat while Prince harmonizes...

prince as guitar god is prob best placed in constraints

Definitely, and true of guitar gods in general.

"place in constraints" sounds pretty kinky, prince probably would have been ok w/ it.

if it was 3 chains of gold, sure.

man I totally forgot about this, can't remember if I ever actually sat through the whole thing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Chains_o'_Gold

The film was the 69th best-selling video of 1994.

I can almost see the man himself buying up copies to ensure that chart placement.

re: 15 minute "computer blue" which many of you may know cuz of the Perfect unreleased thing Oumc (or however its sposed to be styled) mentioned above but is on the WFMU show I linked above…always thought it was weird that the PR version went straight from the 1st and only chorus to the breakdown then the "bad salad" piano middle eight… incredibly exciting to hear it the way he evidently wanted, with another verse & chorus long solo, plus another spooky female voiceover, but WB said "nuh-uh…"

also 1.) please let internet word drones opt for another nickname other than "the Purple one" 2.) I don't have the heart or stomach to watch videos of Richard Hell singing "purple rain," which joins "Life on mars" as the unimaginative musician's choice of tribute in 2016, at the Ivan Julian benefit last night…

Have you seen the Bobby Gillespie "Purple Rain" tribute version yet?

"place in constraints" sounds pretty kinky, prince probably would have been ok w/ it.

― wizzz! (amateurist),

"Joy in Repetition"

Have you seen the Bobby Gillespie "Purple Rain" tribute version yet?

omg plz tell me this really happened

hey guys, smashmouth did a cover of "purple rain" in tribute to prince and jason mraz came up on stage to sing harmony. it's amazing! just google it.

women are not butterlflies
we are computers too

In the future, everyone will cover "Purple Rain" for 15 minutes.
-Bob Vonnegut

Only 1/4 of the earth's population heard "Purple Rain," but every one of them did a karaoke version of it.
-Butch "Two Trucks" Firbanks

there's this sense that he's never displaying the full extent of his abilities
totally. this is what i always thought of as effortless cool, like he was born to be a dancer/singer/guitar player/drummer/everything he tried.

over the weekend i saw purple rain with two people my own age who had never seen it
so fun! the crowd was lame but i enjoyed seeing the movie again + hearing what they thought of it

when people do 'purple rain' as karaoke, what do they do during the long guitar solo?
― wizzz! (amateurist)

in the past, i've just looked for the approving nods

Run don't walk to the oral history of Prince in the 90s which rolling stone put up today. It's awesome.

Bland: He was really into the Pretenders at some point. He talked about how much he liked Chrissie Hynde and the songwriting. He played me some of the first Sly Stone records I ever heard. That was an education I couldn't have received anywhere else. We held meetings, and we would watch random videos people would send. Michael Jackson loved sending Prince old footage of Sly. Prince would just stop everything and bring everybody to his office. One time we watched the Jackson 5 Goin' Back to Indiana special.