Prince RIP

Was just saying that if popularity or album sales were ultimately that important to him, he could have made it happen, but at least partly on someone else's term, or in partnership. Like, a high profile reissue series, or even the Purple Rain 25th, which came and went despite news he reclaimed ownership and had remastered it. Just Prince being Prince.

Hadn't plans for vinyl reissues been inked before his death? Does anybody even buy CD reissues anymore?

AFAICT his stock, critically, seemed higher than it had in ages. He had a MOJO cover feature last year or the year before, right?

I think he could always pack arenas, land magazine covers, etc. But obviously he didn't make things easy for journalists! To entertaining ends. No recording, interview the band first, wait for hours, that sort of thing. He was brilliant and probably unique in preserving his mystique, often at the expense of others, not in a selfish way but as a means of maintaining control. Which was pretty impressive, but also ... capricious?

Meghan Trainor is contemporarily relevant

who the fuck cares about being contemporarily relevant

Did I misread the post? What shit do I give? The point is that Prince wanted to be relevant. In the RS interview, and Tavis, etc. But I don't think it was lack of ability or absent Muse, just his own professional eccentricity that made it more difficult.

He probably didn't need to be relevant but it does seem that, given the medium in which he worked, he still might have liked to be relevant and current.

Btw, in that infamous WMGGW RnRHoF video, who is the other guitar player playing the riffs off the record on far stage left?

Hmm. While in a sense I admire Prince for his attempts at keeping his music off the internet - which must have been a fucking headache to actually achieve - I do think keeping his music off Youtube and Spotify wasn't the greatest idea. The hardcore fans were always going to follow his music, but he often made it difficult for potential new fans, especially if he wasn't getting the airplay that he used to. People are more likely to try before they buy these days, that's the way it works now. You can't expect people to wake up one day and have some sort of revelation and say "I'm going to buy a Prince record" if they're unable to hear his music.

I deeply suspect that the re-emergence of stuff on Youtube, coupled with the press inches about his death, will lead to people jumping on board. This is the sad thing, of course, that it's happening now when he isn't around to reap the rewards.

yeah those great rewards you get from streaming videos on youtube. he's missed out on potential thousands of dollars.

meanwhile he has preserved a singular mystique so now maybe the first artist millions of millenials aren't able to just youtube and will have go actually discover through record store perusing, hearing his music at clubs, dance parties, etc.

Oh, how you do miss the point.

Those things aren't on a binary. Discovering him on YouTube has meant buying his albums in stores and playing him in clubs, as I learned a couple weeks ago.

also "record stores" in 2016?

Adam would condemn the kid in a metropolis w/out a record store to chew on Prince mystique for the rest of his life.

Alfred completely and totally OTM.

Oh, how you do miss the point.

are we talking about a specific post or article or something? maybe i am.

Prince not being reasonable is why he's Prince. it's why he has made so much otherworldly beauty.

wait did Alfred discover Prince on youtube?

Lots of my students at the radio station did.

and I've discovered lots of live shit in the last three weeks

cool.

sorry to hear there aren't any record stores where you live. i can walk to 2 in 15 minutes.

The situation Alfred describes is exactly how I'd expect people to discover and purchase music in 2016. Keeping your music from being heard isn't "mystique", it's just plain fucking stupid. On one hand, Prince was irked that his music wasn't getting the same level of contemporary recognition as a new Beyonce product, but on the other he wasn't willing to do what Beyonce did in order to get stuff heard. You can't have it both ways.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/04/ee/6d/04ee6dc2bdc2d974fbe3bd030493c670.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/04/ee/6d/04ee6dc2bdc2d974fbe3bd030493c670.jpg

let's all talk about the dave clark five's "mystique"

Let's discuss Mystique

http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news_img/68327/Mystique_68327.jpg

Agree w Josh on this. At the end of the day, selling records was important to Prince. And it's pretty clear from all the interviews with the likes of Mo Ostin and the fact that Prince actually kissed and made up with WB that his issues were a lot less with his label than with the frustration of depending on a corporation to sell records and be relevant.

Btw, in that infamous WMGGW RnRHoF video, who is the other guitar player playing the riffs off the record on far stage left?

― The Pizza Underground Is Massive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, May 14, 2016 8:23 AM (1 hour ago)

Marc Mann.

Hadn't plans for vinyl reissues been inked before his death? Does anybody even buy CD reissues anymore?

The vinyl reissues have been quietly released. In fact, if Prince hadn't died I probably wouldn't have known about them in the first place. As for the CDs, it seems like a well-managed reissue campaign would have been on par with something like the Beatles remasters or something. Prince's WB stuff is one of the last major artist catalogs to be overhauled, with his core fanbase are highly likely to have their numbers also counted among those who are still into physical media, be it CDs or Vinyl.

Did someone upthread mention SIGN 'O' THE TIMES getting a vinyl reissue this year?

Also, I think Purple Rain vinyl has already been re-released. Saw tons of new copies over past couple weeks. Nothing else.

Thanks, Tim.

SOTT vinyl reissue out Aug 23.

i guess this hasn't been posted here yet? pivotal performance in keeping current with that early 90's audience imo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcMJ6l7Y5cs

The vinyl reissues which had already come out (everything up through/incl parade) were remastered for the occasion, by the way. The versions which were then sold on HDTracks for about a year were these remasterings. They sound fantastic. I hope they will again sell them digitally in addition to physical vinyl. Hell, maybe even cd???

If SOTT is finally coming out on vinyl reissue, hopefully that means it went through the same remastering the prior ones did.

yeah i wasn't arguing that Prince didn't care about fame or selling records. his maybe at times aggressive issues towards the industry are duly noted. i think it makes him what he is. it is part of him. it fuels his art. people think he should have done things differently, they want the same person who wears assless pants to be more reasonable in his business decisions. i say let his freak flag fly and that makes him even more unique. the business side of things was always a point of contention with him. i don't think if he joined in more with the exploitation that it was going to make him happier with the situation.

But obviously he didn't make things easy for journalists! To entertaining ends. No recording, interview the band first, wait for hours, that sort of thing.

god yeah, this is nuts, a nightmare. but being a friend of a couple who interviewed Prince the last few years, i think ultimately they considered it all part of his 'uniqueness'. I know some of the trickier interviewees I've dealt with have delivered the more interesting features, often precisely because they are so weird.

ALso, I had a brainfart and didn't realise you were referring specifically to that RS feature above - apologies Josh, I get where you're coming from more as a result.

In any case, stuff is starting to disappear from Youtube so the mystique is starting to coalesce again.

I'm really glad we had that window to get a glimpse of what we are missing. I downloaded as much of it as I could

If they are finallystarting to take stuff down off YT, I must direct you all immediately to the very rare official video for Automatic, in the last couple of minutes of which Jill Jones and Lisa tie Prince to a bed and whip him

There are lots of videos I've never seen. That being one of them. There's so much on YouTube though that newbies would need a curator I think. Watching rehearsals and stuff is very cool but only really worth it if you've seen the proper shows.

The thing about Prince and fame is that virtually all his best music came as he was still a big star. He didn't get weirder or more experimental on his own. He got more conservative. He needed an audience to feel emboldened. And also to duck with.

*fuck with

All that stuff about wanting to be like ani di Franco. I don't think it was totally for him really.

Obv its kinda deluded to expect beyonce type exposure at his point. But he always thought whatever his latest was was as good as his past peaks. Prob even when he was making planet earth lol. I can't see Prince plAying the elder statesman like McCartney in the 90s, being seen with his disciples. I guess he did help and advise a lot of artists. but he didnt do the moves youre meant to make. Prince wouldn't turn up to a dangelo show to play funky guitar. He was crap at turning up to other people's shows. You'd have to go to him. Which meant he wouldn't expose himself to other audiences. Prince wasn't as friendly to his male artist-fans (Dangelo, Maxwell,etc) either. Not compared with liann le havas etc.

Maybe that's a normal legend thing though. I'm not enough of a Dylan phile to know how he played the game. But Prince never had his time out of mind moment I don't think. He was never going to sing about ageing or try to sound old like bowie either. Nor reinvent himself as a gangster like Ron isley did as Mr Biggs lol.

Tbh there are few black artists who have a career path like he does. Only Stevie really. Maybe Ray Charles. Stevie and Ray seemed to be beloved by mainstream America as they got older.

Btw am disappointed Cannes only had someone singing purple rain for their Prince tribute. I wanted to see a restoration and rerelease of under the cherry moon!

It is far from all gone. In fact some new stuff from the Triple Threat tour just showed up very recently.

It is urgent and key to watch the triple threat tour pantomime routine that happens during the outro of "International Lover" where a bed rises out of the stage and Prince fucks it

I think someone suggested upthread that while Prince remained a great performer in his later years, his absolute peak was the 80s - anyway, I'm sure this is true, but for me the most amazing live material on youtube has been the bluesy stuff from the past 20 years - Motherless Child (some Vegas show?), Fury on SNL (now gone? anyone dl it?), the "Unplugged" Musicology MTV medley, Crimson & Clover on Ellen - and this completely unfathomable live version of a song I had not previously heard, believe it hasn't been posted yet, EMPTY ROOM from Montreux Jazz Festival:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onx3sbNRbIY

yeah I posted that Empty Room upthread. Both these Montreux shows are excellent. The late career cheese kept to a minimum.

Tried to dig into the later material that I had never really paid much attention to before but it didn't quite take. Still prefer the energy of the classic 80s recordings and live lineups and the idea that he hadn't quite totally perfected the projection of his star persona, there was still an element of him "becoming." He has to sing a song called "Baby, I'm a Star" because he isn't quite there yet.
(Xp with "late career cheese")

I know we discussed Prince as a guitarist but I watched his late period medley and stuff and even when I think he could've toned down the cheese and full band treatments, when he does solo its pretty bloody brilliant. And I only watched the superbowl and brit awards medleys.

Yeah, like that britpop thing.

If nothing else came out of this period of Prince remembrance, in the past few days I was reminded of this song, three decades long since forgotten by me and never before mentioned on ILX as far as I can tell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjeAK_YIo8E

Ugh, sorry typed "britpop" instead of "Brit Awards"

I just heard 'holly rock' for the first time today, on the 1986 Detroit cobo auditorium 'birthday parade' boot (incredibly good boot btw)