Prince RIP

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)

I remember that song because Sheila E. did it on a Chevy Chase-hosted SNL during that awful 1985 season.

Xpost There's a good vid recording of that show out there.

hey guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXP1ASZ9Phg

"billy's sunglasses"

51 minutes long

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yamkIIHBRFM&feature=youtu.be

I kept meaning to shut it off but I couldn't! Lol at Easter egg at the end for those who make it through. "Did you see the shining?"

Clearly this is Julian Cope's new favorite Prince track.

any background on that track, when it's from, etc.?

I had a particularly long and tedious task at work today so I just listened to Prince solidly throughout.

He was really uncommonly wonderful, wasn't he?

Graffiti Bridge holds up a lot better than I expected it would!

the movie or the album

The bridge!

then there's this shit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7lOETj1ggg

it doesn't really square with that Alan Leeds interview that talks about how Eric/Wendy/Lisa got him into jazz, he was already making jazz odysseys in '77 playing every instrument.

billys sunglasses sounds so much like ween

dave is the best : http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/05/13/you-think-youre-special/

man this 1977 unpublished stuff is niiiiice

he's really doing everything there?

hmmm maybe not, this says Andre Cymone on bass and Bobby Z on drums:
http://prince.org/msg/7/338317

well, whatever, this is great!

oh my god, that channel has compilations for ever year through the mid-90s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8LqcIduRPI

rip/download while you can (i was sent that by a friend who is doing so)

not hearing any jazz odysseys in there, more light fusion of the type that was basically standard for that period, esp if you were a fan of rufus, the crusaders, weather report, etc, as i imagine prince was. but its great/interesting that even then, he had a pop ear for concision, and melody. i love prince's 70s period.

I had no idea, but I guess those iVault collections have been circulating for years, competing with Work It 2.0 or whatever it's called, which people hold in higher esteem because it's higher quality. At least one of the iVault collections has, like, multiple takes of crap George Clinton or Mayte tracks which drive even fans nuts. I still want to find that Year in the Life collection, but there's something else I saw mentioned, maybe called ... Revolution Part 2 or something? Revelations 2.1?

This is my fave outtake...just glorious

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3iwr-nnHxh8

The most essential obscurities collection I've found since his death is a pair of 2cd sets called Hard 2 Get volumes 1 and 2, it's a great complement to Perfect Unreleased Prince. It includes "Adonis and Bathsheba" which is I think the best outtake I've heard. I found it on a purple message board without too much trouble.

Jordan, any chance you can share those rips?

leaving for NY makes me think of MJ. also a bit stevie-ish when it hits 4 mins.

i'll ask if he can put them on Dropbox or something

can personally vouch for amazingness that is The Work compilations -- 8 volumes that I'm aware of, each multiple discs themselves of unreleased stuff and demos. Essentially, it's Prince's Fuzzy Warbles, and having only heard the first two sets (which cover 1976-87), need no further convincing he had many albums of great stuff he could have released. When he wasn't onstage, the guy seems to have lived in the studio.

Gracias!

Look out for the Blast from the Past collections as well. Volumes 1 to 3 (so far) - if anything for the amazing sound quality on some of the classic outtakes/demos that have circulated for years in pretty shitty condition.

All told, however, once you hit 1990 on The Work an some of the other big collections it's diminishing returns. How many outtakes featuring TC Ellis, Carmen Electra or Mayte can a person handle? The drop in creative quality is pretty far until the Slave-era and even there his embrace of bloooz and Band Of Gypsies-style jamming gets tedious.

Love you, Prince, but I would've said this six months ago even.

Jeebus, every time I look for one of these boots I stumble on like a thousand others. Seen the Sabotage series, of dozens of soundboards and whatnot? Man ...

No wonder he was always firing people