Prince RIP

This is also great from the GQ article upthread and seems worth sharing on here. I can picture the exchanges.

“When I first started, I tried one time to unify a group splintered by whether I was still ‘funky’ or not. That question still goes on, obviously.” — Prince, 2001, on his early experiences with web chat rooms

I can't imagine Prince of all people wanting to consciously retread past territory in the studio or recapture past glories. I'm sure he was trying to make good records at the time, or rather just getting out what he heard, same as when he made his classics.

I agree with this, but at the same time, he seems to become less interested in Big-Gesture albums, doesn't he? he does giant-package things like Crystal Ball, and the Rainbow Children's a concept album, but he kinda withdraws, it seems to me - whereas both Purple Rain and SOTT are pretty zeitgeist-aimed record imo ymmv

I can't imagine Prince of all people wanting to consciously retread past territory in the studio or recapture past glories. I'm sure he was trying to make good records at the time, or rather just getting out what he heard, same as when he made his classics.

You used to release zeitgeisty album after album. What went wrong: you or the zeitgeist?

*cue Sunset Boulevard reference*

I have a Prince-ordered but never sat-upon sofa in my living room (no kidding, really for real). I bought it at a factory sale a month before he died for 66% off of retail. I'm not selling it 'cause it's comfortable and we've already bought stuff to go with the cool purple velour.

what??

Prince left his ass cheeks imprinted on them

Aren't you the afraid he is secretly still alive and will pop up from behind that sofa when least expected?

A certain ILX thread of yore comes to mind, and I would ask you to ensure such a fate never occurs to that couch.

heh

I mean, it's obviously a sexy couch, but it should be kept clean. (It's from these guys:http://bretz.com/)

“When I first started, I tried one time to unify a group splintered by whether I was still ‘funky’ or not. That question still goes on, obviously.”

This made me cry with laughter for about 30 minutes last night.

said in his baby powder-soft voice

"Then I joined ILX and realized the original group was kinda sane in comparison, and..."

those without 77 access will not connect of course but:
http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=478

i love the stuff about madonna

"I hate the script"
"Well I hate your shoes"

Battle of the shade queens <3

that Prince Engineer Susan Rogers talk posted above is great. i'm 50 minutes in and she's talking about how they recorded his drum machine, by sending the drums individually to his BOSS guitar pedals. like putting the handclaps through the flange. amazing stuff.

I used to put my drum machine through a fuzz-box, so yeah.

I always wondered if Prince put everything thru flanger pedals & units because they're predominantly painted purple

What amazes me about some of Prince's '80s work is just how much of it has a demo-ish quality to it while still sounding utterly fantastic.

otm, i'd love to get digitized cassette dubs of the 80s albums, because this song bangs and the second generation dubbed sound of this copy is so warm and beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I1YCYsqSgQ

I liked the part in that Susan Rogers interview where she talked about him starting songs by playing acoustic drums in the studio, just looking at a lyric sheet, no click, no guides, just having the whole arrangement in his head.

I assume she was talking about 'The Cross' since the interviewer had asked about it, but I'm curious what other ones this might apply to (most of the post-Dirty Mind songs I can think of with acoustic drums also have drum machines, which would have to be recorded first).

I used to put my drum machine through a fuzz-box, so yeah.

yeah but it kind of surprised me that he'd use a bank of BOSS pedals and not some specially designed custom box created by a electronics wizard. nope, just a cheap BOSS pedal. it's a small he's just like real people moment.

Listening to 'When You Were Mine' right now and it's just so fucking perfect, yet it has this spur-of-the-moment freshness to it, like Prince just got it down as quickly as he could immediately after writing it. It has all the enthusiasm of a songwriter buzzing off writing a great new song and wanting to capture it, and the end result is just this perfect moment.

Haven't watched the video yet, but I seem to recall a Susan Rogers interview in which she told the story of the drum kit and the lyrics sheet. In that version he recorded four songs in sequence in one shot, tape rolling.

Yeah that's the opening salvo of Parade, "Christopher Tracy's Parade" / "New Position" / "I Wonder U" / "Under the Cherry Moon" all in one take.

that's incredible, link to the interview?

I immediately listened to those 4 tracks after reading that last night

Think I may have read in a book.

aight

Here is one article with that quote: https://movingtheriver.com/2016/03/31/princes-parade-30-years-old-today/

Maybe someone can search the wording to find the original interview or further excerpts.

simply incredible, thanks!

I'm gonna have to dig out Parade for a listen now. For some reason it's the album of his 1999 to Lovesexy run that I listen to the least.

those four SOUND like they were done in one take to me, which is not a knock.

Aw man, 'New Position' is catchy as fuck.

:)

those four SOUND like they were done in one take to me, which is not a knock.
― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses)

it still burns me to think that, you know, too many of the wrong molecules on the wrong receptors one night and we fucking lost PRINCE.

Even Burt Bacharach got choked up about it

Walsh: I said to him, "Come on, man—don't you want to make another Sign o' the Times, another Purple Rain?" I don't know if I framed it exactly like that, but he said, "No, no—Jim, I've been to the mountaintop. There's nothing there."0

came here to post this.

Deserves its own thread.

What I wouldn't give to know what he meant.

the futility of material success compared to spiritual pursuits

then again maybe if he had been on 5 more magazine covers he would have been granted access to Nirvana

Well, yeah, obviously. But what did he see or feel that confirmed that for him. And I don't think his friend was talking about Purple Rain, etc, in terms of commercial success, but some form of artistic ambition the later records seemed to relinquish, at least from Walsh's perspective.

xp

he also could've just said something witty for the sake of it

^all of the above

What's the word on these Parachute Recording Company vinyl releases of Prince concerts? I saw a ton of them in Cheapo in Minneapolis and wondered if they were worth it.

https://www.discogs.com/label/1024637-Parachute-Recording-Company