Prince trying to act ‘gangsta’ felt not merely silly and self-defeating, but almost a form of betrayal. Who ever said we looked to him for something ‘real’ or ‘authentic’, anyway? (Plus: two dozen prison-tat-sporting young rappers could do that stuff better in their sleep.)
i feel v weird about this sequence of sentences also
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 13 June 2019 15:32 (four years ago) link
Eye Hate UThe Question of UJoy in Repetition Sleep AroundThese are all as good as anything he’s ever done
― zama roma ding dong (Eric H.), Thursday, 13 June 2019 15:32 (four years ago) link
Yeah the "Darling Nikki" comments are... surprising !And I'm also uncomfortable with his idea that Prince's music from the 90s on doesn't have soul, creativity, etc. I'm totally fine with people not liking that period (I'm not a big fan myself) but to say that it's because it's "bad" music as opposed to the "good" music of the previous decade is... I don't know, a bit annoying.
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 13 June 2019 15:33 (four years ago) link
xps they’re being published in a collection by fitzcarraldo editions shortly!
Happy days!
― Good cop, Babcock (Chinaski), Thursday, 13 June 2019 15:33 (four years ago) link
I mean we should all be protected from people thinking songs we like are not good but for a disappointment-inflected piece this articulates the appeal of Prince better than most, and grapples with elements of his life that others are determined not to address (with credit to the books he’s reviewing of course!)
― shhh / let peaceful like things (wins), Thursday, 13 June 2019 15:42 (four years ago) link
unfortunately the moments where he's full of shit are getting in the way of my appreciation of those qualities
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 13 June 2019 15:43 (four years ago) link
Like I don’t agree with IP’s assessment of Kate Bush’s career AT ALL but it’s a really good piece
― shhh / let peaceful like things (wins), Thursday, 13 June 2019 15:43 (four years ago) link
(Do not read the bush essay brad lol)
don't worry i won't!
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 13 June 2019 15:51 (four years ago) link
The upcoming Sign O The Times fancy reissue seems a bit rubbish, no extra footage or live stuff at all just some new docu. Thought we'd get a 'proper' reissue of the album with all of the stuff that was meant to be on Dream Factory but maybe that's coming, as the film was nowt to do with the Prince estate?
― piscesx, Thursday, 13 June 2019 15:53 (four years ago) link
A song like ‘My Name Is Prince’, from 1992, is the sort of ego-bomb manifesto most artists drop early on, when they are still young enough that the arrogance can seem winning. A middle-aged man screaming that he’s the one and only doesn’t sound so sweet. On the contrary, such macho theatrics have a Trumpish effect
i'm out, tab closed forever
"my name is prince" is a very funny song imo
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 13 June 2019 15:58 (four years ago) link
Eye Hate UThe Question of UJoy in Repetition Sleep Around
These are all as good as anything he’s ever done
― zama roma ding dong (Eric H.), Thursday, June 13, 2019 10:32 AM (twenty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
question of u and joy in repetition date back to the mid 80s, joy was listed in some version of dream factory which got retooled to be sign o the times
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 13 June 2019 15:58 (four years ago) link
Oddly, just at the time when he claimed to be returning to realer than real blackness, you’d swear he got two or three shades lighter for his publicity shots.
ok, last thing, but what the fuck is this
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 13 June 2019 16:20 (four years ago) link
34 is "middle-aged" now?
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 13 June 2019 16:28 (four years ago) link
A middle-aged man screaming that he’s the one and only doesn’t sound so sweet.
I can't read this line without it immediately and involuntarily being followed in my head by "Ice Cube and the Lench Mob/are jacking for beats"
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 13 June 2019 16:29 (four years ago) link
xxp: I am now torn between reading this to see if there's any possible context that wouldn't make this racist bullshit and saying "fuck this dude and fuck everyone who read this and didn't have a problem with it"
― brigadier pudding (DJP), Thursday, 13 June 2019 16:30 (four years ago) link
"what an amazing piece of writing, the racism is just *kisses fingers*"
― brigadier pudding (DJP), Thursday, 13 June 2019 16:31 (four years ago) link
i'm... pretty sure this piece is racist
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 13 June 2019 16:31 (four years ago) link
yeah i'm just gonna reread hilton als's prince piece instead
― lowercase (eric), Thursday, 13 June 2019 16:34 (four years ago) link
In those glory years Prince was, alongside Madonna, the most fascinating pop star alive. A black R’n’B artist who juggled shiny white pop signifiers
I mean what the fuck is this
― brigadier pudding (DJP), Thursday, 13 June 2019 16:42 (four years ago) link
I'm late to this party, but I discovered Prince in the Graffiti Bridge era, so I love "Joy in Repetition" and most of Emancipation.
Carry on.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 13 June 2019 16:47 (four years ago) link
"The Morning Papers" is one of his masterpieces.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 13 June 2019 16:48 (four years ago) link
On the Purple Rain soundtrack, ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ is, like the film itself, a spunky celebration of familiar tropes: ‘Kids! Don’t listen to those ugly straights! They’re just jealous of us cool kids!’
I'm just going to assume this dude doesn't actually know what the lyrics to "Let's Go Crazy" are?
― brigadier pudding (DJP), Thursday, 13 June 2019 16:55 (four years ago) link
you can stop reading tbh
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 13 June 2019 16:58 (four years ago) link
like, it doesn't get better and I find all the stuff about his personal life gross and speculative
piece is lousy with bullshit asides like that, it undermines all of the authority he believes he has on prince's personality
i felt crazy reading it
also thrilled that many people will read this racist piece and not mayte garcia's book
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 13 June 2019 16:58 (four years ago) link
I was thinking that prejudging excerpts and condemning from a place of assumption wasn't necessarily the best look.
I do think I've read enough to know that, on the subject of Prince, this dude is a fucking idiot and I have no idea how anyone could read this and not be struck by the blatantly racist assumptions/assertions/preconceived notions permeating the entire thing.
― brigadier pudding (DJP), Thursday, 13 June 2019 17:04 (four years ago) link
The entire bit about early Prince iconography making him look like a street hustler, yet somehow also the boy next door that you'd just see around the neighborhood, in comparison with the implied fakeness of his later imagery, should really tell you all you need to know about what this dude thinks is "authentic" when it comes to looking at black people and how he expects them to intersect with his "ordinary" life.
― brigadier pudding (DJP), Thursday, 13 June 2019 17:08 (four years ago) link
Prince released one of the best songs of his career less than a year before he died: "Baltimore." No I am not biased - that guitar just stuns me. What could have been cloying or condescending is a genuinely moving song in the spirit of "Imagine" and "One Love."
― flappy bird, Thursday, 13 June 2019 18:28 (four years ago) link
i liked baltimore a lot, the guitar is great, but eryn allen kane's harmonies are the key
― old cloud yells at man (voodoo chili), Thursday, 13 June 2019 18:44 (four years ago) link
yes. it is a triumph. not so closed off like so much of his work.
― flappy bird, Thursday, 13 June 2019 18:47 (four years ago) link
"The Morning Papers" is one of his masterpieces.― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 13 June 2019 18:54 (four years ago) link
"My Name is Prince" is a stupid song, but to write these sentences in 2019 when Trump sits in the Oval Office should embarrass him. Also, what younger artists have dropped ego-bomb manifestos like "My Name is Prince"?
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 13 June 2019 18:56 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNPnbI1arSE
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 13 June 2019 18:59 (four years ago) link
my name is prince owns imo
― findom haddie (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 13 June 2019 18:59 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03wTAFIBmGs
^^^ good song, recorded before 1992
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 13 June 2019 19:00 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2soGJXQAQec
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 13 June 2019 19:01 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8abYLA5zEkM
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 13 June 2019 19:02 (four years ago) link
are you Turrican?
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 13 June 2019 19:03 (four years ago) link
if only I could remember my name
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 13 June 2019 19:04 (four years ago) link
The underlying thesis here is "people shouldn't rap once they hit their mid-30s"
― brigadier pudding (DJP), Thursday, 13 June 2019 19:04 (four years ago) link
Which, as we all know, is fucking stupid
― brigadier pudding (DJP), Thursday, 13 June 2019 19:05 (four years ago) link
dying @ all the ILXORs dogpiling in to "wow great piece" this bullshit
― space invaders are smokin penises!!!! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 13 June 2019 19:05 (four years ago) link
https://ksassets.timeincuk.net/wp/uploads/sites/55/2018/08/GettyImages-155589911_PRINCE_2000-1620x1029.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8USE09S_dAQ
― space invaders are smokin penises!!!! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 13 June 2019 19:08 (four years ago) link
loooool
― brigadier pudding (DJP), Thursday, 13 June 2019 19:09 (four years ago) link
dude's name is penman, maybe a case of nominative determinism by proxy?
― findom haddie (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 13 June 2019 19:10 (four years ago) link
A middle-aged man screaming that he’s the one and only doesn’t sound so sweet. On the contrary, such macho theatrics have a Trumpish effect: the more you insist on your uniqueness and invulnerability, the more it sounds like you’re struggling.
here's the end of the sentence. i still think it's dumb
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 13 June 2019 19:21 (four years ago) link
i was a bit taken aback by some of the phrases in question upon first reading it, and now going back, am finding more and more to dislike (and yes, find racist) about this piece.
the problem is that he goes with a convenient and oft-repeated trope that Prince's later work isn't as good as his run in the 80's. while objectively true, that he attaches all these racist assumptions onto Prince's motives is really telling. he basically writes, "Prince stopped making music that was as good as it was in the 80s, and it's because his music got more black!" which is obviously totally racist horse shit.
― blue light or electric light (the table is the table), Thursday, 13 June 2019 19:22 (four years ago) link
i'll say, though, that while the writing surrounding "My Name Is Prince" is pretty bad, that song is also fucking terrible. probably my least favorite single of his.
― blue light or electric light (the table is the table), Thursday, 13 June 2019 19:23 (four years ago) link