Prince RIP

As an aside, this piece is a spectacular failure of editing in that no one seems to have pushed dude to actually provide examples to back up his sweeping pronouncements on black American culture.

― brigadier pudding (DJP), Friday, June 14, 2019 12:22 AM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is more than a mere aside though, it's not just a failure of editing. There seems to have been no-one around to even ask him questions about this, let alone say "this is wrong".

kind of can't believe no one's mentioned this sentence:

Black showbiz maintains a tradition not unlike that of European royalty, in which you always present yourself to your public in character and at your very best.

i read it two or three times to make sure i hadn't missed some kind of qualifier. i read everything around it to make sure i wasn't missing something that could serve as mitigation. because nobody would actually write that, would they? and feel good about themselves?

it's a shame because parade IS his best album

The very thing that many of us thought was Prince’s greatest achievement – that he became one of the biggest mainstream stars of his day without hiding or diluting his blackness, producing instead something you couldn’t confidently call black or white – was now ditched in favour of songs with titles like ‘Pussy Control’: ‘I wanna hip y’all/2 the reason I’m known as the player of the year.’ His new ‘black’ vision had arrived, and it turned out to be a schoolboy caricature of shiny jewellery, fast cars and scantily clad models. 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?

i mean what

i've read a lot of penman's writing. basically he is (or was) a very talented writer w/ major blind spots, most of which involve being too lazy to think through his own kneejerk reactions to things. i remember liking his piece on bowie from a while back, but i've read enough annoying/problematic things written by him that i don't much want to read him on prince.

As an aside, this piece is a spectacular failure of editing in that no one seems to have pushed dude to actually provide examples to back up his sweeping pronouncements on black American culture.

― brigadier pudding (DJP), Thursday, June 13, 2019 6:22 PM (thirty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so you're saying someone should have been around to ... control this pussy?

our story begins in a schoolyard

sometimes it #clicks in June

feel like critics almost always missed this/got it wrong re: Prince and Funkadelic. Most of the time you'd get them namechecking Hendrix instead of Hazel, so it's extra-disappointing to see Penman correctly cite "Maggot Brain" while falling down on the job elsewhere.

― Οὖτις, Thursday, June 13, 2019

Also, critics miss how much Santana influenced him, which is obvious from a cursory listen to, say, Caravanserai, but white critics go for the Hendrix analogies for obvious reasons.

His new ‘black’ vision had arrived, and it turned out to be a schoolboy caricature of shiny jewellery, fast cars and scantily clad models

Little Red Corvette was 1983

I don't know if - being honest with oneself - you could come up with a 2CD comp oh genuinely great songs out of everything he did post Lovesexy and I'd bet half of those were stuff written in his peak

There's two CDs worth of great songs on Emancipation alone! I was listening to it last week to commemorate Prince's birthday, and it's still amazing 180 minutes of music. IMO a lot of people overlook it cos it sounds too "contemporary" (mid-90s R'n'B), but on a pure songwriting level it's amazing how many great tunes he still had in him. If he had released those tunes in the '80s with his '80s sound, people would be praising them to high heaven.

i call nostalgia bullshit on "prince stopped making great music in 1989"

i'm open to the argument, but it's so often made by people who are ignorant of his post-88 music - and prince made it so easy for listeners to be ignorant by his maddening inconsistency - that any such argument would need to be made specifically. if someone wants to argue for instance that the song "gold" is a sub-par copy of the song "purple rain" (which isn't something i'd personally agree with), that's different from the blanket dismissals one typically sees.

This thread made me want to listen to more of his 90s stuff.
Basically, I only knew his albums up to Love Symbol, then only Emancipation and 3121 (which I both like).
Does the Anthology start in 95 because of label issues ?
I like that there are 37 songs on it... more than on Ultimate !

And about the 89 thing, yeah, just counting Batman, D&P and Love Symbol (I don't know Come and Gold Experience enough to judge but apparently they're great) gives you a pretty strong succession of albums and more great tracks than most other artists have in their whole career !

There's two CDs worth of great songs on Emancipation alone

Totally! The first and the third CD especially. So many classics hiding in plain sight - "Somebody's Somebody" really stuck out on my last listen.

Come is fun, especially "letitgo" which is kinda "Prince does G-funk"

Also, I fuckin' adore the song "Gold" although I know it's kind of meh for a lot of people

“Gold” is great

This is from 2014 and is unqualified great, though admittedly still not peak Prince

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jve1qf_gANQ

Yep.

I've never had problem loving '90s Prince. Tuomas OTM about Emancipation. And I love the good songs on Love Symbol enough to overrate the album.

Even though The Gold Experience isn't on the level of his classic 80s run, I sometimes think of it as my favourite

The Breakdown I felt would have been a number one had he released it circa 1994

I've found it hard to get into Emancipation. So he finally releases a 3-hour, triple (CD) album... and it's (from memory) dominated by seemingly endless mid-paced R&B. Was really hoping for some Sandanista levels of variety. Admittedly have only managed to get through it a few times.

I wouldn't listen to any three-disc album in sequence. And I love mid-paced R&B!

And Sandinista has an awful lot of mid-paced rock iirc

He released a lot of great songs after 1990 or whenever, but I don't really like most of those albums, which are either too long, too ridiculous or just sound bad (or maybe too perfect?) to my ears, even the good stuff. And yeah, you can always pick and choose your favorite stuff, and reshuffle it, or compile your own albums or whatever, and the results would be good, because Prince is a genius. But I find the discography as released largely a mess and/or a morass, and even his best stuff perhaps unfairly boosted by pro forma "return to form/best album since ..." hype. Again: genius. And I'm glad he did what he wanted to do, and that many (including many of you) get so much out of it. But I think part of his genius is that he's the rare musician who recorded both some of the best music ever made and some of the worst.

Even though The Gold Experience isn't on the level of his classic 80s run, I sometimes think of it as my favourite

I have planned to really get into Come and Gold Experience for a while but never really took the time... Gotta do that now !
Similarly, I KNOW Batman is nowhere near his best 80 albums yet it might be my favourite now.
It's the one I go to when I feel like listening to Prince nowadays anyway.

PARTYMAN

It's such a cool/groovy album (with killer slow jamz too) !
I listened to "Gold" and it is nice and catchy. Makes me think of a final song for the happy end of a drama movie in the 90s.

yes it is v coming-of-age movie closing credits

Gold was a UK top 10 hit but it's rarely heard anywhere these days. After Prince's death I loved playing the full album version while DJing - always sounded glorious at a loud volume

i love playing it in class!

"Gold" is awesome, as is most of The Gold Experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4YVbDCSGAg

This is a deep cut from that album that I really love... Possibly the most explicitly political song he'd ever done up to that point?

Ronnie Talk to Russia is p explicit

um
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRApCABjMdo

lol xp

Yeah, I guess. It's so corny and out of place on that album I think my mind subconsciously makes me forget it exists.

why is it out of place? If you're a minority, you're already under siege. Besides, it's short and fun.

Wait why is « most beautiful girl » not available on the Spotify version of the album (and how come it’s not on any best of) ?
Anyway I enjoy Gold Experience a lot so far (Come, less so).

And « Gold » might be my favourite song right now !

I didn't know about this, but from the wiki on most beautiful girl, might have something to do w it

There has been a long running copyright dispute since 1995 and a court in Italy ruled that Prince had plagiarized the song, giving writing credit to those other than Prince. [2]

Oh ok thanks. Frustrating.
« Billy jack bitch » is one funky cut !

Wish he was still here to write a song about this hot NBA chick ref

On Tuesday April 21 at 9 PM ET, “Let’s Go Crazy: The GRAMMY Salute To Prince” will broadcast on the CBS Television Network and stream on CBS All Access. The broadcast will include performances of Prince’s hits by collaborators Sheila E., The Revolution, and Morris Day and The Time, plus Beck, Gary Clark Jr., Common, Earth, Wind & Fire, Foo Fighters, H.E.R., Juanes, John Legend, Chris Martin, Miguel, St. Vincent, Mavis Staples and more.

i'm gonna guess 20% good, 30% meh and like 50% terrible but probably worth taping/youtube

his name is chris martin and he is funky

Earth? Is Dylan Carlson going to perform a 25 minute drone version of Raspberry Beret

Ah EWF

Well at least Maroon 5 aren't on the bill.

lol

No Meshell??