prince

That Karlen thing above and the extract from his book over on Rolling Stone seem really padded-out and poorly written.

agree

Anyone read the Duane tudahl book on 83/84? I was kind of interested but the way it has prince quotes scattered throughout rather than just focus on session notes made me put it down after a while. Glad someone has done this kind of book but idk, it seems more to piece together the geneology or chronology of the songs rather than any details on tur actual material?

finally diving into the SOTT super deluxe and how does this thing slap so hard for 8 hours lol

that guitar solo on "crucial"! the backwards "a place in heaven"! the entirety of "when the dawn of the morning comes"!

really happy to hear a good quality version of “train”, that song rules

train is so good

∆ going to c&p and quote this out of context

lol

hahahaha

lmao

Purple Raindrops of Jupiter

kind of cruel that the best disc in this 8-disc box set is disc #6 lol

I really like and that says what and it ain't over til the fat lady sings esp. Can any of you esteemed people suggest any jazz in that vein?

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a35469515/prince-paisley-park-alexis-petridis/

i haven’t read that but didn’t he already write that article?

It does seem familiar.

Yeah it is like a retread of the actual piece he when he interviewed prince in 2015

Sad prince never made a middle aged man album. I get ppl want to hear him come out with a new kiss or get off so they settle for black sweat but I'd rather hear him do something that reflected where he was in life. Or was that what emancipation was, partially at least?

I kind of feel he was already there in the '00s. He wasn't shy about showing his age in either his tastes or acknowledging how much older his audience was now (especially at live shows). On "Lay It Down" (one of the few keepers on 20Ten) he refers to himself as the "purple Yoda." So he was really comfortable as an older dude, but he carried on with style. Towards the end, I felt like he was consciously trying to style his look on the '70s as a throwback to the culture he knew from his youth, right down to his hair.

That's prince doing his 'old man in the club' routine. Idk if that's quite the same as a genuinely middle aged prince accepting his age and career stage. The purple Yoda tag was also a bit silly. Not exactly princes time out of mind or (insert other well regarded album by artist in his autumn years). Honestly as he got older I think a lot of the ballads became rote slightly, seduction by numbers.

But yeah, the hair was him returning to his 70s look, and prob also him trying to show some pride in his natural afro hair after decades of doing it very differently.

i guess what im saying is after the end of the 90s, the most surprising thing prince could do was to stop being a little horndog all the time (and does anyone want that from a man in his 50s?), as after a point, the come-ons, seduction patter, attempts at innuendo and so on started to lose its charm and inspiration, so the freshest thing he could do would have been to lose that shtick entirely. and on a certain number of songs, i think he did.

I'd say "Breakdown" is a good Time out of Mind moment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWUhWE4zn1w

The guy was riding a bicycle to & from the stage; he didn’t strike me as someone settling into middle age. Anyway, I didn’t even want Time Out of Mind from Dylan.

i just wish he wasn't dead

seconded

thirded

fourthed

im no huge dylan fan and i dont even know what time out of mind sounds like (before i get accused of being racist towards prince and black artists and having some sort of bias towards white artists), i just used that as a fairly well known reference point for a kind of 'late career renaissance' album. i dont exactly want prince doing a bowie and adopting a rather self consciously weary voice either (i dont even like bowie doing that), but yeah, there's a handful of songs from the 2013-2015 period that are exactly what i mean and i think are some of the best stuff he made in the latter years: breakdown, way back home, time, june, revelation. and then in the 00s, apart from TRC, you had the word, the dance, a case of u, future soul song, walk in sand, reflection, somewhere here on earth and here and instrumentals like gamillah, arboretum and beverly park, which some people might think are too smooth jazz/easy listening, but theyre better than his instrumental jazz stuff like NEWS IIRC. it might also just be that i prefer mellow R&B-flavoured stuff he to much else he did during this period.

I couldn’t with Prince when he was in his “real music played by REAL musicians” boring uncle family friendly or “going thru the motions “ mode. Give me freaky Prince over that stuff all day any day. That being said - I miss him but am thankful there’s so much wonderful. beautiful and crazy music of his to listen to over the less interesting stuff he made. And it keeps coming. Some amazing SOTT band rehearsals have recently surfaced if that’s more anybody’s speed ( it’s mine). Just great fun to listen to.

prince still trying to be modern and cool in that period isnt that fun to listen to (or avoiding the word sex while singing DMSR on the musicology tour), but the stuff where he stops that, and just sticks to being a good songwriter, with more modest aims i think, is when he did his best stuff, and still worth a listen. breakdown live is 10x better than the recorded version too.

I think the Hitnrun duo and (especially) Artofficialage are good albums! Seems to me he was in the process of putting out some solid music at the end of his life.

still hoping the estate release a live album from his final tour. it is easily available on bootleg but they would prob have the early show he did at paisley park in better audio.

The purple Yoda tag was also a bit silly.

Pretty sure this was bestowed by Questlove and D'Angelo and co., and Prince embraced it.

thread spurred me to put art officialage on and the run of 'clouds' through 'this could be us' is really really strong! 'U Know' is a legit pantheon jam.

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

I think the Hitnrun duo and (especially) Artofficialage are good albums! Seems to me he was in the process of putting out some solid music at the end of his life.

I thought the first Hit n Run was very disappointing even though the last two tracks are really good, but otherwise I agree, Art Official Age and Hit n Run Phase Two were very good albums. If he was still alive, I would've expected his current output to remain pretty uneven. Besides the first Hit n Run, I thought 3rdeyegirl was underwhelming and conventional to a fault, but a middle-aged artist releasing two good new albums out of four within 2-3 years is still impressive.

the original alice smith version of another love on plectrum electrum is worth checking out. i really liked princes version of it and thought it was his own, until i heard hers, and actually prefer hers now, mainly as it doesnt have that last 'eye hate u'-ish spoken part that prince put into his one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA4F5P9defI

I definitely ride hard for hit n run II. Have not connected strongly with AOI; something about the soundworld of it bothers me

*AOA

Even though AOA went thru the motions for the most part it's the freshest for me of his last albums. The 3rd Eye Girl stuff always seemed to me like Prince letting his rock n roll side run as wild as it could with one of his most mediocre backup bands gumming up the works. AOA was at least a fun listen in spots. But then again I always preferred studio boffin Prince post 1990 ( bar "Rainbow Children" - with possibly his last excellent band )to the Vegas horns and rote arrangements "Musicology" / post- "Musicology" Prince. I saw him twice on the "Musicology" tour and he was a masterful performer but the "essence du Prince" was considerably stifled by then.

Aoa=prince after listening to janelle monae. Agree though, it does feel like he was trying with that one, compared to PE. Also helps that he had someone else producing.

via our own fact checking cuz, had no idea this existed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHdE5BVAUDk

diamonds and pearls deluxe edition coming out later this year from the looks of it.

:-/

should have been parade (35th anniversary!), but im guessing its the 30th anniversary of D&P too so that wins out. one of his biggest albums after all. cant say im on the edge of my seat to hear outtakes from this period, BUT i really want to see/hear an interview with tony m to see what he makes of this period and prince's incorporation of hip hop.

Going by sales, it makes sense - IIRC it's 3x platinum, higher than even Batman, and the only albums that sold more already had a super deluxe reissue. But I agree, Parade would've been preferable.

“I sincerely want to shimmy the taste out of your mouth... can you relate?”

Xposts

Tina Turner released that as a b-side twice and it was on the 2nd disc of the comp she put out in 1994 (which also contains covers of "Ball of Confusion", "Whole Lotta Love", and "Legs")

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Collected_Recordings_%E2%80%93_Sixties_to_Nineties