prince

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

I heard her Whole Lotta Love and Legs, but never LPWM

Damn that comp looks righteous, I’m going to go find that

Will be curious to see how D&P deluxe sells. I know it was a big hit but I don’t know that it has aged well at all. Is it Prince’s New Jersey?

bummed that Parade is pushed back for this, that's the one I'm most excited for

Prince has had multiple New Jerseys: Batman, Love Symbol, Musicology, arguably Emancipation

its also the 40th anniversary of the controversy album. but i guess i will have to make do with a CD of multiple house mixes of gett off and cream :( as its the 5th anniversary of his death, they could have released three deluxe editions (in my mind at least) but im guessing they are drip feeding us.

D&P was his big 90s album. nothing else sold as much after the 80s. its kind of like his lets dance.

imo Love Symbol is his New Jersey zenith purely in commercial terms when looking over his career in terms of before and after

(allowing for relative commercial dips and resurgences 1985-1991)

What is Come then?

fucking great iirc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicology_(album)

^^^ went platinum

With roughly 95% of those copies (if not more) having been given away to concertgoers.

was that the newspaper giveaway?

He debuted two albums as free newspaper giveaways in the UK; Musicology was just given away on the seats for that year's tour.

^ Planet Earth (2007) and 20Ten.

musicology had "call my name" on it so i'm sure plenty of ppl actually bought it rather than a concert ticket lol

Reflection on musicology (with wendy on guitar as it happens) was the best thing on there.

Batman is too weird and good to qualify as a NJ

I feel like Lovesexy is his New Jersey

it had a huge hit in Alphabet Street, still felt like a new Prince album was an event, but also felt like the end of the classic era, he'd have hits after that but it always felt like a legacy artist having hits

at the time Love Symbol almost felt like a comeback

some of this is "how old were you when you first watched SNL"

Lovesexy was my first Prince LP and is often still my favourite

i'm not saying it's bad, it's a good album

but it's the end of the era

hmm tho diamonds and pearls is messing up my theory..i forget how big that album was just because i think it pretty much stinks