prince

Had the chance to visit Paisley Park last week and let me enthusiastically recommend it to any Prince fan. There's some corny stuff of course but mostly just a real privilege to be inside all of these spaces that he designed and occupied. I just did the basic tour, so I don't know what you see on the pricier ones, but got to see his funny little diner kitchen, his office, recording studios, soundstage, and of course the club area where he had shows all the time. All packed with his instruments and outfits, handwritten lyrics, etc. Just super cool. It included the actual drum machine and keyboard used on "When Doves Cry" among lots of other stuff. (Also it was cute and very Prince-like that they're very protective about what you can take pictures of. You're only allowed to photograph in the more public areas, where lots of people were allowed anyway when he was alive. They make you put your phone in a little lock pouch for most of the tour.)

It is also kind of endearing that he built it in basically a generic suburban office park.

Totally. I've driven by many office buildings in the Chicago suburbs that look similar from the outside. Anyway, I've always loved this anecdote:

I remember taking him to the hardware store in my camping van. He wanted to go buy a lock. And we go to Ace Hardware—it’s snowing and freezing—and I say, “Okay, Prince, you stay in the car.” So I’m picking stuff up in the aisles, I look over, he just cruises by in a turtleneck sweater and his fuzzy boots, and people are looking like, “Oh my God, Prince is in the hardware store!” He comes and finds me and he’s got a handful of crap—like, “Can we buy this?” I’m, “What did you do with the car?” He says, “It’s out there—it’s just running.” I said, “Prince, you can’t leave the car running—somebody could just steal the car.” He said, “This is Chanhassen—nobody’s gonna steal the car.” So we get out to the car and sure enough it’s out there, just running, smoke coming out of the tailpipe. And he’s like, “I told you.”

https://consequence.net/2016/12/princes-closest-friends-remember-some-of-his-funniest-strangest-moments/

it's funny that there will be people who get excited by an "unreleased" prince record when there's like 20 most people have never heard on streaming right now

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, April 14, 2021 2:49 PM (three months ago)

OTM.

Welcome 2 America has already leaked and the press (particularly quite a few who were down on Prince's latter day work) are overpraising this like it's a lost classic - the standard line is why did Prince keep this in the vault when it blows away everything he did in the last 20 years? Total horse shit.

It's not a bad album, it has that going for it, but a lot of it's underwhelming. I guess it's a more consistent listen - there's no syrupy material or boring, smooth jazz excursions that I wish he would have tossed out for better tracks - but Musicology, 3121, Art Official Age and Hit n' Run Phase Two are all better albums. I'll even throw in Lotusflow3r and MPLSound - the highlights on those are better and more memorable than the ones here. (I'll note that "When She Comes" also appears on Hit n' Run Phase Two - sounds like it could be the same take but without the horn section and a few other overdubs. Another track was also re-done as the coda to the magnificent "Black Muse" on the same album.)

THANK YOU. I was on the verge of ordering this based on the AVclub review, but I was still hesitating because I'm not down with Prince after Come.

You're welcome. Also it's strange to see some rave reviews claim this is better than any of his recent work while singling out "When She Comes" and "1000 Light Years From Here" as highlights - none of them seem to recognize those tracks from Hit n' Run Phase Two. Anyway, they are good, but they're not even the best tracks on Hit n' Run Phase Two.

(or rather best parts of Hit n' Run Phase Two. "1000 Light Years From Here" is again the coda to a better song that's pretty awesome.)

Come, however ... since you mention it @Cow_Art ... is quite underappreciated.

I will revisit Come one of these days. I wasn't a fan, but I really enjoyed that fan-made Prince album stitched together from his early-mid 1990s material (including stuff from Come), so I should give it another chance. Besides, it's not like I'm averse to that era - I actually love The Gold Experience, I really like a lot of Emancipation (there's like a great 90-minute double-LP in those three hour-long CD's), and The Truth and Chaos & Disorder are pretty good for a pair of albums that were tossed off and thrown together.

With Welcome 2 America, the disappointment isn't surprising. Put within its original context, you get the impression that Prince was really stretching himself thin. In 2009, he released THREE albums, all packaged together as one purchase - two under his own name and a Bria Valente album that he wrote, produced and performed. Had he dropped the Valente album and embraced the idea of a more eclectic album (not exactly a new concept for Prince), he could have had an excellent LP that was buried within those discs. The following year, he finishes two more albums, Welcome 2 America and 20Ten, and the one he did put out was easily his weakest in a long while. I don't blame him for taking a four year break from releasing a studio album because he really needed to slow down and work on quality control. What came next, 2014's Art Official Age, was a good, underrated album IMHO - kudos to Ben Greenman and Greg Kot for recognizing that.

The official podcast on the album is good for anecdotes at least.

One strange thing about Welcome 2 America - a lot of it (maybe all of it) was supposedly mastered from a CD-R. I'm not sure if that's entirely true, but it's the explanation for the glitches people have been hearing on the CD and hi-res downloads of the album. (I have not heard whether or not these glitches are audible on the vinyl edition.) It's most audible on "Stand Up And B Strong" for almost the entire track, and I actually thought it was simply the result of a bad rip (a dirty or scratched CD, etc.) but I guess that's actually the source Prince's estate had to work with.

And Jon Pareles of The New York Times is the first reviewer to point out that Hit n Run Phase Two reworked two of the tracks, though it's the type of review that's more descriptively analytical than critical or passing judgment.

carefully so, yes

Thank you, Twitter, for for once guessing what I'd like to see correctly:

since Matt Damon is trending pic.twitter.com/jsdwEDedWC

— laura olin (@lauraolin) August 1, 2021

That's right up there with Westerberg's story: “The first time I met him was at a urinal at a nightclub in St. Paul...There he was, and I said, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ And he answered, ‘Life.’" It's hilarious how these perfect responses just came to the guy.

Is anyone else flipping out over the vault tracks on the 1999 super deluxe reissue? It's like an alternate universe version of the album that's just as good. Unreal that tracks like Purple Music, Rearrange, and If It'll Make U Happy have been unreleased for so long

― J. Sam, Wednesday, December 4, 2019 8:08 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Continuing to flip out over the 1999 vault tracks today. Easily my favorite vault set so far, but I'm partial to that era. If Parade is indeed the next super deluxe release, I'm psyched for that but I really can't wait to see what they've got for Dirty Mind and Controversy

"Purple Music" is so incredible

Isn't Diamonds and Pearls next? Blurgh

I’ve been listening to the ‘hallway version’ of Computer Blue…unbelievable…just wonderful…they don’t make em like Prince anymore that’s for sure

How come at the end of Little Red Corvette, after all the extended sports car metaphors, Prince suddenly declares his love object must be a limousine? Isn't that a step down? Smooth or no, limos ain't no Vette.

The ride is so sweet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEAZaLRBb90

Beautiful. I really hope they do a box set on the Dirty Mind/Controvery era - hell, I'll take one for each album.

Hnnngngng it's so good. I'm hoping this means Controversy deluxe is coming soon, but it looks more like a one-off single for the 40th anniversary of the album's release

It's probably in the pipeline. When the guy handling the estate was promoting the Sign 'O' the Times box set, he basically said the next two or three sets were already being worked on.

How come at the end of Little Red Corvette, after all the extended sports car metaphors, Prince suddenly declares his love object must be a limousine? Isn't that a step down? Smooth or no, limos ain't no Vette.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, October 13, 2021 8:17 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

he just misspoke. was distracted for a second when he reached in his pocket by mistake and touched all those sticky used rubbers.

The limo choice at the end was always obvious to me - someone else is driving! Or, conversely, he did say he likes to ‘watch!’

guys, limos are luxury rides that you can stretch out in; this is not complex

So ... red corvette is too fast, he wants a limo, something slower and classy that he can stretch out in? Like, "You're too fast, you shouldn't be a corvette, you must be a limousine!"

sometimes, when a pop star and a metaphor love each other very much,

So... does she have a pocket of jizzy rubbers or does he mean empty condom wrappers? I've always assumed the former, but that's funky as hell and raises other questions.

I see the "you must be a limousine" lyric as a companion to

You got a smile so bright
You know you could've been a candle
The way you swept me off my feet
You know you could've been a broom
And baby you smell so sweet
You know you could've been some perfume

As pretty as you are
You know you could've been a flower
If good looks were minutes
You know you could have been an hour
The way you stole my heart
You know you could have been a crook
And baby you're so smart
You know you could have been a schoolbook

You make my life so rich
You know you could've been some money
And baby you're so sweet
You know you could have been some honey

The limo thing throws me off, because up to that point it's been all about the girl as Corvette, plus a bunch of muddled wordplay/metaphors about horses/horsepower (that could be the "used" horses line)/Trojans/Trojan horses, etc. Probably would have worked better if he said "you *should* be a limousine." Like, take it easy, slow down, enjoy the ride. But "I say the ride is so smooth, you *must* be a limousine" throws off his already sloppy metaphor.

I feel like "Trojans and some of them used" is pretty explicit but I guess it could be wrappers?

Prince was a giant weirdo though

gotta get 2-3 usages in before you throw em out, efficiency!

Yeah, it’s gotta be jizzy condoms, right? Who the hell would do that? In my experience the dude usually takes care of disposing of that. Did she ask her guys for their juicy rubber?

people collect a variety of items, and ya know

I think Diamonds and Pearls is still next, but I'm hoping Parade may be close behind - three vault goodies were aired out in a special screening of Under the Cherry Moon at Paisley Park!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwN_5LLOLZA

Parade might be my favourite Prince LP, but I really like Diamonds & Pearls too.

Ha, never heard this story before:

Singer/songwriter Jonathan Cain tells Billboard that he was notified in early 1984 that Prince wanted to speak with him. Curious, Cain went to Columbia Records’ offices in Los Angeles and took a call from Prince, who told Cain, “I want to play something for you, and I want you to check it out. The chord changes are close to ‘Faithfully'” — a top 20 single from Journey’s 1983 album Frontiers — “and I don’t want you to sue me.” After listening, Cain says, “I thought it was an amazing tune, and I told him, ‘Man, I’m just super-flattered that you even called. It shows you’re that classy of a guy. Good luck with the song. I know it’s gonna be a hit.’

“And it was ‘Purple Rain.'”

The two songs definitely share more than just similar chords, including the wordless outer vocals and the tone of the guitar solos. “Prince felt, I guess, it was obvious enough that he was worried we were going to sue him,” Journey guitarist Neal Schon recalls. “I think he called our office asking about it and we all talked about it and everybody said, ‘Nah, it’s the highest form of flattery. Let it go.'” But Cain never had a moment’s second thought about even asking for a co-writing credit on the anthem. “No, no, that’ll just bring bad juju on you, and you don’t want to do that,” Cain says. “I just thought it seriously showed the kind of caring, classy guy Prince was. He wanted to check in with Jonathan Cain and make sure I wasn’t going to say, ‘That sounds like ‘Faithfully.'” There’s so many other things that have come down the pike that were more of a rip-off, that have stolen Journey songs. There was a One Direction song I was upset about and I just let it roll. But that particular phone call (from Prince) was amazing.”

hehe very nice

There were perks for playing ball too. “He got me these amazing seats at the Purple Rain Tour show when he played the Cow Palace in San Francisco, and I thought it was ridiculous how cool it was,” Cain says.

i can't tell you the number of times i've heard "ask forgiveness, not permission" like it's some kind of badass business truism and this story just shows you how wrong that mentality is if you actually want to operate in a way that fosters and shows respect for others

Aka The "Weird" Al Corollary.

Key takeaways from that are (a) cool that Prince behaved in a classy manner about that abut also (b) why is "Purple Rain" such a mind-blowingly better song than "Faithfully" if they allegedly share so many ingredients?

never noticed at all

“faithfully” sounds kinda like “winner takes it all” by ABBA to me

is "purple rain" that much better than "faithfully"?

it's definitely the prince classic i would be 100% okay with never hearing again

The chord changes in the intro of the Journey song are the same as the intro/verse chords of "Purple Rain", and the lead guitar melodies are similar.

the substance of "purple rain" and "faithfully" aren't that similar, just vaguely similar chords & a similar overall feeling. closest thing is one guitar line in "faithfully" that "purple rain" has something close to but it's not enough to call "purple rain" a rip of it or anything.