RIP Prince

[jammindude]

Serious question: has anyone heard all of his studio albums?

All I've heard since yesterday is how everything he did turned to gold and whatnot, but I looked it up, and he had like 39 studio albums. Are you telling me every song on every album is pure gold?  I doubt that.  Don't get me wrong, I stand by my comment from yesterday about him being an innovative musical force, but this worship of him, like he was the greatest singer, greatest guitarist, greatest songwriter, etc. ever is a bit much.  It's typical when someone dies, of course, but I think a little perspective is in order.

In this respect, I would compare him to Zappa.   Not *everything* Frank did was "pure gold", but everything that he did was creative and innovative and he was extremely prolific.   He was also extremely diverse.   SO many different styles were represented that one album person A liked would be another persons coaster, and vice versa.

[ReaperKK]

That's a great comparison jammin.

[KevShmev]

I think that's a good way to look at it.

I guess I get tired of the over the top praise when these things happen. Someone on Morning Joe this morning said that Prince at the time of his height in 1984 was bigger than Michael Jackson, and I was like, uh, no, he was not. Not even close. But hey, I get that revisionist history is fun immediately following death.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

I'll wait a little longer than a day to worry about "perspective".

[Cyclopssss]

Don't know how you can even compare the two. I mean Prince wrote, produced, engireered and played practically all of his stuff himself. What did MJ write? his own vocal melodies?

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Conversation between Super Bowl XLI halftime show executive producer Don Mischer and Prince, the day of the performance:

Mischer: “I want you to know it’s raining.”
Prince: “Yes, it’s raining.”
Mischer: “Are you okay?”
Prince: “Can you make it rain harder?”

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

I've never heard all his studio albums. However I do like the music I've heard.

I went to a drum clinic for a drummer who played for Prince and he said that 70% of music that Prince has made he didn't even release and just put into a vault.

I could believe that. Prince was the kinda guy who would have very high standard for what he releases to the public. Lots of people don't realize what a savant the guy was.

[dparrott]

Never bought his music, but I like the singles I've heard, especially in the 80's.  My favorite songs would be Let's Go Crazy (esp. that ending solo!) and Alphabet Street.  And I respect his diversity and creativity.

[hefdaddy42]

Serious question: has anyone heard all of his studio albums?

No, I have been somewhat lax in the last 10 years or so.  But I have heard the majority of them.

All I've heard since yesterday is how everything he did turned to gold and whatnot, but I looked it up, and he had like 39 studio albums. Are you telling me every song on every album is pure gold?  I doubt that. 

No, I'm not telling you that.  But I'm not telling you that for any other artist/band, either.  The Beatles had some crap.  Floyd had some crap.  Zeppelin had some crap.  Same with Prince.

But there was no one else like Prince.

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Prince is the most influential artist of the 80s along with MJ IMHO. And even so, MJ only had 2 big releases in the 80s, whereas Prince had at least 5, you could make an argument for up to like 8. Both of them contributed such a gigantic amount of the sounds we hear in pop to this day.

[Cool Chris]

...everything that he did was creative and innovative and he was extremely prolific.   He was also extremely diverse.   

Statements like this usually strike me as someone talking about someone whose music people generally didn't like. Like a comedian who people just don't "get" but is still somehow funny, like it is the audience's fault they don't find him amusing.

But Prince was popular, and a lot of people enjoyed his music. So more power to him. I never got in to his music. I liked when my 80s dance club played "Little Red Corvette" (mainly because the girls liked it, and I remember really liking that video to the song he wrote for some Batman movie. I think the name change to the symbol was a bit ridiculous, self-serving, and wholly unnecessary for someone who didn't need a lot of publicity to cover up a lack of talent (like many of today's celebrities).

[Kwyjibo]

I always heard the praise too and couldn't really understand it. But then I only know the hits and some of them are good (but not what I would expect from a "genius") and some of them I don't like (Kiss is an annoying tune imo).

Is there an album that represents him best? What would be a good starting point if I wanted to try to get into his music?

[Calvin6s]

Prince Appreciation thread

[Stadler]

I always heard the praise too and couldn't really understand it. But then I only know the hits and some of them are good (but not what I would expect from a "genius") and some of them I don't like (Kiss is an annoying tune imo).

Is there an album that represents him best? What would be a good starting point if I wanted to try to get into his music?

I'm not a hard core fan, and I'm sure there are hits packages or something that are better, but IN MY OPINION, you start with Purple Rain.   It's his Thriller; to say "yeah, I'm familiar with MJ", you have to have heard "Thriller" and for Prince it is the same thing.

Here's the thing, though:  his "greatness" was often very subtle.  I don't mean that in terms of hipster "you don't get it", I mean in terms of...  a good portion Purple Rain is actually live, with studio overdubs, not unlike Starless and Bible Black by Crimson.  He was just one of those guys that knew what he wanted the final product to sound like and knew how to get that.   It wasn't "songcraft with Desmond Child", it was "I have a muse, and I'ma going to follow it, motherfucker".   There's an integrity to his process that I think gets ignored (or isn't even known) by the casual fans.   I think it wasn't until his fourth album that he had any significant outside contribution from ANY other musician (I know on his second album, he wrote and played every single note, sound, tone, etc. save for a passing harmony vocal on one song).   Aside from some horrendous album covers on those first four records, that's where he made his name. 

I think one of the greatest things I've ever heard about him was:  the record company wanted a hits package and he said no, and won the argument, releasing "Diamonds and Pearls" instead.  A year or so later, the record company wanted a hits package again, and he said no, so they actually PAID him to NOT get involved in it.  I think that is so cool.

[masterthes]

can you imagine all the unreleased stuff we might get? (if he allowed it)

[Prog Snob]

I was waiting for someone to post the Kevin Smith skit about Prince.  I wonder if Kevin has said anything. Kidding aside, I know he was a fan.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

CD copies of nearly every Prince album are temporarily out of stock on Amazon.

[Kotowboy]

CD copies of nearly every Prince album are temporarily out of stock on Amazon.

They were before too He didn't like people being able to get ahold of his music

[hefdaddy42]

I think the name change to the symbol was a bit ridiculous, self-serving, and wholly unnecessary for someone who didn't need a lot of publicity to cover up a lack of talent (like many of today's celebrities).

The name change was to call attention to the relationship between artists and labels (the label says "jump" the artist says "how high?").  It wasn't for personal publicity.

[King Postwhore]

Exactly what Hef said.

[Harmony]

can you imagine all the unreleased stuff we might get? (if he allowed it)

Yes, I can imagine it:  https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31962180

[WebRaider]

I was waiting for someone to post the Kevin Smith skit about Prince.  I wonder if Kevin has said anything. Kidding aside, I know he was a fan.

"The music of ‪#‎Prince‬ was essentially the soundtrack to my life. My first girlfriend introduced me to his work, so any teenage heavy petting session was scored by the lusty purple pipes of his Royal Badness. #1999 and ‪#‎PurpleRain‬ were some of the first albums I ever bought. In 1989, his ‪#‎Batman‬ soundtrack never left my rack system. When we made ‪#‎Clerks‬ in 1993, the Love Symbol album was on a constant loop in my car's cassette player. @samosier & I were almost killed on the Turnpike in the pouring rain when our car momentarily slid under an 18-wheeler as we were funking out to 'My Name Is Prince' (we sang only 'The Morning Papers' for the rest of the way home). My wife & I flew to Minnesota for the Rave Un2 the Y2K concert at ‪#‎PaisleyPark‬ at the turn of the century, solely as fans. Less than a year later, I'd meet and work with the icon himself when I returned to Paisley Park to shoot a documentary with Prince during his Rainbow Children album listening party. I was lucky to have spent any time with him at all but I was far luckier just simply being alive in the Prince era. His music moved me, his lyrics captured my imagination, his journey from musical Minnesotan to worldwide superstar inspired me. I honestly thought I'd die before Prince - so it's sad to think there will be no new music in which he could sing us his point-of-view on the rest of his unique and legendary life. But having spent time at Paisley Park with the prolific Prince, I know there's a vault full of unreleased tracks we've still yet to hear. I told a long story about my week-long experience of working with Prince on the first Evening with Kevin Smith DVD - a story that would go on to help solidify my reputation outside of filmmaking as a raconteur. So as much as I got from Prince as a fan of good music, he also helped to shape ol' Silent Bob's second career as a talker. I cried today because I realized what a role model Prince always was to me: an Artist with a capital A who was not afraid to bite the hand that fed, never hesitated to reinvent himself, and was always entertaining on any stage. Today we lost one of the greatest Artists who ever lived. RIP, purple genius. Nothing compared 2 U..."

[Outcrier]

Poor Prince and MJ. They have other great albums, but is all about Thriller this, Purple Rain that 

[King Postwhore]

Not really. It's just their most visible albums to the masses.

I've heard a ton of songs from other albums all over radio talk shows this week.

[Cool Chris]

The name change was to call attention to the relationship between artists and labels (the label says "jump" the artist says "how high?").  It wasn't for personal publicity.

Wow, interesting, I did not know that. Thanks to HefDaddy for the facts.

[WebRaider]

I'm a long-time massive fan and still kind of shook up today and expect to be to some extent for a while. I wish that I could answer to those looking for what they don't/haven't seen with regards to Prince's "genius" but I think to a large measure it does simply come down to you either "get it" or you don't (although we often come around to some things at different times in our lives as well). We connect with the things we relate with/to and I understand those who might not be able to grasp it personally.

I hope at some point I might be able to compile some stuff to help those who want to dig deeper into his work. For me, at any moment he could play on the level of Jimi Hendrix, lead a band and perform on the scale of James Brown, woo a crowd over like Elvis, compose complex songs or simple hit songs as well like the Beatles, all while constantly pushing boundaries in every step of the way. That may sound like "fan boy'ing" at its finest but there's much more truth in all of that than might be on the surface.

[Cyclopssss]

His third album, ´Dirty Mind´ is all pre/production demo´s. He listened to them and said. Well, these sound so good, I´m not going to spend any money at expensive studio time, I´m gonna release this as it is.  And it sounds great.

The man didn´t sleep for six days a week. It was all work. Record, Rehearse and so on. I´ve heard stories of him re-writing horn parts for four hornplayers within ten minutes. 

[Kotowboy]

I remember when he released Emancipation - which was a triple album - as he had 3 albums left on his WB contract and he wanted to get out of it.

It didn't work

Green Day said they checked that ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tre! counted as 3 albums and they don't . Which is weird as they're 3 seperate albums - released seperately.

Emancipation was one triple album.

[KevShmev]

I always heard the praise too and couldn't really understand it. But then I only know the hits and some of them are good (but not what I would expect from a "genius") and some of them I don't like (Kiss is an annoying tune imo).

Is there an album that represents him best? What would be a good starting point if I wanted to try to get into his music?

I hate the song Kiss, too.  That falsetto is just annoying in that tune.

Don't know how you can even compare the two. I mean Prince wrote, produced, engireered and played practically all of his stuff himself. What did MJ write? his own vocal melodies?

The two most popular songs from the biggest album ever (Beat It and Billie Jean), one of which is arguably the most popular and loved song of modern culture.

All I've heard since yesterday is how everything he did turned to gold and whatnot, but I looked it up, and he had like 39 studio albums. Are you telling me every song on every album is pure gold?  I doubt that. 

No, I'm not telling you that.  But I'm not telling you that for any other artist/band, either.  The Beatles had some crap.  Floyd had some crap.  Zeppelin had some crap.  Same with Prince.

But there was no one else like Prince.

Agreed.  My brother and I talked about this last night, how Prince was always a weird guy, just like most other creative, artistic geniuses.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

[splent]

His musicianship was so amazing... He was a BEAST at guitar...
Apparently someone asked Clapton how it feels to be the worlds greatest guitarist and he replied "I don't know ask Prince". I've seen plenty of videos of him playing and he was a virtuoso. There is no other way to describe it. That and the fact that he played ALL instruments on his first album... Mind blowing.

[orcus116]

I was waiting for someone to post the Kevin Smith skit about Prince.  I wonder if Kevin has said anything. Kidding aside, I know he was a fan.

I saw this a few weeks ago and it was one of the most fascinating stories I've heard in awhile. I've been on a Kevin Smith kick ever since. Say what you want about the guy but he's a great storyteller and he has some really great ones.

[?]

I'm not that familiar with his work, but Purple Rain is such a great song.

RIP

[DragonAttack]

WebRaider:  acknowledging your heartfelt posts from a true fan (wish one could check 'like' on posts). 

I never was, though I respected the hell out of his talents.  I can only name a handful of songs......just as others may only be able to name a handful (if any) of various artists I follow. 

Thanks for sharing.

[article and follow up on his Balto concert after the riot]
https://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/music/bs-md-prince-concert-20150510-story.html

Baltimore Sun Times, 6/3/15
Tidal raises $35,000 during Prince's charity concert in Baltimore
A press release from Prince’s publicist states that NAACP’s Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) will get an undisclosed amount of money, in addition to Baltimore YouthWorks and OneBaltimore programs.

[Cyclopssss]

Don't know how you can even compare the two. I mean Prince wrote, produced, engireered and played practically all of his stuff himself. What did MJ write? his own vocal melodies?

The two most popular songs from the biggest album ever (Beat It and Billie Jean), one of which is arguably the most popular and loved song of modern culture.

Alright, I stand corrected.