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Joined: November 29 2006
Location: Israel
Status: Offline
Points: 6632
Posted: September 12 2014 at 02:12
I think he's a really good guitar player but I can't stand he's music too much.
But I remember seeing him performing on Saturday Night Live and doing one hell of a version to Fury, with some really killer guitar playing, I mean I couldn't believe it's the same Prince. You should check it out if you like him so much.
Joined: October 12 2011
Location: Melb, Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 7951
Posted: September 12 2014 at 02:45
Guys, please check out his albums `N.E.W.S', an instrumental prog/fusion album (I remember playing this years ago to Tom Ozric without him knowing who it was, and during the second track he said `Is this Crimson?!"
Also, `The Rainbow Children' is his psychedelic prog Jehovah's Witness concept album classic! Santana/fusion style workouts, psychedelic colours, ambitious lyrical concepts, lengthy instrumental soloing. Sounds like nothing else....and it was probably the last time Prince sounded so inspired.
Joined: November 29 2006
Location: Israel
Status: Offline
Points: 6632
Posted: September 12 2014 at 04:02
Aussie-Byrd-Brother wrote:
Guys, please check out his albums `N.E.W.S', an instrumental prog/fusion album (I remember playing this years ago to Tom Ozric without him knowing who it was, and during the second track he said `Is this Crimson?!"
Also, `The Rainbow Children' is his psychedelic prog Jehovah's Witness concept album classic! Santana/fusion style workouts, psychedelic colours, ambitious lyrical concepts, lengthy instrumental soloing. Sounds like nothing else....and it was probably the last time Prince sounded so inspired.
Sounds cool, I'm intrigued now. I'll check out if there are any samples to listen to.
Joined: October 12 2011
Location: Melb, Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 7951
Posted: September 12 2014 at 04:20
Sagichim wrote:
Aussie-Byrd-Brother wrote:
Guys, please check out his albums `N.E.W.S', an instrumental prog/fusion album (I remember playing this years ago to Tom Ozric without him knowing who it was, and during the second track he said `Is this Crimson?!"
Also, `The Rainbow Children' is his psychedelic prog Jehovah's Witness concept album classic! Santana/fusion style workouts, psychedelic colours, ambitious lyrical concepts, lengthy instrumental soloing. Sounds like nothing else....and it was probably the last time Prince sounded so inspired.
Sounds cool, I'm intrigued now. I'll check out if there are any samples to listen to.
Went to try and find you some clips, Sagi, but the Purple Phreak himself has some pretty severe restrictions about Youtube using his music, so I've drawn a blank!
Edited by Aussie-Byrd-Brother - September 12 2014 at 04:20
Joined: April 01 2009
Location: Atlanta
Status: Offline
Points: 26138
Posted: September 12 2014 at 05:50
While I can't call myself a fan, I have enjoyed a lot of his music at arms' distance. Like everyone else in my generation, I went ga ga over Purple Rain. My wife is a more devoted fan, and may or may not have all of his albums, I may need to investigate some of the ones mentioned above that I haven't heard yet.
Two Prince-related anecdotes:
-- in high school, I was listening to my copy of Purple Rain, and in fact I was "air-guitaring" to the title track. You know the climactic bit when the singing stops and the guitar solo comes in? I was all ready to take a running down the hallway, landing on the ground again when the first guitar note hits. Instead, I jumped right into the doorway and opened my head up, with blood everywhere. 20 stitches I think. Rock and roll!
-- much later, my sister was visiting me, and we went out to a bar together. A DJ from the local "alternative station" (this was the mid 90s) had a booth set up at the bar and was giving away tickets to an exclusive Prince show, one of those small-venue things. I don't think he'd performed live or toured in a while (maybe this was during his legal dispute). However, I hadn't followed Prince in about 10 years so I was indifferent to the whole thing. But it turns out I won the tickets! Almost immediately I was set upon by rabid Prince fans, dressed in Prince gear for the occasion, offering me money for the tickets I just won. I can't remember how much I sold them for, but I was told later that I could have gotten much more - it was that kind of show. Looking back, I wish I'd gone to the show, it was probably amazing -- later on I saw a live performance on TV from this period and it was pretty excellent -- but the rabid Prince fans weren't going to take no for an answer.
edit: oh, one more thing -- the only Prince I own on CD (not counting my wife's collection) is a 2 disc collection of his hits. I acquired it by finding it, and several more CDs,, strewn all over the road in a residential neighborhood. It was as if an irate driver just got so mad he threw all his CDs out the window. Or maybe the result of a domestic dispute? The CDs had no case, but they were in decent enough condition for me to keep them. I think there was also an "I Love the 80s" compilation CD that just happened to have a lot of my favorite songs from that era (e.g. "Heart and Soul" by Huey Lewis, etc)
Edited by HolyMoly - September 12 2014 at 05:56
My other avatar is a Porsche
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased.
Joined: October 12 2011
Location: Melb, Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 7951
Posted: September 12 2014 at 07:44
Hahaha, pretty cool stories though, Steve!
A good mate and I went to an aftershow party he was due to attend following one of his shows in Melbourne, and a whole bunch of us fans waited two hours from him to appear. He did, walked over to the DJ, picked out a few records...and then left!
Still, my friend and I were about a meter away from him, it was surreal how small the guy was!
Other than that....not too many exciting `rock' stories to tell! Probably the highlights would be threatening a security guard to ensure I got my Goblin LP's signed, trying to break into the back of a venue with some obsessive interstate fans to get to Porcupine Tree, and incurring the icy glare of Adrian Belew after asking about the upcoming King Crimson shows at the recent Crimson Trio gig!
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
Posted: September 12 2014 at 08:09
Big thumbs-up for Purple Rain and Around the World in a Day but I'm not at all familiar with the rest of his discography (I've got a copy of Planet Earth somewhere but I think I've only played it once or twice). I do admire his showmanship and guitar playing, I've shown this video several times because I love it:
Joined: October 05 2013
Location: SFcaUsA
Status: Offline
Points: 15243
Posted: September 12 2014 at 09:28
I'm a fairly big Prince fan, however he exhibits the same syndrome as Zappa meaning he releases EVERYTHING indiscriminantly. I own almost every album save a few of the newer ones. The thing about the majority of Prince albums is there are always a few outstanding tracks padded with too much filler but there are a few albums where i like the majority.
My faves are:
Dirty Mind 1999 Purple Rain Parade Sign O The Times The Black Album Lovesexy Come The Gold Experience 3121 The Vault
Getting his Hits /' B Sides offers some interesting non-album releases but the actually hits on the stand alone or boxed set versions yields truncated tracks so take "When Doves Cry" for example, gets the whole cool keyboard solo at the end cut off.
I saw the Purple one a couple years ago and was disappointed in his live show. I'll stick to his studio albums but it is amazing he is still churning out material almost 40 years after his origins in Minnesota
Joined: May 22 2007
Location: Michigan, U.S.
Status: Offline
Points: 66259
Posted: September 12 2014 at 09:51
I'm not a fan and couldn't stand him in high school during the Purple Rain days....but find that despite my dislike for those songs then, I don't mind them so much these days when they occasionally crop up within my vicinity.
I can't sing a lick, but back in my bar going days, I had a friend who owned a karaoke machine and he was hired to entertain at the bar that we hung out at. When nobody would go up to get it started he talked me into going up. He had me sing 1999. Needless to say the result was either "if this idiot can get up there and sing in front of us, then we can do it too" or "damn we'd better get up there and sing so they don't keep having that horrible singing guy sing all night".
Joined: July 22 2008
Location: Orlando
Status: Offline
Points: 80
Posted: September 12 2014 at 19:01
My favorite album from the 80's would be either Dirty Mind or Controversy. I just always liked the raw sound of them. He wasn't trying to please anybody and he did it so well.
The 1990's, I would say Chaos and Disorder, Love Symbol album, The Gold Experience, and Emancipation. I like when he's being strange. That period definitely shows that he was out for the music.
IMO, after the 90's his music kind of went blah for me.
However, I will say as a live performer he's held up pretty well. From everything I see of him on TV and the internet, he still has the edge in that.
''I always had the repulsive need to be something other than human''-David Bowie
Joined: August 30 2014
Location: Poole, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 246
Posted: September 16 2014 at 19:05
Prince did a great deal of a good job, I like the fellow myself. My favs of him would be, probably out of nostalgia a bit, Raspberry Beret and When Doves Cry. He's cool
Writing about truth is a little bit like getting your dick out in public and hoping no one laughs (Steve Hogarth)
Thanks for starting this thread, ZiggyStardust360. Count me as a big
Prince fan! Though my knowledge of his music trailed off around the time he
adopted that "symbol" for a name in the early 90's.
I love the self-titled sophomore album. Not my favorite, but I think is underrated among his fans. I always get a chuckle from his hairdo on this one...
Let's not forget his "side
projects" like Madhouse, and his involvement with nurturing the careers
of The Time/Morris Day and Shelia E.
I don't get
bothered by people who don't like his music though. I can see why he
might be too "weird" or "annoying" for some, but I don't think it can be
argued he wasn't an original.
Joined: April 29 2006
Location: Atlantais
Status: Offline
Points: 29630
Posted: September 17 2014 at 20:42
Not a big one, I went to see Musicology live at the theater with my wife, we each got a free CD. I like the music on that one. Someone on this site recommended The Rainbow Children. I think I like the former one better.
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...
Joined: October 12 2011
Location: Melb, Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 7951
Posted: September 17 2014 at 20:53
I think it was me that recommended `The Rainbow Children', Starti!
`Musicology' was a fine album, but very straightforward by comparison. I think it was an attempt at getting back a commercial appeal, but I don't know if that happened for him or not. If you like that one, the follow-up `3121' is pretty damn fine as well.
`The Rainbow Children' sounded like nothing else at the time, totally schizophrenic and more or less career suicide! The guy sounded so inspired and free, so much colour and variety, totally self-indulgent as well, but it sounds like no other artist!
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