I haven't paid enough attention to Come, clearly, if both Skip and Kurt are pushing it.
to my mind, lovesexy, black and come are a trilogy that represent the (mock?) struggles which make his work so much more than just pop porn. in the first two, it's obvious: camille battles the spookyelectric on black, and rises above on lovesexy. prince laid out as much in interviews at the time. come has much the same feel as the other two, tho it's probably the least interesting of the three. but it has much of the beautiful sparseness that defines some of his best songs (like 'joy in repitition' from grafitti bridge). But I'm fascinated by Kurt's inclusion of Rainbow Children,
which on first listen sounded like a ponderous Jehovah's Witness concept album. Should I try again?
you should absolutely try it again. the jehova stuff is easily overlooked after a couple listens, and really isn't that overt anyway. it reminds me more of the loose storybook themes he's used elsewhere ('rain is wet, sugar is sweet/clap your hands, stomp your feet/everybody, everybody knows/when love calls, you gotta go'). the album is his best entire album, start to finish, in a decade or so. great band feel, and no painfully embarassing songs.
Anyone heard One Nite Alone... Live!, the new 3CD box that just came out?
would love to hear it. i have a boot of the nyc show (which i also went to). but i think p's mission to prove that an artist can make it on his own is being done at the expense of fans. $60 for the 3 cd, and i don't know how much for the 4cd, which includes a solo piano and vocal disc that i wouldn't be happy without. eventually i'll figure a way to have it, i'm sure, but sheesh.
And where did you find the Crucial boot, Michael?
i may have said this earlier, but the crucial boot is less than crucial. kg _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
on 1/6/03 9:23 AM, Kurt Gottschalk at ecstasymule@hotmail.com wrote:
I haven't paid enough attention to Come, clearly, if both Skip and Kurt are pushing it.
to my mind, lovesexy, black and come are a trilogy that represent the (mock?) struggles which make his work so much more than just pop porn. in the first two, it's obvious: camille battles the spookyelectric on black, and rises above on lovesexy. prince laid out as much in interviews at the time.
I gotta concur here. I was a big Prince fan until LOVESEXY. When LOVESEXY came out, I was so floored. I kept playing "Alphabet St" over and over for months. Floored me then, still does now.
come has much the same feel as the other two, tho it's probably the least interesting of the three. but it has much of the beautiful sparseness that defines some of his best songs (like 'joy in repitition' from grafitti bridge).
Here I don't concur. The horn writing on COME takes it up to a level the records before never approached. It's like he finally got comfortable enough with the 70s funk influence to meet it head on and reshape it in his own image. To me, it's his richest rhythm'n'blues album. Definitely his funkiest, along with EMANCIPATION.
But I'm fascinated by Kurt's inclusion of Rainbow Children,
which on first listen sounded like a ponderous Jehovah's Witness concept album. Should I try again?
you should absolutely try it again.
He's right. It's a pretty amazing album, with all kinds of styles wound through it. Kicked my ass again and again. skip h
I'm with you all the way on this one: I actually lost interest in Prince sometime after Parade, which, as you'll no doubt astutely observe, means that I actually missed Sign o' the Times. Probably I was too deeply into my reggae and hardcore phase at the time. "Alphabet Street" got my attention enough to make me go see a show in Houston -- it was a choice between Prince in one venue and Sonic Youth on their Daydream Nation tour in another, and for some reason, at the height of my SY mania I chose Prince. That show kicked my ass so thoroughly that I went straight out and bought Lovesexy, a boot of The Black Album and eventually Sign. And I've stayed pretty interested, for better or for worse, since then. Guess I've got a couple to revisit now, though. (Ironically, it turned out that I hadn't actually had to choose between Prince and SY... rumor had it that SY attended the Prince show themselves and then started their show late. No way to verify this, of course...) Steve Smith ssmith36@sprynet.com -----Original Message----- From: skip Heller [mailto:velaires@earthlink.net] Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 12:58 PM I gotta concur here. I was a big Prince fan until LOVESEXY. When LOVESEXY came out, I was so floored. I kept playing "Alphabet St" over and over for months. Floored me then, still does now.
on 1/6/03 10:04 AM, Steve Smith at ssmith36@sprynet.com wrote:
I'm with you all the way on this one: I actually lost interest in Prince sometime after Parade, which, as you'll no doubt astutely observe, means that I actually missed Sign o' the Times. Probably I was too deeply into my reggae and hardcore phase at the time.
PARADE does have some incredible stuff on it, tho. It just takes forgetting EVERYTHING about UNDER THE CHERRY MOON. sh
Oh, I completely agree, and should clarify... As I wrote before, Parade is absolutely one of my favorite Prince albums, and contains some of his best songs. Pretty much the last hurrah of the Revolution, who were a very good band if not his best. (And happily, I never saw Cherry Moon!) It wasn't anything about Parade (or even about Prince himself) that made me lose interest... it was just the dogmatic way that I used to form and change my musical allegiances. When I say that I started buying reggae and hardcore (and then avant-jazz and free-improv), I mean that those things are pretty much the ONLY things I bought, and they just forced Prince out for a while. Thankfully, today my tastes are far more diverse and all-embracing. Steve Smith ssmith36@sprynet.com NP - Avril Lavigne, "Complicated" (at least until I can rush to the other room and turn off the radio...) -----Original Message----- From: skip Heller [mailto:velaires@earthlink.net] Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 1:12 PM To: ssmith36@sprynet.com; zorn-list@lists.xmission.com Subject: Re: O)+> on 1/6/03 10:04 AM, Steve Smith at ssmith36@sprynet.com wrote:
I'm with you all the way on this one: I actually lost interest in Prince sometime after Parade, which, as you'll no doubt astutely observe, means that I actually missed Sign o' the Times. Probably I was too deeply into my reggae and hardcore phase at the time.
PARADE does have some incredible stuff on it, tho. It just takes forgetting EVERYTHING about UNDER THE CHERRY MOON. sh
on 1/6/03 10:12 AM, Steve Smith at ssmith36@sprynet.com wrote:
Oh, I completely agree, and should clarify... As I wrote before, Parade is absolutely one of my favorite Prince albums, and contains some of his best songs. Pretty much the last hurrah of the Revolution, who were a very good band if not his best. (And happily, I never saw Cherry Moon!)
During the 1999 Tour of about 1982, where Prince and the Revolution headlined, Vanity 6 opened with the Time backing them, and the Time played the middle set, it was painfully obvious that Prince needed a better band. The Time were really serious. Prince was fantastic, but he outshined his band like you wouldn't believe. When SIGN came out, it was pretty evident that he finally had a band as good as he is.
It wasn't anything about Parade (or even about Prince himself) that made me lose interest... it was just the dogmatic way that I used to form and change my musical allegiances. When I say that I started buying reggae and hardcore (and then avant-jazz and free-improv), I mean that those things are pretty much the ONLY things I bought, and they just forced Prince out for a while.
I was listening to LOVESEXY, RAIN DOGS, LL Cool J's first album, Janet Jackson's CONTROL, the first Ambitious Lovers, and FULTON STREET MAUL together continously. Probably coincides with the fact that, at the time, I was hanging so much with Uri Caine. sh
Sounds like I have some catching up to do. I bought Prince's albums religiously from Purple Rain to Lovesexy and then I lost track. By the time he came back onto my radar (I think I'd actually bought Naked City and the first Kronos Quartet at that point and forgot all about Prince), it was the NPG period and it didn't seem very interesting at all. I figure Dirty Mind is the essential purchase from the earlier years? (I never did particularly like 1999, except for "Little Red Corvette...") Or does the greatest-hits CD I have already cover that? Later, Ben http://www.thewilyfilipino.com
participants (4)
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Benito Vergara -
Kurt Gottschalk -
skip Heller -
Steve Smith