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He's baaaaack........don't miss him tomorrow night on SNL !!!. and his new album is due in march and the tracks i have heard are very good. i bet this will be a better album than Musicology.

My favourite favourite favourite Prince track is Erotic City. It is amazingly, blindingly, gobsmackingly good.

"Erotic City" rules.  Play the 45 often.

I'm not a massive Prince fan (as in, i've not heard much) but i'm loving Black Sweat (downloaded it earlier). It's got funk, great production and his voice sounds great.

Shake my thang to it (Erotic City) often. First heard it played in a club 3 years ago. Don't think you can beat it for funkiness.

Haha, good.  It's a weird song.  If you haven't heard it, check out "She's Always In My Hair."

Yes got the b-sides comp.

Got a dirty Dirty mind................. :P

All my homies were into Prince in Jr High'High School. I never understood his thang. Still don't understand the fascination, really. I'll take Appolonia, Vanity, Sheena Easton, Sheila E, Suzanna Hoffs, Kim Basinger and most of the women he's schtupped, anyday!

merda, i missed him on SNL.  How was it?

edit:  Saw the SNL stuff and Black Sweat on Housequake.  I wasn't really feeling musicology, but Prince is fucking BACK with this new stuff.  All of it is really really strong.  It should conquer every chart, and then a new chart should be made especially for Prince.

Awful, unfortunately.

I gotta speak up lest Ian's be the last word -- I thought  he was phenomenal. His first performance was like the best SNL performance in ten years, it was terrific. Great, great song, unbelievable guitar pyrotechnics -- and yes, some lame dancers. Knocked me out.

Bugul was kind enough to supply me with some Prince, and my mum got "Musicology" for Christmas...  But his sound doesn't really cut my mustard...  It's either ludicrously bass-heavy with him squealing over the top, or it's all wierd processed instruments and an underdone vocal...  It may just be me, but I don't hear so much 'soul' in his voice (it's even harder when it's on a bizarre production), he's either speaking or shrieking...

I don't know anything about the guy (apparently he's interesting) but his music doesn't make me funk... and I sure like some funk.

Still, I found "The Beautiful Ones" an addictive little (big) song for the most part... So 'm happy to give "Musicology" a few more spins and see what I feel.

(Yes, I know "The Beautiful Ones" isn't on "Musicology", but that's the only full album I have)

*sigh*

Listen to "Around The World In A Day."

Then you will understand.

Unbelievable as in, I can't believe the whammy bar abuse.  Oh, and he can play with one hand.

I don't know if you've noticed, but Prince has always played like that.

I'm sorry I missed it. Call it geographical bias, but I love Prince, including a lot of the allegedly bad albums. I think everything he's ever done has had moments of brilliance. Sadly, he's also got some bad sense as a self-editor, and puts out more than he ought to. He's still probably the best live performer I've ever seen, and not just in the early days. I saw him in 2004 on the Musicology tour and it was just as good as earlier shows...or better. The sound, the stage...great.

I saw him last night on SNL...I thought his performance of an otherwise okay song was fantastically over the top, simply because of that virtuoso guitar.  It was practically melting, so hot it was.  An amazing showman.

Unfortunately, I have.

 Prince is of course a genius.

He's no Rivers Cuomo.

And likewise, Rivers Cuomo is no Prince.

We shouldn't fight in here...this is the war room!

(cue JRausch with a Kubrick comment)

Yeah :)

Prince isn't just funk and sh*t.  You can't just approach him expecting some "black musical experience."  He's a song writer and he does what he does, it's that simple.  Black people don't put on Captain Beefheart looking for Frank Sinatra.

Why did this not surprise me?

...Wait, because he's black his voice must automatically ooze 'soul'?  The vocals of his I've heard sound as processed as Brians on "Imagination", which people here call lifeless dreck...

Hell, is he even black?  Is it even relevant to the discussion?  I hear white 'soul' singers like Steve Winwood and I hear very 'unsoulful' black singers like Arthur Lee... and from what I've heard, Prince.

So is 'soul' merely about the delivery, or is it about the passion (or apparent passion) inherent in a vocal?  Like I contend, the vocals on Pet Sounds, for the most part, sound as rehearsed as all buggery, and I feel that weakens their impact...  While Morrisey on "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" is one take, and emotionally devastating...

well.....i thought Prince on SNL was unbelievable .....it's great to see him tear it up on a Rock and Roll song. i have seen him 9 times ...and in the last 5 months i have seen the Stones twice U2 once and spent probably $800 bucks combined ....i would trade all that in , add $200 to have sat in the front row of SNL and sit thru the bad comedy of SNL just to watch what Prince did  on that show.

he is a Badass and as close to the Real Deal that we have in music today. His use of the whammy bar is new. He started doing it on the Musicology tour . he NEVER used it before !!!.....HE IS BLACK !.....and he sings circles around Winwood and Arthur Lee...see ADORE from sign O the times!!!!...

Or see: anything from his ENTIRE CAREER.

Judging Prince based on Musicology is like judging the Rolling Stones based on A Bigger Bang.

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called a Prince thread. It's been forever, and that's a mighty long time.

Let's go purple.

I'd be well on for compiling a post 90s WB playlist. Give me a few minutes and I will write down some of my favourites from the past 15 years or so.

I vote we use The Gold Experience as the cutoff, meaning that is the last album not eligible for song-mining for this exercise. It had "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," which was something of a hit, and after which there was definitely a serious passe vibe about Prince. (Yes, there had been that vibe before, but then NPG jump-started things with a string of hits from Diamonds and Pearls through the aforementioned Gold.) Fair enough?

My plan is to do a playlist of album length, probably in the ballpark of a dozen songs, using only post-Gold material. I'm going to work to make it flow well in addition to using the best material. We'll see how it goes. I don't promise a quick result, in that I haven't listened to some of those albums in a long, long time.

Come On - New Power Soul
Wasted Kisses - New Power Soul
Comeback - The Truth
She Loves Me 4 Me - The Rainbow Children
Family Name - The Rainbow Children
U're Gonna C Me - One Nite Alone
Supercute - The Chocolate Invasion
A Million Days - Musicology
Lolita - 3121
Future Baby Mama/Mr. Goodnight - Planet Earth
Here - MPLSound
Future Soul Song - 20Ten
Sticky Like Glue - 20Ten

Oh okay, some more to select so:

Right Back Here In My Arms - Emancipation
Somebody's Somebody - Emancipation
Joint 2 Joint - Emancipation
I Like It There - Chaos & Disorder
The Greatest Romance Ever Sold - Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic
Have a Heart - One Nite Alone

I'm nowhere near my playlist--don't expect it today--but I did want to chime in that like is the case with so many other great artists, as I listen back to these albums that I mostly ignored at the time because they didn't measure up to their predecessors' greatness, there is truly, truly some good stuff in these albums! I went through Chaos and Disorder and found myself laughing at the fact that this was written off as totally trash at the time. It's rock more than R&B and unpolished for the most part, and I won't rank it among the man's best 15 albums, even, but yet there is something worthwhile to be found there.

I know you all know this, but Prince is really to be considered alongside Dylan, McCartney, Wilson, and other greats whose careers span this kind of time. The best known hits are almost under-appreciated because of their omnipresence, and the lesser known music is under-appreciated because it doesn't stack up to the greatest work. I mean, the title track of The Rainbow Children is amazing for its musical content. I'm not a religious person and Prince's more overt proclamations in that area annoy the sh*t out of me, frankly, but this music ranks with the best jazz-fusion of that music's golden era of the early '70s.

Yeah I agree. His lesser albums still have a lot to love about them, and in some cases as with The Truth, Chaos, Old Friends, Rainbow Children and so on they have an idiosyncratic quality that is quite strange and appealing. Rainbow Children is politically, morally and logically messed up but boy does it have some great stuff on there.

Don't worry about the playlist. I have everything in my house. But if you wanna throw around a list or sequence of best post Gold Experience Prince that'd be cool!

You know I love the original but the version of Old Friends 4 Sale released by WB is a brilliant song. Really beautiful and moody.

But what I mean is that to listen, cull, sequence, etc. will take a while, so I can't even share until I do the work! But it's coming, rest assured. Possibly tonight (U.S. central time), maybe tomorrow. But it's coming. I'm actually really into this. I love when something unexpectedly gets me jazzed about a certain music again. I was just talking to a friend / ex-bandmate about being entirely uninspired the past few months and not doing anything musically. While I've been buying and listening to music, I haven't been really into it. A little Prince into my life is at least helping my day.

Ah I hear you. There is A LOT of material from 1995/1996 to now so it is definitely a tall order to sift through it all and pluck out favourites. Emancipation alone will take a fair while! One track I forgot to mention which I LOVE is Days of Wild. The live-ish version on Crystal Ball is epic and funky and sexy. A very prolific and exciting period of his career, even if it didn't quite turn out like he or us would have liked it to.

It is great when you can rekindle an old musical love, for sure. I am really glad he's back with an album. Four years has been his longest break ever and I was a little worried he might have stepped back for good.

I'm down to 43 songs representing 10 albums: Mplsound, Planet Earth, The Vault, 20Ten, Rainbow Children, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, Chaos and Disorder, 3121, Musicology, and Emancipation. Sadly, unless I finish culling the list tonight--which I won't--I'll have one or two more albums to choose from, depending on whether I get both new ones. (I'm leaning against the band album, but we'll see.)

Nice seeing the man getting some press about the new albums. The local Minneapolis Star Tribune had a story a couple weeks ago, of course--writer Jon Bream has a long love-hate relationship with Prince--but today I read an AP story as well. Hopefully there will be more. I don't like seeing national treasures ignored.

sh*t, actually I just remembered I only went through one disc of Emancipation. I have two more to go before I can really get to work. Ugh. It's pleasant work, though.

I'll add this little note: "Sticky Like Glue" from 20Ten is infectious. One might say it's ... [wait for it!] ... sticky. Like glue. ;D I flat-out love Prince's voice when he scratches a bit on "as a matter of fact, I can't stop thinkin' 'bout ya, babe." Just love it. And that track is fabulous. If it doesn't make my final playlist, his "recent" catalog is better than I remember it being, because that song is ace.

Sticky Like Glue is a jam all around. In my top 5 of the last decade, without a doubt. Tight as hell, almost Dirty Mind era in its sexuality - I mean come on, the lyric is definitely his filthiest since Come! - and it is just super catchy. I was disappointed that 20Ten didn't get a proper reception or release. I really liked that album a lot.

20Ten got a little play locally on our public radio music station, http://www.thecurrent.org. Mostly "Lavaux" and some of "Compassion," as I recall, plus (not in a good way) "Laydown." I mean, "the Purple Yoda"? Yeah, that was mocked. (I'm sure it was initially meant in good fun, actually. People look for music to be so meaningful, so serious. Prince was playing around.)

Yeah, it was meant to be goofy! There has always been that silly comedic side to his stuff. I mean Movie Star? Chili Sauce? Vibrator? The guy is a goofball.

That track was killer regardless of the lyrics anyway, which is one of my favourite Prince tricks. Yeah I'm going to give you this ridiculous line or concept but I'm going to make you like it. 

Zappa had the question (and album title) Does Humor Belong in Music?, and sadly while the answer is obviously "why not?" the world isn't quite so sure yet. Music fans take themselves, and their music, too seriously. Which isn't to say it shouldn't be taken seriously in terms of performance quality. But in terms of subject matter, of silliness, of sheer joy ... lighten up!

Prince playing the girlfriend on If a Girl Answers Don't Hang Up never fails to get a chuckle. There are some good examples of Prince playing silly characters on Art Official Age. I would also say if you are going for one album pick that one. Plectrum Electrum is pretty good but sounds less vital, less relevant.

Interesting and counterintuitive (to me) suggestion! I was thinking of the solo album because from what I understand it's more funk, where what I've heard with the band is more rock (which tends to interest me less from him). But I'll give them both a listen, maybe.

Yep that's what I meant. Plectrum Electrum is the rock album and Art Official Age is the solo and is R&B/Funk/Other good stuff. Both are good but you can tell Plectrum Electrum was sitting on the shelf for a while.

Kendrick Lamar performs with Prince. (http://www.vibe.com/article/kendrick-lamar-performs-new-music-prince)

It is a pity that so much stuff by Prince has disappeared into the out of print vacuum. Would love to see more of his stuff post Gold Experience get on Spotify and the like. So many good tracks that relatively few people have heard.

Busy week of work, sorry for the relative silence. But I did buy the solo album and have listened to it a couple times. Some of it will work its way into my latter-day Prince playlist, which I really will try to get done over the weekend.

On that topic, let me say this: leaving off "Rainbow Children" (the song) is painful. It's absolutely fantastic, I just love it. But with my goal being a playable single-length album, a 10+ minute song just can't fit in. But really, wow. If there were a Mt Vernon and Fairway style EP accompanying this Prince album I'm making, that song would be the showcase of it.

For sure, it is a great track. It is an ambitious album. Probably his most ambitious of the 00s. Leaving aside the somewhat confused politics on Family Name and the extremely long intro, that song is one of my all time favourites. When I did a career spanning mix for myself some years back I cut out that intro and put it with one of The Dawn/Gold Experience intros and it turned it into a seriously tight track and surprisingly radio friendly. I also really like Mellow on there. 

After much ado [waits for applause to die down], my latter-day Prince "album" playlist, starting with material released after The Gold Experience (so beginning with 1996). It's an era short on hits and, somewhat surprisingly, even on critical acclaim. A few of us--ok, the two participating in this thread this year--believe there is plenty of quality material to be found among the massive quantity of work from these almost 20 years. This is a single-length album that I think demonstrates the broad spectrum of the man's work while maintaining a playable cohesiveness. I definitely didn't just pick the songs I think are the best songs or performances--if I had, we'd see more ballads, semi-organically instrumentated funk, and jazz--but rather a combination of best individual songs and performances with flow.

Here it is. I do recommend you try listening as a playlist, if possible. (Start Tangerine two seconds in and you'll probably have to boost the volume on Courtin Time a little.) For those who may not have it all, I'd do a Spotify playlist but I don't think most of this is on Spotify... PM me if necessary and I'm sure we can figure it out.

Side One
1. Black Sweat - 3121 (2006)
2. Tangerine - Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic (1999)
3. So Far, So Pleased (feat. Gwen Stefani) - Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic (1999)
4. The One U Wanna C - Planet Earth (2007)
5. Breakdown - Art Official Age (2014)
6. The Gold Standard - Art Official Age (2014)
7. Courtin' Time - Emancipation (1996)

Side Two
1. The Rest of My Life - The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale (1999)
2. Sticky Like Glue - 20Ten (2010)
3. The Work Pt. 1 - The Rainbow Children (2001)
4. La-La (Means I Love U) - Emancipation (1996)
5. Musicology - Musicology (2004)
6. I Love U, But Don't Trust U Anymore (feat. Ani DiFranco) - Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic (1999)
7. FallinInLove2Nite (feat. Zooey Deschanel) - FallinInLove2Nite (single) (2014)
8. Had U - Chaos and Disorder (1996)

That's a good list. I will give it a listen later. Courtin' Time is a funny song. I will do up an album length one too and post the order here.

I always forget about La La (Means I Love U)! Nice track. The third disc of Emancipation is for whatever reason the most neglected, with the exception of Face Down.

Here is my list, coming in at a little over 60 minutes:

1. Supercute - The Chocolate Invasion
2. A Million Days - Musicology
3. Right Back Here In My Arms - Emancipation
4. Here - MPLSound
5. Future Baby Mama - Planet Earth
6. Mr. Goodnight - Planet Earth
7. Somebody's Somebody - Emancipation
8. Have a Heart - One Nite Alone...
9. Wasted Kisses - New Power Soul


10. CLOUDS - Art Official Age
11. Sticky Like Glue - 20Ten
12. Lolita - 3121
13. Come On - New Power Soul
14. She Loves Me 4 Me - The Rainbow Children
15. Comeback - The Truth
16. Future Soul Song - 20Ten 

I think I read it in one of the Uptown fanzines or the books, but the original version of OF4S may have been deleted by Prince when he recorded it as he made references to Morris, Vanity et al in it. The one leaked is a different version (if the original source about it is correct). I also think its one of his better songs. Early Prince when he was working with The Time etc was him at his best. There used to be some outtakes up on Youtube like Prince's version of 'Train' (Mavis Staples later recorded it for one of her Paisley Park label albums), 'All my Dreams', 'Moonbeam Levels', 'Grand Progression', 'Turn it Up', 'Do Yourself A Favor', 'A Place in Heaven' etc. which are among the best of his career and should have been included on the 'Crystal Ball' official bootleg comp which was released.

Interesting. You mean a more explicit reference to them? I always took the cocaine verse to be about them and the pictures verse refers to his bodyguard doesn't it?

There's some Prince i really love. My favourite album of his is probably The Rainbow Children, and i also like The Gold Experience, Lovesexy, SOTT, Purple Rain, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, the Black Album.

I have almost all of his albums, but the last few years have been pretty disappointing. Each album from Musicology onwards has been 'the comeback', but they're all pretty interchangeable. I like the MPLSound/Lotus Flower albums, they could have been a really good short single album.

Planet Earth and 20Ten are UNBEARABLE apart from Chelsea Rodgers and Laydown, so i'm gonna pass on the new ones.

The Vault from 1982 to about 1989 is untouchable. Hours of inspired tunes, but after Lovesexy, he lost something vital.

From what I remember reading, Prince recorded it and decided the lyrics were too personal so he wanted the recording wiped/deleted. Whether this wasn't & is the original version with the lyrics you've added, I'm not sure. Apparently he references Morris, Vanity ("2 friends stuck in the snow"), his ex-Bodyguard (about selling pictures), Jam & Lewis etc, but he eventually made up with them all so he decided to re-work it and this version turned up on 'The Vault' collection he did for WB. He also offered the re-worked 'Old Friends...' to Joe Cocker but he recorded '5 Women' instead which IIRC is also on 'The Vault' album.

So Prince will be performing on SNL with 3rd Eye Girl on November 1st with Chris Rock. Should be interesting.

He's doing a single, 8-minute segment. My guess is it'll be a medley that incorporates a couple new tunes to push the new album, but at least a couple of nods to the classics.

http://pitchfork.com/news/57215-prince-to-play-eight-minute-jam-session-on-saturday-night-live/

Sounds good. I see She's Always In My Hair coming out for a bit.

I liked that Lianne La Haves got a shot on SNL. Very cool. Actually exposing a new and good person to a big audience. I think it is a huge mistake to put all the Plectrum Electrum stuff on there. If anything sold any albums it was Clouds. Funk N Roll / U Know / The Breakdown / Time all have the potential to sell albums. I didn't hear any individual songs during the jam after Clouds that would make me care at all about buying Plectrum Electrum. Good performance, bad song selection.

I agree. And even a tease on an older hit might have been nice, though I'm not surprised he didn't do any.