In my opinion, the the most loudest of his recordings, and the most daring at that time. Combining all the elements of his early recordings, and then some. Definitely a good album but for me personally, i definitely have to be in the mood for it because now for me it reflects mostly the movie and i visualize the scenes from the movie when i hear a certain song from the soundtrack, which i guess is good, because therefore that makes the movie memorable right???
The question is though have you ever thought how many copies or how popular this album would really be if there was no "Purple Rain" movie to accompany it? Hmmmmmmm!
Regardless this is the one that pushed him to the stratosphere and made people sit up and take notice and once seeing the movie, made people wonder what all the hype was about this guy, which led to more sales of the album, more people to see the movie, and sold out tours from here on in.
I gotta admit, although this album is not one of the first that i grab out of my collection to listen to, but when ever it comes on cable, i cant resist leaving the channel on the movie just to re-live the moments i remember as a kid going to the theatre to see this thing.
And with this album spawned the ultimate B-side "Erotic City" and "17 Days", by this point he could no wrong, you couldn't turn on Mtv without seeing "When doves Cry" or hearing damn near every song on the album being played on the radio @ some point.
If you were one of the 20 something million to buy the actual album upon its release....yeah another poster was included. The complete band on the set of the "When doves cry" video
Standout tracks here...."When doves cry", Darling Nikki", "The beautiful Ones", and of course..."Purple Rain" (Which is basically his theme song now!!! : ) )
Monday, April 27, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
PRINCE / **1999** 1983
OK ....so this is where my opinion matters to me : )
I consider this one to be his epic, his opus, where others consider "Purple Rain" to be it, I personally think it happened here and still to this day if i had to be stuck with 3 major albums of his , then this would be the top one.
A personal favorite of mines due to the fact that he definitely hones his craft here producing, writing and performing, and we see the output of a hard working man "discovering" The Time, and Vanity 6 @ this time.
(Message....this is the first album to be credited to "The Revolution" very small and backwards in the I of his name. If you don't look @ the crazy artwork of the cover then yeah....you'll miss it)
Prince's breakthrough pop hit happens here, he becomes a staple of MTV which he was the second black artist to appear besides MJ, with "Little Red Corvette". A major tour follows with all the acts he discovered which was a pretty big tour @ the time making it appear as a revue.
He puts his clothes back on : ) and appears with a new hairstyle and solidifies the band which would be the band he will use for the next few years, with only guitarist Dez Dickerson leaving soon after 1999 releases.
What can i say about this album,...1999 kicks ass soon as the needle drops, its got funk, rock, new wave, excellent production and arrangements and the songs are stretched to the limit making most of them club hitters. His creativity @ this point is fearless and it shows all over the album. And yes...."the nasty ballad..."International Lover" .....shows you can write a song about flying a woman around the world on your own personal flight pretty awesome!!!
(XXX-tra Message.....Warner brothers gives him the freedom to put his own picture on the label of the original vinyl if you were fortunate to buy it @ that time ...it has his eye in the center of the LP which literally looks as if it moves to watch you wherever you move. and also during this period, even though Prince was already putting out additional songs as B-sides to his singles already, this is where they basically became more popular than the singles in most cases...I.E.
The single "Lets pretend we're married" spawned "Irresistable Bitch" as the B'side and was a vey popular song in underground dance clubs and various mix shows during that time. So that single was basically bought because of "Irresistable Bitch" and this trend would continue on for the next few years)
Standouts here are....1999, DMSR, Lady cab driver, and International Lover
I consider this one to be his epic, his opus, where others consider "Purple Rain" to be it, I personally think it happened here and still to this day if i had to be stuck with 3 major albums of his , then this would be the top one.
A personal favorite of mines due to the fact that he definitely hones his craft here producing, writing and performing, and we see the output of a hard working man "discovering" The Time, and Vanity 6 @ this time.
(Message....this is the first album to be credited to "The Revolution" very small and backwards in the I of his name. If you don't look @ the crazy artwork of the cover then yeah....you'll miss it)
Prince's breakthrough pop hit happens here, he becomes a staple of MTV which he was the second black artist to appear besides MJ, with "Little Red Corvette". A major tour follows with all the acts he discovered which was a pretty big tour @ the time making it appear as a revue.
He puts his clothes back on : ) and appears with a new hairstyle and solidifies the band which would be the band he will use for the next few years, with only guitarist Dez Dickerson leaving soon after 1999 releases.
What can i say about this album,...1999 kicks ass soon as the needle drops, its got funk, rock, new wave, excellent production and arrangements and the songs are stretched to the limit making most of them club hitters. His creativity @ this point is fearless and it shows all over the album. And yes...."the nasty ballad..."International Lover" .....shows you can write a song about flying a woman around the world on your own personal flight pretty awesome!!!
(XXX-tra Message.....Warner brothers gives him the freedom to put his own picture on the label of the original vinyl if you were fortunate to buy it @ that time ...it has his eye in the center of the LP which literally looks as if it moves to watch you wherever you move. and also during this period, even though Prince was already putting out additional songs as B-sides to his singles already, this is where they basically became more popular than the singles in most cases...I.E.
The single "Lets pretend we're married" spawned "Irresistable Bitch" as the B'side and was a vey popular song in underground dance clubs and various mix shows during that time. So that single was basically bought because of "Irresistable Bitch" and this trend would continue on for the next few years)
Standouts here are....1999, DMSR, Lady cab driver, and International Lover
PRINCE / CONTROVERSY 1981
Basically (in my opinion) a continuation of where he left off with "Dirty Mind" More new wave influence, more influence of sex in the lyrics and straight ahead funk all rolled up into 8 strong songs.
He focuses on what pretty much are the topics of the day (Reagan.."Ronnie talk to Russia", gun control in schools and John Lennon..."Annie Christian", and most importantly the rumors of what he is about and who he is and where did he come from in the infamous "Controversy")
By this point in his career he has put his stamp on developing "The nasty ballad"..."Do me, baby"
which was something all us fans looked foward to on every Prince album. To me, if you get "Dirty Mind" you gotta get "Controversy"
(Message....if you bought the album when it first came out like myself, you were fortunate enough to get a very strange large poster of Prince in a shower with a crucifix in the background. Very strange poster indeed but.....hey it was Prince doin what Prince does!)
Standouts here are ....Controversy, Do me baby, and the ever so funky...Lets Work!)
He focuses on what pretty much are the topics of the day (Reagan.."Ronnie talk to Russia", gun control in schools and John Lennon..."Annie Christian", and most importantly the rumors of what he is about and who he is and where did he come from in the infamous "Controversy")
By this point in his career he has put his stamp on developing "The nasty ballad"..."Do me, baby"
which was something all us fans looked foward to on every Prince album. To me, if you get "Dirty Mind" you gotta get "Controversy"
(Message....if you bought the album when it first came out like myself, you were fortunate enough to get a very strange large poster of Prince in a shower with a crucifix in the background. Very strange poster indeed but.....hey it was Prince doin what Prince does!)
Standouts here are ....Controversy, Do me baby, and the ever so funky...Lets Work!)
PRINCE / DIRTY MIND 1980
This is where the change happens. The dawn of the 80's begins, Reagan gets elected as president, John Lennon is assasinated,.....and Prince loses the perm and his clothes!?????
Not only that, but the music is now straight in your face. This is who i am, this is where i'm from, and either you're rollin with me or exit stage left attitude. This is the attitude that Sly, hendrix and George Clinton did before him and what Madonna and MJ did after him. The album rumored to be recorded in a newly built studio in a basement basically left pretty much the way that it was recorded. Very little mastering, and alot of New wave, and rock influence which was very popular @ that time.
Prince jumps head first into singing about incest, oral sex, sharing a lover with another woman and how fucked up war is in almost under 35 minutes and makes it work. Not only is the music and lyrics a change for himself and for other things that were out @ that time, but it was @ this point that his legendary stage show becomes what is considered well..."legendary"
Appearing now(as well as on the cover) in just bikini underwear and a trenchcoat, and the band he acquired wearing some of the most outrageous outfits since Parliament/Funkadelic. Totally ahead of his time and basically still considered a cult artist to most and strange to us normal people, He opened a tour for one of the biggest rock bands in history,..The Rolling Stones.
During that tour is when he got an eye opener of "get your ass off the stage" ...he was booed and the audience threw various items @ him and his band (MESSAGE!!!...if you listen to "Pop Life" on "Around the world in a day" there is a part where the music stops about 3 minutes into it and he uses a sample of that incident of chaos.. just in case you were ever wondering what that part of the song is : ) )
This is definitely an essential album to have which really gives you an insight into where this kid was going and what was to come. A must have!
Standouts here are...Uptown, Head, Partyup, When you were mine
Not only that, but the music is now straight in your face. This is who i am, this is where i'm from, and either you're rollin with me or exit stage left attitude. This is the attitude that Sly, hendrix and George Clinton did before him and what Madonna and MJ did after him. The album rumored to be recorded in a newly built studio in a basement basically left pretty much the way that it was recorded. Very little mastering, and alot of New wave, and rock influence which was very popular @ that time.
Prince jumps head first into singing about incest, oral sex, sharing a lover with another woman and how fucked up war is in almost under 35 minutes and makes it work. Not only is the music and lyrics a change for himself and for other things that were out @ that time, but it was @ this point that his legendary stage show becomes what is considered well..."legendary"
Appearing now(as well as on the cover) in just bikini underwear and a trenchcoat, and the band he acquired wearing some of the most outrageous outfits since Parliament/Funkadelic. Totally ahead of his time and basically still considered a cult artist to most and strange to us normal people, He opened a tour for one of the biggest rock bands in history,..The Rolling Stones.
During that tour is when he got an eye opener of "get your ass off the stage" ...he was booed and the audience threw various items @ him and his band (MESSAGE!!!...if you listen to "Pop Life" on "Around the world in a day" there is a part where the music stops about 3 minutes into it and he uses a sample of that incident of chaos.. just in case you were ever wondering what that part of the song is : ) )
This is definitely an essential album to have which really gives you an insight into where this kid was going and what was to come. A must have!
Standouts here are...Uptown, Head, Partyup, When you were mine
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
PRINCE / PRINCE 1979
Almost sounds like a continuation of "For you". Once again a slick, polished sound and some good tunes here, particurely "I wanna be your lover" the single which is really better if you listen to the album version and not the single edit thats 2:57 long. Gotta get that last 3 minutes of instrumental where Prince experiments a little with the disco faze that was slowly dying about this time period. Also a little known song "I feel for you" appeared here as a album cut that Chaka Khan would re-do in 1984 and totally make it one of the best damn singles of that year. Later making people go back to search for this album to hear the original in its prime.
This also starts Prince's trend of appearing nude here and there throughout the 80's on some album covers. He appears here on the back cover on a unicorn with no clothes on. Pretty unique for that time i guess.
Standout tracks here .....I wanna be your lover, Sexy Dancer(Funk at its finest), and Still Waiting.
This also starts Prince's trend of appearing nude here and there throughout the 80's on some album covers. He appears here on the back cover on a unicorn with no clothes on. Pretty unique for that time i guess.
Standout tracks here .....I wanna be your lover, Sexy Dancer(Funk at its finest), and Still Waiting.
PRINCE / FOR YOU 1978
The first album from a then unknown, teenage prodigy. Very slickly produced, and totally composed by himself. Very good tracks considering the time that it came out. Probably would have made a better albm produced for Smokey Robinson. But Prince made it work on various songs throughout the album. You can tell something was happening, but it just wasnt quite their yet. Maybe too much goin' on, maybe it should have been a little more simple. But all and all a typical late 70's album. Standouts (Soft and wet......, the single off the album, Baby, In love, and My love is forever.
what do u think???
what do u think???
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