Prince

Looper007

Even though he hasn't released anything that's rivalled his amazing run of work from the 80's. The man is a genius and still a big seller when it comes to the live scene. But damn his refusal of remastering his 80's work is annoying cause he's the only big artist who past work hasn't been given a digital touch up not cause of the label but of the man himself. Plus the rumour backlog of unreleased song's going back to his early day's would be a nice addition to these re-releases. Doesn't take away from the masterwork's like Sign of the Times and Purple Rain also underrated work like Parade and 1999. Anyway what do you think of the man's work? Here's a few favourites of mine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9hwHq_Qp60

Start of with a rare one from The Black Album, but Prince singing about wanting his way with Cindy Crawford is a tad self indulgent near the end but the first three minutes are pure pop genius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEdSiecSx5M

Could have picked any track from Sign 'O' The Times, probably the greatest work from the 80's. But this is just a awesome song.

poundhound

Ive been a fan since '84.

His 80's output was incredible, probably peaking in 87 with the "Sign o the times" album. The quality dipped in the 90's but there was still some really good output. "The Gold Experience" is still one of my favourites.
Since then the quality has nose-dived.

Just when you thought he was returning to some sort of form in 2006 with "3121", the quality then dropped again with the "Lotus flower" album.
He then releases the awful "Planet Earth" and "2010".

Not only does he refuse to remaster his back catalogue, but a lot of his material is now out of print.

His policing of the internet where he removes any youtube/facebook clips is just ridiculous.

His mentoring of protoges is something Ive always found really annoying. This reached a low point when he released his triple album "The lotus flower", when one of the CDs was essentially a solo album by his then girlfriend, Bria Valente.

Ive just finished reading Matt Thornes Prince biography "Prince". While reading the book I revisited all of Princes music and while some albums were better than I initially thought, i.e. "New Power Soul" & "Old friends for sale". A lot of it stood out as dated and repetitive.

As a huge fan of David Bowie, im aware of the dip in quality of his mid-eighties albums "Tonight", "Never let me down" and "Tin Machine". This period is brought up and often ridiculed in almost every review of his career. It amazes me that Prince has escaped the same criticism, especially considering a much greater percentage of his work has been below par.

Live he remains an incredible force. Ive seen him 5 times, (had tickets for 7 shows but 2 were cancelled). His new "project" with 3rd eye girl looks promising, but I'll buy the impending album "Plectrumelectrum" hoping for the best but fearing the worst.

His place in Rock and Roll history is assured, and I still have the feeling there's a great album (or 2) still in him. If and when its released, I wonder will he still have an audience that cares anymore.

Irish Aris

Have to say I lost track of him in the mid 90's around the Come album.
Up to then he had a string of great albums, starting with Purple Rain and ending with the Love Symbol.
I reconnected with the N.E.W.S album in 2003 and consider 3121 a great return to form. Then I lost him again as I don't feel the next 3 albums have much to offer.
I think the whole thing about not remastering the old catalogue might be related to the rivalry he had with Warner Bros back then.
I have yet to see him live, practically the last great one of the 80's that I haven't seen live.
I consider all this policing of the internet and the lawsuits utterly ridiculous.
I still hope that he will be able to release another great album in the future (this year maybe??) but having grown out of this funky sound, I don't hold my breath.

An absolute genius, that's Prince for me!!!

nlgbbbblth

My first Prince album was Purple Rain. Bought it in Cornelscourt Shopping Centre back in October 1984. Great LP.

Bought 1999 a few months later [around the time that the re-released single charted and featured on Hits 2] and then got Around The World In A Day on release day. Had caught up with his first four releases by the time Parade came out. The sequence of LPs from Dirty Mind to Lovesexy is amazing. Serious quality.

His disputes with Warners are well-documented. As well as buying the vinyl albums I picked up the CD versions in the early 1990s. Aside from Sign Of The Times [which is a poor-sounding muddy CD] the others sound great [especially Parade] and don't require remastering.

However I would like to see deluxe editions of his albums with extended versions, b-sides and the all important 7" EDITS. If the over-compressed and brickwalled mastering of 2006's Ultimate Prince is a guideline then I'd rather they didn't f*ck with the sound.

Saw him live in Cork 1990, RDS 1992 and O2 London 2007.

the immortals

Musical genius, saw him in malahide castle a couple of years ago, he was incredible, had forgotten how much I used to be into his stuff, am gonna try and catch him again if he's around Europe,

Ipso

Here is a clip of him playing with others in a George Harrison tribute, an amazing guitar solo starts at 3.30
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6SFNW5F8K9Y

I remember reading an interview with Bill Odie in Q, he is a massive fan of Prince. I seem to remember him mentioning an album called The Rainbow Children which was supposed to be very good.

poundhound

The Rainbow Children is hard listening at first.

Ive since dug it out and it has its moments but its far from one of his better albums.

It made up a large part of the set on his "One night alone" tour, when he played the Point Theatre in 2002.

I would 100% recommend the "One night alone" boxset released from the tour.
Its includes a double live album from the main shows, plus a separate CD culled from one of the after-parties.

NIMAN

No doubt he is an amazing musician, but he is living on past glories for sure, like many 'greats' (F Mac, Eagles, Rolling Stones ........)