The Feature Formerly Known As Friday Canon: Prince

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

By a kind of popular demand, here is the hugest Friday Canon yet, dedicated to the Purple One (now on a comeback tip I hear), Prince. Of course because the Friday Canon deals with UK top 40 hits, some of his best songs can't make it here (I'm particularly sad not to see "Dirty Mind") but there's plenty here to be going on with. Inventor of textspeak, and by some reckonings the most talented man of the 80s - by the one-third rule you get THIRTEEN picks across his career: use them wisely.




[Poll #683904]

Comments

[zenith.livejournal.com]

Thirteen is NOT ENOUGH!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It's worth pointing out to fans of early prince that the reissue of "Controversy" is tucked away in tranche 3 of the lists.

[tommygrand.livejournal.com]

I can't believe only 2 other people picked that.

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

I couldn't tick thirteen. I mean, the ones I ticked I do really love ("Raspberry Beret", "Let's Go Crazy", "Get Offf", amazing), but generally, Prince... meh. Talented, but melodically overrated. Best with Wendy & Lisa, possibly.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

There are more Prince songs I don't know than I thought there were.

Looking at the third section, I wonder why Madonna's slip in quality with age attracts universal derision (even though I don't think there's even that much of a slip) whereas Prince's (which is massive) goes unremarked upon.

Diamonds & Pearls was the first Prince I consciously heard hence emphasis on those singles.

[zenith.livejournal.com]

Prince's falling off actually happened a lot EARLIER than Madge, so I think it's just the derision has been and gone. Trust me, there was PLENTY of derision circa being called &-> and being a SLAVE.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

ah that old YOUTH chestnut again - surely D&P was not part of this mental period though? I wasn't aware of the music press until the late 90s though.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

D+P was last non-mental record.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

one (non-sexist) reason = prince put records out at much shorter intervals, then WENT MAD (symbol/slave era) and put records out much more rarely w/o big media push from his (new?) record company

i think madge is better now than she ever was but i am nuts

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

'Die Another Day' is in my top 10 Madge songs! And it's off a total point-and-laugh album (which is about a quarter ace but never mind).

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

american life = two thirds ace, say I

actually Lex, I think you're exaggerating the level of Madonna derision there's been as far as her music goes (my impression is that most of the derision has been reserved for her movies)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think because Madonna still has huge hits - a lot of the later Prince stuff only got to no.30 or so.

Also it was remarked upon LOADS at the time, the reviews of his early 90s albums ranged from handwringing to derisive.

There are lots I dont know too.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah, also I think Madge derision has had two stages - presumably the Evita stage (and everyone seems to diss Erotica, probably because of That Book) when she seemed to have lost all her pop marbles, and right now, when people are able to laugh at her for the Kabbalah nonsense and bad clothes, but simultaneously accept that her albums are great.

I don't actually know any sort of Prince album chronology! I only oqwn the obvious ones (Sign O The Times, Purple Rain, Diamonds & Pearls, a Greatest Hits)

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Dude! Go and buy 1 x Dirty Mind right now! For serious, it's thirty five minutes of PURE GENIUS!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

What are the singles off it?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"Dirty Mind" and "When U Were Mine"

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I don't think I know either of those! I'm going to have to dig out the Best Of, I haven't listened to half of it because I always seem to just get stuck looping my favourites.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

I dunno which were singles (apart from the title track), but the tracklisting is as follows:

Dirty Mind
When You Were Mine
Do It All Night
Gotta Broken Heart Again
Uptown
Head
Sister
Party Up

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah!

You need Parade and Around The World In A Day too, you might not like ATWIAD so much but it's got "Pop Life" on it!

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that's it, that the derision isn't to a percieved slip in quality as much as a unrelated personal mentalness. See also Bad-era Michael Jackson, though obviously we all hope things don't come to such a pass here.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

There is a massive decline in quality here - I ticked pretty much everything in the first tranche and then almost lost interest altogether. Madge is more up and down I think.

Although neither of them will match the Michael Jackson poll for STAGGERING collapse in form post 1990 or therabouts.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

The drop-off in his acclaim hit far sooner in the states than in Europe - he lost the Yanks after Sign of the Times, whereas he remained more popular here for at least three more albums (Lovesexy, Batman, D&P) after that.

Although interestingly his more recent so-called renaissance (which I think is extremely overrated) has had far more success over there than over here.

Oh and one final thing re. the Madge comparison - Prince's reputation was always almost as much based on his live performances as his recorded output, and most people would agree that while he lost it big-style on record, his live performances are as strong as ever (although I for one miss the days of him performing in trenchcoat and thong)

[sbp.livejournal.com]

But also Madge never had a big argument with her record company re ownership of masters and so on, leading to a hiatus where records weren't put out for ages.

Funnily enough, Frank Zappa had a similar issue with the same company, Warner Brothers, when they wouldn't accept that he'd completed his contract by delivering three different albums at once.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

also, note prince's last entry is almost ten years ago...

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

but he had a top 40 hit a few years ago with 'The Greatest Romance Ever Sold'

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Dude I totally don't know most of these!

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I voted in this one. I don't like this "one third rule" tho. Or rather I think the mental exercise involved in POV is better. It was easy to settle on a final 13 in this case.

Have the stats geeks proven by maths that you generate a better consensus with this rule or something?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

No not at all - in this case because of the huge tail-off in quality 13 is on the high side - but generally you get more differentiation with this number of choices, and less things tie-ing.

what's wrong with ties?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

bah you and your anti-tie thing ;)

Re: what's wrong with ties?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

They cut off blood to one's head.

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

Batdance was the first album I bought!

Yet, I only know about 5 or 6 Prince songs on the lists!

[(Anonymous)]

I am shocked and appalled that "Sign O the Times" did better than "U Got the Look." (So was Xgau when he wrote the Pazz & Jop essay for 1987.) But then again, I retitled "Let's Go Crazy," as "Being Prince, Let's Not Go Crazy And Say We Did."

Jacko Spice

[(Anonymous)]

Also, I seem to live in a whole different world of Madonna derision from the one you guys inhabit. Madonna was heavily derided and sneered at by everyone but her fans from the time of her big commercial breakthrough in 1985 up to around '89 or so. Then respect among the writers and critics started accumulating when her fans grew up and still liked her and some of them became writers and critics and some other writers and critics took her seriously etc., this respect peaking (despite various filmic bombs along the way such as Who's That Girl*) with Erotica, which was accompanied by a book and of course by controversy and was lauded everywhere as the work of art it obviously was, DESPITE ITS BEING AN ALMOST TOTAL BORE, as is almost everything she's put out since except for "Frozen" and "Ray of Light" and the sample of "Gimme Gimme A Man After Midnight."

I'm Not Too Hung Up About Remembering Song Titles Spice

(*A movie I like, by the way.)