Could Prince's 1999 Album Benefited From Editing?

I think it should have been a triple album with "Purple Music", "Feel U Up", "Irresistible Bitch", "Turn It Up", "Extralovable", "Baby You're A Trip" and "Moonbeam Levels" added.

But "Horny Toad" and "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore" don't feel like part of the album, even though "How Come..." is a terrific song, so they remain b-sides.

 

I agree, no filler, but side two has the semi-monotonous dance-beats that run through I Would Die 4 U and Baby I'm A Star, When Doves Cry is a little fridged, and Take Me With U is a tad light-weight.

 

Yes but "I Would Die 4 U" segues into "Baby, I'm a Star" beautifully. I can't imagine one without the other. But TBH, those two are my two least favorites from the album.

 

Some of the tunes run a bit long--BUT that's part of its attraction for me. I wouldn't change it. Great record.

 

Perhaps the people that don't like it long, don't like the format or genre in general. I would suggest checking out the Barkays, Cameo, deep Isley Brother cuts and the Soulsonic Force albums that came out around the same time.

 

TWSS.

 

No 'yes' for me (if you see what I mean). I Would Die 4 U is ethereal beauty and Baby I'm A Star is uptempo excitement.

Side 2 of Purple Rain is an astonishing four song sequence.

Not relevant for this thread, I realize.

 

Let's be fair, the album was released in 1984, so of course it's going to have some "1984"-ness in it.

When Doves Cry however is a perfect song

 

Is Purple Rain perfect? (IYO)

 

someone would complain its edited out though

 

love that tune

 

The most exciting album ever released.

 

"Repetition without tedium is the backbone of rock and roll."

 

But, do you think that there are some aspects of Purple Rain that haven't dated well? Like the production of When Doves Cry, for example -- the drum machine is a bit harsh and too high in the mix -- and yes, I am referring the first LP pressing.

 

The song is from 1984, it sounds like something from 1984.... and you know, I still crank When Doves Cry all the way up when I hear it. I love it... and I adore the drum machine beat to it. It was great when he performed the song live last year and duplicated that beat, the audience went ape when they heard it. The drum machine on When Doves Cry is as crucial to that song as the beat and bass is to Billie Jean, another 1980s song that IMO is flawless as is. Considering its perhaps Prince's most beloved song (arguments could be made for 1999 and Purple Rain too though, but I think WDC was probably the biggest), I have a feeling a lot of people have no issue with the production and beat, it makes the song stand out from the pack.

 

1999 is overlong, but in a very expressionistic way that shows Prince bringing in his dance roots to what had been to that point his New Wave period, trying to find a way of melding them without doing violence to either. The tracks are like club mixes, tailored to the Manhattan post-disco scene. They work very well in that context. I agree the songs are almost uniformly overlong, even the title track with that long outro (which does feed into "Little Red Corvette" wonderfully after all that "why does everybody have the bomb" nonsense.) It's just that it was the idiom of the period Prince was working in.

I do wish Prince had edited Purple Rain. It's a frightfully self-indulgent disc for such a supposedly radio-friendly effort.

 

I agree with everything you say here. I think I was a freshman in highschool when Purple Rain was released, so I guess it's not so much that the song sounds like it's from the 80s that bothers me, but more that I don't really like the 80's sound -- although there is a ton of music from that era I love, Prince being a major figure in my life from that point on. However, apropos to the above conversation of a perfect album, I think there are some flaws with Purple Rain in the production and some of the songwriting, wherein I think Parade (released two years later) is a note-to-note perfect album in virtually every way. Although the songwriting on Around The World In A Day suffers a bit from pedestrian song-writing compared to Purple Rain, the production is noticeably warmer and the drum-machine slightly softened and more varied. When Doves Cry is structured and performed flawlessly, but the coldness of the drum track (which I agree, is essential to the song) has always kept me at arms length. At this level of song analysis, the technical aspects, personal preferences and personal history become hopelessly intertwined.

 

This is beautifully stated.

 

And that comes from a Prince fan

A double album has to be experimental and the sequencing is masterful on 1999.

That's where the difference to MJ is ... real music instead another album that could be a greatest hits collection.

You can easily stick to the Ultimate Prince CD.

Rant over.

 

I think that 1999 is just perfect as it is. One of Prince's classic albums. Why change that?
There are single edits of a couple of those songs, but they are too short. One of the great things about these songs is that is has been given enough room to breath and stretch.

 

But Purple Rain is already edited, quite heavily in places, that is a point I have been trying to make, basically all other Prince albums of the 80's have tracks that are edited down. Purple Rain is, on the contrary, an album I would like to hear in the way it would have been presented if the constrains of the LP hadn't made it necessary to shorten songs. "Computer Blue" for example started out as a 14 minute track, but was edited down in stages until it was really only a 4 minute sampling of the original track. The song doesn't really make sense until you hear it in one of the longer version. I think the version that Prince would have wanted on the album, if it had been possible, is the 7 minute version, but he had to edit it further because he decided "Take Me With U" needed to be on the album. So I would like to hear a "compromise free" version of the album (and yes, I know such versions are out there, but we will never know what Prince had in mind).

 

Why do you think that Purple Rain was a radio-friendly effort?
I don't think that Prince was into that game. Why would he put Darling Nikki on it, or When Doves Cry, or Computer Blue, or the self-indulgent Baby I'm A Star?
Remember that not a lot of people within WB believed in When Doves Cry as a single and that the movie Purple Rain was originally going to be a 'keep Prince happy' project that nobody was really interested in.
I believe that Purple Rain was that good that it turned everything upside down and partly rewrote the rulesbook about music.