Regardless, you're right about Prince having a bit of a tin ear. May the Beautiful One forever be at rest, and I love him dearly, but at the vaguard of The Loudness Wars was Prince, with a seriously dynamic compromised Love Symbol album as early as 1992!
I have an audience boot from Milan 1987 that sounds fairly decent, I got it because I was looking for full '87 shows with IGTBABN on it
It was puzzling at first. I actually thought the baby was still alive during the episode. I was baffled to find out that Gregory passed away shortly before the interview was conducted. I commented on it on the prince.org boards and the thread erupted with anger and was removed. I know it's a sensitive topic but people made it seem like I was the strange one for questioning it. I was just shocked that Prince and Mayte were able to control their emotions and hide their pain so well. That's the very worst thing that could happen to a parent. I know they were torn and devastated inside. Prince and Mayte made it seem like everything was fine and they were still in a very happy place during the recording. I didn't understand how they could be after the tragedy of losing their only child. Everyone deals with death differently. We all have different coping mechanisms but that was the first time I've watched someone deal with the loss of life in that manner. It was disturbing yet fascinating.
It's been a blessing to be in here and talk with fans and honor the man...like, check this out: The Most Beautiful Prince Tribute to Date » I don't know if it's really the most beautiful tribute yet, but it's gripping (to say the least), and the article has some good quotes about Prince, as well. Now the great Bootsy Collins is doing a special tribute: Bootsy Collins to host Prince tribute at Bogart's » A cute little anecdote, therein, about Prince getting thrown off the stage a Rubber Band concert.
Are you saying Wendy and Lisa had zero input? Do you believe the director of Purple Rain when he says he (the director) chose the title song and the tracks for the record? You don't think that after Lovesexy Prince could have used a managing director or collaborator?
I get what you're saying. Totally. Prince, like any artist, had a few missteps, yet one thing about Prince is that it never took him long to right the ship. Batman, right after Lovesexy, was a major hit, and not a misstep at all. Graffiti Bridge might be considered a small speed bump, but what came next? A big hit in Diamonds & Pearls. If you want to count Love Symbol as a falter, I won't hold it against you. It was very ambitious. Then what came next? "Come" which is now a cult classic, though not favorable at the time, and then The Gold Experience, which has always been viewed as masterful. I could go on...
Agreed ...I'm still puzzled by it all these years later ! They just acted so normal ...wth? It doesn't take much to get a thread in an uproar over there ....
Better link to Miami sound check...damn it's a concert I'd pay $ to see.... Miami,FL (SOUNDCHECK) [4DF] » Strange relationship... Never have I heard Something in the Water like this ... Best part is at the end Wendy ......I HATE this kind of music ! Prince......Say it in the mic, I can't solo in Bflat I'm weak ! Good stuff ! NOT ADVISABLE IF YOU ARE TRYING TO GO TO SLEEP ! IT 'S VERY HARD TO SIT STILL AND LISTEN TO !
BTW ...I was surprised to learn that Gregory was not his name at all...not even his middle name . Mayte revealed at the memorial that she and Manuella hosted that his name was....... Amir ....which means Prince Mayte was checked into the hospital as Mia Gregory for anonymity sake . Since they did not name the baby,the hospital listed him as Boy Gregory Had it been a girl it would have been Girl Gregory ... She revealed that she could not speak his name in public while Prince was alive, that had to be therapeutic for her to just be able to publicly acknowledge that yes, she had a son and his name was Amir and he lived for 7 days and she held him and loved him and misses him to this day. Y'all know I think Prince is the **** , but a good husband to Mayte at the time he fell very short IMO
Agreed, and I think that the sheer volume of what he released needs to be taken into consideration.Bound to be a stinker or two in the lot ....JMO
I don't get how you guys can regards all these LOUD releases as masterful. How can you listen to Emancipation all the way through? There is zero dynamic range, it just loud in your face fatigue from song to song.
I will listen to an album even through the crappiest boombox known to man if the music is good. Emancipation isn't my favorite from a songwriting quality standpoint however I don't deny myself good music just based on the mastering alone. Although that being said a lot of Prince's 90's albums are mastered pretty hot
I don't think that's the half of it. I recall a repellent post Prince wrote not long afterwards, wherever he was putting up messages back then, a nasty side-eye swipe about women's nail polish or polish remover causing birth defects. Living in Mpls, I'd heard right away the generalities of what had happened with the baby so saw the shade in it and thought it was a ghastly thing to say and do to her. When that tabloid expose came out later about how he'd been treating Mayte during the pregnancy, it was suddenly easy to believe.
Losing a baby is very stressful and sad for both the mother and the father! As this is a very private matter where you probably know close to nothing about, so you should't judge Prince without knowing the truth. Since we don't know that truth, it's better to don't go after gossip stories, how likely they may seem. Everybody deals with stressful situations in their own way. Mayte claiming that she still loves him does says something, don't you think?
I don't know about self-taught. It's my understanding that both his parents were musicians. I believe his Dad was a Jazz musician. I'm certain there was some musical knowledge passed along to him along with any genetic ability. I know a couple that are both jazz musicians, that have a child. The kid plays trumpet like a virtuoso, and by the time he was 10 he had more chops and knew more theory than the average Freshman at Berklee. There was live music around him all the time. He loved to play, he soaked up knowledge like a sponge and his parents just answered his questions and gave him pointers along the way. It is undeniable that Prince had a lot of talent and he worked very hard. I don't really understand the whole mystic about being self-taught. There is nothing wrong with learning through a teacher and with guidance from your elders. Everyone has mentors and that is good. It in no way cheapens a person's accomplishments because they had teachers. Musicians also teach each other when they play together. Just because a person never studied formally at an academy does not mean they are totally autodidactic. The self-taught claim is always a little egotism or press agent hype.
It had to have been an awful and tragic event for them both. Mayte's public statements about her own life and feelings are not "gossip" just because she's not Prince.
... still... You can say a lot about Prince being a **** and whatever, but if you enter his personal life you just don't know. Even if Mayte is telling stuff. Still one side of the story.
The soundtrack to Batman was a hit but it just wasn't up to his level. For the first time things sound forced. I was 17 at the time---the hype was so massive for the film---it wouldn't have mattered who did the soundtrack---it was bound to be successful. I still remember when Prince's name came on the screen, the boos outweighed the cheers. I think the Under the Cherry Moon film did a lot of damage to public perception. Graffiti Bridge soundtrack is a whole bunch of outtakes from the past----and it sounded a little dated then but just about every song has its merits----though it doesn't quite hold up----maybe more of a production issue than anything else. Diamonds & Pearls and Love Symbol are where the real trouble starts as he begins to try to compete with the next generation----both have many great moments. The Gold Experience material was so strong that the shift to be "contemporary" didn't matter---it's a masterpiece. After that things get very erratic and, to me, the bad or forgettable, outweighs the good. I don't dispute that the man's talent stands up to anyone from the last century and while he was alive the tag "genius" was not applied to him often enough in my opinion.
Eric Leeds on ‘The Ballad of Dorothy Parker’... "My brother Alan, who was Prince’s tour manager, came up with a phrase for songs like this and Anotherloverholenyohead. He called them Prince’s “boutique songs”. Not hard rock or funk or a straight ballad, they reflected his more eclectic side. When I first heard it I thought, Wow, of all people to even know who Dorothy Parker was! I kinda thought maybe Susannah or Wendy Melvoin had told him about her. But it turned out he didn’t have a clue; he just picked the name because of how it sounded, and only after the fact did they tell him who she was. There’s an aspect to the way the song sounds, a weird vibe because when it was recorded, something was out of phase with the tape recorder. They didn’t notice until after it was done. Susan Rogers, his engineer, was freaked out, but Prince felt hat it added an ethereal feel, a cool vibe, it’s something nobody might ever notice until it was pointed out, but for him, it wasn’t a deal-breaker. It was the kind of thing that he would just roll with. Prince asked me to write a horn arrangement after the song was completed - I was surprised, I figured the song was finished and wasn’t sure I could add anything of value. I came up with something, but I was disappointed when he didn’t use it. He would sometimes give me these projects to mess around with. He could be so gracious with his music - I guess he figured, what the hell, I’ve got the studio so let’s try this out and see what happens. Just that he asked me was compliment enough." From Mojo Magazine, July 2016
