The Ladder.. Ugh.. lump this in with God (vocal), and the theme from Graffiti Bridge for me.. bottom-barrel ballads. 0/5 (This is my first 0 rating)
one more thing to add on Pop Life... despite it being a deserved top 10 hit regardless, i'm sure the song would've been even bigger if it had music video for it Raspberry Beret was his best music video up to that point, so it really was a missed opportuniy to not have one for the following single... i believe it hurt the longevity of the album IMO + wasting perhaps the best song from the era on the B-side (She's Always In My Hair)
There is a street in my city called Easy Road, which always puts this into my head. This is the song that I thought I might have tired of a little; but listening to it now, I'm still really into it. 4/5
The Ladder Prince doing gospel, always great. I always thought the recording is a little underdeveloped, doesn't reveal the full potential of the song. Therefore only a 4/5
The Ladder. Prince taking us to church here. You can hear the sincerity in his vocal here, which just about saves this song from schmaltz-ville. 3.5/5
The Ladder is a great gospel song. Beautiful backing vocals (choir-like) and moving vocals by Prince. I can see the similarities with Purple Rain. It's also very similar to Temptation (the chords). Eddy M is on sax. It's the first song with his input and not too long before Eric Leeds took over. He's really playing with the melody and it suits the song. This is also the first song with Taja Sevelle, a local DJ that would record a pop album in 1987 on the Paisley Park label (with Wouldn't You Love To Love Me). This song was important to Prince. First, the gospel is important and, second, the imagery that Prince was looking for in the ladder. He's climbing a ladder, moving up, away from the fame and status that Purple Rain brought him. He also visualized it on the album cover. It can be said that the song is a bit rough, a bit too basic. To me it underlines the pure beauty of it. It's the message and emotion that counts, not the execution to be perfect. To me, it's perfect in it's imperfection. Like this rehearsal version, it's just so beautiful: The basic song was recorded live during rehearsals (in one take) and bits and pieces were added later on (background vocals) or removed (most of the sax). He performed the song occasionally on the Parade tour. On the 2002 ONA tour is was a regular part of the second leg of the tour. I was shocked when he performed it, after wanting to hear it for so long! You can build a good case that this could have been the album closer. That way it would really have been Purple Rain (the song) part 2 and I guess Prince absolutely didn't want that . So he added Temptation to close it on a different level and added a weird conversation with God to freak everybody out! So, this is just another side of Prince on this album... we have the pop songs, the piano classical-like song, the funky stuff, the worldmusic-like song, the rocker and the gospel. It all paints this pallet of colors (like the on purpose colorful album art) of what Prince wanted to display (really: around the world in 40 minutes). This is the real start of the expanded musical vision that Prince wanted to show. And it shows (again) in this song. I love it! So, this is a 5 out of 5 for me.
As much as I love this album, it really ends weakly for me with the last 2 songs. I wish he had maybe switched and put this on the We Are The World album and placed the rather more offbeat 4 The Tears In Your Eyes on ATWIAD. I’m not a big fan of Eddie M’s sax work here. It sounds like the closing credits of the old SNL music in the late 70’s. Eric Leeds can’t get here soon enough. Still, I enjoy Prince’s vocal here, and the all-girl backing chorus is genuinely stirring. 3/5
Plodding gospel-tinged number that - as others have noted - feels like a lesser "Purple Rain". It's not awful, and there's something neatly glam about the cut, especially the sax work, which also reminds me of the stuff from Bowie's plastic soul Young Americans, but "Pop Life" was the end of the run of good cuts on this record that started with "Beret". 3/5
"The Ladder" - first off, I always forget that this intro was lifted from "Our Destiny" and it throws me off every time. Anyway, this is the first truly weak cut on the album for me. You can tell it was recorded at a rehearsal, but it works to the song's detriment unlike the performance recordings on Purple Rain. It's just a weaker and far less interesting version of Prince-in-preacher-mode - I might not share Prince's passion for god/religion, but I can appreciate it as long as the music kicks ass. Unfortunately, this does not kick ass. 2/5
The ladder ... Sadly the album conclusion is a bit like snakes and ladders in reverse .. So this one doesn’t quite hit the spot for me, a bit like Free on 1999, not quite getting there ..a bit of limp 3/5
"The Ladder" is a good, gospel-style track with a typically odd Prince lyrical twist on the topic of spiritual salvation. The massed backing vocals take this more into the realm of traditional gospel than Prince had gone before and the song has a soaring, anthemic quality that can be genuinely moving when you're in the right mood. I don't really hear much similarity to "Purple Rain" here. I do think that this would have been a better track to finish up the album than "Temptation". 3.5/5
i dig it. im a sucker for an gospel-like anthem. (it's kind of like Donovans Atlantis, the long spoken word over the music then right into it) 4/5
"The Ladder" A good track but can't escape the feeling that it's like "Son of Purple Rain." So 3.5/5 for me.
"The Ladder" ~ The melody is there. It's strong. I've never been sure if the presentation was done well, though. I hope that there is a solo piano and voice version of this in the vault. I think it would make it a much stronger track. It could have been stronger with real strings rather than synths. Or maybe an old school organ (there are many to choose from). That said, I seldom second-guess Prince's instrument choices. It's just that if you are going gospel, a more loose, grittier feel might be more persuasive. But I get it. The entire production of this album is slick. Nothing has a layer of human frailty, compared to let's say, Parade, which is a little leaner and jaunty. Or, Purple Rain, filled with loose rock guitar. Maybe that's why I love "Trampoline" so much from this album, as it's the only track that doesn't sound overproduced. But whatever. 3.6/5 for the way the song was captured for posterity. Perhaps a greater rating if you stripped away some of the gunk.
The Ladder is a nice song but... it really does sound like Prince (and The Revolution) doing a gospel-soul tune. This in contrast to a gospel-soul tune done by Prince, if you get my drift. It's a bit like "here's the template for this kind of song, this is the Prince sound, let's put them on top of each other." I'm a big fan of gospel-soul and certainly appreciate The Ladder as well but it is no masterpiece. 3.5/5
"The Ladder" takes quite a while to go nowhere all that interesting. It's kind of a bore, frankly, not to mention a bit pretentious. I can see the appeal if you buy it all, but to me it's as powerful and majestic as the SNL band. 2.5/5
Today's song is "Temptation", written and produced by Prince. Lyric. "Temptation" was the final song recorded for Around the World in a Day, Prince being determined to finish the album before 1984 finished. It was recorded on December 7th, 1984 at Capitol Studios in Hollywood. A band rehearsal of the song had been recorded the previous day at about twice the tempo; Prince re-recorded this slower version by himself with saxophonist Eddie M. The "God dialogue" was recorded later, at Prince's Kiowa Trail home studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota on the 24th of December, 1984. Prince: vocals, all istruments except: Eddie M: Saxophone
