What IS sacrifice? I will be driving for the next few days, traveling to my childhood home of Minnesota so I won’t be able to do the album as a whole so may I do it here please (along with The Sacrifice of Victor)? When the album first came out, my paisley buddies and I were wondering how Prince was going off the deep end naming his album a symbol. And then there were some dodgy songs, some knock out songs, and some songs that start out brilliant but end in the most awful way (looking at you, ‘Love 2 The 9s’). Why this name? Did Prince already plan on changing his name? Was he already soured on his WB deal? Is there a deeper meaning of the sample from ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’ coming from his first self-titled album in ‘My Name Is Prince’ besides just fitting and sounding good? Why kill off all the Princes in the ‘7’ video? Is there more to these 3 chains o’ gold that make up the new name he was to claim only a year later? And what IS sacrifice? Sacrifice is stepping away from a record company that can get your song on the radio. Sacrifice is changing your name to an unpronounceable symbol so countless jokes can be made. Sacrifice is giving up your name that is a well known international brand. (Ok, these are sacrifices for big rock stars, not for real people and regular folk) The album is a mess, but there is a lot of beauty in this mess. Get rid of the segues, a few of the painful raps, and bad missteps (looking at you, ‘Blue Light’) and you have a pretty great Prince album in the early 90s. If ‘My Name Is Prince’ introduces this beautiful mess, the ‘The Sacrifice of Victor’ is a great closer. This seems to be autobiographical Prince (at least as autobiographical we can get, considering the source). It gives glimpses of what he experienced as a child and young adult and then it goes further to the present day. Perhaps … and I am going waaaaaay out on a limb here….perhaps, the title should really be ‘The Sacrifice of The Victor’. The victor who has plans for next steps in his career - trying to change the way the game is played. Also, this one, whatever you want to call him, began predicting where the music business was headed, to a destination few people could foresee until it had come to pass. And he would sacrifice a lot of his credibility along the way in many ways - for those he didn’t already lose with his missteps after Lovesexy. Honestly, I love the next 3-4 years Prince or O(+> has to offer. The music is undoubtedly Prince, but he seems to start taking chances again. Trying to find all of the unreleased music turned into a treasure hunt. You never knew what was coming next. It was an exciting and strange time to be a Prince fan. But all of that is for another day and months as we go day by day with each song. Oh, and ‘Sacrifice’ is slamming - a gospel-fied bass and beat heavy autobiographical extravaganza - and the last few minutes of this track still gives me chills. The Sacrifice of Victor - 4/5 The album as a whole - 3.7/5
Over the six weeks I plan to go over the following Note: Prince did not release an album proper in 1993, but he was extremely prolific. So after I do the rest of the 1992 songs, I'm going to move on to songs recorded in 1993 and released later, as well as other side projects. The next "proper album" will be The Voice by Mavis Staples. It's not all side projects, though and I've highlighted in Purple the 1992 and 1993 songs that were released under Prince's name. My Name is Prince (October 29th) 2 Whom It May Concern (Prince) The Hits/The B-sides (October 30th) Peach (Prince) The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale( October 31st) The Rest of My Life (Prince) She Spoke 2 Me (Prince) When The Lights Go Down (Prince) My Little Pill (Prince) There Is Lonely (Prince) Extraordinary (Prince) In The Storm - El Debarge (November 6th) Tip o' My Tongue (Prince-Kirk Johnson) Celine Dion -Celine Dion (November 7th) With This Tear (Prince) Precious - Loïs Lane (November 8th) Qualified (Prince, Johnson) (note: there were other songs on this album that had Prince instrumental input but he was neither the writer or the producer of them, save one "SEx", which we've already covered, and this is a remix of that with a new vocal. I'll mention them, but I won't hold them up for rating. Allegiance -- Howard Hewitt (November 9th) Allegiance (Prince) Itunes Release- Rosie Gaines (november 10th) Pain (Prince, D. Channsin Berry) 1993 The Hits 2 (November 11th) Pope The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale (November 12th) It's About That Walk Crystal Ball (November 13th) Acknowledge Me Ripopgodazippa Hide The Bone Calhoun Square What's My Name Strays Of The World The Ride Carmen Electra (November 20th) Go Go Dancer Good Judy Girlfriend Step To The Mic Fantasia Erotica Everybody Get On Up Just A Little Lovin' Let's Get Started - Louie Louie (November 26th) Get Blue Dance Unto the Rhythm Sax a Go-Go - Candy Dulfer (November 28th) Sunday Afternoon In A Word Or 2- Monie Love (November 29th) Born To B.R.E.E.D. In A Word Or 2 Heaven Help Us All - The Teels (December 1st) Well Done (actually recorded in 1990) Millennium - Earth Wind And Fire (December 2nd) Superhero Hey Man Smell My Finger -George Clinton (December 3rd The Big Pump (recorded 1989) I"m Ready -Tevin Campbell (December 4th) The Halls of Desire Uncle Sam Paris 1798430 Shhh On December 8th, I'll start holding up songs from The Voice, by Mavis Staples, 8 of 12 songs of which were written or co-written by Prince. Regarding 1-800-NEW FUNK. I think I'll just hold up all of the songs not already covered songs after Come.
"Sexy MF" is incredible. "7" is great. "And God Created Woman" is pleasant enough. "Damn U" is pretty but dull. I think those are all of the cuts I rated a 4 or better, out of a whopping 18. 3 cuts got a 1/5. A few got a 3. I think more got a 2/5 than a 4/5 or better. Coming after the halfway-decent Diamonds & Pearls this is a real disappointment. Tired and disjointed funk workouts, experiments that go nowhere and don't work ("3 Chains"), way too many throwback ballads, bad rap... I can't imagine trying to listen to this thing in one sitting. Too many solid hits to give it a 1/5, but the whole is less than the sum of its parts. 2/5
Our votes for "The Sacrifice Of Victor" (26 votes): 1 - 1x 2 - 4x 3 - 6x 4 - 10x 5 - 5x Average: 3,375
Like Diamonds And Pearls and Graffiti Bridge, is a bloated mess, but I think it goes down better than either of those. By far. Actually. The lows aren't as low and the highs are just as high. 16 songs (not 18 really: the two segues are not songs). I think that a good ten-song album would have been better, or even a 14 song album.... But the truth is I can listen to the whole thing and for the most part don't hate it; while I would cut them, even the Kirstie Allie segues aren't quite as bad as people make them out to be. They are pointless, but they are also short. What I like most about this album is a few of the ballads: I feel like this is where he really learned to do that soul, falsetto ballad thing and make it sound real and not just a stylistic exercise. Add the two opening cuts, the weird third cut and the rock opera cut and you've got a near masterpiece. For the album as is, bloat and all I'll give it a 3.6, but a pruned and edited version would get a definite 4.5.
This album is where my love for Prince started to wane. There was enough on Graffiti Bridge and Diamonds and Pearls to keep me happy, but this album was way too long and had far too much stuff I wanted to skip - cut to 40 minutes it would be decent. The new image also didn't help. I bought the next few albums hoping for a return to form, and some are better than symbol, but this is where the decline was really noticeable to me. 2.5/5
My combined vote of all individual ratings: 3.2375 (pretty fitting btw.) A good (much better) single album would be this (I took all songs with a minimum voting of 3.5/5 which means "very good"): My Name Is Prince Sexy MF The Morning Papers The Max 7 And God Created Woman 3 Chains O' Gold Not enough for an album? Prince's fault not mine. Great singles as usual, too much chasing trends without success to put it mildly and a concept that alienates me. Like Graffiti Bridge and Diamonds And Pearls not good enough for a Prince album, third in a row. Hard times for somebody who considered himself a hardcore fan just a few months ago. 3.2
Symbol album 3/5 This one definitely continues the cd era bloat ..too many average (and a few poor) tracks drag it down ...a tight 8-10 track album would have been better It hasn't aged well, compared to Princes early albums, sounds dated now, that sparse early era sound has got buried in clutter I stuck with Prince til his death , getting every album on release (which wasn’t that easy at times as his profile was surprisingly low) , and we still have some great so gs to come , but the mainstream is about to leave Prince alone for good
I agree with all this though I’m harsher on the album. I’d give it 2.5/5. The longer lengths of CD era albums (with consequent need to drop quality) and the ease of skipping tracks wasn’t good for albums.
Symbol Album I see this as a logical progression from Diamonds & Pearls - Prince has worked out how to make better use of the New Power Generation here and I really like the addition and use of the ensemble horns which really suit the band's sound. In fact, when Eric appears on Blue Light it sounds very thin in comparison. It's also an album which relies far less on other people doing backing vocals - there is a lot of Prince harmonising with himself and I think some of his finest vocal arranging is hidden away on this album. The album is curious in that Prince was clearly trying to pull off some kind of concept thread through the whole thing - but because the concept is so abstract / bonkers to the rest of us mere mortals it feels like he's just talking gobbledegook in places. The juxtaposition of so many different styles when he's trying to keep a theme running also doesn't help. Neither does the length, which makes this a tough listen all the way through for anyone but pretty hardcore fans. In my view he was to do the concept thing much better ten years later (although I'm not expecting a whole lot of agreement on that point !!!) All that being said there are some great songs here - Love 2 The 9's, Damn U, And God Created Woman, Sacrifice, Sexy MF, 7, My Name Is Prince. I've never tried to curate a shorter version of this album that flows well, but with the material on offer there could be a far more consistent album here. This is the last album for many a year when I think he really cared about having a hit single - we are about to enter a darker, more underground era. And the music was all the better for it in my view. This is a tough album to rate isn't it? 3.5/5
The album is all over the place and you get the impression with the added rapping and all that Prince is trying to keep up with modern music instead of fully relying on his own style. Given his age one would think it might be a good idea to move away from polishing his own statue of the great 24/7 shagmeister with the irresistible falsetto and move onto more challenging and profound aspects of making art (it will come later). And there is some of that, but also some same old. The album has tracks that would fit nicely on both previous albums or future ones. It's not an album I enjoy without skipping tracks, like most others, which is a shame. A lot of effort was put into production and arrangements of (sometimes just parts of) songs. Horn arrangements and Clare Fischer's string arrangements can be magical at times, but then rapping spoils the fun. Plus: sometimes less = more I think the importance of rating tracks on a five star scale is overrated, but mine will add up to an album average of maybe 3.4 out of 5 or so ?
Lance, in your above list of what we are covering next it looks like you forgot "Don't Talk 2 Strangers."
For me, the Love Symbol album sounds like Prince finally became comfortable in the nineties. Graffiti Bridge obviously had a lot of "vault" tracks and Diamonds and Pearls didn't feel like a Prince album (it was a bit too "safe" sounding). This one features plenty of the Prince "weirdness" that I love. He's also getting much better at incorporating current sounds into his music. Love Symbol is his best album since Sign 'O' the Times and, like that album, it is also very diverse. Both albums feature sixteen songs (when you exclude the segues) and show him doing a little of everything. Generally, people point to the 1993-1995 era as his creative rebirth. I would be more generous and say it started in late 1991/early 1992 with this album and lasted until around 1996/1997. I love this album and it is certainly a high point for him, not just in the nineties but overall. 4.25/5
Symbol Length in itself shouldn't have been such a problem for Prince, as he had done great double albums with 1999 and Sign and the projected double album version of Purple Rain. He was as prolific as ever, but it's just that less of the stuff he was coming up with was to my taste by this point. I'd enjoy this more shaved down to nine or so songs, but in doing so I'd be getting rid of a lot of other songs other people love. I don't think there's been a single song (non-segue) that hasn't been a big favourite of someone here. From my perspective, 3/5
Love Symbol I hesitate between 3/5 or 4/5. I like the album better than I did in 1992, but still don't see it as a great album somehow, a lot of the songs are good, but somehow the production doesn't really work for me, I'm not sure whether that is because I didn't like it at the time. I'll give it 4/5
I like how you worded your post. Rather than saying "this sucks" you said "less of the stuff he was coming up with was to my taste by this point." Most of this album I find great but that doesn't make me "wrong" for not hearing it the same way you do. I also think the second half of your post is very true. Emancipation may be the best example. It is a common game amongst Prince fans to shave that three CD album down to one disc but nearly every "fixed" Emancipation track list is very different. The only thing people seem to agree on is that "We Gets Up" is terrible.
This is a great album...from top to bottom it has quality songs. Prince never went anywhere, sure a lot of people expected something else from the man, but he always kept em guessing. From the day of this albums release, to now, this Album holds up. Prince wasn't done, The Artist as he would soon be called was about to undergo a very funky, weird, crazy "Ride" and if you had the time baby, he always had the ride you needed. May you live to see the Dawn... 4/5
Agreed - Emancipation will be very interesting. I really enjoy this thread when we all have different views - it's great to understand where people are coming from and sometimes it makes me go back and listen to a track with 'new ears.' Luckily there is plenty to disagree on from this point onwards....
What a list! I do have a couple additions to this list: Don't Talk 2 Strangers - Girl 6 soundtrack Fun (written by Prince and Carmen) - Carmen Elektra All That (written by Prince and Carmen), rework of Adore - Carmen Elektra Paradigm (written by Prince and George Clinton), from the Hey Man... sessions, released in 2001 on single and in 2005 on How Late Do U Have 2BB4UR Absent? - George Clinton Why Should I Love You? (music co-written by Prince, not credited) - The Red Shoes (Kate Bush) Regarding the Crystal Ball songs, I would put them after Come and The Gold Experience in stead of before. Those songs are really connected to that era and in a way outtakes from those albums. The Ride is from the video album The Undertaker, so could be seen as a separate identity. My suggestion is: After Come: What's My Name (part of The Glam Slam Ulysses project) Strays Of The World (part of The Glam Slam Ulysses project) Interactive (part of The Glam Slam Ulysses project) 18 And Over (rework of Come) After the Gold Experience: Acknowledge Me Ripopgodazippa Hide The Bone Calhoun Square Days Of Wild Discussed with the other songs on the video album The Undertaker: The Ride --> also Poorgoo, Honky Tonk-Woman, (Bambi), Zannalee, The Undertaker, Dolphin Are you going to discuss 1-800-New Funk as a complete album?
thanks. This is perfectly fine with me and makes sense....but it's a lot of side projects to wade through! I think I probably will, even if some pieces of it will have already been done by the time we get there.
