Lots of nice songs here, with the usual odd choices, which I like...Future Soul Song, I Like It There, The Dance are some glaring omissions for me, but here's what I think: 1. Sex In the Summer-Supposed to be a song to put fear into P Kelly(lame competitor to Prince in the 90's now in prison)-fairly weak song, Saviour and The Love We Make much better represent the sometimes brilliant Emancipation IMHO 2. Joint 2 Joint-pretty strong track, almost has the feel of the SOTT era 3. Face Down-music is great, lyrics abysmal. And Prince at the time, as a 38 year old rapper looked like an old guy trying to play catch up to what was hot, so I skip this one, great bass though. 4. In This Bed I Scream-very good song, probably goes on a bit too long at the end, but almost a great one 5. The Holy River-typical Prince power ballad with the searing guitar solo. Used to love it, but its shelf life with me was short 6. Circle of Amour-now we're talking, maybe the best song on The Truth, amazing vocal. 7. Comeback-great song, sad, sentimental, a little lyrically awkward at times, but I love it. 8. The Greatest Romance Ever Sold-If you take the single version, and merge it with part 2 that has the awesome guitar solo, and edit out Eve's fairly dumb rap, you've got a classic Prince track, a shame the album version is weak. 9. I Love U But I Don’t Trust U Anymore-maybe Prince's best song in the 1992-2003 era, or at least top ten, masterful piano ballad lamenting the failure of his marriage. 10. Tangerine-yet another gem from Rave, but too short, but really sweet 11. Muse to the Pharoah-good song, rap part again lessens its effect, but still a nice song 12. The Work, pt. 1-among the better of his James Brown copycat songs, not the greatest, but some nice value in listening 13. Call My Name-great song, but stay away from me when I try to sing it, you've been warned! 14. Reflection-first got a slow death as a NPGMC afterthought, but finds a home on Musicology, and this is a classic Prince song. Another easily in his top 10 from 2000-2016, no doubt. 15. Cinnamon Girl-nice song, odd choice as a single, but still fun. 16. A Million Days-Another Top 10 late career song, vocal effect similar to Purple Rain era, only Prince! 17. Dear Mr. Man-sorry, not a bad song, but grew tired of this on listen five or so. After listen 100, belongs with Daddy Pop, and Life O The Party as songs I usually skip. 18. 3121-words can't do it justice. Prince singing, Camille singing, Camille calling out Prince to play guitar, classic Prince 19. Lolita-awesome Time vibe here, woulda been great on Condensate, a little flat for a Prince song, silly lyrics, but great fun 20. Te Amo Corazón-odd choice for a lead single, but another incredible song, got me through a breakup. Or made it worse lol. 21. Black Sweat-another great one, but I like Love on 3121 better, but never skip this one. 22. Fury-Amazing song he played live twice, and then ignored it. The enigma of Prince. Would have been a career defining song, yet he played Get On The Boat over and over on tour, and on future TV appearances. 23. Guitar-amazing how awful the demo was, and how great the final version is. Guitar part is pretty much a rip off of U2's I Will Follow, but who cares, Prince makes it his own, and as much as I like U2, Guitar is better. 24. The One U Wanna C-would have been a hit single in any year before 1996, great pop track 25. Chelsea Rodgers-funky, fun song, but Prince is not singing enough, so it loses a half star or so. 26. Colonized Mind-cookie cutter ripoff of Miriam Makeba's "Quit It" but if you're going to steal a song, add a guitar solo so inspired and passionate, I'll forgive you. But singing "No Responsibility" in the same tone as Miriam, and not taking the responsibility to credit her for the inspiration? Either way, and incredible song, and Prince deserves tons of credit. 27. Wall of Berlin-odd song on Prince's best album from 1989-2016, nice guitar work, and Prince was back, but sadly, most said the MPLSound disc was the better album. I still can't believe it. Prince makes the great Guitar/Jazzy album, and it is ignored, even getting to the Target bargin Bin at 49 cents in some stores. 28. Chocolate Box-ok song, but woulda been a weak b-side way back when. 29. Breakfast Can Wait-nice little song goes awry when Camille tries to arrive, and gets attacked by Alvin and The Chipmunks. 30. Breakdown-maybe one of his best written late career songs, but the recording is marred by overproduction that would make The Gold Experience blush. When Star Wars Stormtroopers arrive with their laser guns blasting in the form of a bad Prince keyboard part, I cringe, but still marvel at how great the song could've been. 31. This Could Be Us-the AOA version is a really good song, I almost love it. The bad remix on Pander 2 Young People Phase One is pretty bad on Prince's worst album. 32. Rocknroll Love Affair-original single mix is a great pop song lifting the riff from "Take Me With U." Highly Enjoyable, the overproduced version on the very decent Hit N Run Phase 2 is still a fine song 33. FIXURLIFEUP-above average song that I like a lot, but lost some interest in. I still won't skip it though, unless it is Pizza time. 34. Tic Tac Toe-fun song, perhaps a spirit cousin of "Walk Don't Walk." Nothing great to see hear, woulda been fun to have Gwen Stefani on this one. 35. Baltimore-The song fails to match the importance of its message. The music and singing are pretty top notch for the first half of the song, and then it kind of loses momentum. Still a keeper though.
Just in case some people don't know or have never seen the movie and would like to, it is included for streaming with Amazon Prime. It is also available for rental and purchase from Amazon and probably some of the other digital stores. Amazon.com: Watch Prince: Sign O' the Times | Prime Video
The Japanese Blu Ray is out of Prince, uh out of print, bad pun intended, but to me is just as good as the German Version that I have to play at a friend's house with a region free player, even though some have noted there is a workaround, I can't find it. I guess the interviews make it worth the trouble. I am not a fan of the Peach And Black team though, but hay, they got to talk to Prince more than I have, but their reviews and podcasts don't really interest me, but not trying to knock those guys, they seem like great fans. You can get the Japanese Blu Ray (which plays on my USA Blu Ray Player fine) for high to insane prices on Ebay or Amazon, but some of the ones on Ebay look like the Russian Fakes, but it depends on how much you have to spend, I guess.
I have some credit on Amazon that is only good for digital services, so I might buy it. I don't own a blu ray player and the only dvd player I have is the drive in my computer.
I always assumed the SOTT movie was completely shot on film in Rotterdam, Antwerp and Chanhassen. In that case a high resolution transfer is possible. Does anyone know where the original film and multitrack tapes are?
Why are you in doubt that the movie wasn't completely shot in Rotterdam, Antwerp and Chanhassen? It is (video mainly in Chanhassen, audio mainly in Rotterdam). I don't think that it matters where the actual tapes are. My guess is that the multitrack tapes were in Paisley Park (now: Iron Mountain), so in possession of The Estate. Probably the original film too (with copies with the ones who own the rights to it). The Estate is not able to release it without an agreement with the ones who own the rights to the movie. From what I understand, the rights are not with one company. Therefore the recent release in Germany (beautifully done with a high resolution transfer of the picture and remastered audio) is local (just like Japan, Canada and Australia in the past) and not global. There's no need to wait for The Estate to release the movie... My guess is that the owners of the rights were asking too much money for it to be included and Warner (or The Estate) declined and decided to use an alternate video (New Years Eve show. Great show btw!!), which they already have the rights for to release. Just like with the 1999 and Purple Rain sets the video is considered a bonus and not the main focus. Remember, they could have included the 1st Avenue 1983 show on the Purple Rain set, but decided to save that one for a future stand alone release. Probably so they could make more money that way. So, money seems to be a big part of the reason why it wasn't included. Probably the same for the SOTT movie?
I totally agree on you with this. I'm also a movie buff, and collector and work in the film/video sector. But one thing though... film is not a video medium, film is film. Film is a medium, video is a different medium. You probably mean film transferred to video (HD or SD). It's just that you and I know that, but it is hard for a lot of people to figure this out. At the same time I wanted to respond to something being said earlier in this thread. Why Blu-ray didn't gain the same market share as DVD? It has a lot to do with the simple fact that regular folks, the average consumer/occasional buyer of a media product, being it an album on CD or a movie on DVD, just didn't want to invest and convert to yet another format after DVD. People were used to VHS tape, and yes, they saw the non-linear advantages of this digital disc, and yes, it did look better than tape. But VHS was around for a long time, and then in 1997 came DVD. (I will skip the niche format of LaserDisc for argument's sake). DVD, like VHS, was widely embraced around the world. Then, after 9 years already, in 2006, came not 1, but 2 (!) new HD formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD, which resulted in a sort of battle between the 2, won by Blu-ray. This was very confusing for consumers. People are not educated at all in these technical mumbo-jumbo discussions, and not willing to find out. Even myself, as a moviebuff (yes, I had hundreds of LaserDiscs, insane!) was in a let's-wait-and-see-mode, because I spend a lot of money on these things. The whole conversion to HD broadcasting wasn't done overnight as well. That took a long time too. Most people were just happy with their gear and the fairly cheap DVD market. Blu-ray was better, but also more expensive. People didn't want that. "Another new format and it costs more? No thanks." Compare it to SACD and DVD-Audio for that matter. It's more for the aficionados. Yes, this forum is filled with aficionados, but we're not the ones responsible for the success of any format. We probably never will be, unfortunately.
Everyone, a great edition of the movie was released last year. If people have a regionfree blu-ray player, you can watch this. Get the German remastered blu-ray boxset, with the excellent docu with it. https://www.amazon.de/Prince-Limited-Mediabook-Bonus-BR-Bonus-DVD/dp/B07YTCDZCY/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Prince+–+Sign+"O"+the+Times+-+Limited+Mediabook&qid=1593425245&sr=8-1
Yes, this is your best option. The first batch sold out in no time, luckily they produced another batch.
Sorry, but saying that Guitar is better than I Will Follow immediately disqualifies you in my book. And sorry again, but you sound too much like a Prince apologist, in this case: finding something brilliant in every (bad) song he ever did. At what point are you and prince.org members ready to admit that it was long long over for Prince?
You’re expressing a subjective opinion like it’s an objective truth. Just thought I’d point that out EDIT: Also, are you sure you’re on the right forum thread? It’s not even clear who you’re responding to...
I think this probably deserves another thread. 20 great Prince songs from Emancipation forward. I'd agree with nine of your list, though I'm not sure if they'd make my top 20: Joint 2 Joint, Face Down, Comeback, I Love U But I Don't Trust U Anymore, Tangerine, Muse 2 The Pharoah, 3121, Black Sweat, Colonized Mind. On the other hand I'd say a lot of the rest of the list either washed over me or I actively disliked it. Cinnamon Girl, Lolita, Baltimore... ugh! Then there's stuff like Breakdown which is a great song. But I hope there's a better version from an earlier stage in the production process rescued from the Vault for the Art Official Age Super Deluxe in 2049 because the one on that record doesn't do it for me. I think we can all agree there's nothing like that variation in quality in the 80s work, vault releases to date included. It's not all amazing in the 80s, there's the odd track that makes me cringe and the occasional mix that goes on for ten funky minutes longer than strictly necessary, but nothing to actively dislike. Because the peak was so high people overstate the drop.
Sorry, I was responding to StillWaiting (another so-so song in the Prince oeuvre) and I don't think it's an opinion of course I've certainly never been able to defend stealing a great riff so he could sing some lame lyrics about his guitar over it...
Paul from Super Deluxe Edition posted this tweet this past Saturday: https://twitter.com/sdedition/status/1276946453257166854?s=20 Both Super Deluxe sets are available at Amazon Canada and the vinyl set is the cheaper so far: Canada: CDN$ 336.03 USA: $227.35 UK: £199.75 Europe: € 218.12 Australia: $357.77 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08BMXT2SK For those living in the USA, S&H options are: $7.56 (CDN$9.98) for Standard International Shipping $12.06 (CDN$15.98) for Expedited International Shipping $15.14 (CDN$19.98) for Priority International Courier No idea what are the S&H options for other countries.
Yes, but living in The Netherlands, I get all the taxes and import fees on top of that, after being delayed at customs. I pre-ordered the vinyl at the French amazon and the CD boxset at the Italian one. The peach vinyl I ordered at my local record store. I always try to order through my local store, because I want to support them, but I cannot justify a price difference of 80 to 100 euros between online stores and my shop. Luckily these big boxsets are not a weekly or even a monthly thing, so my shop gets still plenty of my business. I don't get a nice chat and coffee at an online store either.
Possibly. The cases I'm thinking of had simultaneous vinyl and digital releases. His name is on the credits for the digital releases, however: Jimi Hendrix - Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/1969 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland Jimi Hendrix - People, Hell And Angels
Are you suggesting the "rip off" was intentional? I can't see it myself. It's not the same riff and I believe any similarity to 'I Will Follow' was entirely coincidental.
Extremely cool. Hopefully if & when the rights are sorted out they could release an expanded set with the soundtrack audio on CD. I’m very excited to receive Live In Utrecht in the upcoming box but I’m assuming it’s from a board tape (right?). As great as Prince board tapes can be, a professionally recorded document of the tour would be very welcome. Were the Rotterdam and Antwerp shows the only ones to get the full multi-track recording treatment?
I'd just add to your (IMO) great perspective by saying the following: The increase in quality from VHS to DVD was noticeable to everyone. You basically doubled the resolution and didn't have the artifacts you often saw with dirty playback heads on VCRs. Add to the fact that it's compact and easy to skip around the content and you basically had the movie version reason of why the average consumer stopped buying LPs and went all in with CDs. The significantly larger wide screen HDTVs didn't roll out until a bit later after Blu Ray was launched (as I recall). I have a very specific memory of two friends of mine playing back a Blu Ray on a 45" (ish) HDTV "back in the day" and stating that they didn't see much quality difference from a DVD. It just didn't initially have the "wow" factor that you got when upgrading from VHS to DVD. Once TV sets started to get bigger and bigger, the quality of the upgrade to Blu Ray became more obvious. Given the reasons you've already stated though (another new format, cost of upgrading, re-buying material you already had), I think initially more people just thought DVD was "good enough" and didn't bother to upgrade. It's the same thing with 4K now. You have to have a 4K set (and a decent one) for most people to notice the difference. The lack of over the air content combined with a move to streaming has almost guaranteed that the UHD Blu Ray discs would be a niche product from the start. Personally, if I'm really invested in a film, I'm going to buy it on 4K disc now, as most analysts don't expect these things to get pressed on disc at all in the future. It's an old story, but I don't want to be beholden to some company's license to carry a beloved film (without even touching the quality of streaming locally), so I buy the physical disc.
Weren’t the cost of DVD players subsidised by the film industry but not so with Blu-ray? If so, that may be one other reason.
Same here. With both music and movies, I'm a physical product person. I'm a collector, and I don't collect 0's and 1's on a harddrive, I want it on a physical carrier, whatever that is. I totally understand people that don't want to deal with a physical collection nowadays. I'm not one of them, although I have become much more selective as I get older. Still, plenty of stuff that is a no-brainer, like this boxset of an alltime masterpiece of an album! Speaking of 4K and live concerts... I'm getting the INXS - Live Baby Live 4K UHD sometime soon. That was shot on 35mm as well. So it should look awesome. I hope they do more of those, because in that period, it was not uncommon to shoot a concert on 35mm. I remember also AC/DC - Live at Donington done that way. Probably lots of others too. So the footage, the content, on a high resolution format is definitely there, just waiting for a label or artist, to pick up and remaster it properly in 4K and lossless audio for future generations. Prince's SOTT movie was done last year, as most of us here know, although not released on a 4K UHD unfortunately, but still in 1080p HD, with Dolby Atmos sound, and lots of extra features.
No...subsidised? The industry wants to get money, not give it away. It was always like that and it will always be that way. But...if you mean the development of the format, that was more of a marketing and support thing, more political, but always with the endgame in sight, money. So some studios backed the HD DVD format before it collapsed, for instance, and some both at the same time, and released their titles on Blu-Ray as well. But after it was clear that Blu-ray was going to get the larger market share, everyone dropped the other one.
