This is probably why so few people are aware of how many albums he put out. He was a brilliant musician but after his initial success he appears to have decided to focus on creating the music that was in his head rather than music intended to appeal to a broad audience.
I am not sure I agree with this. As with all things, I would start with: Follow the Money. By withdrawing from his Warner Bros contract via the glyph-change, Slave shaved into his beard, he got control of his masters - business wise and master-track-wise. As he said “if you don’t own the masters, you are a slave.”
He also vigorously controlled access, as we all know. This made his ability to chart much harder. When you can only jump through Prince-controlled hoops to pay for and access his material, a lot of folks passed, even while they knew they were missing some great music.
I assume that with his business model, his new releases got him the proftability he needed, even selling limited units. Sure, Prince was never afraid to explore musically, but there was usually a hit-ready song or three on a given release. Breakfast Can Wait, anyone?
5 Objective Reasons Prince Is The Greatest Musician Ever
Well, you’re certainly more well-versed in his catalog than I am, and if he sprinkled his albums with tunes intended to be hit makers I’ll happily take your word for it. But it’s appeared to me that money wasn’t all that much a driving force in Prince’s creation of music. My take as far as his wanting out of his Warner Bros contract was that it was more about control and keeping his music from being exploited in ways that benefitted others, rather than as a way to maximize his own profits. This impression has been bolstered somewhat by recent reports that Prince, while still rich by most of our standards, had far less money than was widely believed. It’s been reported that he lost a lawsuit for over $4 million and the attorneys for the plaintiff were only able to dig up $3 million or so spread over various bank accounts in Minnesota, and not too long ago he owed the IRS and taxes on some of his properties too.
Still, the guy was flying around in his own airplane…
I think we are saying very similar things. My only point is that I am asserting that Prince makes plenty of money in this situation - he could make more, but only by giving up a level of control he refuses to consider.
He doesn’t have to worry about charts or fame because because he has transcended those. He is fluent in the pop medium, so some of his songs are great pop songs. We win.
I will be very interested to see how those “thousands of unreleased songs” in his archives will be treated over time. If it is true, and there is access given to that archive, there could be new discoveries happening for decades. Talk about keeping his legend fresh long into history.
Fair enough. And yes, it’ll be amazing to see what the future holds if the rumors of a vast number of unreleased songs is true.
Prince’s 20Ten
By the way. For anyone interested. For the first time in my memory, YouTube is pretty well flooded with actual working Price videos. Don’t know how long it will last, but if you wanted to hear something other than the hits, this is your chance.
Here he is at the Montreaux Jazz Fest: - YouTube
Imagine, say, Michael Jackson, stepping out of his structured production and leading a Fusion instrumental, with no vocals for the first 6 minutes. Just digging in and jamming - oh, and throwing in a random variation of an old Elvis tune to rock out on. That’s no slam on MJ - he was brilliant at his thing - but, damn.
There was a “musician first” mastery that Prince embodied that was a thing to behold.
I grew up with the Beatles, the Stones, etc… If you look at the tablature for the few Prince songs that were hits, the chords and musical arrangement are trivial. I really don’t understand why people think he was such a musical genius given the talent that preceded him in the 60’s and 70’s. Do you really think he compares to someone like Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, or Rodger Waters?
The consensus among people who really know music is that he’s a genius. And as I mentioned upthread, Prince is said to have stated at one time that most of his hits were really just doodles.
He isn’t a genius just because “everybody says” he is.
Someone who doesn’t like all the tunes they heard over the last month just hasn’t heard the right ones?
I didn’t say everybody, I said people in the know when it comes to music. (And since when does popularity or liking someone’s output determine genius?)
And let me beat you to the punch by acknowledging the obvious fact that not every single musician necessarily thinks he was a genius either. To a large degree ‘genius’ is a matter of opinion anyway, so there’s no definitive way to proclaim Prince either a genius or not a genius. But as for me, I’ll take the word of musicians I respect.
Having a good conversation involves give and take.
BigLitvak ? 'Cuz, yeah, Keef writes songs with those arrangements out of the gate :rolleyes:
What a hilarious comment. Please take the time to find a live show - they are popping up on YouTube - and watch his band strut through a song and come back and discuss his arranging talent.
:smack:
drad - we get it: you don’t see the genius. Other folks come in and also say meh. Cool. Those of us who say Genius love the case we have and have tried to share that. Anything else?
Paul was crap without John, Jimmy never heard a song he couldn’t steal, Rodgers wrote variations on the same song over and over again, and… Ok I have a hard time picking apart Townsend for anything other than his obsession with the rock opera form… Which was self indulgent bullshit after Tommy. Yay, I did it!
See, nobody’s perfect. For the record I really like all those artists. Read the thread for why Prince qualifies as a genius. UT if your issue is that his music was overly simple then James Brown and Chuck Berry were totally crap too right?
We have been through this. If you are going to even pretend that you are being objective then you liking the music doesn’t matter much. Again, I really dislike most of Miles Davis. The dude was a genius, I just don’t like his music.
In the weeks following his death I’ve revisited a lot of his stuff and my opinion has not changed one whit.
Genius, solid…24 carat.
I said in my first post to this thread
And since then they’ve had plenty of other Prince material interspersed with a variety of contemporary and other artists. Prince gets them bopping in their seats to a degree that others simply don’t. Stuff they’ve never heard before (and I’d forgotten) become instant classics. The man had a direct connection to the human brain’s “Funk button”
“it’s gonna be lonely” and “Automatic” are their current favourites.
My wife and I have rediscovered “international lover” and realised that, only a true genius could get away with an extended airline/sex metaphor that is…at the same time…both tongue-in-cheek and utterly sincere. I’m not sure there is a more “Prince” song.
His music is the type that’s better than it sounds maybe?
He sounds like he needed a stronger inner editor and was writing every song that passed by because he loved everything he did so much. It’s a monologue from him to us. When I hear it, the music rarely draws me in.
The word genius is thrown around way too much.
Well maybe he’s “dad rock”
Totally. Not in this case though.
I agree that he needed an inner editor. There is a reason why after he went Indy(ish) in the 90s that you had to work harder to find the good stuff. He released a lot of it. Not everything is a gem.
But if you look only a
- his vocal ability. Even if you don’t like it
- his guitar playing ability
- the plethora of other instruments he played. Seriously he released a half dozen albums where he was the only musician and his touring stage show needed 15 people to recreate the music.
- how he changed music with his production in ways you still here on Beyonce songs today (again even if you don’t like it. I prefer lofi myself)
- the quality of his lyrics
- the quality of his on stage performance
You have an artist that is almost unparalleled.
I can make similar lists for dozens of other artists including ones I don’t like.