See, and this is where his not having music that is easily stream able makes things tough.
I just listened to What’s My Name on the Prince tribute station, which sounded like PFunk produced by Trent Reznor. Totally different sound from what you think of as Prince. But I can’t link to it. Similarly I can link to The Truth a beautiful solo acoustic blues piece.
This story doesn’t answer my question. We are using the term “black pop” in this thread. So far as I know, “black pop” is not a term used to describe genre of music and it is not a chart category on any major listing service. Again, show me a Billboard chart with the title “BLACK POP” using that exact terminology.
Prince was a genius, but Mike Reed and Allen Shamblinwrote that one.
Hey, thank you. Very cool to read! Enter the Flagon - thank you, too.
As for this discussion, yes, going in with a starting position that Prince fit into “this box” - whatever box you try to name, but especially “black pop” - means you aren’t listening to the music.
Not sure what else to say, drad dog. Your posts have keep the thread going, so that is cool, but man, your approach just ain’t working.
Yeah, I was just looking up I Can’t Make You Love Me.
Not a problem - Prince wrote songs for Bonnie Raitt - he reached out to her after she severed ties with Warner Brothers (heh) and they recorded a few.
ETA: I don’t know that “black pop” is a term used anywhere. It doesn’t change the fact that you could use any limited, racially-boxed name - Prince is R&B!!! - and be just as incorrect and potentially offensive as if you use black pop.
His work - his chords, his arrangements, his production - so clearly transcends those types of silly boxes that it is not worth discussing unless someone is looking for examples outside “silly box X” to be educated. Those examples have been provided here.
And collecting all his albums would be price prohibitive.
I’m way more familiar with his early stuff - the Controversy and Dirty Minds albums are the two I need to go back and rebuy (I had everything up through Purple Rain on vinyl- they disappeared somewhere along the line - probably in my divorce - and only 1999 digitally - Somewhere I had the Musicology CD, but lost that.
I am pretty uninterested in trying to convince anyone, now, who has ‘heard’ but does not at all get Prince. Y’all do as you like, but don’t get too frustrated. I suspect that people who haven’t been touched by him already just don’t share the musical language needed to understand. It’s not a moral failing, I guess. 
[QUOTE=Peremensoe]
I am pretty uninterested in trying to convince anyone, now, who has ‘heard’ but does not at all get Prince. Y’all do as you like, but don’t get too frustrated. I suspect that people who haven’t been touched by him already just don’t share the musical language needed to understand. It’s not a moral failing, I guess. 
[/QUOTE]
This thread has made me feel enormously fortunate that I’ve gotten to “know” Prince all of these years. If I was as unfamiliar with him as some people are, I would seriously be feeling left out and befuddled by the bruhaha too. It would seem over the top and ridiculous and overwrought, as an outsider looking in.
But none of the public outpouring of emotions seems absurd to me. I get it 100%. Its comforting to know that others are reeling from this tragedy as much as I am, because it just underscores that my relationship with his music was not unique. He will not be forgotten.
I read they found a safe in Princes house which has hundreds of unreleased recordings. They plan on slowly releasing them which will take years so Prince’s music will still be coming out new and fresh for generations.
BTW, does anyone else notice that his death from a combination of health and drug issues sounds alot like Elvis’s?
This discussion is all very interesting, but no less a musical luminary than Miles Davis celebrated Prince as heralding new and innovative styles of music and was reportedly obsessed with him. In his autobiography he said, “For me, he can be the new Duke Ellington of our time if he just keeps at it.” This is like Albert Einstein saying, “You could be pretty good at this physics stuff and win a Nobel Prize if is you keep at it.”
Although I’m not a musician, don’t pretend to be an expert at what makes genius in popular music, and I’m not a huge fan of most of the popular songs of prince that received broad airplay, I don’t think anyone here is sufficiently credentialed to even challenge Davis’ estimation of Prince as an artist.
Game over.
Stranger
I can’t be arsed to go back and review the thread to see if I have said this: yes, Prince has more output in his vaults, unreleased, than, like, 10 other artists of his stature.
I was reading an interview of the co-producer of his most recent albums, who is also married to the woman drummer in 3rd Eye Girl, Prince’s current backing band. He said they were talking about a video for one of the songs, and Prince casually mentioned that he had over 50 videos he had completed but never released.
That’s just the songs he made videos for.
As for the drugs - look, I will keep an open mind and listen to what the autopsy reports. I simply can’t imaging these two topics co-existing: he was the most productive musician I can think of - writing, producing, performing. I just can’t conceive how he could be that productive at such a high level of quality and have a severe drug problem.
Prince was clearly a gifted musician who even though he had no “classic” musical training still really understood cords and the basics. I dont know if I can find it but their is a great video on Facebook showing Prince before a concert in Japan sitting at a piano going doing a sound check and going over cords and sounds with his bandmates.
So fucking true.
It’s driving me crazy that it’s getting repeated all over the internet, as there is no source. If you can find a source, I’d love it. (I haven’t been able to.)
I’m pretty sure people are mistaking Jimi Hendrix saying this about Rory Gallagher. (Which is true.)
Yeah, I really don’t get people who say “His music does nothing for me” and then transition that into “Overrated” or that someone is not incredibly talented.
I know it’s an overused meme, but as the Dude would say
Chords.
I’m sure the one thing you’d never catch Prince wearing would be cords.
Nah :). I love pre-metal Rory Gallagher’s playing ( not so much his original lyrics ), but as far as anyone can determine Hendrix never said that. Or at least no one has ever come up with a decent cite that I’ve ever seen. It appears to be yet another example of this.
His father was a jazz musician (piano) and his mother was a jazz singer. He was involved in high school band. He had musical training.
There’s a great story told by Bruce Rodgers, the Production Designer for the Super Bowl performance Prince did.
When he awoke the morning of the SB, and saw the torrential rain, he (Bruce Rodgers) checked the forecast for the rest of the day. The rain was not going to go away. He says he called Prince and asked something like “It’s raining, are you going to be able to do the show?” Prince’s response? “Can you make it rain harder” Prince knew the visuals and theatrics would be even more impressive if they were being done in a driving rainstorm.
The result was a mind blowing performance ranked as one of the best halftime performances ever.
But if he had decided to, they’d have been sexy as hell.