Prince: Pre- or Post-1999?

[The Boogie Doctor]

Hey Party People

Just wondering whether you think Prince's musical output pre-1999 was better or worse than after it. 1999 seemed to mark a fundamental transition in the artists sound. Before that point, on albums such as Prince, For You, Dirty Mind, and Controversy, he was very much disco-oriented with classic trax like I wanna be your lover, Head, Sexy Dancer, Uptown et al. Then after, and including, 1999 his sound moved into psychadelic dance-pop crazy ass ****. Which era was better?

Your in deepest boogie,
The Boogie Doctor

[Videoskooter]

This would be a genuine question considering many artists but not in the case of his Purpleness.

True, Prince started as a Disco-Soul-Funk influenced entertainer, who made 2 albums in that style.

"For You" (1978) and "Prince" (1979) were very much in sync with the dance voggue of those years. But with "Dirty Mind" (1980), that is in fact a full demo, the Rock and New Wave sounds erupted and paved the way for the Prince we all know. A performer that is a melting pot of an enormous spring of musical trends and 1 that has managed to become a legend.

Maybe we can say that -1999, the music was more Soul oriented and that from the release of "Purple Rain", the Funk-Rock-Prince came out of the closet!

My favourite Princey 3's: "Dirty Mind" AKA the birth of Prince- "Come" AKA the transition from Prince to O+> - "The Rainbow Children" AKA the 2nd coming of Prince.

[The Boogie Doctor]

well, whilst on dirty mind the future prince was beginning to emerge, he had by no means made a full break with the disco scene. one only has to check out tracks like 'uptown' for evidence of this. i appreciate the fact that you are stressing the continuties, fluidity, and flow of his history, but i still think that 1999 marked a pretty fundamental change in prince's musical appraoch as well as his status as a full blown superstar.

[efunk_adelic]

you know Prince did well for himself. Can be what he wants to be... people don't understand him though.

he has so many great songs! I enjoyed the early years mostly.

[Nano]

Well actually Prince was rocking even before DIRTY MIND, if you got his PRINCE album from 1979 there are two tracks, "Why you wanna treat me so bad?" and specially "Bambi" where he sounds very much like in 1999 or PURPLE RAIN.

He was always bouncing between a more traditional disco sound, a light funk sound (what some call "naked funk") and a rock sound. What changed with 1999 was 1) he got a rhythm machine and 2) he won a Grammy, hence his label destined more $$$ to promote him, which in turn paved the way for the smash of PURPLE RAIN and the making of the film itself.

Of course, by 1984 the club sounds had changed a lot and Prince let aside his disco side, but he was always and foremost a black R&B artist. When he got again into that (LOVESEXY and after) the rock critics were dissapointed, but maybe they hadn't listened to his first records. For the rest of us, that was no surprise.