Prince - Around The World in a Day - The Poll

Whatchu puttin' in your nose?
Is that where all your money goes?

i like the first 5 songs, plus "pop life," but yeah i can't make a case for voting for anything over "raspberry beret."

I can't imagine Prince 'working part time in a five-and-dime '

Minneapolis is a strange place.

"Paisley Park" for me. For some reason, that was the song the radio station in the Twin Cities (I think KDWB) played ahead of the album release, so I have always thought of it as the track that represents this album. I love the relaxed seesawing melody and the indistinct production vibe. Plus this seems like the song that most embodies the awesome cover.

My love for "Pop Life" is definitely testament to my love for slightly varispeed-ed piano riffs.

My boyfriend regularly gets "Condition of the Heart" stuck in his head for days. We both agree that "Tambourine" is one of the high points of Western Civilization.

this is the last Prince album from that whole era that i've still yet to get, although i love "Tambourine" and "Pop Life"

I can't imagine Prince 'working part time in a five-and-dime '

― Popture, Thursday, August 20, 2009 10:20 PM (Yesterday)

what if they sold nipple clamps?

I voted for "Raspberry Beret" but I listened to this just last week and through "Tambourine" it's a really great listening. After that its value is harder to gauge; "Pop Life" is good but "The Ladder" and "Temptation" are tricky. Prince's best songs are mood-changing: like put on "Housequake" and try to have a bad time. Whereas with "Temptation", maybe if you're already feeling "spiritual" it'll be very moving, but otherwise I don't think it makes much of an impression.

can we talk about how great the album cover is?

"Condition Of The Heart" gives me goosebumps every time. I voted for it.

http://runstop.de/mcgee01.jpg
"my boss was Mr McGee.."

"Paisley Park" and "Raspberry Beret" are both in the Top 5 songs he ever wrote. Went for "Paisley Park".

"Condition of the Heart" gets points for trying to sound airy and spacey in that early seventies Miles Davis way, but the melody is so weak. The thing just doesn't GO anywhere. Plus, a chick making funny faces like Clara Bow is CREEPY, not cute.

...AND she wears cologne. Still love the thing to death.

and then there's "america." when the album came out there was some handwringing about, "is prince going all reagan on us"? mostly i think he didn't really know or care much about politics, he just wanted an excuse to do a little faux-hendrix.

I remember at the time there was a weird neck-n-neck among kids at my elementary school about whether Prince or Bruce Springsteen was the best pop star and the Springsteen kids claimed that "America" was Prince trying to horn in on Bruce's patriotic turf- shit was deep in Kentucky at St. Francis School . . .

Reagan vocally backed Reagan in 1980.

hahahaha whoops: Prince backed Reagan in '80.

Well, Reagan kinda did back Reagan in '80!

Obv.

Jimmy Nothing never went to school
They made him pledge allegiance,
he said it wasn’t cool
Nothing made Jimmy proud
Now Jimmy lives on a mushroom cloud.

I like that song a lot. Feels outside of the Prince bubble.

VH-1 Classic used to play the extended live version of "America" all the time.

pretty great album, but the lows are fairly bad

always made me wonder if Prince had ever actually met a hippie

Not to be an ass, but if the lows are fairly bad, how can it be a pretty great album – isn't it closer then to "pretty good"?

Only Parade keeps this from being my least favorite Prince album between For You and Sign of the Times.

Or, if you prefer, "Pop Life."

because the good stuff on it is great, and then there's things like "America", which I really like an awful lot, except the lyrics are atrociously ridiculous... Temptation is good but goes on too long. Condition of the Heart is the only song with no redeeming value

x-post

Only Parade keeps this from being my least favorite Prince album

Parade is triple awesome. U mad.

pop life just edges out raspberry beret for me here, but i think oversaturation of the latter plays a part here

here

great album really. amazing that people still think of it as a drop off. only tracks i dont rate as highly as the rest are the ladder and temptation just cos of their too big/loud drum tracks.

This is my fave Prince album. Every song is a winner.

Album cover, tho, is on par with 'Nursery Cryme' in the shitty painting seemingly done by a friend dept.

I think you had to Be There to legitimately overrate this album. I totally understand how awestruck fans must have been that "Raspberry Beret" was ascending the charts as "Take Me With U" was falling off, then hearing the opening strains of the title track – a total mindfuck. But that's the problem: the impact is so strong that it takes a while to realize the songs don't signify beyond their luxurious settings.

now i am imagining some 1980 minnesota campaign stop where reagan thinks he's going to meet a prince and instead he meets prince. who leaves him with a signed copy of dirty mind.

"Mommy, why didn't you tell me Prince Selassie was on tonight's guest list?"

http://wearestjohns.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/michael-jackson-meet-reagan.jpg

Not to be an ass, but if the lows are fairly bad, how can it be a pretty great album – isn't it closer then to "pretty good"?

― post-contrarian meta-challop 2009 (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, August 21, 2009 4:43 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

just shut the fuck up you batch-posting microscope-toting 100% joyless rock critic motherfucker

is good album

that was uncalled for

not having been there (maaan), ive never quite got the whole 'to do this after PR was so so so daring' thing.

pop life just edges out raspberry beret for me here, but i think oversaturation of the latter plays a part here

Same here, voted for "Pop Life" though.

xpost oh I love alfred by this point but when he gets to grading 80's prince I just feel like yelling

I'm not looking up the thread but this is a repeat of some other 'around the world' thread in which I absolutely humiliated myself going to bat for it, we've all been here forever

I remember riding my bike up to K-Mart to buy this album when it came out (I was a sophomore in HS), and then later that night I went with a girl to see Madonna at Cleveland Public Hall. LOL 80s.

Anyway, I actually voted for "America."

xpost oh I love alfred by this point but when he gets to grading 80's prince I just feel like yelling

what the fuck do you think we're doing here then?

I demand that you love this album without reservation

listen to nothing else but the last 90 seconds of 'temptation' for the rest of the day, and then start nine additional poll threads on this album and vote for a different track in each one

Check.

hahaha I love Prince and this album is easily his weakest of the '80s, no question at all

I got this album from a friend who had removed the tracks he didn't like. My copy only has 6 songs. Weakest of the 80s though? I'll have to relisten to Parade but I remember not liking much on that one.

!!

xpost matos do you actually rate batman over this

Batman's less uneven for sure, so in that sense there's a draw, but I only really like the two big obv. singles and maybe "Tamborine" from Around the World.

It's like saying War Babies is the best Hendrix album or something.

(that's for the long-lost dude I knew once who thought War Babies was the best Hendrix album)

Parade>Lovesexy>Around The...>>>>>>>>>>>>>Batman

Don't blame me for thinking that when you wrote War Babies I thought you were referring to the Hall & Oates album.

hahaha fine it's better than Batman. what an exalted honor.

It might be the weakest. Batman is worse but it is more muscular. But Around The World is kind of the most endearing. It's the runt of the litter. It's trying too hard, like a kid at hallowe'en dressed up in the most elaborate costume expecting the biggest and best party, which makes it kind of vulnerable and tragic. The rest od those 80's records have their shit together a lot more - there's a lot more strut to them.

And doesn't Raspberry Beret seem like one of those great pop songs he usually gave away to whoever he was trying to get in the sack at the time - like Manic Monday or The Glamorous Life? Nice to hear him hold on to one of those.

I consider this album a failure - an interesting one kinda but not one I really care to listen to. Was very relieved when Parade came out.

and yeah the Hindu Love Gods version of "Raspberry Beret" does the trick for me better than Prince's because Prince can't not sound like he's kind of above doing anything for a living besides ruling the fuckin' universe which is totally fine with me but takes me outta the game when he's workin' summer at the five-n-dime

Is the 12" mix of Paisley Park the one that starts with the seagull sounds?

thinking about it more - everything's good except the two long-ass boring songs that don't fit. i bet he had a dozen songs in his sock drawer that could have taken the place of "condition" and "temptation" that would have made it top shelf.

Mix I have of Paisley Park starts with a voice saying Paisley Park, then some chick giggles and it goes into a cheap drum machine and obnoxious guitar fuckery.

lol J0hn.

I have no prob w/ the narrator in Raspberry Berry. He's remembering back before he ruled the universe when his boss was mr magee. it's nostalgia for before he was immortal - just like purple rain (themovie) was all about living in his moms basement and kicking ass at the local battle of the bands. and - like in little red corvette and darlin nikki - he's gotta be a bit of a nebbishy shopclerk kid so he can get outclassed by a superfreak. that's the whole point!

yeah I think the point of the song is that he didn't really do shit at that job because, you know, he's Prince

repetitive xpost to J0hn, obv

sorry, too much coffee (meaning any at all)

i dunno, "didn't like my kind"? maybe Mr. McGee was more racist than Prince was lazy.

i think it's a perfect storm of prince's disinterest and mr mcgee's racism

yeah i dunno it's not like i don't believe him it's just like he sounds like even he doesn't believe him any more you know? whereas zevon sounds like, fuck, I better finish this take, I'm due at the hardware store

ha - sure, i hear that

Sincere love for this record due to personal circumstances. Also I like the songs very much.

Funny, I just pulled this out of my stacks the other day. Forgot I even owned it. Has a nice $2 price tag on it.

I only recall the singles so I've got some homework to do. I've never gotten excited about any Prince beyond Purple Rain, but I'm going to try.

Built like she was, she had the nerve to ask me if I planned to do her any harm...

always made me wonder if Prince had ever actually met a hippie

― go Nick go! Scrub that paint! Scrub it!! Yeah!! (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, August 21, 2009 8:56 AM Bookmark

my favorite Prince vs. hippie moment is on "All the Critics Love U In New York", when he suddenly exclaims, "Take a bath, hippie!"

Obviously "Condition" rules here...but the demo version of "Around The World" is fucking awesome...it's faster and looser and it reminds me how much I love Prince...

ranking the 80's albums:

1. Sign O The Times
2. 1999
3. Purple Rain
4. Parade
5. Dirty Mind
6. Around The World In A Day
7. Controversy
8. Lovesexy
9. Batman

(did not count the black album)

My wife picks Paisley Park or maybe Tambourine

but she doesn't have a login so ha I voted Raspberry Beret

sonnyboy knows the deal.

i think it's a perfect storm of prince's disinterest and mr mcgee's racism

― Brio, Friday, August 21, 2009 3:42 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

can i just say, been lolling @ this all day

Songs with tambourines in 'em are win everytime. (As for the other tracks: The shorter they are, the better.)

I love "Tambourine" so much.

Pop Life over Condition of the Heart, by just a bit

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Lots of votes!

shame the title track didn't get at least one vote.

Songs with tambourines in 'em are win everytime

...and all their base are belong to us

I think "Paisley Park" is the most obviously great song on this album. The melody is one of the prettiest Prince ever wrote, his raspy vocals have the sort immediacy that makes you believe anything he says, and even though the metaphor is kinda corny, it's also life-affirming in a way that transcends any corniness. I love the line "they've taken a lifetime lease on Paisley Park". and I love how that metallic percussion instrument (what is it?) is so high in the mix. The only flaw in the song is that it has a bit too much rock guitar in it; this so obviously a pop song, the guitar feels kinda extraneous.

I can't believe "The Ladder" and "Temptation" got more votes than the title tune! AtWiaD is so obviously an album with a awesome A side and meh B side: every tune on side A is great in one way or another, and they're also significantly different from each other, whereas side B goes gradually worse and worse, until you get the Voice of God bit, and you know Prince's indulgences have finally won over his musical brilliance. His tendency to go for something perceivedly arty and fail was even more pronounced on Parade, which like AtWiaD is half-brilliant, half-boring. I think Prince's experimental side produces the best results when he isn't trying to be so obviously, painfully artsy as on these two albums.

Funny – the lengths of the song fragments on Parade mitigate his artiness.

I think Parade is flat-out fantastic from start to finish.

Funny – the lengths of the song fragments on Parade mitigate his artiness.

No, I think the lenghts of the tunes is exactly what makes the album artsy and flawed: half of the tunes sound like showcase material, like Prince just wants to show you, "See? I can do chanson and instrumental soundtrack music, and weird metallic beats, and...", but he didn't bother to flesh them out into proper tunes. All the tunes that are properly fleshed out ("Girls & Boys", "Mountains", "Anotherhole", "Kiss", "Sometimes It Snows in April") are excellent, but the abundance of vignettes makes the album sound like it's suffering from ADHD. If he'd cut a few of the vignettes and worked the rest of them into proper songs, Parade might've been perfect, now it's only half-perfect.

I don't frankly care whether Prince is perfect. An artist so mercurial is bound to risk imperfection. I take your point, but a near-perfect sprawl is several leagues better than the okay to awful coherence of ATWIAD.

Around the World in a Day isn't a terrible album, though.

The extended version of "America" is as long as a freaking sitcom!

keep on wahing little pedal
keep on wahing for four more minutes

oh thank you for letting the flute do something other than that refrain, thank you purple one

Haha, you're right! Most of Prince's extended 12" versions are great, but with "America" I can't imagine what made him think playing the same riffs for 22 minutes would sound good.

Speaking of extended versions, I just bought the 12" single of "I Wish U Heaven", which is subtitled "Part 1, 2 & 3", and it's awesome! The album version of the song is just the first part of three on the 12" mix, and it goes totally bonkers towards the end.

Great riffs are certainly able to sustain themselves for longer than 22 minutes. (But I haven't heard the extended version in question, so whaddo I know?)

seriously it's just a beat & that doot-doot-doot-dott-doot-DOOT-doot flute riff for like 4 minutes.

Paisley Park is waaaaay toooooo low.

What was the 12" single that had a "Black Album" style label on the b-side, wayy before the eventual authorised issue of the BA?

1. Sign O The Times
2. 1999
3. Purple Rain
4. Parade
5. Dirty Mind
6. Around The World In A Day
7. Controversy
8. Lovesexy
9. Batman

I was thinking to myself "but I really like Lovesexy + Batman!" but then I realized you were still right.

can I just say the upthread grumbling about the implausibility of Prince working at a five and dime seems to be coming from ppl who never actually moved on to the rest of the first verse, where he explicitly says he spent the whole time doing jack shit?

or in other words Matos OTM: yeah I think the point of the song is that he didn't really do shit at that job because, you know, he's Prince

Belated response to MarkG. Lovesexy's "I Wish You Heaven (Parts 1, 2 & 3)" had a Black Album style label on the b-side for "Scarlet Pussy". Presumably because it features Camille vocals like much of the Black Album.

Yeah, and like I said upthread, that single is well worth tracking down... Besides the awesome extended remix of the A side, the B side is probably the best Camille tune of them all.

Actually, IIRC the B side is even credits the artist as Camille, not as Prince.

Yep:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/camille.jpg

really thought it was weird that "Condition" was the 3rd-highest song from this album in the big Prince tracks poll last year, makes way more sense in 6th place here imo

this album is nothing special but i think it's both better and more diverse/interesting than people give it credit for

I disagree; every Prince album up through Batman is something special, and many of the albums afterward are something special as well.

I guess there was a point where I said "I don't need any more Prince albums"

"Diamonds And Pearls", I think it was. (the one after that, I mean)

'nothing special' is a relative term -- i mean yeah any peak era Prince is SPECIAL but i mean i don't consider it a classic, just kind of underrated

wau i had NO IDEA about that B side on the vinyl. colour me peach, black and amazed.

Love this album. I can't listen to Purple Rain anymore so I go to this and Parade if I want to listen to some Prince. Tambourine is a great little diddy.

Tam-bo-rine

Tuomas OTM about that 12" it is one of my favorite Prince artifacts

i've listened to "purple rain" so many times by now that i think i prefer the movie to the album

"Say hello to my little friend, the blue angel." "Oh my god, it's his guitar!"

Oh silly man, that's not how it works
U have 2 want her 4 the right reasons
I do!

U don't, now die!

prog Prince

had nothing better to do with my night than create an ideal tracklisting for some kind of crazy impossible double-length version of this record, extended 12" mixes apply:

1. around the world in a day
2. hello
3. girl
4. paisley park
5. she's always in my hair
6. raspberry beret
7. condition of the heart
8. pop life
9. tamborine
10. america

I assumed there were at least 12 months separating all Prince's '80s albums, but the gap between Purple Rain and this album was only 10 months.

"Raspberry Beret" was on the radio on the way home. So good.

whenever I learn Prince songs for karaoke I'm always reminded of how much he vamps during verses, often adding these really awesome fills. either really fast speak-sing passages, or some really crazy high falsetto wails. the whole "she-he-heeeeeeeee" in that one part of Raspberry Beret is one example, and he does that speak-sing thing in various parts of the song.

I especially love that fill he does in "Sometimes it Snows in April" during 'he used to say so strong unafraid to die' part.

Yeah he's an amazing vocalist. I just went on youtube to look for "Pop Life" and there was a cover and the flat singy deliver just drove home how percussive his vocals are.

I assumed there were at least 12 months separating all Prince's '80s albums, but the gap between Purple Rain and this album was only 10 months.

― billstevejim, Sunday, August 23, 2015

We should note for the record that "Take Me With U" was descending the charts as "Raspberry Beret" debuted.

Yeah, he actually cut his Purple Rain tour short by several months.I want to say he skipped Europe and/or non-US entirely?

"pop life" is prob in my prince top 5

Little I don't have some fondness on here but the top two are far and away the best tracks on it.

when raspberry beret is playing in public it makes me wish that everyone would suddenly launch into a choreographed dance number

Excellent making-of story.

This podcast with Wendy and Lisa really delivers the goods behind the album. Also lays to rest, if I recall, the whole Beatles influence thing that even the UNCUT piece trots out (hint: Prince didn't really dig ''em).
https://maximumfun.org/episodes/heat-rocks/ep119-wendy-lisa-on-princes-around-the-world-in-a-day-1985/

didn't know the demo of title track was written by Lisa's brother!

Wendy: So, um, that summer, we were all like, rehearsing for the next tour
and recording a whole bunch of albums at the warehouse. There
were a whole bunch of other bands that were around and recording
was happening simultaneously as being in other rooms rehearsing.
And Johnathan and David drove up to rehearsal and gave us a
cassette of David’s song, “Around The World in a Day.”
The two of us listened to it in Lisa’s car, and we were—we both
looked at each other and said, “We have to play it for Prince. He’s
gonna lose his mind.”

Lisa: Prince was like, “Can I have it?”

Prince actually awarded him a co-writing credit.

that says a lot! whole interview is great, points to Wendy for dropping Subotnick as a childhood influence

http://www.princevault.com/index.php?title=Paisley_Park_(instrumental)

^^ shout out to this '84 demo. top tier! it's definitely the same chord sequence, but faster tempo & the modality of the arpeggiation would make it hard to sing the final version of the melody over it. only heard it for the first time three years ago on 'Blast From The Past v4'. sadly not on youtube.

just occurred to me. if we go with the idea of atwiad being dense with 60sishness or however its spun, does that random explosion of musique concrete towards the end of - and intruding in on - 'pop life' count as prince's own version of the sound collage bits in the middle of 'my world fell down' or the buckinghams' 'susan'? :)

the other thing it reminds me of is the wigan's chosen few version of 'footsee' (!)

This album is now 40 years old, having been released on 22 April 1985. The release date is now closer to the end of World War II in Europe than it is to today.

'Raspberry Beret' and 'Pop Life' still rule.

We all know Pat Smear is in the "Raspberry Beret" video, right?