TS: Prince's 80s vs. Neil Young's 70s

Lotta Love by Nicolette Larson? (ducks)

x-m'fing post

For Neil, I was really referring to "Heart of Gold" - a #1 I believe. "Old Man" also broke the top 40. I thought Harvest as an album was a big seller too but maybe not:

http://hyperrust.org/General/Charts.html

Unclear, as it was certified Gold in year of release (and has gone multi platinum since)

Prince.

Dan, Neil needs your love.

such as it is though, prince takes it.

0. both "mentored" young female singers to great acclaim
1. both began as "genre" artists, ended up pan-everything-ists
2. both with serious father issues, both were Reagan supporters, confusing the hell out of everyone
3. both veering wildly between "commercial" projects (actually quite experimental) and "experimental" projects (actually pretty commercial)
4. both have same amount of letters in name
5. neil's secretary was named prince, prince's secretary was named neil
6. both shot john kennedy then hid in a brick shithouse

dan needs to feel the neil.

Ah, but some of that credit should go to Crown Heights Affair, whom he ripped off the riff in the bridge from (Dreaming a Dream).

The highlight in Chaka's veriosn is the bridge, which totally revolves around this riff.

It was the highlight of Dreaming a Dream too.

x-post. yeah but for some reason i think it would sound like vomit. althought i'd still be totally excited about it.

Yes he has! Hippie Dream is awesome...the rest of it sucks though, but just as much as any latter day prince record.

NO KIDDING! ATWID has "Condition of the Heart", "Raspberry Beret", "Tamborine", "Pop Life", "America" and "Paisley Park" on it! MEH MY ASS!

(Um, I am not demanding that people meh my ass there, no matter what the syntax looks like.)

too tough to call, I love them both and there are weird similarities, but I feel like they engage separate parts of my psyche. (altho all the Prince love on here makes me want to side with Neil just to balance things out)

Maybe my next TS should be Which was worse: Prince 90s or NY's 80s?

Trans and Freedom = Neil wins.

:-)
thank you

Oh, another thing Prince and Neil had in commmon (aside from both being quite mad): they both played lead guitar like a motherfucker.

Did Prince ever do a mediocre rockabilly album called "Roger And The Shocking Purples"? did Prince ever reference Spuds Mackenzie in a pop single?

I think the only thing I can *stand* from Neil in the 80s is Freedom, and that's pushing the 90s really. Prince has only about a dozen of classic albums more than Neil (if you count the best of Prince's protegé work)

I agree with whoever said "TS: Worse.. Prince in the 90s vs. Neil in the 80s.". Even then, I'd still say Neil was worse... even knowing full well about *holds noses* Rave On 2 The Joy Fantastic or whatever that thing was called.

It comes down to my ideal pop star vs. my ideal rock star. Prince's run of Dirty Mind to Sign O' The Times (say what you will about Around the World in a Day, I love it) is pretty untouchable. To say nothing of the b-sides and extended mixes from the period. On the other hand, I'm quite often in a mood where the only records I want to listen to are Zuma, On the Beach, Tonight's the Night, etc. As much as I love Prince, I don't have quite as much invested emotionally in his music.

Artists for different weather, ultimately. I can't imagine my life without either. I refuse to take sides.

1. Take Me With You/Powderfinger
2. When You Were Mine/Winterlong
3. Kiss/Like a Hurricane
4. When Doves Cry/Hey Hey, My My
5. U Got the Look/Cortez the Killer
6. Raspberry Beret/Welfare Mothers
7. When You Were Mine (Cyndi Lauper)/Sedan Delivery
8. Lady Cabdriver/Ride My Llama
9. Something In the Water/Pocahontas
10. Blue Limousine (Apollonia 6)/Come On Baby, Let's Go Downtown
11. Tambourine/Alabama
12. I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man/Tonight's the Night
13. Controversy/Words (Between the Lines of Age)
14. Little Red Corvette/Southern Man
15. Adore/Heart of Gold
16. I Would Die 4U/Thresher
17. Forever In My Life/The Needle and the Damage Done
18. The Ballad of Dorothy Parker/After the Gold Rush
19. Housequake/See the Sky About to Rain
20. Sister/My My, Hey Hey

Btw, I pick 80s Prince ahead of 70s Neil Young.

inasmuch as your name as shakey, aren't you obliged to say that?

you could pretty much boil this question down to "TS: The Hits/The B-Sides vs. Decade," couldn't you? and i have no more idea where i'd come down on that one than on how i'd come down on "TS: Goodfellas vs. The Graduate." they're two different, genius things.

I can't really stomach Prince, but I haven't quite given up on him yet. I think it's going to take him even longer than Sonic Youth to breach my hull.

--hahaha

Okay, keeping in mind that Neil Young is like Kryptonite to me, how the hell can you discount The Gold Experience, O)+-> and Diamonds And Pearls? (I already know that most of you mentalists hate Emancipation and The Rainbow Children.)

heheh "eBlows"

(Er, yeah. Hey, do you ever come back for reunions?)

I used to do a lot more traveling for my job, until I switched departments and started to have fun. But we keep threatening to make that East Coast trip w/ the family....

Also: 1960s Neil vs. 1970s Prince! FITE!

Gold Experience - I listened to this several times recently, and yet I still can't recall a single song on it.
Symbol album - a spotty collection w/some high points (I do like "7"). but um, Kirstie Alley's on that one right?
Diamonds and Pearls - the best of the lot, with Sexy M.F., Get Offf, and the title track. But this is about the time where Prince started to get a little confused and seemed to be following trends (rather than a more erratic personal muse a la Neil, or actually *setting* trends).
Emancipation - I don't think I've ever been able to sit through this whole thing. I own it, and, like the Gold Experience, I did break it out recently, but it left absolutely no impression on me. Is this the one with E-male on it? errrrr
Rainbow Children - The Work is grebt, as is the Everlasting Now. But apart from those, this album is a "failed experiment" on a par w/Neil's Shocking Pinks or "This Note's For You" album (both of which also have one or two good songs on 'em).

Top 4 for NY from 70s (I think most ppl would agree on these)

After the Gold Rush
On the Beach
Tonight's the Night
Rust Never Sleeps

Top 4 for Prince from 80s (this is tougher for a consensus, so I'll cheat)
SOTT
Dirty Mind
1999/Purple Rain/Parade

(re: D&P, some solid single + some ultra-duds just like the Symbol album then further downhill from there ...)

eh? what is this in reference to? who is CJ?

"CJ" is the Minneapolis Star Tribune's gossip columnist. Because it's, well, Minneapolis, she has very little to concern herself with in terms of celebrities so it's pretty much Josh Hartnett, Prince, and various Vikings and Timberwolves....Prince obv. has been her Moby Dick for her entire career...

"Billy Jack Bitch" off the Gold Experience was Prince's diss record directed towards her...

here's the lyric:

Whenever evil wants 2 groove
Come let me fly U 2 the moon
Then U can see how love will bloom
Joy - it's in the dictionary
See "J" Billy Jack Bitch

"See 'J'" = CJ - tee hee

actually really like that song....

Two great but flawed albums (TGS and Emancipation - TGS brings the funk hard but lacks general relevance, Emancipation really is three albums and is better taken that way). The remainder of his decade are mixed bags but all have something to recommend them.

Neil's 80s:

Two great albums more or less bookend the decade, one kindza flawed (Trans - too quirky to gain general acceptance but fine songs, Freedom which I can't think of a bad thing to say about). Most of Neil's minor efforts in the 80s are worse than Prince's in the 90s (Gett Off >>>>>>>>> This note's For you, for example).

So, a tie, just like Neil's seventies v Prince's 80s.

i love prince's music, but i dunno about this statement -- after all, there was this english gent named david bowie who also had a rather remarkable set of albums during the 70s. but that's off-topic.

gotta go w/ prince here -- 70s neil had some crud (namely, "journey through the past" and "american stars & bars") while prince was largely untouchable during the 80s. plus i never really warmed up to "tonight's the night" -- it's my personal EXAMPLE #1 of Great Records That I Just Don't Get.)

Is it even close? as the question; I had NY WAY ahead in my mind.

so I wrote "Is it close?" - a more even-handed question.

I knew Prince-love here was probably more prominent than the NY-crowd. Still, I did not think it was so strong that ppl would proclaim DM to SOTT as the best streak ever. To me, there are definite duds (emphasize plural) in there.
As I've written elsewhere here, I think 1999 is overrated -- not as much as Controversy is overrated (acclaim simply by riding Dirty Mind's fantabulous coattails...) but still not as great as some proclaim.

Can we agree that Around the World and Batman are the worst of both NY and Prince combined above (to be fair, SOTT is probably the best overall)?

(I won't complicate things even further by adding into the mix the Small Club recording (best bootleg ever?) or the Tonight's the Night tour tapes (most fascinating audience/artist interaction?) and so many more amazing live documents from both...)

But I love Graffiti Bridge, so what do I know?

As disappointng as "Around The World in a Day" is, it's not a clueless artist's leaden accomodation to the marketplace, as "Landing On Water" and "Life" are.

haha Neil was quite skinny in the '70s and definitely had a high voice!

Prince, easy, but I love love love Neil Young. I also quite like much of Prince's '90s output and not much of the '80s NY I've heard. I'm also willing to bet Landing on Water is better than The Rainbow Children since I hate the latter so much. (hi Dan!)