TS: Prince's "Automatic" vs The Pointer Sisters' "Automatic"

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The ultimate death match. Immortal burbling synth hooks. June (it IS June, right?) Pointer's husky pipes vs Princely falsetto. Right now, this second, I prefer the Sisters Pointer.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 2 April 2007 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

I love Prince, but I've to go with the Pointer Sisters for the tune.

― Jordan, Monday, 2 April 2007 18:15 (nineteen years ago)

No contest AT ALL. I've played "Automatic" more frequently than any other Prince I own over the past year. It's one of the very best thing he's ever done.

― Matos W.K., Monday, 2 April 2007 19:54 (nineteen years ago)

This is impossible.

― Eric H., Monday, 2 April 2007 19:58 (nineteen years ago)

How many times have you played the Pointer's "Automatic" in the past year, Matos?

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 2 April 2007 21:06 (nineteen years ago)

A.U.T.O.MATIC is a great track while Pointer Sisters had considerably better moments than "Automatic". So Pointer Sister would only win had they been overall considerably better than Prince. Which of course isn't the case.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 2 April 2007 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

NO CONTEST PRINCE, WTF

― HI DERE, Monday, 2 April 2007 21:51 (nineteen years ago)

Alfred nailed it: Pointers for me, too, mostly because of that singing voice. And that vaguely robotic bass-line makes for a nice bit of onomatopoeia. (And I don't care that the lyric sheet says "stream of absurdities" - I still like "string of obscenities" better.)

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 2 April 2007 21:51 (nineteen years ago)

Anyone noticed how El Debarge's "Rhythm of the Night" stole the rhythm? Awful robo-calypso too.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 2 April 2007 21:56 (nineteen years ago)

My band did the Pointer Sisters one on the album right before I joined the band, there's a clip here

― Jordan, Monday, 2 April 2007 21:58 (nineteen years ago)

The chord changes on the 'My hands perspire' pre-chorus bit are great

― calstars, Monday, 2 April 2007 22:01 (nineteen years ago)

How many times have you played the Pointer's "Automatic" in the past year, Matos?

zero. I'd have no problem listening to it again, but I severely doubt I'd want to play it again and again the way I do Prince.

― Matos W.K., Tuesday, 3 April 2007 01:16 (nineteen years ago)

pointer sisters

― tricky, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 02:02 (nineteen years ago)

although the prince track is a standout on an album of them.

― tricky, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 02:06 (nineteen years ago)

btw Prince's is the better song, obviously, but I gotta be in the mood to hear it; its length is a problem. The Pointer's song, however, is quite weird, especially if you focus on the vocals: she sounds like a drag queen, so the robo-sexuality has a rather perverse overtone.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 02:08 (nineteen years ago)

PS +1000 for perpetuating/inculcating? the ambisexual black robot sex meme

"lady cab driver" >>>>> "automatic"

xpost! (turned back on!)

― tricky, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 02:10 (nineteen years ago)

nine months pass...

"ambisexual black robot sex meme" -- lolz

I found my copy of Breakout after months of searching. omigod "Dance Electric" is all black robot sex.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 12 January 2008 01:18 (eighteen years ago)

Breakout was maybe my second #1 favorite album growing up, chronologically speaking, after Hotter Than July. Of course, I was five years old.

― Eric H., Saturday, 12 January 2008 03:20 (eighteen years ago)

very different songs.

I like the POinter Sisters song, though I had no idea it was females singing the first time I heard it....

― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Saturday, 12 January 2008 18:26 (eighteen years ago)

Your threads collide, Soto. Prince's "Automatic" is to Pointers' "Automatic" as "Sugar Walls" is to "Strut." And not just cuz Prince wrote the first items. It boils down to a battle between horizontal softcore and vertical PG.

Pointer Sisters for me (although Prince's is most, to use a word favored around here, gyratable). And once again, I must pump Walter Hughes' "In the Empire of the Beat: Discipline and Disco," one of the best academic essays on disco I've ever read. He hears "Automatic" as symptomatic of disco in the age of AIDS: "The submission described here evokes desire and the beat less than it does the ravages of HIV infection: the spiking temperatures, the night sweats, the dementia, the collapse of the various bodily 'systems.'" Email me for the pdf.

Anyone noticed how El Debarge's "Rhythm of the Night" stole the rhythm? Awful robo-calypso too.

Don't be ripping on DeBarge. Even Diane Warren-penned DeBarge.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Saturday, 12 January 2008 19:19 (eighteen years ago)

Dear me. After that excerpt I'm not sure I want to read it!

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 12 January 2008 20:57 (eighteen years ago)

I'll email it you. It's really a remarkable piece.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Saturday, 12 January 2008 21:03 (eighteen years ago)

I'm assuming it's about Prince's "Automatic."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 12 January 2008 21:06 (eighteen years ago)

No, no, that particular chunk is about the Pointer Sisters.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Saturday, 12 January 2008 21:08 (eighteen years ago)

I'm relistening to it now. IT'S SO WORDY ("string of absurdities"!). I love Ruth's intonations here ("I'm men-tal-ly at your will").

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 12 January 2008 21:12 (eighteen years ago)

Hughes reprinted the entire lyrics when his essay appeared in the Voice.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Saturday, 12 January 2008 21:17 (eighteen years ago)

Got to be Prince in this case. I quite liked "Jump (For My Love)", but "Automatic" wasn't up there.

― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 12 January 2008 22:21 (eighteen years ago)

having read the entire thread I must now conclude that both songs are garbage.

― El Tomboto, Saturday, 12 January 2008 22:31 (eighteen years ago)

ILM 547, El Tomboto 0

― El Tomboto, Saturday, 12 January 2008 22:31 (eighteen years ago)

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