The thirty year career of a very productive artist like Prince is hardly easy to summise, books have been written about his career, so this tale here, though long for Rhotation norms, remains an overview..
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Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 7 June 1958, to John L. Nelson and Mattie Shaw. John was a pianist and songwriter, and Mattie was a singer. He is named after the Prince Rogers Trio, his father's jazz band, and as a boy he was called Skipper. After the birth of his sister Tyka in 1960, Prince's parents gradually drifted apart. After they formally separated, he had a troubled relationship with his stepfather that resulted in his running away from home. Prince lived briefly with his father, who bought him his first guitar, and later he moved in with a neighborhood family, the Andersons, befriending their son, Andre Anderson ( André Cymone).
Prince and Anderson joined Prince's cousin Charles Smith in a band called Grand Central that they formed in junior high school. His initial contributions were as an instrumentalist in what was a mainly instrumental band that played clubs and parties in the Minneapolis area. As time went by and Prince's musical interests broadened, he found himself producing the arrangements for the band. Before long he became the band's front man. By the time Prince entered high school, Grand Central evolved into Champagne and started playing original music already drawing on a range of influences including Sly & The Family Stone, James Brown, Earth Wind & Fire, Miles Davis, Parliament-Funkadelic and Jimi Hendrix. At one point Prince was a student at the Minnesota Dance Theatre.
In 1976, he started work on a demo tape with producer Chris Moon in a Minneapolis studio, with the patronage of Owen Husney, who ran a campaign promoting Prince as a star of the future, the resulting bidding war was eventually won by Warner Bros. Records, that offered him a contract and were the only label to give Prince creative control of his songs. Prince released his first album, For You, on 7 April 1978. For You was the first major-label album released by Prince, his first of many for Warner Bros. Tommy Vicari was the executive producer. This album, like most of his career, was not recorded with a band; Prince purportedly played all 27 instruments on the album though they were different types of string, percussion, and keyboard instruments.The majority of For You was written and performed by Prince. This was the first of Prince's albums containing the now ubiquitous legend: "Produced, Arranged, Composed and Performed by Prince." Prince spent twice his initial advance recording the album, which sold modestly and made the bottom reaches of the Billboard 200. He used Prince's Music Co. for publishing the songs from this album.
By 1979, Prince had recruited his first backing band featuring Andre Cymone (Anderson) on bass, Gayle Chapman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, Bobby Z on drums, and Dez Dickerson on guitar. Prince intentionally enlisted a multi-racial, mixed-gender group, much like the backing band of one of his greatest influences, Sly Stone. In October 1979, Prince released his self-titled second album Prince, which reached #4 on the Billboard R&B charts, and contained two R&B hits. In 1980, Prince released Dirty Mind, again entirely self-recorded and released using the demos of the songs. On tour, Lisa Coleman replaced Chapman in the band, who felt the sexually explicit lyrics and stage antics of Prince's concerts conflicted with her religious beliefs. He released the album Controversy in 1981, with the single of the same name charting internationally for the first time. In February of 1981, Prince performed "Partyup" on the now-infamous season six episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Charlene Tilton . Starting with the album Controversy, Prince used Controversy Music for publishing his songs, which he would use for his following sixteen records until Emancipation in 1996.
In 1981, Prince formed a "side project" band called The Time, that released four albums between 1981 and 1990, with Prince writing and performing all instruments and backing vocals throughout. The band's vocals were led by Morris Day. In the eighties Prince would also collaborate with Vanity, Apollonia and Sheila E. He also wrote hits for artists such as Sheena Easton, Celine Dion and The Bangles. Prince's own recordings would be covered in hit versions by diverse artists. In 1982, Prince released the 1999 double-album which "broke" Prince into the mainstream in the US and internationally, selling over three million copies. The title track was a protest against nuclear proliferation and became his first top ten hit internationally. Around this time Prince began crediting his band as The Revolution, which consisted of Dez Dickerson on guitar, Lisa Coleman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, Bobby Z. on drums, and Brown Mark on bass. Dickerson left the band and was replaced by Wendy Melvoin, a childhood friend of Lisa. The band members were known for being solid musicians and a strong live act, nevertheless their talents would be used sparsely in the studio.
Prince's 1984 album, Purple Rain (concurrent with the film of the same name) sold more than thirteen million copies in the US and spent twenty-four consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200, and the Academy Award-winning film grossed more than $80 million in the US alone. Two songs from Purple Rain, "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy," topped the US pop singles charts and were hits around the world, while the title track reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Prince simultaneously held the spots #1 film, #1 single, and #1 album in the US. It was the album's song "Darling Nikki" which inspired Tipper (unconvenient truth) Gore to found the Parents Music Resource Center. The center has enacted the mandatory use of a warning label ("Parental Advisor, Explicit Lyrics") on the covers of records that have been judged to contain language or lyrical content unsuitable for minors.(obviously she'd never listened to Frank Zappa before..wink).
In 1985, after the U.S. Purple Rain Tour, which was a smash hit in the US and Canada, Prince released Around the World in a Day, which held the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 album chart for three weeks. In 1986, Prince released the album Parade. The first single, "Kiss," would top the Billboard Hot 100. At the same time, "Manic Monday" by The Bangles, which Prince had written under the pseudonym "Christopher Tracey," reached #2. Christopher Tracy was the name of Prince's character in the movie "Under The Cherry Moon," for which Parade served as a soundtrack. Prince both directed and starred in the movie, which largely flopped. Following the film and album, Prince returned to touring with a stripped-down show, he embarked on his first full scale European Tour in the summer of 1986. He closed the tour in September in Japan, his first appearances in the country. At the end of the tour, Prince disbanded The Revolution, although retaining band member Matt Fink on keyboard. Added to the backing band was Boni Boyer on keyboards, Sheila E on drums, Levi Seacer, Jr. on bass, and Miko Weaver on guitar.
Sign o' the Times, released in 1987 as a double album, reached the Top Ten of the Billboard 200 and achieved the greatest critical acclaim of his career, The double album was a synthesis of three projects from 1986, including some work with The Revolution. The bulk of the tracks originate from the final Revolution project known as Dream Factory and a later solo project called Camille. These projects, along with some other songs merged into a 22-track, 3-LP opus called Crystal Ball. Prince's record company, Warner Bros. Records, balked at the idea of a 3-LP album, and forced Prince to trim the album down. The result was Sign O' The Times, which quickly became widely regarded as Prince's magnum opus amongst fans and critics alike.was the best album of the 1980s. Following the albums' release, Prince launched the Sign o' the Times Tour in Europe
In 1987, Prince planned to release The Black Album, a funk-oriented album whose erotically-charged lyrics and club-focused beats were perceived by many as his attempt to woo back the black audience he was supposed to have lost as a result of his mid-80s forays into pop, hard rock, and psychedelic rock. The album remains legendary in Prince's career after its release was canceled at the artist's behest mere days before its release date. Though many already manufactured copies were supposed to be destroyed, several escaped and became the source for numerous bootleg editions. The album circulated through the bootleg underground music world and was not given an official release until 1994.
The 1988 album Lovesexy is considered Prince's "spiritual" answer to the "dark" The Black Album. Lovesexy performed disappointingly on the US charts, reaching only #11 on the Billboard 200, but it reached #1 in the UK. In 1989, Prince provided and released the soundtrack for Batman, which returned him to #1 on the US album charts. The worldwide hit-single "Batdance" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, while another track, "Partyman," became a popular song with the film's audiences. In 1990, Prince released the film Graffiti Bridge, a sequel to Purple Rain that performed poorly at the box office. The release of Diamonds and Pearls 1991 gave Prince his fifth US number one single with the song "Cream." Diamonds and Pearls debuted Prince's new band, the New Power Generation, that featured rapper Tony M., Rosie Gaines on vocals, Michael Bland on drums, Levi Seacer on guitar, Sonny T on bass, and Tommy Barbarella on keyboards.
Prince's twelfth album was titled with an unpronounceable symbol (later copyrighted as Love Symbol #2).[15] It reached the top ten of the U.S. album charts. In 1993, he also changed his stage name to the Love Symbol, which is a combination of the symbols for male (♂) and female (♀). Because the symbol was/is unpronounceable, he was often referred to as "Symbol," "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince," or simply "The Artist." In 1993, at the request of Warner Brothers, Prince released a 3-CD greatest hits compilation entitled The Hits/The B-Sides. Two new songs, first "Pink Cashmere" and then "Peach," were chosen as promotional singles to accompany the compilation album. Unfortunately, neither the album nor singles performed as well in sales as Warner Bros. had hoped
n 1993, during negotiations regarding the release of Prince's album The Gold Experience, a legal battle ensued between Warner Bros. and Prince over the artistic and financial control of Prince's output. During the lawsuit, Prince appeared in public with the word "slave" written on his cheek.In 1994, Prince's attitude towards his artistic output underwent a notable shift. He began to view releasing albums in quick succession as a means of ejecting himself from his contractual obligations to Warner Bros. The label, he believed, was intent on limiting his artistic freedom by insisting that he release albums more sporadically.
Chaos and Disorder, released in 1996, was Prince's final album of new material for Warner Bros., as well as one of his least commercially successful releases. Prince attempted a major comeback later that year when, free of any further contractual obligations to Warner Bros., he released Emancipation. The album was released via his own NPG Records with distribution through EMI. While certified platinum by the RIAA, some critics felt that the sprawling 36-song, 3-CD set (each disk was exactly 60 minutes long) lacked focus, and might have worked better as a single or double disc. Prince released Crystal Ball, a 4-CD collection of unreleased material, in 1998. The distribution of this album was disorderly, with some fans pre-ordering the album on his website up to a year before it was eventually shipped to them, and months after the record had gone on sale in retail stores. The Newpower Soul album released three months later failed to make much of an impression on the charts.
In 1999, Prince once again signed with a major label Arista Records to release a new record, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. In an attempt to make his new album a success, Prince gave more interviews than at any other point in his career. Nevertheless Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic failed to perform commercially. A few months earlier, Warner Bros. had also released The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale, a collection of unreleased material recorded by Prince throughout his career, and his final recording commitment on his contract with Warner Bros.
On 16 May 2000, Prince ceased using the Love Symbol moniker and returned to using "Prince" again, after his publishing contract with Warner-Chappell expired. For several years Prince primarily released new music through his Internet subscription service, NPGOnlineLtd.com (later NPGMusicClub.com). Two albums that show substantive jazz influence were available commercially at record stores: 2001's The Rainbow Children and, later, the 2003 instrumental record N.E.W.S. In 2002, Prince released his first live album, One Nite Alone... Live!, which features performances from the One Nite Alone tour. The 3-CD box set, which also includes a disc of "aftershow" music entitled It Ain't Over!, failed to chart. During this time, Prince sought to engage more effectively with his fan base via the NPG Music Club, pre-concert sound checks, and at yearly "celebrations" at Paisley Park, his music studios.
In April 2004, Prince released Musicology through a one-album agreement with Columbia Records. This deal gave Prince most of the royalties, the album did well in the charts. The supporting Musicology tour was 2004's most profitable grossing $ 88 million. Further highlighting the success of the album, Prince's Musicology went on to receive two Grammy wins. In late 2005 Prince signed with Universal Records to release his album, 3121, on 21 March 2006, it became an immediate success and gave Prince his first #1 debut on the Billboard 200 . In November 2006, Prince opened a nightclub named 3121 in Las Vegas at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. He performed weekly on Friday and Saturday nights until April 2007 when his contract with the Rio ended. August 2006, Prince released Ultimate a double disc set containing one CD of previous hits, the other of extended versions and rareties.
On 8 May 2007, Prince announced that he would play 21 concerts in London over the summer. The "Earth Tour" included 21 nights at the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena. Tickets for the O2 Arena were priced at £31.21 (including a free copy of Prince's latest album), in order to make the concerts "affordable for everybody." It sold out very quickly..28 June 2007, the UK national newspaper The Mail on Sunday revealed that it had made a deal to give Prince's new album, Planet Earth, away for free with an "imminent" edition of the paper, making it the first place in the world to get the album. The date chosen was 15 July 2007. This move sparked controversy among music distributors and has also led the UK arm of Prince's distributor, Sony BMG, to withdraw from distributing the album in UK stores, clever recordshops on the other hand stocked thousands of Mail on sundays..btw for those in the UK, this weekend there's a Tina Turner's classic, Private Dancer as a bonus..
On 14 September 2007, Prince announced that he was going to sue YouTube and eBay because they "appear to choose not to filter out the unauthorized music and film content which is core to their business success. On 5 November 2007, several fan sites of Prince formed Prince Fans United to fight back against legal requests made by Prince to cease and desist all use of photographs, images, lyrics, album covers and anything linked to Prince's likeness. While Prince's lawyers claimed that the use of such representations constituted copyright infringement, the Prince Fans United claimed that the legal actions were "attempts to stifle all critical commentary about Prince. The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit against Prince's music company because he demanded that YouTube remove a video of a 13-month-old boy dancing as 29-seconds of "Let's Go Crazy" plays on a CD player in the background. The video is a home movie shot by the child's mother in the family's rural Pennsylvania kitchen. Ah well Jehovah in action, very sad a great star loaded with money and affinity of millions of fans.
His personal life hasnt been that glamourous, plenty of liasons obviously. He married his backup singer and dancer, Mayte Garcia, on Valentine's Day, 1996. They had one son, possibly named Gregory, who was born with Pfeiffer syndrome and died shortly after birth. Shortly after Prince approached funk bassist Larry Graham, one of his childhood idols, with questions about his Jehovah's Witness faith. In a later interview, Graham stated that Prince was in need of Biblical answers and advice and that Graham was glad to answer. Prince apparently became very interested in the religion. He was baptized by Jehovah's Witnesses in 2001, marking his formal conversion to the faith.By that time he had been divorced from Mayte for 2 years. He married Manuela Testolini in 2001 in private ceremony but she filed for divorce in May 2006. Maybe Prince should reread the new testatement and asap leave those servants of a servant of the devil, Jehova Witnesses.
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Prince And The Revolution - Twelves (84-86 ^ 151mb)
A compilation of 12'"'s Prince released with The Revolution, i note that this version of America was initially intended for Around The World but was edited down to 4 min to accomedate the record company.
01 - Lets Go Crazy (special dance mix) (7:33)
02 - Raspberry Beret (extended) (6:34)
03 - Erotic City (dance mix) (7:22)
04 - America (original) (21:43)
05 - Pop Life (fresh dance mix) (6:13)
06 - Kiss (extended) (7:16)
07 - Mountains (extended) (10:02)
diet version
Prince And The Revolution - Twelves ( * 99mb)
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Prince - Black Album ( 87 ^ 99mb)
The Black Album is a Prince record that was originally planned for release in December 1987, as the follow-up to Sign o' the Times. Referred to as The Funk Bible by preceding press releases, and in a hidden message within the album itself, the work seemed to be a reaction to criticism that Prince had become too pop-oriented.
The album had no printed title, artist name, production credits or photography; a black sleeve was all that came with it. On promotional copies, only a song listing and catalog number—25677—were printed on the disc itself Here are the known pressings that where supposed to be released. Just before the Black Album was released to the market, Prince recalled all copies and abandoned the entire project, leaving roughly 100 European promotional copies in circulation, and several US copies that would be widely bootlegged in the coming years. The German pressing is well known among collectors but hard and expensive to get. After cancellation rumours surfaced that a box of fifties copies made his way out of the Alsdorf record plant. German version (Cat: 925 677-1) Well i got one those ripped here.
Despite the mystique surrounding it, the Black Album has typically been viewed by fans and critics as a somewhat pro forma, rushed effort by Prince, although it is treasured by aficionados of the artist's funkier side, being as close to a straight funk album as anything he had recorded. The opening track also mentioned the title of the album as being The Funk Bible, which was a consideration during work on this project. The title refers both to the album's all-black cover design and to Prince's attempt to earn back his credibility among the Black pop audience with a release that was heavier on rhythm than its last few predecessor. The album features one of the most shockingly unusual Prince songs, "Bob George," in which he assumes the identity of a cursing, gun-wielding alter ego who murders a woman and dismisses the figure of Prince as "that skinny motherfucker with the high voice. Rumors and hearsay abound as to why the release was derailed; Prince became convinced that the album was evil or represented an ominous portent, or according to Per Nilsen, respected author of several books on Prince, Prince decided to scrap the album after an experiment with the drug MDMA (Ecstasy) that resulted in a bad trip. (must have been bad contaminated Ecstasy) Whatever..
01 - Le Grind (6:48)
02 - Cindy C (6:16)
03 - Dead On It (4:33)
04 - When 2 R In Love (3:55)
05 - Bob George (5:37)
06 - Superfunkycalifragisexy (5:57)
07 - 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton (7:01)
08 - Rock Hard In A Funky Place (4:17)
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Prince - I Wish U, The Scandalous Sex Suite ( 88/89 ^ 99mb)
01 - Scarlet Pussy (6:09)
02 - I Wish U Heaven (Part 1, 2 & 3) (10:13)
The Scandalous! Sex Suite
03 - The Crime (6:24)
04 - The Passion (6:17)
05 - The Rapture (6:39)
06 - Sex (7:02)
07 - When 2 R In Love (4:02)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
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