For me, Prince between 1982 and 1985 could do absolutely no wrong. Every project he worked on had great songs, and even the unreleased stuff puts most artists catalogs to shame.
1999/Purple Rain/Around The World In A Day '82-'85 vs.
For You/Prince/Dirty Mind/Controversy '78-'81 vs.
Parade/Sign 'o The Times/LoveSexy/Batman '86-'89
I thought Controversy was 82, so back it up a year, 1981-1985. Early Prince is too hit or miss, and after '85 success was messing with his head too much, although there are great songs and records in both periods. But between 81 and 85 he wrote and played almost everything on 4 classic records of his own, 3 great records by the Time, and other records that I think are way underrated by Sheila E, Vanity, Apollonia, & The Family. Not to mention other artists charting with his songs (Chaka Khan, Sheena Easton, The Bangles [although that mighta been 86]), AND his having one of the biggest movies of the 80's. Dude was on a creative roll that is pretty much unmatched, even if you aren't a fan of his music.
Beatles '65-'68 Kinks '66-'71 Al Green '70-'73 Sabbath '70-'73 Alice Coltrane '70-'73 Neil Young '69-'74 Can '71-74 Talking Heads '77-'80 Public Enemy '87-'91 Fugazi '91-'94 The Ex '91-'93 (Tom Cora collabo years) Dog Faced Hermans '93-'95 Sun Ra '52-'93
For me, Prince between 1982 and 1985 could do absolutely no wrong. Every project he worked on had great songs, and even the unreleased stuff puts most artists catalogs to shame.
1999/Purple Rain/Around The World In A Day '82-'85 vs.
Comments
that's correct. i was looking at wikipedia for the dates
and took the year they formed, not the year their first record was released.
straight up the cookie cutters' wazoo...
I thought Controversy was 82, so back it up a year, 1981-1985. Early Prince is too hit or miss, and after '85 success was messing with his head too much, although there are great songs and records in both periods. But between 81 and 85 he wrote and played almost everything on 4 classic records of his own, 3 great records by the Time, and other records that I think are way underrated by Sheila E, Vanity, Apollonia, & The Family. Not to mention other artists charting with his songs (Chaka Khan, Sheena Easton, The Bangles [although that mighta been 86]), AND his having one of the biggest movies of the 80's. Dude was on a creative roll that is pretty much unmatched, even if you aren't a fan of his music.
Kinks '66-'71
Al Green '70-'73
Sabbath '70-'73
Alice Coltrane '70-'73
Neil Young '69-'74
Can '71-74
Talking Heads '77-'80
Public Enemy '87-'91
Fugazi '91-'94
The Ex '91-'93 (Tom Cora collabo years)
Dog Faced Hermans '93-'95
Sun Ra '52-'93
it came out at the end of 1981
Curtis Mayfield= 71 - 76
James Brown = 70 - 75
Bobby Womack = 70 - 75
Marvin Gaye = 71 - 81
Willie Hutch = 73 - 76
as for (soul-)jazz....
Charles Earland = 73 - 75
Freddie Hubbard = 70 - 74
Jimmy McGriff = 68 - 73
Stanley Turrentine = 72 - 76
Lonnie Smith = 68 - 70
Roy Ayers = 73 - 76
Crusaders = 73 - 79