i remember in 1985 watching Friday Night videos every week hoping to see a video for Pop Life and Prince never did release one...Pop Life hit #7 in U.S so it was a hit and Raspberry Beret,Paisley Park & America all had videos...anybody know the reason?

The answer is simple.

Prince and his wonderful ego are all about releasing self-glorification videos like Musicology.

It wasn't likely he was ever going to show clips of him and his band getting booed off the stage during that legendary Rolling Stones concert.

For some reason i think Savannah's answer doesn't make any sense...not that i know why he didn't do a Poplife video.

It make sense if you know about the song.

During July of 1985, the song was released in the USA and Prince was just too busy with then current projects to toss great efforts into another video (post Raspberry Beret). Plus its hard to construct a video for a song that has intentional sound bytes tossed in and given the bad PR he was getting at the time, putting visuals to the sound byte might not have been wise.

Because it was still not commonplace / mandatory to make videos for all your single releases back in the 80s. Songs could be hits even without videos. In fact, during this very same period it was widely questioned if music videos even did affect the sales in any way.

Of course, what happened later on changed that perception.

Savannah said:

Eh!?!?!?!?!

He was making a movie at the time. He only just squeezed a video for America because he had the band together.

He was too busy. Plain and simple.

No reason,,


You didn't have to release a video for every release back then. Only the crap artist now need a video for every release.

He had several songs that didn't have videos after the purple rain days.

I don't think there was an american video release for Sign O The Times or If I was your Girlfriend.

That's one way of looking at it, but then there's this, other option:

The several songs that didn't have videos after purple rain effectively flopped and could've been MUCH bigger hits had they had videos - i mean seriously, If I Was Ur Girlfriend, with a proper video and exposure, possible the best song of the 20th century (big call i know, but is this not one of, if not THE best song from the prince cannon?? it surely deserved better representation than it got...). (I mean, seriously, surely U Got The Look and ICNTTPOYM only did better chart/hit-wise because of the videos that accompanied them.)

Pop Life was a fucking amazing song and could've done SO much better hit-wise with a proper video to back it up.

Missed opportunities me feel.

Savannah said:

Where did you hear this??? That soundbyte is not Prince being booed off the stage at the RS concert.

The reason there is no video for "Pop Life," is because Prince didn't want any visuals of him associated with the album. This was his first attempt at putting out a record without any videos or singles... similar to the "Camille" album that never surfaced.

This is why Prince is not on the cover of the ATWIAD album and no videos were going to be made. Warner Bros. put pressure on him to do videos for Raspberry Beret and America.

Personally, i think he just did not care to do a video for the song.

edit.
[This message was edited Mon Aug 16 11:35:46 2004 by JFive]

Savannah said:

What do u know about Prince being booed off stage at the Rollingstones Concert? Where u there? If so, do u know why he was booed? I was there I witness the whole concert from the time the gates opened until they closed. So u tell me about him being booed. Get your story straight. The fans had baked in the sun all day and was absolutely tried and restless. They wanted their hero the Stones. Prince just happened 2b the last act b/4 the Stones. That’s why he was booed because they wanted 2 c the Stones. No one else but the Stones. Your president could have come out and they would have booed him. Please don’t go there about my Prince being booed. U sound like all those lying media folks that take a lie and turn it into false information.

POP LIFE IS A STRONG ENOUGH SONG NOT TO NEED A VIDEO.

I KNOW PRINCE FANS AND NON PRINCE FANS AND THIS IS USUALLY HIGH UP ON THEIR FAV LIST OF PRINCE SONGS... NUFF SAID...

SORRY FOR THE CAPS... COULDNT BE BOTHERED RE-TYPING LOL

Mazerati said:

Wow..i didnt even know Paisley Park had a video..damn...

Contro said:

never seen it. I heard it's bad.

I don't think Prince really gave a damn about making videos in the first place. Before "Purple Rain", all the videos were done on a sound stage, with or without an audience. During "Purple Rain", most of the videos were strictly clips from the movie and the rest were live footage from a concert.

"When Doves Cry" has scenes from the movie but it has a few scenes that were filmed especially for the video. I think that video helped spark curiousity about the movie since it was released before the movie. As a result, the movie blew up.

His first full fledged "video" video was "Raspberry Beret". Music videos in music as a whole were in "full bloom" during that period so I think maybe he felt obligated to do one.

If you notice, later on, the "Sign O The Times" video was just words flashing and scrolling across the screen. I really wonder if he didn't want to be bothered with making a video. "Alphabet Street" he originally didn't want to make and then changed his mind at the last minute.

By the time the 1990s arrived, if you did not make a music video, you didn't have a hit. Maybe he felt he HAD to do videos then.

I don't know, it is just purely speculation on my part, but I really don't think Prince is interested in making music videos.

superspaceboy said:

No way, I love it!

OK, it's ultra-cheap looking (Makes Alphabet Street look like Lord Of The Rings), and just features some kids and some hippy-looking folks in a playground, but I think it's charming in it's crapness.

SpudMonkey said:

well it did hit #7 in the U.S...one of the downsides of not having a video for a song is when they show Prince video collections on BET or on DVD Pop Life won't be included and it could become a forgotten hit

Mazerati said:

Which is damn cool, but the point i was trying to make is if it made it that high without a video, isn't it fesible he could've had a fully fledged No.1 if it had a cool funky video pushing it? The timing was right, it was at least equally as good a song as R.B. - i just think it was a wasted opportunity for another full-on slam-dunk.

Also, on a side note, back in '83 didn't Delerious get to No.7 also without a video?...

pennylover said:

Good lord Newbies and thier god.

It happened, its history, he sampled it in the song. Everybody has heard this story 1000 times about that opening act. It happened twice. Its a big part of the song.

I have no idea what you're babbling on an on about the "why" he walked off the stage and left his band on thier own but all the band members have told the story over and over again, maybe you should check it out.

Savannah said:

Pop Life does NOT contain a sample of Prince being booed off the stage from a Rolling Stone concert. Someone started this rumor once the song hit the airwaves, and apparently 19 years later, it will not die!

Savannah said:

He ain't my God.

Savanah..... who laced your stuff?

Well, thats the org these days.

So while its been widely understood that wherever the sample came from
its been widely understood in dozens of circles for years and years by fans who
love his music that the unfortunate event and its place in the song triggers the
memory of fans back to that event. And therefore its highly unlikely that you'd
see a video of such event.. even if he had time to do it, which we all know at the
time he sure didn't.

Savannah said:

okay honey first off you posted Prince and his wonderful ego are all about releasing self-glorification videos like Musicology. So your saying instead he would release sounds of him getting booed off stage on an album but not a video? And also, so you know, the sounds on the song are not at all him getting booed off the stage it came from some sound sample dealio where he also got the baby sound at the end of delirious from.. (I dunno the name exactly but Boris Fishpaw does I'll bet!)





[This message was edited Tue Aug 24 18:26:41 2004 by PEJ]

Musicology Video wasn't self glorification?? Well the video got played for maybe a day or two over here before it got pulled and he didn't come to the video awards. . . but no matter what happens, he still does make an effort to put out that first video.

Pop Life got alot of play on the radio that summer amidst all the We are the World flames that were stinging anyone who claimed to be a fan of his music back then. I think its a proud moment looking back at a labeled "rock" artist on top of the world when only a few years back he had that "undeserved" hard time as the opening act.

Maybe WB was giving him a hard time, we all know how MONEY CONCIOUS they are, maybe there IS a video and it was shelved... who knows? More importantly; why is there no DVD available of AMERICA? that video KICKED MAJOR ASS