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Printablemurph said: Byron said: Yet it's still a Pharrell/Black Eyed Peas rip-off...lol  I know I'm an old motherfucker...But still, I have my ear planted to what's going on in music scene because I'm in the business...But "Black Eyed Peas"????? That song has no connection with anything remotely BEP...To me it sounds like a bunch of dried up, nursing home-ready fans who have no idea what's going on in contempoary music (if you don't fit the description, no harm, no foul)...Seriously, I hear shit like "add some horns" and it drives me crazy...As for Pharelle, the man merely implemented P's mojo into the style and rhythm of the hip-hop age..."Black Sweat" is designed to do damage on the radio and in the clubs...Live horns would merely slow the track down...My opinion: The song is find the way it is... Again, my comment was meant in a sarcastic tone, not a serious one...lol  Just find it funny how "Black Sweat" seems to remind everyone of about 17 different prince tunes from the entire span of his career...yet is still catagorized as nothing more than "imitating Pharrell"...lol | |
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Byron said: murph said: I know I'm an old motherfucker...But still, I have my ear planted to what's going on in music scene because I'm in the business...But "Black Eyed Peas"????? That song has no connection with anything remotely BEP...To me it sounds like a bunch of dried up, nursing home-ready fans who have no idea what's going on in contempoary music (if you don't fit the description, no harm, no foul)...Seriously, I hear shit like "add some horns" and it drives me crazy...As for Pharelle, the man merely implemented P's mojo into the style and rhythm of the hip-hop age..."Black Sweat" is designed to do damage on the radio and in the clubs...Live horns would merely slow the track down...My opinion: The song is find the way it is... Again, my comment was meant in a sarcastic tone, not a serious one...lol Just find it funny how "Black Sweat" seems to remind everyone of about 17 different prince tunes from the entire span of his career...yet is still catagorized as nothing more than "imitating Pharrell"...lolI'm with u..That's why I made the point of saying I get the sarcasm (LOL)...It's just that a lot of my fellow older peers on the org want to hear Prince pull out his ax and rock out...They don't want to see him do anything remotely "urban" or contempoary...I think the track is a good mix of old and new...I understand why some people are not digging it...Hell, I respect a lot of the opinions that have been given about the track, both positive and negative...But some of those very same reasons have come off as just plain puzzling and frankly out of touch... [Edited 2/3/06 16:28pm] | |
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Byron said: Again, my comment was meant in a sarcastic tone, not a serious one...lol
Just find it funny how "Black Sweat" seems to remind everyone of about 17 different prince tunes from the entire span of his career...yet is still catagorized as nothing more than "imitating Pharrell"...lolGreat point, by the way... [Edited 2/3/06 16:28pm] | |
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YES  | |
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Byron said: I think people here care too much about what everyone else thinks...and I think peoeple here care too much about making sure everyone eles knows what they think...lol ...wild how our mindset changes with technology.
Had the internet and message board sites like this one existed 20 years ago when "Kiss" first came out, I imagine the split among fans who loved/hated the song was intially released would have been similar to what it is now for "Black Sweat": most of us liking it, some of us not getting into it at all, at least not initially...I, for one, was underwhelmed when I first heard "Kiss", and a bit disappointed. I'd imagine the "haters" (...I hate that term) back then may have commented on things like saying Prince's falsetto is too irritating for the entire length of a single, and how much better it would have been had he sung it in his "normal" voice...that the rhythm guitar is "ok" but pales when compared to what he threw down on "Let's Go Crazy" and "Temptation"...that lines like "Act your age/Not your shoe size" are immature and weak compared to the poetry of "When Does Cry"...and that his Donald-Duck-On Helium screetching at the end of the song is just a step above fingernails on a chalkboard. I know we all like to pretend we could spot and appreciate Prince's classic singles the very first time we heard them, that we just "knew" this one was different than the rest...and we also tend to convince ourselves that the number of years we've been a fan somehow gives us otherworldly insight into how long Prince spent creating a song, whether or not he had fun doing so, his mindset at the time of creation, whether or not the song will be a Top 40 hit, and especially whether or not he'll ever again be able to create anything worthy of the label "Genius"...and this goes for both sides of the fence, both pro and con, good and bad, "Love it" and "Hate it". I chalk it up to nothing more than how the internet has shaped our perceptions of our opinions, as well as how it has shaped our perceptions of everyone else's...lol I sometimes wish we could turn back the clock to a time where a new Prince song could exist on its own, and I could listen to it and either like it or be bored with it without the background noise of a million anonymous opinions trying to convince me I should feel differently. I suppose I could just not come here when a new song is released...but my mindset I think has been forever changed by 6+ years of message board experience of all shapes and colors. Unlike in 1986, I now want to know what "everyone" thinks all the time...and it's almost subconscious at this point.  I agree with much of what you say here, but I think you're being a weeee bit hard on the... .... "fam" and the internet.
Art, in itself, is deeply personal, yet part of its extended appeal -- to me at least -- is that I can appreciate it in the context of a greater community that also appreciates it one way or another. Especially in times like these, it's FANTASTIC that we have this kinda thing to bring us together... even if it's only to blow hot air. Generally, others' opinions don't sway my own when it comes to this kinda stuff (I'm a stubborn bastard when it comes to my art  ), but they do often help me see more nuanced terrain in the piece I'm taking it...
I mean, Byron, solely by perusing this thread, I've been made to think of "Black Sweat" in relation to Pharrell, James Brown, new and old Prince, his hits and his flops over 2 1/2 decades. I'm more actively thinking about the Linn drums, the absence of horns, the falsetto, the amount of lead and rhythm guitar, whether Wendy & Lisa continue to have an influence... I'm even considering the song's place in Prince's career as juxtaposed to that of John Fogerty and CCR, for goodness sake!! I LIVE FOR THIS SORT OF STUFF! 
I, too, think the internet has turned everyone into an armchair critique and/or producer, but this is old as art itself. Consider the Algonquin Round Table or dedicated circles for the Bronte sisters, Plato, Socrates, Dickens, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Francis Bacon, any number of classical composers. And consider us to be Prince's! For sure, all this banter strips away a certain innocence from the music, itself... or, quite opposite, overadorns it with things it needn't be weighed down with. But this conversation fleshes out our experience!! Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.” | |
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It's catchy and you can dance to it. | |
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I didnt like first time i heard, i did think it was very boring
today i even like it. maybe tomorrow i will love it.  | |
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What exactly is 'black sweat'?
Is this related to Prince going bald?  | |
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Byron said: gargamelgibson said: Who knows maybe this song MIGHT grow on me. I absolutely HATED 'Kiss' the first time I heard it on the radio back in '86 and I can't deny the power of the song now. (honestly, I didn't love it until I got the 12") But the difference is that Kiss sounded like nothing else on the radio at the time. When other artists began copying the Minneapolis sound Prince always seemed to take it a step further.
That old nostalgia bug bites me hard with this song because structurally it's so close to what made Prince's sparse arrangements the shit back in the day. But now it sounds like a blatant attempt to keep up and not be a step ahead. I'd rather Prince be the mellowed-out musician rather than make music that doesn't sound natural to me. I'm sorry but it's hard for me to see anyone loving this song and despising Life O' the Party because they sound like they're cut from the same cloth to me. If you love it and feel it's part of "the return of Prince", good on ya. To me it sounds like more programmed rehash of New Power Soul with Pharell's influence. The difference might be as simple as there being 20 years of Prince's musical influence soaking the popular music landscape when "Black Sweat" is released, so what you hear in that song is heard all over the place...as where there were only 2-3 years of possible Prince musical influence when "Kiss" came out. Yes, Prince could have decided that since everyone is taking his sound and co-opting it as their own that he should go off in another musical direction...and in fact, he did. TRC, One Nite Alone and N.E.W.S. is evidence of that. But in my eyes, I'm not exactly shocked or disappointed in the fact that the sound you hear in "Black Sweat" is the sound he developed and made popular, and because of that he may desire to revisit it...it's no different than John Fogerty putting out "The Old Man Down The Road" in that patented CCR style that he created and populated in the early 70's. He wasn't trying to copy or catch up to anyone...he was just being John Fogerty. The only difference is that his style didn't absolutely drench so many aspects of pop music afterwards like Prince's shit did, so it was easier to hear a new release by him and appreciate it as evidence that he can still put out songs like he did 15 years earlier...and we let John Fogerty be John Fogerty without the cynicism attached. I have really missed reading your posts. Welcome back. And your avatar still makes me laugh.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'll play it first and tell you what it is later. -Miles Davis- | |
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I LOVE THIS SONG!!! BEST PRINCE SONG RELEASED IN YEARS! Goodnight, sweet Prince. | |
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The more I listen to it the more I love it. It really grows and that is a good sign. 
I find that the chorus is stuck in my head. I was riding my bike this morning and all I could hear in my head was "Working, working up a black sweat" When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. | |
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Byron said: murph said: I know I'm an old motherfucker...But still, I have my ear planted to what's going on in music scene because I'm in the business...But "Black Eyed Peas"????? That song has no connection with anything remotely BEP...To me it sounds like a bunch of dried up, nursing home-ready fans who have no idea what's going on in contempoary music (if you don't fit the description, no harm, no foul)...Seriously, I hear shit like "add some horns" and it drives me crazy...As for Pharelle, the man merely implemented P's mojo into the style and rhythm of the hip-hop age..."Black Sweat" is designed to do damage on the radio and in the clubs...Live horns would merely slow the track down...My opinion: The song is find the way it is... Again, my comment was meant in a sarcastic tone, not a serious one...lol Just find it funny how "Black Sweat" seems to remind everyone of about 17 different prince tunes from the entire span of his career...yet is still catagorized as nothing more than "imitating Pharrell"...lolSounds more like Joint 2 Joint then any other past Prince songs released. Goodnight, sweet Prince. | |
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The minute he throws some horns in there, its a million posts going "Damnit it's another James Brown song !"
i feel ya, universal. how many people have been clammering 4 the old school synth sounds and such ? or, i wish he would do this and that. soon as he does it..... fickle mu' muckas  i have a feeling this album will rock. the song might be kinda short, but i am praying 4 a 12 inch single. ya never know, he might give us one.
peace, J [Edited 2/3/06 22:05pm] | |
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I'm sorry but it's hard for me to see anyone loving this song and despising Life O' the Party because they sound like they're cut from the same cloth to me.
 No. Life O' The Party was really weak. I think Black Sweat has a completely different feel. Much funkier, much less embarrasing. | |
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rudeboynpg said: Byron said: Again, my comment was meant in a sarcastic tone, not a serious one...lol Just find it funny how "Black Sweat" seems to remind everyone of about 17 different prince tunes from the entire span of his career...yet is still catagorized as nothing more than "imitating Pharrell"...lolSounds more like Joint 2 Joint then any other past Prince songs released. How the hell do u hear Joint 2 Joint in this cut???? That I cannot hear that at all. No way, no how. But I would love 2 hear a splash of rhythm guitar in the mix, this cut is growing on me, I like it. Don't u want to come , 3121. It's gonna be so much fun, 3121. That's where the party be, 3121. Y'all can come if u want to, but u can never leave! |
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3NineteeN04 said: rudeboynpg said: Sounds more like Joint 2 Joint then any other past Prince songs released. How the hell do u hear Joint 2 Joint in this cut???? That I cannot hear that at all. No way, no how. But I would love 2 hear a splash of rhythm guitar in the mix, this cut is growing on me, I like it.  U must be joking. The main synth line is almost the same in Joint 2 Joint. Play the songs back 2 back.Goodnight, sweet Prince. | |
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Does anyone else hear "Escape" in "Black Sweat", especially the arrangement of the vocals; "It's more hard to love than it is to hate". | |
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Alright, my personal verdict is out... that track is hot! To each his own, but you just gotta love that song! I absolutey totally love his vocals on that one. Has that angry "I'm hot - and I don't care who knows it." touch to it. | |
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SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said: No Way are Black Sweat and Life of the Party cut from the same cloth!
Not even I agree. Black Sweat is much better. LOTP just sounded a bit forced to me. I like the whole 1999-era feel to it Green virgin teenager, or filthy rich yuppy. Pussy cat pussy cat, where for out thou puppy | |
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The song reminds me a bit of his music from the Dirty Mind and Controversy albums for some reason. I was surprised to hear him sing in falsetto, very refreshing to have the falsetto back! It's got a dancable beat and a catchy hook, I like it. It's not gonna go down as a classic Prince song, but it's still worth the occasional listen. I think the highlight of the song if from about 3:20 to about 3:50, but that's just me. [Edited 2/4/06 3:10am] | |
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I wonder what Questlove and those folks think about the song. If nothing else, it sounds less polished and rawer and then anything he has done in God knows how long. Maybe even since the 80s (except for a couple of songs here and there). | |
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This is more like it,  is back 2 his funky best ..... i hope there is more of this on the album ,this is the best up-tempo release for ages!!Live4Love
Take ur pic from the japanese robes & sandals ,drink champagne froma glass with chocolate handles ..... dont u wanna come 3121!! | |
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xpertluva said: Does anyone else hear "Escape" in "Black Sweat", especially the arrangement of the vocals; "It's more hard to love than it is to hate".
How funny that you say that. Since I've heard Black Sweat, the song 'Escape' has been playin in my head constantly... and indeed especially the part you quoted. 
Black Sweat is great! 555-4444 you're on coffee talk. | |
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By the way, I saw someone commenting the other day that 3121 is shaping up to becoming a cross-over between NPS and Dirty Mind.
That is not my what I think at all. I think it sounds more like a cross-over between Parade and Emancipation. I can totally relate to people saying that Black Sweat sounds like Kiss, Joint 2 Joint and that Beautiful, Loved and Blessed sounds kinda like Right Back Here in My Arms. 555-4444 you're on coffee talk. | |
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antoon said: By the way, I saw someone commenting the other day that 3121 is shaping up to becoming a cross-over between NPS and Dirty Mind.
That is not my what I think at all. I think it sounds more like a cross-over between Parade and Emancipation. I can totally relate to people saying that Black Sweat sounds like Kiss, Joint 2 Joint and that Beautiful, Loved and Blessed sounds kinda like Right Back Here in My Arms. I like the kind of tunes in which P takes his time to draw out a song. I'm thinking along the lines of Crystal ball (the song), condition of the heart, lovesexy.. you know, that kind of stuff. It's all really nice to have those poppy things happening, but after musicology (which i think wasn't bad, btw) i'd like to see P indulging his love for music and challenging his artistry some more... | |
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xpertluva said: Does anyone else hear "Escape" in "Black Sweat", especially the arrangement of the vocals; "It's more hard to love than it is to hate".
That's a horrible thing to say about Escape. | |
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NouveauDance said: xpertluva said: Does anyone else hear "Escape" in "Black Sweat", especially the arrangement of the vocals; "It's more hard to love than it is to hate".
That's a horrible thing to say about Escape. You'll have to admit that BS is mixed a LOT better than escape though (escape being top-heavy.. hardly any bass) | |
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Andy is a four letter word. | |
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I had to work the other night so I missed the premier on TV. I finally heard it yesterday on VH1's streaming video player. Between the irritating stopping and buffering of the player, and the fact that I was hearing it on weak computer speakers instead of a stereo, it was hard to get an accurate feel of the song but from what I heard, I liked it but it did have some flaws.
The groove was funky, I loved the sassy falsetto, and I absolutely loved the electronic handclaps which clapped loud and funky. I couldn't really tell about the drum machines because I was hearing them on a computer. They sounded like they beat a little harder than hip hop drum machines (which are weak as hell) but not as hard as they should for a funky song. I hope that's just because I was hearing them from computer speakers. He needs to get rid of that damn "Dr. Dre Snoop Doggy Dog" kiddie synthesizer and replace it with that strong "Prince" synthesizer. The song did make my ass move so I guess I like it. With some stronger drum machines or maybe real drums and replace that damn kiddie cartoon hip hop synthesizer with a good "Prince" sounding synthesizer, I would absolutely love the song and call it one of Prince's best songs in years. In other words, the parts that resemble hip hop even in the slightest, get rid of them.
. . [Edited 2/4/06 7:11am] Andy is a four letter word. | |
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That beat is definitely hard! Blast it loud, you'll see (hear)! I do agree on the synth. A little too much treble on that one, but let's see how the album version sounds.
Despite that, I'm now decided that the song is absolutely slammin'! Love, love, love the vocals. I'm so curious what he will do with it on SNL... | |
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