One of my least favorite songs and IMHO his worst opening track. I hear the "arabesque" he'll later toy with in O}+> but its a cacophoness mess of a song with a ridiculous number of layers upon layers of almost comical vocals, pseudo samples.

What was the trying achieve? Live for Love (only slightly better) seems the only other song he's done that sounds like this.

He wanted to make you a promise to see jesus in the morning light, and that you to take his hand.

Serous, Who the fuck knows.

Prince was most ultimately brilliant in sparce arranged songs, even in the upbuild layered extended versions of these songs.

But, often when he went multi-layered, it went wrong, certainly from the ninieties on, imho.

Does it have something to do with new recording techniques? could be...

More tracks? 24 to 48 tracks? I don't know... can be.

Susan rogers often said something interesting about him willingly destroying recordings in that fashion of over layering them.

Too creative?

Too much ideas?

Too much energy?

Too much candy?

The lack of a real producer for his songwriting?

The only multi-layered works by Prince i like, is the full Lovesexy Album,

the Mountains extended track, Computer Blue longest version, and Crystal Ball.

Not to forget 2 nigs United 4 West Compton, and a few other eighties tracks.

Spot on beautifully layered, funky fresh songs, that never grow tired, imho of course.

[Edited 4/30/24 9:10am]

Mayte said on the Prince estate podcast that she had been sending him music and that's how Thunder came to be.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Its a great song tbh, one of his best crafted songs of the 90s But its the type of thing he was getting into then I.e. big dramatic stagey rock He was into the whole musical idea around this time after all

This is how I see it. I like Thunder but I can see why it's not everyone's cup of tea.

thunder is much better than 7, which is colossally overrated. 7 is so leaden, it just drones on forever. thunder at least has more exciting changes. the main issue with thunder for me is that its a bit thin sounding. it sounds weedy. but i like that it has so many parts, he put a lot of care into it. that grandiose kind of rock opera song he was doing on 3 chains of gold, thunder was a lead up to that, but 3 chains becomes a bit silly with it, it just had too much going on, whereas thunder is less all over the place. idk where it came from, but prince obv heard something like bat out of hell or bohemian rhapsody or whatever, and thought, hey, i havent done that yet, let me try that a few times! (strays of the world falls into this sort of category too). and then prince being prince, he thought, let me do a gospel rock opera kind of song, im interested in arabic music a bit too so ill get that in there too, and thats how you get thunder.

As a creative, I can understand how a song like Thunder could haunt Prince until he got it out of his head. But it just gives a vibe that feels very situational and I'm rarely able to imagine myself in such a predicament.

This reminds me of my idea of using Prince's catalog as a song library for independent filmakers. With Purple Rain and Batman being 2 of his top 5 sellers, it's safe to say he was an accomplished soundtrack artist already.

I always thought ´Thunder´ was Prince trying to do a new ´When doves cry´. A melody over a beat, no bass, and some guitars and keyboards doing some epic stuff. I like this one a lot.

Not a fan of that or Live 4 Love, I haven't heard either in a very long time, and I'm okay with that.

I love Thunder. One of his best openings.

Also, the way the lyrics of this and Live 4 Love bookend the a story (Thunder/The guy being bombed, Live 4 Love/The pilot dropping the bombs), is a facinating glimpse into what he was penning in the middle of the short Gulf War.

I've got two teenage boys, who don't have the baggage of legacy, and they both put this in their top 10 Prince songs.

GustavoRibas said:

I always thought ´Thunder´ was Prince trying to do a new ´When doves cry´. A melody over a beat, no bass, and some guitars and keyboards doing some epic stuff. I like this one a lot.

There is a sort of replacement bass, but it sounds like a low voice.

It's one note going down, on the beat of the bass drum.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Surprised how many ppl hate live 4 love! (It also sounds nothing like thunder, much more of a live band all playing in the studio song) Id delete the rap but thats one of the best npg songs IMO [Edited 5/2/24 2:18am]

I hardly can listen to it, tried it several times.

The Dolby Atmos version, made me like it a bit more.

Same for Thunder.

Both songs imho, didn't stand the test of time, they sound sooooo hopelesly dated.

Actually like both albums from '91 and '92, imho of course..

SquirrelMeat said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

SquirrelMeat said:

I love Thunder. One of his best openings.

Also, the way the lyrics of this and Live 4 Love bookend the a story (Thunder/The guy being bombed, Live 4 Love/The pilot dropping the bombs), is a facinating glimpse into what he was penning in the middle of the short Gulf War.

I've got two teenage boys, who don't have the baggage of legacy, and they both put this in their top 10 Prince songs.

Thunder is prob the best opener of all the 90s albums.

Since it was released officially in 1994, "Le Grind" is THE BEST nineties opener for me.

(I know it doesn't count).

A fun(k)tastic no nonsense song, cool, happy, fucked-up, weird, fun, party, in-yo-face classic Prince opener, original too, and no religous shit going on.

Not trying one of those new musical styles coming up, but then again, it was already 7 years old.

Thunder is a two chord song, with heavy make-up.

Lyrics don't even comes close to any positive Lovesexy (religous related) message songs.

...imho of course.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Surprised how many ppl hate live 4 love! (It also sounds nothing like thunder, much more of a live band all playing in the studio song) Id delete the rap but thats one of the best npg songs IMO [Edited 5/2/24 2:18am]

.

- Yes. The NPG sounds amazing there, and Prince´s guitar solo too.

GustavoRibas said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Surprised how many ppl hate live 4 love! (It also sounds nothing like thunder, much more of a live band all playing in the studio song) Id delete the rap but thats one of the best npg songs IMO [Edited 5/2/24 2:18am]

.

- Yes. The NPG sounds amazing there, and Prince´s guitar solo too.

the guitar is what makes that song.

i think i said it before but the guitar sounds a bit like the edge/u2 (i love how the edge sounded in the early 80s so thats good for me).

I believe he was promising to see Jesus in the morning light.

TheFunkyNewAlbum said:

I believe he was promising to see Jesus in the morning light.

"...take my hand, it'll b alright..."

Is it about wankin'?

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Thunder is def dated But there's a good song underneath the dated sounds Live 4 love doesnt quite do it for me in terms of the subject, i just love it musically. Its a bit too relaxed in terms of the form of it (eg did it need a go tommy go chant in the middle? Im going to say no) to do the subject justice but the groove and the guitar are great. Its like an early hint of the npg trio stuff. [Edited 5/2/24 7:27am]

So I played this song for someone who doesn't know Prince and he said it sounded like a Backstreet Boys song.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

SquirrelMeat said:

I love Thunder. One of his best openings.

Also, the way the lyrics of this and Live 4 Love bookend the a story (Thunder/The guy being bombed, Live 4 Love/The pilot dropping the bombs), is a facinating glimpse into what he was penning in the middle of the short Gulf War.

I've got two teenage boys, who don't have the baggage of legacy, and they both put this in their top 10 Prince songs.

Thunder is prob the best opener of all the 90s albums.

And a great way to open a show.

Vannormal said:

He wanted to make you a promise to see jesus in the morning light, and that you to take his hand.

Serous, Who the fuck knows.

Prince was most ultimately brilliant in sparce arranged songs, even in the upbuild layered extended versions of these songs.

But, often when he went multi-layered, it went wrong, certainly from the ninieties on, imho.

Does it have something to do with new recording techniques? could be...

More tracks? 24 to 48 tracks? I don't know... can be.

Susan rogers often said something interesting about him willingly destroying recordings in that fashion of over layering them.

Too creative?

Too much ideas?

Too much energy?

Too much candy?

The lack of a real producer for his songwriting?

The only multi-layered works by Prince i like, is the full Lovesexy Album,

the Mountains extended track, Computer Blue longest version, and Crystal Ball.

Not to forget 2 nigs United 4 West Compton, and a few other eighties tracks.

Spot on beautifully layered, funky fresh songs, that never grow tired, imho of course.

[Edited 4/30/24 9:10am]

Great insight and analysis

RODSERLING said:

He just tried to piss you off and make you wonder why- and he succeeded, even more than 30 years later.