1999

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This year is the 20th anniversary of Prince's 1999 album. Do you have any memories connected to this record? What was the general response apon it's release? Was it ignored for a while or was it a smash hit right away? Do you think this album changed pop music?

― chaki, Wednesday, 20 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

and finally: does it sound 20 years old?

― chaki, Wednesday, 20 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I remember Prince and crew playing "1999" itself on dear ol' Solid Gold right when the album came out, I think, but "Little Red Corvette" was the real bastard breakthrough from the record some months later. At least, so I vaguely recall. And then there was "Delirious" and "1999" itself of course, and then 1984 came along and one day this fried guitar solo started up a song...

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 20 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sure, lots of memories...mostly the videos. "1999" and "Little Red Corvette" were killers right away. I don't think it changed pop music as much as Thriller or Purple Rain would.

― Mark, Wednesday, 20 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I like this album a lot. "Little Red Corvette" kills me every time. I don't have any memories because I was two years old when it came out.

― Ian, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Memories = "this is rubbish".

― the pinefox, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Little Red Corvette" is among my favorite Prince singles, and "1999" is among my least favorite. The synth hook and the rhythm just never grabbed me. The album didn't mean as much for me as Dirty Mind and some of his later ones. I seem to remember all the videos from the album looking the same - cheap concert footage in cheap lingerie. A lot of videos from then looked cheap, but all that changed within a very short time.

― Curt, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eight months pass...

i have been listening to 1999 a lot lately. the hits -- "1999," "Little Red Corvette," "Delirious" -- are all great, but the rest (the stuff that was "too weird" when i was a teenager) is absolutely stunning almost twenty years hereafter. esp. "lady cabdriver" and "something in the water (does not compute)."

it also must be the anti-Geir album ever made.

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 2 December 2002 12:47 (twenty-three years ago)

This statement doesn't compute (not when Merzbow exists).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 2 December 2002 16:54 (twenty-three years ago)

(the stuff that was "too weird" when i was a teenager) is absolutely stunning almost twenty years hereafter.

All the Critics Love You in New York is just fabulous. The greatest bassline. Basement Jaxx did a nice remix (well, all they did was house up the beats a little) of it too.

― Ben Williams, Monday, 2 December 2002 17:13 (twenty-three years ago)

A great album that I've kept playing regularly. I like Parade and maybe Sign O The Times even better.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 2 December 2002 21:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Call me a popists, but most of the tracks go on a bit long for me. "Free" and "International Lover" are just too silly. The singles rock though, and I can see why technoids love this album. But I'll take Purple Rain, Dirty Mind and especially Sign O' The Times over this one. I might even take Controversy over it too.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 2 December 2002 23:17 (twenty-three years ago)

But of course they go on long--they are robo-sex!

― Ben Williams, Tuesday, 3 December 2002 00:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Well my dick starts chafing before they're done. So I'm right to complain.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 01:05 (twenty-three years ago)

You need Astro-Gilde... and a *New Position*!

― Sean (Sean), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 01:13 (twenty-three years ago)

ew! Can you imagine what it would be like to be bent over with Prince pounding away behind you reciting the climax of "Lady Cabdriver"? This one's for you, and that one too! ick! yeah, I'm definitely gonna stick with the love poems on Sign O' The Times, the leering come-on's of Dirty Mind and the eargasms of Controversy over the robo-fuckin' on 1999.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 01:20 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

OK... Lady Cab Driver & All the Critics Love You are two of my favorite songs of all time...

Does anybody know of other music with a similar intelligent electrobeat-newwave-soulful vibe that would fit into the same family as these two songs?

― Bobby Peru, Tuesday, 22 March 2005 22:41 (twenty-one years ago)

hmm, have you tried Romanthony?

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 22:44 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

q- why does prince talk so much about hippies on this album? was there some hippie renaissance that was meant to be happening back in 1982?

― titchyschneiderMk2, Wednesday, 27 June 2007 15:56 (eighteen years ago)

also, there should be a thread devoted entirely to the 'this ones for' part of lady cab driver.

― titchyschneiderMk2, Wednesday, 27 June 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago)

because prince was a big fuckin' hippie.

― strongohulkington, Wednesday, 27 June 2007 15:59 (eighteen years ago)

q - why does prince talk so much about sex on all his albums?

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 27 June 2007 16:04 (eighteen years ago)

cos the hippies didnt like it.

― titchyschneiderMk2, Wednesday, 27 June 2007 16:06 (eighteen years ago)

the cheap video for "1999" is burned into my brain forever

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 27 June 2007 16:06 (eighteen years ago)

it also must be the anti-Geir album ever made.

-- Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 2 December 2002 12:47 (4 years ago) Bookmark Link

I don't think this is even a bit true.

― Mark G, Wednesday, 27 June 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago)

four years pass...

now we can all take a bite of my purple rock

― Male Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Nutsack (Abbbottt), Friday, 24 February 2012 17:54 (fourteen years ago)

Was listening to this just as a I found this thread. While I understand how critical they were to his crossover around this time, I was always less partial to the rock moves that made their way into this and Purple Rain. Still, I don't think I ever noticed how robotic 1999 feels as a whole. And "Something In the Water" is just awesome.

― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 27 February 2012 15:28 (fourteen years ago)

Some people tell me I've got great legs.

― dead-trius (Eric H.), Monday, 27 February 2012 20:13 (fourteen years ago)

i feel like 1999 has the lowest 'rock moves' quotient of almost any Prince album of its era

― DNRIYHM NATION 1814 (some dude), Monday, 27 February 2012 20:14 (fourteen years ago)

one year passes...

One of the best albums of the 80s.

― nypc blue (Drugs A. Money), Sunday, 20 October 2013 10:46 (twelve years ago)

Let's Pretend We're Married is my favorite Prince song, with all the electro-robo accompaniment it still never sounds anything less than madcap seduction. Def one of the great examples of what Frank Kogan referred to as a 'context of abundance' (on an,album full of them)(which is what I think Tad meant by his anti-Geir comment)

― nypc blue (Drugs A. Money), Sunday, 20 October 2013 10:49 (twelve years ago)

two months pass...

finally come to appreciate the rest of the songs beyond "1999" and "Little Red Corvette" today... it's a truly fantastic double-slab of robot funk.

the "this is for" sequence in "Lady Cab Driver" is crazy and fascinating.

― president of the people's republic of antarctica (Arctic Mindbath), Sunday, 5 January 2014 02:49 (twelve years ago)

Automatic 4 LYFE.

― Master of Treacle, Sunday, 5 January 2014 03:59 (twelve years ago)

so many amazing + baffling touches. in its almost graffiti-like songwriting approach, it's almost kind of the electro twin to Hex Enduction Hour

― lisa...Grampsy??? (Drugs A. Money), Sunday, 5 January 2014 06:03 (twelve years ago)

two years pass...

ohh wee sha sha coo coo yeah

― Neanderthal, Sunday, 24 April 2016 14:02 (ten years ago)

i wanna i wanna i wanna i wanna i wanna fuck you

i'm not sayin this to be nasty
i sincerely wanna fuck the taste out of your mouth

― Neanderthal, Sunday, 24 April 2016 14:07 (ten years ago)

creators of ToeJam and Earl totally used this album as inspiration

― Neanderthal, Sunday, 24 April 2016 14:08 (ten years ago)

eight months pass...

the end of lady cabdriver wouldn't fly today for sure

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 5 January 2017 17:22 (nine years ago)

i feel like a lot of the cool stuff on this album is after the "song" is done and prince lets a lot of em be like 2 minutes longer than you normally would and just grooves out

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 5 January 2017 17:23 (nine years ago)

I love it how the melody in 'Let's Pretend We're Married' reminds me of Gary Numan.

― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Thursday, 5 January 2017 17:30 (nine years ago)

"Delirious" might be the most slight of all the Prince 80s hits, it's really engagingly performed and that keyboard line is an earworm but at it's heart it's just a lil bar band rock n' roll number that feels like he tossed off in 30 minutes

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 5 January 2017 17:47 (nine years ago)

I mean i could totally hear the Fabolous Thunderbirds covering that and it sounding like an original of theirs

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 5 January 2017 17:48 (nine years ago)

goddamnit FabUlous I meant the rapper made me misspell that word for the rest of my life

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 5 January 2017 17:49 (nine years ago)

This album is basically about the long jams for me 'D.M.S.R.', 'Let's Pretend We're Married', 'Automatic', 'Lady Cab Driver' ...

― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Thursday, 5 January 2017 22:57 (nine years ago)

Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican)
Posted: January 5, 2017 at 12:30:35 PM
I love it how the melody in 'Let's Pretend We're Married' reminds me of Gary Numan.

You probably know this but Prince was a major numan fan around this time

― his eye is on despair-o (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 5 January 2017 23:53 (nine years ago)

Numan was a fan of Prince's too!

I wonder if Prince ever heard I, Assassin, particularly 'We Take Mystery (To Bed)'

― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 22:49 (nine years ago)

Numan did a couple of Prince covers during a really bad patch in his career and to say they're terrible is a bit of an understatement.

― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Tuesday, 10 January 2017 22:51 (nine years ago)

five years pass...

Seeing that clip of young Prince supporting the teacher's strike inspired me to pull out all my Prince vinyl and do a chronological marathon. I'm on 1999 now and I just wanna say side 3 (Automatic -> Something In the Water (Does Not Compute) -> Free) is such a galaxy brain side of vinyl. To my ears, that and side 2 of Controversy are where he indulges his weirdo tendencies in the best way

― J. Sam, Tuesday, 5 April 2022 02:28 (four years ago)

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