Prince – 1999

How would we know that the Prince album 1999 would contain the hit "1999" if it didn't say on the cover? Thanks, helpful sticker!!

Pressing sounds phenomenal, this is Prince at his best and I can’t imagine a better sounding version.

So many great songs on this 2 record set. What's a better party song than 1999, the smokey Little Red Corvette, and the circus like Delirious!! I think a hidden treasure is D.M.S.R. on side 2. Not for the faint of heart, but a rocker for sure !!

Album Revolution #3:

Since 1978, "Prince's" Musical Ambitions have been getting BIGGER and BIGGER, and by 1982 they started to pay off...

Enter "1999"...

We all know that "Purple Rain" may have made "Prince" a SUPERSTAR, but "1999" got him SUPER-NOTICED! Why? Well, while everyone was just about into the "New Wave stuff", "Prince" took things much FURTHER!!!!! "Sly Stone", "Stevie Wonder", even 'Smokey Robinson" tried to flirt with "Electo-Funk"..... "Prince" grabbed ahold of it and put it into GRAND USE!!!!!!!!

The album starts off with the "Title Track" (Also including "Revolution" "Dez Dickerson", "Lisa Coleman" & friend and Vocalist "Jill Jones"), which shows how ambitious "Prince's" Music was becoming...Even at the end, with Drums and Guitars, while asking "Mommy, why is everybody on the bomb??????"...Hmmmm....

"Little Red Corvette" was the second single, and became an INSTANT CLASSIC!!!! This also had Vocals with "Dez" and "Lisa", and was the first Video that "Prince" had on "MTV"....

"Delirious" was one of those quirky jams he did from time to time, this one good enough to be a HIT....

The rest of the album was the most ambitious part...

"Let's Pretend We're Married" was part "Minneapolis", part "Electro Funk"...I feel like it kind of got out of hand at the end though (I used to revel in it back in the days though, just a different person now)....

"D.M.S.R". was just a straight "Minneapolis Funk" fest, with a gang of Background Vocals...

"Automatic" was another ambitious t, with help from "The Revolution"....

"Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)" was another quirky jam...Pure "Electro Funk"!!!!

"Free" was cool, but it kinda threw the album off just a little bit to me...

"Lady Cab Driver" was my Crown Jewel of the album...The Guitar and Drums on this one was right in the POCKET (I kinda feel like him having sex in the middle of it was unnecessary, but hey, it was "Prince" at the time)....

"All The Critics Love U In New York" was another quirky t that would have your head bob...

"International Lover" rounds out the album nicely, being that Classic Slow Jam "Prince" was becoming known for...

This was some the most creative music I ever heard!!!! The only thing I would say, and I know people will get mad at me, but the sexual references are little to much for me personally (They were cool when I was younger, but now, not so much)...

But I get it, he was also a different person back then too, but it didn't stop this from being is a straight up PRINCE CLASSIC!!!!!!

PS: 6/28/2024: I have the 4 LP "Compilation, Remastered, Stereo, Mono All Media, Deluxe Edition" version....To be honest with You Guys, I really only got this so I could have "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?" on Vinyl....Hey, I told You Guys I was WIRED DIFFERENTLY (LOL)!!!!!!! Anyway it SOUNDS TERRIFIC!!!!! One day, I will get REAL AMBITIOUS and get the 10 LP/ DVD Box Set, when I get some SERIOUS DOUGH!!!!!!!

Is that red sticker on the cover on everyone’s copy or is that on top of the shrink wrap in the picture? Cause I was just given this record with the shrink wrap off and it doesn’t have the sticker

My mother would NOT let me play this album in the living room. She thought it was - disgusting. Really, it was only the Little Red Corvette song that she found inappropriate. I had NO IDEA why being a young inexperienced teen. Now, I understand. It's pretty explicit. LOL. This is a great album the whole way through. And yeah - I LOVED Little Red Corvette. Still do. International Lover on the 2nd disc is also - excellent.

Curious...why is this album listed under Prince, while others released with the Revolution are under Prince and the Revolution? The band is credited on the album cover (although it is difficult to make out). 1999 seems a bit out of place.

One of the greatest albums from prince after purple rain soundtrack 🔥🔥🔥

Does anyone's skip on Lady Cab Driver? I have a used copy but can't see any scratches that would cause it

Following on from the rock rhythms and new wave leanings of “Dirty Mind” and “Controversy”, “1999” was the first project in the vast musical sphere of Prince to make a concerted bid to win over both the pop and rock audience and prevail.

Plainly recalling David Bowie’s unrivalled ability to variate his identity in accordance with his latest influences and ideology, Prince’s gender fluidity, extravagant fashion sense and live shows, featuring gasp-inducing exhibitionist spectacles, were expressly compatible with his concepts. For his next course of action, he appreciated the past while anticipating the future musical landscape, scaling down the unrestrained eroticism that had given him the edge over his contemporaries but also damaged his chances of breaking through to the inflexible, narrow-minded and lowbrow mainstream. Upon cultivating the purple-loving image of a lusty guitar hero with substantive sex appeal and more on his mind than merely epicurean matters, Prince was introducing the various principles of his iconic Purple Rain persona. Instead of relying on suspender-clad Lothario antics as a form of expression and shock value, Prince continued to exude sex vicariously through the graphic language of his compositions.

If his previous records dovetailed the innate qualities of one another whilst progressing towards something more commercially viable, then “1999” is the leap into the unknown, deviating from, but mostly distilling and refining what had emerged as his character, essence and sound. That being said, “1999” is not unfettered in its accessibility, nor does it dispense with the funk elements of old. Comprised of two halves, one being largely commercial and the other more unconventional and innovatory, Prince’s antipodal philosophy of sex, social consciousness and spirituality is communicated in an unbroken, congruent manner.

Prince had already made major breakthroughs when he began constructing the seminal record that would see him further establish his sexy signature sound but also raise his profile considerably. At this point his career, devising and loading 11 opuses onto a double album was a natural progression since he had not yet built on his reputation as the foremost pop maestro and failed to challenge anyone’s expectations. Undoubtedly, he could make skilful use of his creative proliferation, but “Controversy” only negligibly consolidated the textural course and brief extent of his antecedent. Endowed the freedom to explore new musical horizons with more advanced recording equipment at his disposal, the logistical nightmare posed by realizing the scope of “1999” meant that Prince had to advance his studio techniques. As opposed to the marginally organic instrumentation of its predecessor, “1999” was largely composed electronically. By stretching out the arrangements, he was able to fully display the extent of his raw talent and musical capacity. Aside from the prominent synthesizer melodies present throughout, Prince incorporated guttural rock choruses and three-part harmonies to further expand his vocal range, delivering high-pitched screams and tender murmurs with equal conviction. Ever the overachiever, he was firing on all cylinders in 1982, being incredibly visionary and adventurous whilst founding what would be recognized as the Minneapolis sound. It has been widely reported that the 1980-1984 imperial phase was possibly the most exorbitantly productive of his entire career, especially if one considers the other projects he was involved during this time. As with most of Prince’s most celebrated body of work, it would leave a lasting imprint on all popular music in perpetuity.

From the eponymous Armageddon-envisioning party anthem, the delicate, melancholic “Free”, alluring allegory “Little Red Corvette”, vital revisionist rocker “Delirious”, frantic digital synthscapes of “Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)”, to elastic, pleasure-minded jams “Automatic” and “International Lover”, the quality, variability and momentum does not incline even once. In all respects, Prince is on dynamic, irreverent and kinetic form, with his constantly halcyon attitude, fluency and veiled sass lending the album a warmth and lightness. On the less taut, salient front, “Dance Music Sex Romance,” extols the virtues of self-confidence and salaciousness, “Lady Cab Driver” rumbles with reverie, and the incisive “All the Critics Love U in New York” takes aim at pretentious hipsters. While mostly confined to the second disc, the sustained, simmering and seductive grooves, all flourishing and tensile arrangements powered by cool electronic propulsions and heightened by sexually explicit lyrics, may be less immediate than the hits, but they are comparably enriching and irresistible.

“1999” is a snapshot in time, capturing Prince directly before he reached the international stage. Tied together with an overarching theme of sexual positivity - reimagining trysts through the use of automobile metaphors, airborne scenarios and in the backseats of cabs – over which Prince would declaim his hedonistic paranoia - partying in the face of oblivion on Earth whilst deliberating the implications of such licentious abandon in the afterlife – the album showcases his many attributes from the outset. From the visibility and assists of his diverse backing band The Revolution and their own adoption of a designated role and uniform, Prince relinquished the outré behaviour in favour of high-octane, choreographed presentations and sharp dance breaks. It was this addition in particular that appealed to the MTV viewership transfixed by his eye-catching garb, playboy persona and dynamism rather than simply his music, which received scant airplay in comparison to the likes of Michael Jackson and Madonna. Though it shares some common threads with its predecessors and establishes several components of subsequent material, “1999” is a thematically continuative, cohesive statement that, in a parallel universe, would be the supreme criterion, but in the case of Prince, this rich and lavishly produced, awe-inspiring masterpiece marked the dawning of a very purple reign.

Rating: 5/5