Prince - Ultimate Prince

Mostly I listen to guitar-based Alternative Rock, but every once in a-while I like to change it up.  Usually the Beastie Boys rapping or Fiona Apples jazz stylings offer a nice switch up (it should be noted that both have been marketed to Alt-Rockers so my listening to them shouldn't be some surprise.)

But I have added another to the stable: Prince!

Back in the day I used to have a hella' load of Prince cassettes (yes before Hard Harry412 began Talking Hard in the '90s, he was listening to tunes in the '80s and had quite a cassette collection) and later some CDs.  Over the years they have been lost while moving around the country.

Then in the mid-'90s I got a chance to actually see Prince on his 'Jam of the Year' tour!  It was great and he did an awesome 2+ hour set.

There were two highlights.  The first being Princes astounding guitar solo (with white guitar!)  during 'Purple Rain' (it was the only time he touched a guitar during the show, he was mostly just singing into a hand held mic the rest of the time)

The second highlight was a little solo piano medley that featured a fun version of 'Delirious'.

Thinking I needed to add something to my music library with Prince I though: 'Hey why not get something off of Itunes for my IPOD nano' and ended up with "Ultimate Prince'.

This is a sweet collection with 27 songs total!  On my playlist I moved them all around into chronological order and listening to it was a blast down memory lane and it was great to hear how Prince developed his style over the years!

There are so many good songs on here, but I just want to mention the ones that I feel were missing.

Where is 'Soft and Wet'?  Whenever I think of Prince I automatically think of this song as his first hit.  I would have taken out 'Uptown' to replace it with.

Also I know they couldn't put every single song from Purple Rain on there, but man I really missed hearing 'Take Me With U' and 'The Beautiful Ones'

Also where are some jams from the Batman soundtrack?  Just off the top of my head I wouldn't mind hearing 'Orange Crush' or 'Scandalous'!

Why couldn't they have put one more jam from 'Graffiti Bridge' on here?  I have always really liked 'Graffiti Bridge'.  I may be one of the few who do!  The movie is just a fun romp and people just take it way to seriously in my opinion.  

Also Princes style in that flick is probably my favorite style he has had over the years.  He had long hair, wore lots of black, and even wore some black leather coats.  He was like this total rocker during this phase!  I could see him getting on stage with like Venom or Motorhead and playing a killer guest solo in this sort of get-up!!

Also where the heck are a track or two from 'The Gold Experience'?  Assuredly Warner Bros. has the rights to those songs right?  It has some killer tunes on there like 'The Most Beautiful Girl in the World' and 'Gold'.  

Gold would be a killer tune to end a 'greatest hits' package with.  Myself I chose to just end it with 'My Name is Prince', which is a pretty good rap song I have always liked. 

Princes strange mask from back then (in the music video) humorously reminded me of Cobra Commander!

Anywho Ultimate Prince is a great comp. given how much material there is to cull from and listening to it certainly makes me want to someday drop some coin and buy some more of Princes Discography.