For You - Discuss Prince debut album & vote

[freedom]

http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/databank/images/foryou.jpg Prince's debut album "For You".
Released in the USA 7 April 1978 (not released in the UK until 1984), the album afforded him mild success across America, although it was greeted with more enthusiasm locally where it stood as an inspiration for musicians who felt trapped in the city of Minneapolis. The first single "Soft And Wet" (co-written by Chris Moon) reached No. 12 on the Billboard Black Singles chart and No. 92 pop. The album reached No. 21 on Billboard’s Soul Chart and No. 163 on the Pop Chart.

What are your thoughts about this album (good or bad). What does it mean to you and where does it figure in your collection. Discuss the songs and vote in our poll for your favourite track.

[joyinrepatition]

1978 was a great year for music!..The commodores,Donna Summer,Chic,Bee Gees,Kate Bush to name but a few...as a debut album it was fantastic.When he arrived the world sat up and took notice.One man all the instruments,production,vocals..it was unheard of.
30 years on the world is still sat bolt upright, to await the next chapter of this book we call Prince!..i for one can't wait! can U?..

[mpharris]

I think "For You" is a hugely under-rated album, sure it's of it's time and lacks the innovations of his later work but it's got some great songs on it. I love the track "For You", it shows Prince's wonderful harmony skills. Soft And Wet and Just As Long As We're Together are fantastic tracks but my favourite is I'm Yours, I love the guitar work on it.

[The One]

For a 1st album by a new artist who writes, produces, performs, composed and plays all the instruments.. I think this work is outstanding...!!! Granted he was just starting to find his feet around the studio and needed a little help from Chris Moon. Vocals stuck in that high falsetto... Songwriting could do with a little more depth... it was still an amazing achievement for a beginner in the music biz.

I voted for "My Love Is Forever" simply because it's just one of those annoyingly catchy, can get out of your head, simple sing along, perfect pop tunes with a hooky melody..... dooo do do do dooooo..... Don't get me started!!!!:)

[CynthiaRose64]

I absolutely loved this album from the first time I heard it, and to think it was his first, surely the music industry sat up and listened when they heard this album. Not many artists can claim to have their debut album so full of quality music.

Voted for just as long as we're together, love the long instrumental, very funky!!!


love it, love it, love it! :punk:

[joyinrepatition]

http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/databank/images/foryou.jpg 2008 markes the 30th anniversary of Prince's debut album "For You".
Released in the USA 7 April 1978 (not released in the UK until 1984), the album afforded him mild success across America, although it was greeted with more enthusiasm locally where it stood as an inspiration for musicians who felt trapped in the city of Minneapolis. The first single "Soft And Wet" (co-written by Chris Moon) reached No. 12 on the Billboard Black Singles chart and No. 92 pop. The album reached No. 21 on Billboard’s Soul Chart and No. 163 on the Pop Chart.

What are your thoughts about this album (good or bad). What does it mean to you and where does it figure in your collection. Discuss the songs and vote in our poll for your favourite track.

[joyinrepatition]

First released 30 years ago today...7th April 1978


http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc1/Joyinrepatition/Prince_ForYou.jpg

[unique]

30 years of prince, makes you feel old

the change from the first album to the next is such a big jump and improvement, and again to dirtymind

[Savage]

I just had to vot for "So Blue" Love this song and arrangement. In fact, I'm going to put this in the car now!

[lovesexy]

I voted 4 just as long as were together, just love this track, brings back so many memories of my youth... i'm notching up 20years of loving this guy... :)

[Ms.Goodnight]

Truly an important Prince album. And probably the most underappreeciated album (along with LoveSexy which 2 me a spiritual, fun and uplifting album...eye love it!) which is mostly ignored. His beginnign truly r the window 2 his g8ness in2 l8r albums. "For You" as an xample was an interesting accapella piece, it let's 1 c just how vaired his voice is and how multi-faceted he is! Even 2day he is unafraid 2 xperiment and is proffessionalism is BEAUTIFUL:) Thank u Prince 4 the 30 years of music in which u'v graced the music scene.

[BirdOfParadise]

FOR YOU is truly underrated and it's sad because I feel that the album is just as great as his other albums. Even though I love all the songs from the album , my personal favorite is "So Blue". Very beautiful song.

[Goldfigga]

Soft and Wet shows us he's early raunchy funky side and this tune makes me jig around the room, Goldfigga x.

[The One]

Prince Comes For You

As the conservative movement took hold of American political life in the late 70s and early 80s, a prime target for right-wing vitriol was the sexual freedom that characterized post-60s America. Associated in the minds of right-wing Christians with left-wing thinking, homosexuality, urban environments and any number of minority groups out of favor with the “born-again” crowd, the sexual revolution set the mental stage for a country about to make a radical rightward tilt to embrace Reagan, TV-evangelism and the abortion rights debate.

If the religious right were looking for a song to deem “filthy”…in 1978, they didn’t have to look beyond the first side of Prince’s debut album…

In the 70s, sex and sexuality suddenly came to the surface as tangible elements in American society. Pornography laws were loosened. New lifestyles were celebrated. Some practices, of course, existed only on the fringe, but still, a country once regarded for its gray flannel suits and shared embarrassment over the Kinsey sex report, had changed in a generation into a much more pleasure-seeking society. Sex had begun to be part of a person’s identity in a way it hadn’t in previous years. This change had been pushed along by rock-and-roll, disco and drugs. Artists in the glam and funk movements were the biggest champions of this shift. Bowie, Queen and T. Rex muddled gender identities. The myriad groups associated with George Clinton took rock’s sexually-suggestive lyrics to new heights. And by the end of the “me decade,” the religious right had had enough.

Enter this short guy from Minnesota with the unlikely name of Prince Rogers Nelson. Over the next decade, the artist then known as Prince would prove to be as important to America’s continuing conversation about sex as Dr. Ruth, Madonna and the tragedy of AIDS. Putting funk and glam together in one pop-art package, his records were as tirelessly upbeat and inventive as they were frank about sexual experience. If the religious right were looking for a song to deem “filthy” and “unacceptable” in 1978, they didn’t have to look beyond the first side of Prince’s debut album, For You.

http://images.jamsbio.com/images/prince/foryou.jpg

“Soft and Wet,” with its hand-jive beat and quirky chord progression, shimmers with a new-wave-meets-disco sound that hints at his later, more successful records. On first listen, it is a pop song of the forward-thinking variety championed by post-punks of the time. But at some point, the anatomical nature of the song’s title sinks in. Maybe it’s during the bridge, when the gasped breathing kicks in.

Preceding “Soft and Wet” is another synthesizer-heavy pop recording, “In Love,” which wears its Stevie Wonder influence on its sleeve. If the mustached and Afro’d singer weren’t on the cover of the record, though, it would be easy enough to assume you were listening to a group with a female singer. In fact, Prince doesn’t let his voice drop into a register even close to tenor until a brief aside on the album’s third track. As his later work proves, gender is something Prince questions and this vocal style brings the question to the fore.

The acoustic dreamscape of “Crazy You” is a forgotten gem in Prince’s seemingly endless catalogue. Short, and delivered with a plaintive voice, the song strums through a surreal landscape of synthesized water drops and wind chimes. It’s one of those tunes that walks the border between complete genius and laughable cheese and manages to keep its balance to the end.

The straight-ahead disco of “Just as Long as We’re Together” may be the first point in the record when invention begins to take a back seat to filling up studio time. But as you listen to that long rhythm-and-synthesizer coda, it might be a good time to consider that Prince alone played every single note of every instrument on For You. Suddenly, the extended jam that finishes off the tune seems impressive.

As his later work proves, gender is something Prince questions and this vocal style brings the question to the fore.

Much of the rest of Prince’s debut is forgettable. Side two is made up of a number of soul songs that could have been recorded by other artists from 70s. Chief among these are the lame “Baby” and “So Blue.” Things begin to turn around right at the end with the prog-guitar funk of “I’m Yours.” This last track sounds as if Prince is trying to put his stamp on heavy metal, and the end product is really not all that bad. He certainly could play the guitar, even before he had them shaped into weird symbols we were supposed to use as his name.

Altogether, For You is a more of a well-illustrated sketchpad than Prince’s masterpiece. It signals the arrival of an undeniable musical genius and a challenge to culture warriors intent on cleaning up the way Americans speak, desire and behave. If you find this one in a record bin, grab it up. You’ll be surprised just how far into the future the young Prince could see with his first record.

http://magazine.jamsbio.com/2008/11/14/1978-the-year-after-punk-pt-4-prince-comes-for-you/

[the1brian]

To be honest I didn't know who Prince was until after Soft and Wet. So I bought the album and listened to it and knew then that what I was listening to was a modern day Mozart.

[thepurpleexperience]

love just as long love it